NARENDRA JADHAV

New—Age Technology and Industrial Revolution by

 Dr.Narendra Jadhav ; Published by Konark

Publishers ; Page 267 ; Price Rs.695/-

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Dr.Narendra Jadhav, who was member of the National Advisory Council (NAC) and the Planning Commission in the UPA II, has authored more than 21 books on B.R. Ambedkar. His autobiographical work - "Aamcha Baap Aan Amhi", in Marathi, is the largest selling book in the history of Marathi literature and has been translated into several Indian languages, as well as foreign. He is a renowned scholar and acclaimed economist who has annexed several awards,national and international, including the prestigious title of the Commander of the Order of Academic Palmes by the French Government.

The book under review discusses the emerging new-age technology underlying the industrial revolution 4.0 and reveals threats springing therefrom and also attempts to identify and analyse relevant public policy issues in the global context.

From the beginnings of history, technology has been the prime mover in shaping the evolution of human society. Social evolution of mankind from the savage state to barbarism and later to civilisation can be caught and comprehended on the basis of technological milestones that were laid from the discovery of fire and its aftermath.

Anthropologists discerned five stages of man’s development---using energy from man’s own muscles; energy of domesticated animals; energy of plants—agriculture ;energy of natural resource such as coal, oil and gas and finally nuclear energy.

As all of us know there are four stages of the industrial revolution which led to formation of urban industrial societies. First one, revolution spurred by steam power leading to iron and textile industries ; second Industrial revolution emerged when steam was replaced by water and electricity resulting in new industries like steel, oil and electricity and new products like light bulbs, telephone, phonographs. Information technology was the outcome of the third industrial revolution. This is characterised by the advent of the personal computer, the Internet leading to digital technology. Industrial revolution 4.0 is under way and its underlying base is breakthrough in communication and connectivity. This includes robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, etc. The technology emerging today is called post-digital revolution—fusion technology.The impact of AI and Machine learning was felt by a wide range of Artificial Intelligence applications from manufacturing to space exploration.The author has discussed in detail the limitations of AI. Similarly, adoption of Big Data and Data Analytics in government and the private sector, can promote cost - efficiency, productivity and innovation.

At the core of the new-age technology is “Cloud Computing” which is a vast network of distributed data centres, providing for processing of data at unprecedented scale and speed.

The following advantages are guaranteed.

1.Sharp increase in labour productivity, wealth generation and economic growth.

2.Drastic reduction of poverty.

3.Technological breakthrough in several sectors.

4.Combating successfully global warming and climate change.

5.More Digital Assistants like Alexa and Siri.

6.Possibilities of new—age Habitat outside our Earth—the Moon or another planet.

Rightly the author warns us not to overlook the negative prospects---

a.Massive displacement of jobs.

b.Economic disparities could magnify.

c.Jeopardy to individual or business security.

d.Likely Cyber warfare, attacking critical infrastructure spatially.

e. Possibility of Machines taking over.

The New-Age technology provides opportunities to product innovations, cutting-edge agricultural practices, and market developments. Innovations in crop genetics, organic agriculture as well as irrigation and other infrastructure can bring about productivity improvements among small farmers.

In order to make the potential benefits from technological advancements more inclusive across countries, it is imperative to close the digital divide among the nation-states. Challenges in various sectors such as infrastructure, energy, water, waste management, transportation, real estate, and urban planning could be overcome.

With the emergence of the New-Age Technology, there are concerns regarding job displacement or joblessness and the need to re-skill professionals who are at the receiving end. The only silver lining in all this is, “when physical jobs are lost due to automation, jobs for the mind open up”.

The book also highlights how conventional view of banking is rapidly changing. Increasingly, the traditional business model of banks and insurance companies is being challenged by the so-called ‘FinTechs’ and ‘TechFins’ which include a wide range of financial service providers and start-ups.

The other important issues which are dealt in the book include E-commerce and how Information Technology over the last decade or so has completely transformed the way people generally do their shopping. The important aspect of individual privacy, and the manner in which the social media has been influencing societies, economies, people’s attitudes, behaviours, cultures, and even their world-view also has been discussed in the book.

The book pleads for a global consensus on ethical principles and values to govern development and use of revolutionary technology.The author writes--- "There has to be international cooperation, and in a cooperative spirit we will have to optimise and get the maximum of positive outcomes, while minimising the risk of adverse things. This cannot be done by one country, it has to be done collectively by all countries, in a multilateral framework."

Part One of the book is a primer of new-age technology and its constituents.A I is seen as a fundamental threat to the very existence of humanity. On the other hand,we have a scenario where AI and humans achieve symbiosis and collectively work towards a better future.One chapter analyses A I. It has tremendous implications for manufacturing, and space exploration.

Jadhav explains cogently “Big Data”and the impact of “global digitalisation”.He explains Robotics, Blockchain Technology,Automated Technology, Additive Manufacturing Technology and 3D Printing.

The Internet of Things is all about the power of Internet being extended beyond just computers and smartphones to a whole range of processes and external environment.

Part Two is on the potential implications of New-Age Technology. It discusses the positive side of technology-led economic growth,joblessness and future of jobs.

Jadhav discusses the downsides of technology, especially in terms of its adverse impact on socio-economic inequalities—its bearing on democratic governance and social implications of upheavals in the job eco system on banking and finance. The fastest growing financial services are coming not from banks but from the FinTechs TechFins, and the emerging bank start-ups. Bank 4.0 and Finance 4.0 are the rising stars.Implications of these are analysed in one chapter.

Part Three discusses global public issues. There is a thorough analysis of Right to Privacy, Social Media and Democratic Governance, Cyber Security, Surveillance Issues, Threats to National Security and Global Peace and Regulation and Strategic Development.

Part Four is a case study of the Indian experience with new-age technology. A snapshot is provided of the prevailing development of the new-age technology. This is followed by a discussion on the policy issues.

Jadhav exudes optimism and concludes new-age technology will become more pervasive in future.

This book will be of immense use to tech-savvy persons, policy makers, researchers and all interested in the technological advance of India.

The book will provide policymakers a much-needed road map to drive the nation’s digital growth in the coming years.

P.P.Ramachandran.

23/02/2020

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

The Anarchy by William Dalrymple ; Published by Bloomsbury Publishing; Pages 524;Price Rs 699/-

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The book under review is William Dalrymple’s fourth book on the East India Company. He highlights the fact that the Indian economy was rich but a ruthless betrayal by the Indian rulers benefited the East India Company and they made the most of the vulnerable situation of India and went on a rampage to conquer India. This book is about that betrayal.

It does not aim to provide a complete history of the East India Company but answers the question of how a single business operation, based in one London Office complex managed to replace the mighty Mughal empire as masters of the vast sub-continent between the years 1756 and 1807.

Dalrymple brings out clearly that it was not the British government that seized India in the middle of the Eightenth century but a Private Company. India’s transition to colonialism took place through the mechanism of a For-Profit corporation which existed entirely for the purpose of enriching its investors.

It tells the story of how the Company defeated its principal rivals—the Nawabs of Bengal and Avadh, Tipu Sultan’s Sultanate and the great Maratha Confederacy---to take under its own wing the Emperor Shah Alam, a man whose fate it was to witness the entire story of the Company’s fifty year-long assault on India and its rise from a humble trading company to a fully fledged imperial power .The life of Shah Alam forms the spine of Dalrymple’s book.

This volume traces the story of corporate violence which deals with the origins of the Empire. It covers a two centuries offense which was not only aided and enabled by Indian sepoys but even paid for very largely by the loans given by Indian bankers. It was in 1757, with the Battle of Plassey, that Company began to be transformed from a mere trading organisation to a burgeoning colonial power.

The history of the company was not only a saga of conquest; it also sheds light on the dark secrets that people liked to ignore. “There’s no way a bunch of foreign merchants with no military might could take over India.The degree to which it was facilitated by the Indian financial class, especially the Marwari bankers of Calcutta and Benares is what enabled it to take over.”

The Marwari community of traders and bankers, especially the Jagat Seths who were Oswal Jain bankers from Jodhpur state helped in a huge way.

It was the money from these Marwaris that later financed the conquest of British India, “through the loans they granted to the East India Company.”

The Company remains today History’s most ominous warning about the potential for the abuse of corporate power—and the insidious means by which the interests of the shareholders can seemingly become those of the State.

The volatile, widely disliked Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daula, had made an intractable enemy of Bengal’s Marwari bankers, the Jagat Seths, who saw better prospects in investing with the East India Company than supporting him. The Jagat Seths offered the company more than £4m (about a hundred times that in current terms) to unseat Siraj ud-Daula and install a compliant collaborator in his stead. Robert Clive, who stood to make an immense personal fortune, gladly accepted. Plassey was in truth a “palace coup”, executed by a greedy opportunist, won by bribery and betrayal.

A snobbish disdain for the extravagance of the “nabobs” (Clive foremost), and fear about their corrupting influence on British politics, led to a Regulating Act designed to bring the company under tighter parliamentary control. The man picked to run a cleaner administration was the “plain-living, scholarly, diligent and austerely workaholic” Warren Hastings, who spoke several South Asian languages, had a “deep affection for India and Indians”, and sponsored serious scholarship on Indian culture. But Hastings’s “rule was as extractive as ever”, and his ruthless tactics towards the company’s Indian subordinates got him spectacularly impeached in 1787.

Dalrymple’s greater achievement lies in the way he places the company’s rise in the turbulent political landscape of late Mughal India. It was contemporary Indian chroniclers who called this period “the anarchy”, due to the waves of invasion and civil war that shook Mughal power and allowed a host of regional actors – of which the company was merely one – to gain ascendancy.

Dalrymple draws on reams of scarcely used documents in Persian, Urdu and other languages (unearthed by skilled researchers and translators) to animate characters such as the brilliant Mughal general Najaf Khan, the vengeful Rohilla prince Ghulam Qadir, and the canny Maratha statesman Mahadji Scindia.

The emperor Shah Alam, the tragic hero in a book rife with villains – a figure who had witnessed the Persians sack Delhi, battled against Clive, survived an assassination plot, the rape of his family, and a hideous blinding – would live out his remaining few years as a pensioner in the Red Fort, where he dictated “the first full-length novel in Delhi Urdu” about “a prince and princess tossed back and forth by powers beyond their control”.

A taste of Dalrymple’s story telling.

“ It is the dawn of the 19th century, and in a desolate fort, on a frayed throne, sits Emperor Shah Alam. Now seventy-five, the old, blind king still sat on the gilt replica of the Peacock Throne amid his ruined palace, the sightless ruler of a largely illusory kingdom.” Blinded, humiliated, used as a pawn, the Mughal king with no kingdom is one of the many compelling cast of characters who come to life in this magnificent book which shows how India, which was once among the greatest economic powers in the world, became a colonised State exploited for its natural resources, her people reduced to penury and degradation. And how, amazingly, this was done by a privately held conglomerate over a period of just 50-odd years.

“ It was not the British government that began seizing large chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company... ” says Dalrymple in the introduction to the book.

Dalrymple tells his story cleverly,describing in detail the people who played key roles in the rise of the Company, as well as the many battles and invasions across the subcontinent during this tumultuous time. The volume portrays vividly the British, Mughal, Maratha, Afghan, Rohilla, Nawabs, etc. Robert Clive attracts the historian’s greatest contempt. Robert Clive once celebrated as “Clive of India”, enters here as a juvenile delinquent from Shropshire who arrived in Madras in 1744 as an 18-year-old clerk, but found his vocation as a thuggish fighter in the company’s small security force. Clive displayed total hatred for Indians, describing them as “indolent, luxurious, ignorant and cowardly”. He was ambitious, power-hungry and incredibly avaricious. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, he was one of the richest men in Europe and his machinations set the Company on the path to what it came to be. Eventually,Clive committed suicide, cutting his jugular vein with a blunt knife. The eminent lexicographer,Samuel Johnson wrote, “Clive had acquired his fortune by such crimes that his consciousness of that impelled him to cut his own throat.”

Equally intriguing as Clive is the figure of Shah Alam, described by Dalrymple as “handsome, sophisticated, urbane and gallant”.Alas! The Mughal emperor who was king only in name. Over the years, the British realised that no amount of administrative control guaranteed them the prestige that came with being allied with the Mughal dynasty. Even when no kingdom remained, the people still recognised the Mughal king as their ruler. Shah Alam was to become beholden to the British, the Marathas, the Nawabs of Awadh and Bengal”. The account of how Ghulam Qadir, the son of a defeated Rohilla ruler, turned on his benefactor, Alam, and blinded the king, ruthlessly decimated his family and raped its women, is perhaps the most harrowing in the book.

Dalrymple quotes extensively from Mughal and British historians, their voices forming a fascinating second layer of narrative. One of these is Ghulam Hussain Khan, whom Dalrymple describes as the most perceptive historian of 18th-century India. He left a detailed and near-eyewitness account of events related to the Mughals and the Nawabs of Bengal in Seir Mutaqherin. Dalrymple mentions that his book is heavily dependent on the Company’s own voluminous records in London and New Delhi.

The Anarchy is also how globalisation began and events in distant Europe and America directly impacted the lives of ordinary Indians. For today’s world, it serves as a warning as to how unbridled corporate growth with the connivance of corrupt governments can bring a country to ruin.

The period covered by Dalrymple is one of of greatest corruption, loot and plunder as well as human rights abuses.

The book is absolutely riveting—as fast paced as Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie put together. Not dry-as-dust History but robust, lively and vigorous presentation is guaranteed when the Chronicler is Dalrymple.

P.P.Ramachandran.

8/2/2020.

BHANDARE--REFORMS

Recovery,Reforms and Resilience in India by S.S.Bhandare,C.S.Deshpande and Manesh Soman;Published by Konark ; Pages 184 ; Price Rs.800/-

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The book under review has three authors who are acknowledged authorities in their field of studies. S.S.Bhandare was former Economic Adviser to the Tata Group and Chief Economist of Maharashtra Economic Development Council. He is co -author of two books. C.S.Deshpande is Professor of Economics at the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research. He was Member of several Expert Groups appointment by the Government. Mangesh Soman is a corporate economist and prolific contributor to financial journals.

The book is a critical assessment of the trends and main facets of the Indian economy as it evolved from May 2014, when the Modi government was formed. Its main objective is the evaluation of the economic policies and performance of the new government and throw light on areas crying out for attention and firm action.

The Modi government was hailed for the introduction of game-changing reforms which included the Goods and Services Tax( GST), the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the highly controversial Demonetisation.

The first chapter  presents a macroeconomic profile of India as it has evolved over the last ten years.A very cogent comparison is presented of the economy's progress during the five years of Modi compared with the performance during the preceding five years. The government policies are also reviewed. The analysis is done from two main perspectives--"Economic Growth" and " Macroeconomic Stability". The  overall economic situation today has vastly  improved  over the position prevailing exactly five years ago.The policy initiatives have been in the desired direction and at reasonable speed.

The second chapter critically reviews the policy framework of Agriculture  and analyses the diverse schemes introduced by the new government. The novel e-NAM mechanism has also been considered in depth.The emphasis in the past had been more on agricultural output rather than on farmers' income.The narrative has changed now and emphasis is on farmers' incomes.

Chapter Three on Investment, Industry and Trade is devoted to the policies and performance in three parameters--Investment including FDI, Industrial Growth and Export performance. The Modi government has emphasised on industrial revival and on employment generation. Major initiatives have been taken by the government, such as 'Make in India',FDI liberalisation and EoDB initiatives.

Banking and Financial Sector is the subject of Chapter Four. It offers a detailed explanation of the present challenges facing the sector and analyses the environment and implications for the stability of this important sector. There is a mixed sense of achievement of achievement. The problem of NPAs and Mudra have been  studied carefully by the authors.

Demonetisation was an unprecedented event in India's economic history. This subject forms the subject of the next chapter which provides a perceptive analysis of the giant step which struck every Indian--high and low. Demonetisation was a gigantic, well-intended experiment of the Modi government but one has to wait for some more years to get a fuller picture.

Another highly controversial act of the Modi regime was the introduction and implementation of  G S T--a truly game-changing reform. Chapter Six thoroughly analyses GST tracing its history and rationale.The three economists evaluate the operational challenges faced by all the stakeholders. G S T has been a big leap for a nation accustomed to incremental reforms and the authors believe it could only be a matter of time before we start realising greater economic benefits of this reform.

The concluding chapter is an account of the findings and observations of the authors and outlines their recommendations.The authors have analysed the problems facing the second government of Modi. They have adumbrated a six-point agenda to which the government have to give immediate attention.

The points are given below.

1.Establishment of Statutory Economic Council of States to drive consensus on and implement nextGen

economic reforms.Authors say that government should explore the idea of creating a permanent Economic Council of States with NITI Ayog as Secretariat.

2.Revitalisation of FRBM Framework--an Independent Budget Analysis Wing  should be set up on the lines of the Congressional Budget Office in the U S.

3. Investment Monitoring and Facilitating Agency backed by appropriate legislation, giving it powers and responsibility to follow-up on  various clearances and ensure project implementation..

4.Empowering the National Statistical Commission. The statistical system of the country has to be freed of interference from all government agencies.

5.Prioritising Administrative Reforms. Government must pursue 'Minimum government and Maximum Governance'.

6.Strategising India's interaction with global economy.  Authors recommend building up a National level Forum to navigate through the global economic trends--strategising external trade and foreign investment flows.

The authors conclude that at the close of Modi's first term "the stress on farmers, apparent gap in jobs creation and continued weakness in investments and exports have hogged headlines...and rightly so. .. The economy needs a lot of elements to fall in place..."

In a brief Foreword, Dr.Narendra Jadhav, Rajya Sabha Member, writes ,"On the whole, this book presents a critical, yet unbiased record of how the Modi government has performed on the economic front; and will be a valuable report card for all those looking for an incisive analysis while evaluating the five-year tenure of the government. It recognises the achievements of the government and shows a path of what needs to be done to take care of the persisting gaps."

The book will be of immense use to all students of economics, public welfare, bankers and policy makers.

P.P.Ramachandran.

26/01/2020.

KUMAR--SMUGGLING

DRI and the Dons: The Untold Stories by Shri. B.V. Kumar;Published by Konark Publishers ; Pages 448 ; Price: Rs 525/-

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The author of the book under review Shri.B.V. Kumar joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1958 and was Director General of Revenue Intelligence; Narcotics Control Bureau; Economic Intelligence Bureau and Member, Central Board of Excise and Customs during his distinguished tenure. He neutralised several syndicates which organised economic crime that had global reach.This included smuggling of contraband and drugs. Kumar was conferred by the Press the sobriquet of ‘Supersleuth’.

Kumar has represented India at various international conferences, including Interpol meetings held between 1985 and 1988.

He has authored The Preventive Detention Laws of India, The Darker Side of Black Money – An Insight into the world of Financial Secrecy andTax Havens and The Underground Economy – An Insight into the World of Tax Havens and Money Laundering. He has also published a number of papers on law, taxation, terrorism and organised crime.

The book under review talks about activities such as smuggling of gold, drugs, arms and ammunition, besides extortion and contract killing, and how they directly affected the economies of India and other nations. It mentions various gangland figures, including Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Haji Mastan, Iqbal Mirchi,etc. One could call it "Smuggler--ayana".There are separate parts on smuggling Gold, Narcotic Drugs,Foreign Currency, Antiquities,Red Sanders, Snakeskins, Diamonds,etc.

Anything related to smuggling always hits the front-page headlines, attracting a lot of attention. Various stringent rules by the Indian government could not put a full stop to this financial ill-practice. Kumar has touched upon all aspects of smuggling and has a clutch of captivating stories on smuggling.

Kumar said that purpose of writing the book on underworld dons, particularly on Dawood Ibrahim and Haji Mastan, was to showcase DRI's matchless contribution in initiating tough action against most dreaded underworld syndicates of South Asia.

"We were the key agency to detain and interrogate Dawood Ibrahim and book him under COFEPOSA. When I got Dawood detained (in July 1983), a petition came up in the High Court of Gujarat for an immediate hearing. On don's behalf, Ram Jethmalani had appeared to get Dawood released from detention" .

Dawood Ibrahim, who later jumped bail and escaped to Dubai is still wanted by the DRI under the COFEPOSA case registered by Kumar.

Kumar is one among a few Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers who led DRI as well as Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and had a wonderful career in which he crushed the notorious underworld syndicates of Mumbai.

He has analysed the functioning of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in combating smuggling and punishing offenders.

The author has recorded some of the most important cases detected by various DRI officers at considerable personal sacrifice. He has expounded the formidable difficulties encountered by the authorised enforcement agencies in combating organised crime. We have a graphic account of the leading cases dealt with by the DRI officers who refused to buckle under any threat, even at the cost of life and limb while dealing with major smuggling syndicates. A few of the gangsters operating in the underworld of Mumbai held the city to ransom and were masters who laid down the law.

Smuggling is believed to be second oldest profession in the world. Smugglers are clever and know how to source country, and the location and safe landing of goods – and control several agents for this purpose. They have the acumen to judge whether the goods should be brought through sea routes, land frontiers or by air, depending upon the value of the goods and the ease with which the goods can breach customs barriers.

A clear portrait is given of the "Lords of Smuggling", Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and Haji Haji Ismail, the small time smuggler of Saurashtra who is now a minor don.The author gives copious details of seizures of gold and silver.It is interesting to note that a single smuggler can carry 100 bars of gold weighing 1,000 tolas, valued approximately at Rs37.50 lakh beneath his shirt concealed in a waistcoat specially stitched with 50 slots on either side. These cannot be detected easily unless passed through a metal detector.

All out efforts were made to identify the gang members and their safe houses. On July 21, 1989, specific intelligence indicated that a gang headed by a Gujarat-based smuggler transported a huge quantity of smuggled gold bars in Bombay and two apartment complexes in Santacruz were identified as the likely storage points for the contraband. The officers immediately raided the apartments before they arrived at Flat no 304. Neither the room was locked nor was anyone present there. A search of this room revealed three gunny bags containing 48 bundles and these were no ordinary bundles. They were 1,200 foreign-marked yellow metal bars, which on closer examination were found to be gold bars of 10 tolas each, weighing a total of 12,000 tolas and valued at Rs 4.31 crore (current market value being Rs 45.06 crore).

The 12,000 tolas of gold had obviously been brought into the country in contravention of the law and were seized for further action under the Customs Act.

Factual accounts are furnished of the dramatis personae of smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition, extortion and contract killings (supari) and other nefarious activities.

Most books on the underworld have focused on gang wars, bloodshed and police encounters, but this book dwells on its economics too.

Mr. Sivanandhan, who was Joint commissioner of police (Crime) in Mumbai when the underworld was at its peak is all praise for Kumar’s book. Kumar, explains through first hand accounts of gripping investigations of how enforcement agencies stepped in at various stages to create an “invisible presence” to prevent banking and financial institutions from becoming vulnerable to organised crime, white collar criminals, terrorists and drug traffickers.

"With burgeoning inflation, widening balance of payments deficit and a weak rupee against the dollar , the demand for goods of conspicuous consumption, including gold, luxury goods and electronic goods with the latest technology, would create its own supply. Further, with the tariffs being raised, the availability and cost of such goods will naturally increase,” says Kumar in the Epilogue of the book .

Kumar also warns--"It should also be kept in mind that organised crime would take over all connected operations, since there is a close nexus between organised crime, economic crime, drug trafficking, terrorist activity and money laundering, ultimately resulting in subversion of the democratic politics process.”.

The book which delves deep into the challenges for law enforcement organisations like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence whose charter of duties has increased manifold over the years. Today these agencies are moving forward to embracing information technology and other key tools to keep pace with the great degree of sophistication that has come into activities of smuggling, tax evasion and commercial fraud.

The book is a laudable account of protected India’s role of DRI and how they have protected India's customs collection and ensured the nation's security. A valuable addition to the literature on this subject.

P.P.Ramachandran.

02/02/2020.