NETAJI

 Netaji  Living Dangerously by Kingshuk Nag;

​Published by  Rupa ; Pages 181 ; Price Rs.195/-

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London-based  journalist Ashish Ray, related to Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, studied the disappearance of Netaji and declared, “The data is overwhelming and irrefutable that Netaji died in an  air-crash and his remains are preserved on the altar of Tokyo’s Renkoji temple in an urn wrapped in white cloth with Netaji’s name written on it with indelible ink and interred in a small pagoda.”

This has been refuted strongly by Kingshuk Nag who was a journalist with The Times of India for the last twenty-two years. He has worked across the country in various capacities. An alumnus of the Delhi School of Economics Nag has several books to his credit. He is a recipient of the prestigious Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analysis for his coverage of political events in Gujarat.

The  book under review is an in-depth analysis of one of the world's best kept secrets. Nag’s  writing is so strong and backed with research that  you are apt to believe all that he has to say. 

 According to Nag the Indian government made believe that Netaji died in the air crash in Taiwan and that the ashes stored in an urn at Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple was that of the patriot. However, latter communications revealed that this was totally false, for no  air crash had taken place on that given day. The Government even spied upon the Bose family believing that Netaji would try to establish some kind of contact with them.

 Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose die in an air crash in Taihoku (Taipei, Taiwan) on 18 August 1945? Was he sent off to Siberia by Joseph Stalin? Did he die there? Or did he escape? Or was he let off, eventually to make his way back to India? Was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba of Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh? If so, how did he find his way back? Why did Bose leave India when he did? Was it on account of his political approach, which was opposed by the then high command of the Congress party that wanted a quick transfer of power from the British? The past comes alive as Nag  answers  these  questions at a time when there is a considerable renewal of interest in Netaji's fate with old records tumbling out, the latest being the declassification of secret  files on the subject. Will the governments in Moscow and London be approached for new leads?

 Mourned Netaji's wife and daughter  " Whenever we tell we are related to him, rather than the pride people come back with "Oh isn't he the guy who died mysteriously?".

  Netaji hoped to get some help from other countries including Russia and Germany to ensure freedom for India. Nag analyses the  power struggle between Netaji and Nehru .  Netaji was forced to resign from the coveted post of Congress President by the  Gandhi Coterie. Gandhi was a politician non-pareil.

  Intelligence officials in their various reports have in the past demonised Netaji. According to them  Bose never married Emilie Schenkl and she was just his live-in partner. He  is reported to have had a passionate affair with a lady politician from Bengal and later with someone in Burma. These reports were just to portray him poorly  compared to the  Congress politicians like Nehru who came to rule the country after Independence.’

 INA and Azad Hind Government form an important part of the book. It tells us about the success and even failure of these institutions. The book informs  us how  Mountbatten would use Edwina’s power over  Nehru.  He influenced Nehru into believing that Bose's return would destabilize his position. "Thus as India became Independent, Netaji went into an abyss."

 It was the British that made it difficult for Netaji to return to India according to  Nag .He  has argued that British intelligence hatched a plot to nail Netaji after being embarrassed by his Great Escape from Kolkata in 1941 and again when he fabricated his death in a fictional air crash at Taihoku four years later. It misled the Soviet counterpart into believing that Subhas Chandra Bose was a British spy. This is what led to Netaji being sent to a gulag or forced labour camp in Siberia

 The Centre’s act of declassifying secret files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose may not help in unravelling the mystery surrounding his disappearance. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just promised, he is yet to act on that. Even if all the central government files are declassified, I am not sure, if they will have all the answers that people are seeking to know about Netaji,”  according to Nag.  “I doubt if the files will have all the information, because some of the important files may be missing, may be doctored long before Modi became the prime minister,” According to Nag  “The declassification of the first round of  files with the Government of India has not brought us closer to unraveling the mystery of Bose’s disappearance,”

The Prime Minister  assured he would request foreign governments, including Russia, to declassify files related to Netaji available with them. Nag, who in his book has dealt about the various theories surrounding Netaji's disappearance following an alleged air crash in Formosa (now Taiwan) on August 18, 1945, claims the answer to Bose's disappearance lie hidden in secret files with the Russian, British and the Japanese governments. 

This is a totally absorbing book that is at once  thrilling and entertaining. Nag has a  logical approach and he has made available all  facts and left it to the reader to decide.

An excellent book, strongly recommended for all students of politics, history of India.

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P..P.Ramachandran.

11 /02 /2018

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I Too Had A Dream by Verghese Kurien as told to Gouri  Salvi ;  Published by Lotus  / Roli ; Pages 249 ; Price Rs 295/-

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The book under review is the Memoir of India’s “Milkman” Verghese Kurien. In his “Foreword” Ratan Tata admirably summarises the hero—“Dr.Kurien is a true visionary who built a series of institutions which made India the world’s  largest milk producer; developed a logistic chain to produce and deliver hygienic and nutritious milk to millions and

 created the largest food marketing business and the

 country’s largest food brand —Amul. The cooperatives he created have also become powerful agents of social change in empowering women and in embedding democracy at the grassroots level in the country.”

It was a sheer quirk of fate that landed him in Anand where  a small group was running a cooperative, the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producer’s Union Limited (better known as Amul), to sell their milk. Intrigued by the integrity and commitment of their leader Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Kurien joined them. Since then there has been no looking back. The

 ‘Anand pattern of cooperatives’ was so successful that, at the request of the Government of India, he set up the

 National Dairy Development Board to replicate it across India. He also established the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation to market its products. 

  

Born in Calicut, Kerala, Dr Verghese Kurien graduated in science and engineering from Madras University and Michigan State University, USA, respectively. He did Physics (from Loyola), a bachelor’s in ­mechanical and a training stint at Tata, before heading off to the US on government scholarship .

He has received countless awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award , Wateler Peace Prize , World Food Prize , Padma Shri , Padma Bhushan  and Padma Vibhushan , Carnegie  World Peace Prize and International Person of the Year Award from US.

Dr. Kurien was Chairman of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation and Chairman of the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India.

In thIs memoir, Dr Verghese Kurien, popularly known as the ‘Father of the White Revolution’, recounts, with customary candour, the story of his life and how he shaped the dairy industry. We learn from this book the tremendous efforts  put in by this man and  the magnitude of his contributions and his multifaceted personality.

The people described in these books were the least qualified and the least resourceful to do what they did. But they just did not bother about all that and went ahead and achieved their dreams due to their extreme passion and firm resolve and determination.

The book conveys one message loud and clear – If you have purity of intention and are ready to serve with your heart, the society will support you with all the required resources.

Smt.Kurien  would say that her husband  worked hard but never brought work back home and was in bed by 9 pm, only to wake up in the dead of night to catch the earliest morning flight after some road travel. Brought up a Christian, Kurien later became an atheist, and was cremated respecting his last wish. 

 In his later years, on being asked by his daughter to retire and come stay with her at her home in another city, he replied that Anand was his home and he will remain there and never quit working. Even as his most expensive personal possession was a mere watch gifted him by his grandson, he would take pride in the farmers' money providing the air-conditioned house and luxury-model car at his disposal,and spared no expense with it for constructing a modern IRMA campus and facilities for its residents.

 Shyam Benegal wanted to make " Manthan ", a story based on Amul, but lacked funds. Kurien got his half a million member-farmers to contribute a token two rupees each for the making of the movie. It struck a chord with the audience when it was released in Gujarat . Truckloads of farmers came to see "their film", making it a success at the box office, emboldening distributors to release it before audiences nationwide. It was critically acclaimed and went on to win national awards the following year, was later shown on national television .

The movie's success led Kurien to another idea. A vet, a milk technician and a fodder specialist, who could explain the value of cross-breeding of milch cattle, as was shown in the film, would tour other parts of the country in real life along with the film's prints, to woo farmers to form cooperatives of their own. UNDP used the movie to start similar cooperatives in Latin America and  in Africa.

Kurien transformed India from a milk-deficient country to the world`s largest milk producer and the founder of Amul.

Kurien is  credited with being the first one to produce powder from buffalo milk, when elsewhere in the world, cow milk was used to produce milk powder.Impressed by the success of Amul, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri established National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the Amul model across the country and Kurien was made its Chairman. As Chairman , Kurien led `Operation Flood` to make India the biggest milk producing nation in the world, besides making Amul a household name. He served as Chairman of NDDB for 33 years from 1965 to 1998.

Verghese Kurien  made dairy farming India's largest self-sustaining industry and the largest rural employment provider. He also made India self-sufficient in edible oils. He is regarded as one of the greatest proponents of the cooperative movement in the world, which emphasises production by the masses over mass-production, with his work having lifted millions out of poverty in India and outside.

                                                                                                                                                        

Dr Verghese Kurien  died on September 9, 2012. He was 90 years.This is an inspiring book of a totally committed Indian. One wishes that the Bharat Ratna had been conferred on him—even posthumously.

P.P.Ramachandran

04/02/2018

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 Tit bits

1. Rajendra Prasad came to lay the Foundation Stone of Amul. The highlight of the event was when the President was about to place the first foundation stone in the earth, suddenly to everybody's amazement a mouse came scampering by and jumped over the stone. The entire gathering was overcome with joy because the mouse is seen as Lord Ganesha's vehicle and, therefore, considered auspicious--P 47.

2.Kurien was a gentleman but acerbic when required.

The supercilious attitude of the High Commissioner of New Zealand irked him too much. She said,” It has come to our knowledge that you have started exporting your products to countries where we sell ours. You cannot do that. That is our market”

I forced myself to remain calm, in deference to the fact that I was talking to a woman. “Madam”,  I responded very politely, quite frankly. “ I did not know that the  world market is your private property and we should not encroach upon it.”

The lady was livid that I had dared to answer her and she grew ruder and more abusive. I suggested to her that it might be better if she left my room. But she persisted with obnoxious remarks and I could not hold my tongue any more.

I said to her, “ Madam, you must understand that you 

come from this country called New Zealand. If all of us

 Indians decided to get together and spit upon your 

country, your country will get drowned in our spit”.—Pages—195-96.

3.Kurien's support was crucial in making, the 'Amul Girl' 

ad campaign  one of the longest running for decades 

now.---P  75.

PPR 4/2/2018

                               

THE NATIONALIST BY MINHAZ MERCHANT

The Nationalist by Minhaz Merchant ; Published by Harper & Collins ; Pages 258 ; Price. Rs 799/-

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Minhaz Merchant is the Founder of the firm “ Sterling Newspapers Ltd” which was absorbed by the Indian Express Group. A regular columnist, Merchant has a number of books to his credit including the biographies of Narendra Modi and Aditya Birla.

The book under review is the biography of a company and its maker. It is about Anil Naik and Larsen & Toubro ( L&T)where he served for 53 years and was the Leader for the last 18 years. L&T was founded by  two Danish engineers in 1938. Soren Kristian Toubro and Henning Holck -Larsen. The two knew that when India achieved Independence indigenous industry would present entrepreneurs the opportunity of a lifetime.  

L&T’s business include high-end technology and engineering services, finance and global infrastructure. L&T has an impressive breadth of operations, range of heavy engineering skills and the ability to design, develop and execute some of the world’s most challenging infrastructure products.

The company is globally unique—it builds nuclear reactors, nuclear powered submarines, systems for satellites and missiles, artillery guns, oil and gas platforms, airports and metros. It has a large footprint in infrastructure, infotech, finance, technology services and realty.

L&T played a huge  part in the major products of India—the Tata Chemicals plant ,Anand Milk Dairy and Reliance Refinery. It is important to note that about 80 % of the gasoline processed in the U S and 90% of gasoline processed in Canada has passed through the chemical reactors of L&T in Hazira. L&T.s Hazira manufacturing complex, Vadodara’s Knowledge City and the Kattupalli Shipyard symbols of world class.  

When L&T bought land for Hazira, 50 per cent of the land used to get covered with sea water during high tides. L & T had transformed it into one of the greatest manufacturing facilities in the world. L&T’s Kattuppali Shipyard near Chennai, built with assistance of Japan has a 21,000 tonne shiplift—one of the largest in the world. This enables it to pluck a ship out of water and place it on land where it can be repaired. This is eloquent proof of their engineering skills and the vision of one man—A.M.Naik.

 With an annual turnover of over $ 17 billion in 2016-17 and a market capitalisation of nearly $ 25 billion. L&T is one of India’s ten largest companies on both parameters.  It has just under 1,00,000 full time employees and 2,50,000 others employed on ongoing projects. International projects contributed 34 percent of its annual revenue. In India only a few companies in the private sector that are considered “strategic "  and L&T is one of them and an attempt to takeover the company was thwarted by the PMO.

 Naik is the entrepreneurial professional who has risen through the ranks without patronage, who treats his employees like stakeholders and has created a culture of innovation and technological excellence. The combination of toughness and a caring approach towards employees has made L&T one of the most advanced companies of India.

                                               

Naik became CEO of L&T at the age of fifty-seven. At 61 he became the Chairman. He successfully demerged and   the Company’s cement business to Aditya Birla group. He set up the L&T Employees Welfare Foundation which ensured the ownership of the company remained with the employees.

Naik’s philosophy and thinking on take-over are worth recalling. “To me L&T is a temple and I consider myself its keeper. If anyone tries to take over L&T, I’m like a wounded tiger. I will do everything in my power to ensure that L&T stays independent and adheres to the highest standard of governance. In fact it was a takeover attempt that allowed me to unlock L&T’s value by demerging the cement business and creating the L&T Employees Welfare Foundation. While the cement demerger created a more focused L&T, it also yielded greater value to the employees. They became stakeholders in a true sense and began to see the need to increase the value of the company. The Welfare Foundation ensured that the company was protected from further takeover bids”  

 Without doubt Naik is not a part of day-to-day business but an important partner in nation building. He has distinguished himself by his work-ethics, vision, meticulousness  and skill in dealing with people. Minhaz Merchant successfully portrays the transformation of Naik from his ancestral village Endhal near Kharel  to the highly industrial city of Bombay. The nationalism of Naik is one of economic development of India with an emphasis on security.  “The Nationalist is not about the nationalism that suffers from political or ideological restraints” according to Merchant. 

Shri. Gurumurthy’s assessment of Naik is worth recalling. He wrote, “Naik’s capacity to understand is amazing. He is always one step ahead of his financial people. One  step ahead of the tax professionals. He has an amazing mind and is a multi-dimensional personality.” .

 This is a good account of the life and times of a great man and a great company of which he was the Father.

“Naik” and “L&T” are interchangeable.

P.P.Ramachandran.

28/01/2018

Tit bits

1.“Of the 104 satellites that were launched from a single rocket in February 2017 by ISRO the central part was made by L&T.”—P 54.

2.The bridge in David Lean’s classic film “The Bridge  on the River Kwai” that was blown up was built by L&T.—  P 148-9

PPR

28/01/2018

 Satya   Nadella

What Albert Einstein is for relativity, what  Roald Amundsen is for South Pole, what  Johannes Gutenberg is for printing, Satya Nadella is for Artificial Intelligence.

 Satya Nadella is the current C E O  of Microsoft. He hails from  Hyderabad and joined Microsoft in 1992.His ambition is to empower every person and every organisation in this globe and lead to greater achievement.

 The book under review has a Foreword by Bill Gates who writes of  Satya “He was humble, forward looking  and pragmatic and was making big bets on a few key technologies like Artificial Intelligence and   Cloud Computing where  Microsoft  will differentiate itself ”. Satya has charted a course for making the most of the opportunities created by technology while also facing the hard questions. Gates describes this book as a thoughtful guide to an exciting, challenging future.

 The book is about individual change, transformation in Microsoft and the disruptive wave of technology experienced  by humanity which incorporates   Artificial Intelligence, mixed reality and quantum computing in the eternal quest for new energy, new ideas and continued relevance and renewal people,  organisations and societies are embarking on  a new adventure. Satya believes “Empathy” is the most valuable inducement to technologies advancement which is poised to alter status quo as never before.”

 Nadella provides a fascinating background of his childhood and how he joined Microsoft. “My personal philosophy and my passion, developed over time and through exposure to many different experiences, is to connect new ideas   with a growing sense of empathy for other people. Ideas excite me. Empathy grounds and centers me”.

 The book is about how people, organisations, and societies can and must transform-Hit Refresh—in in their  persistent quest for new energy, new ideas  ,relevance, and renewal. In this age of continuous updates and always-on-technologies, hitting refresh may sound quaint, but when it’s done right, a renaissance is the result. The cloud business taught Satya a number of lessons. Primarily a leader must see the external opportunities and the internal capability and culture.

 For Satya greatest satisfaction has come from “My  passion to see technology become more more accessible to people with disabilities and to help improve their lives in a myriad of ways”. 

 We are investing to lead in three key technologies that will shape our industry and others in the years to come—Mi​xed Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum . These technologies will inevitably lead to massive shifts in our economy and society which are discussed in detail by Satya. Artificial Intelligence will help forecast crises like the Zika epidemic and help us focus our time and attention on things that matter most. Quantum computing will give us the computational power to cure cancer and effectively address global warming.

 A confluence of three breakthroughs-big data, massive computing power and sophisticated algorithms—is accelerating Artificial Intelligence from Sci-fi to reality. Artificial Intelligence is like a ladder and we are on the first step of that ladder. At the top is Artificial General Intelligence and  complete machine understanding of human change. It’s when a computer exhibits intelligence that is equal to or indistinguishable from a human.

 In the future Artificial Intelligence will become a more frequent and necessary companion, helping to care for people, diagnose illness, teach and consult.

 Today we don’t think of aviation as “Artificial flight”—it’s simply flight. In the same way we shouldn’t think of technological excellence as artificial, but rather as intelligence that serves to augment  of  human capabilities and capacities.

 Satya Nadella declares the aim of Microsoft—“Our allegiance is to a set of enduring values—privacy, security, free speech, opportunity, diversity and inclusion. We live by them and we will stand for them.”

 On a personal note Satya is a great devotee of  Cricket . He has a cricket bat signed by Sachin Tendulkar  as his favourite personal possession. His son Zain’s suffering from Asphyxia in utero changed their  lives in ways "we had not anticipated being an empathetic father, makes me a better leader."

 This is an outstanding book full of insights into human behaviour, human achievement and the role played by Microsoft.

 P.P.Ramachandran.

21/01/2018

DR.M.S.SWAMINATHAN

                                             

From Green to Evergreen by Dr.M.S.Swaminathan ; Published by Academic Foundation ; Pages 410; Price Rs 1195/-

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The book under review has a Preface by Jeffrey  Sachs who is Director of the Earth Institute  at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank Columbia bestows on its faculty. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. Sachs has this to say of Dr.M.S.Swaminathan.  “Swaminathan’s wisdom is not readily summarised, so my best advice is to read carefully, savour and ponder these essays….. He brims with ideas, prescriptions, policy plans and experiments. He knows that we can meet the great sustainability challenges ahead, but only through tremendous will, scientific knowledge , ethical commitment and openness to partnership and cooperation.” He has  been described by the United Nations Environment Programme  as “the Father of  Economic Ecology.”

Dr.M. S. Swaminathan is a world scientist, a Member of the Rajya Sabha, a member of the National Advisory Council, Government of India and the Chairman of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. He is a former Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and of the International Rice Research Institute. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the first World Food Prize. He was one of three from India included in Time magazine’s 1999 list of the “20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century,” the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore .

 Dr. M S Swaminathan is known as the Father of the Green Revolution in India for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India.

The Indian Government has honoured him with its prestigious national decorations like Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan and he has been the recipient of numerous awards and prizes and medals from all over the world. He  has amassed over a hundred awards, national and International. He is highly eligible for the Nobel Prize. He has to his credit a number of books.

 The book under review is wonderful collection of forty six essays and  describes  the key components of an ecologically sound, evergreen revolution. 

 Despite efforts by the central and state governments, India remains home to the largest number of malnourished children and adults in the world. This book holistically considers the problem of food production in India. Arguing for the use of environmentally sustainable agriculture—referred to as the “Evergreen Revolution”—this compilation addresses a number of ways to attain a hunger-free India, such as monsoon management, safeguarding biological diversity, and food security.

 Integrating ecology and technology is the way forward towards an evergreen revolution. Organic agriculture can help us move from green revolution to ever-green revolution. “The world would require 50 per cent more rice in 2030 than what was in 2004, with approximately 30 per cent less arable land of today. Hence, the need for a sustainable development goal set towards providing food security and nutrition”, according to Swaminathan.

He  emphasises that mainstreaming ecology in technology development and dissemination is the road to sustainable agriculture. Information technology is a transformational technology and has to be used towards sustainable development.

While the  Green Revolution focussed on high-yield. the need today is  for an ever green revolution that can be achieved by organic agriculture. Swaminathan called upon the younger generation to get into farming. “There is also a need to ensure that youth get excited about agriculture. Now, even agriculture has seen several developments in technology and youth can take part in food production and agriculture,” 

Swaminathan  recalls that the country had “the good fortune of having C. Subramaniam as Union Minister for Agriculture and Food, which  “facilitated timely public policy decisions.” The success of the green revolution was due to the operation of  certain factors that worked in concert: “The revolution resulted from a symphony approach with four major components — technology, which is the prime mover of change; services, which can take the technology to all farmers, whether small or large; public policies relating to the price of inputs and output; and above all, farmers’ enthusiasm promoted by the mass media”

 The “Evergreen Revolution”  would  need a symphony of scientifically sound and sustainable efforts initiated by an enthusiastic state.It  aims to correct some of the ecological damage caused by intensive farming in the developing world and blend the use of modern communications technology with sustainable farming techniques tailored to withstand climate change.It stands for increasing productivity in perpetuity without ecological or social harm. The earlier Green Revolution has been criticized for excessive use of pesticides, excessive use of fertilizer, overexploitation of ground water, and so on.

 Swaminathan points out how wireless technology has completely revolutionised information transmission and exchange in India. If you go in the coastal areas, small-scale fishermen who go out in small boats, they now carry a cellphone, which has GPS data on wave heights, where the fish are, etc.  People who were going out on the sea for ten hours are now able to come back within two to three hours with a large catch. We are using the Internet, the TV, FM radio and the cellphone to tell farmers when there is a new variety of crops, where the seeds are available, and so on.

This is a highly exemplary book which brings a lifetime of experience to the issues faced by agriculture and is unique in its scope, achievements and breadth of engagement, as pointed out by Sachs.

P.P.Ramachandran.

7/01/2018

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 Tit Bits

At 78 Degrees North, the Norwegian village of Longyearbyen on Svalbard island is the farthest north one can travel on a commercial flight to reach THE North Pole. On 26^th February 2008, a global seed vault was opened at Svalbard for preserving for posterity a representative sample of the genetic diversity now existing in crop plants. In the middle of an ice mountain, a 120 metre tunnel has been chiseled out of solid stone leading to three giant vaults, capable of storing 4.5 million distinct varieties of crop plants. This storage capacity is sufficient to protect all the diversity that exists now as well as the diversity that is likely to arise in the future. The vaults are located under permafrost conditions where the natural temperature is -4 degrees C  year round. The temperature has been lowered to -16 degrees C, the optimal temperature for maintaining long-term seed viability….Page 129

PPR

7/1/2018