The Melting Pot Through A Crystal Ball

A couple of weeks ago , I was having dinner with some colleagues from the United States and were chatting about how America was changing. One of the things which was mentioned was how the immigrants were no longer buying into the melting pot concept . His view was that in the past all immigrants , if not in the first generation , but certainly by the second generation had become Americanized. He felt that was no longer the case.He sounded a bit concerned.

I thought about it and feel that until the fifties the majority of the immigrants were white and predominantly Christian ( apart from the African Americans  who were brought in as slaves). Yes there were exceptions. You had Chinese who came to build the rail roads but who did not have equal rights. Then you had the Jews who  were initially discriminated against but gradually became part of  the mainstream. The Hispanics predated the Americans, but the numbers have jumped up radically. From the seventies you saw more of a influx of immigrants who were Muslims, Hindu's and Sikh's.

The concern now is that the recent wave of  immigrants now while living and working in America still want to retain their ethnic and religious identity. They want to build their own places of worship, eat their own food and speak their own language while at home. I do not feel that this is a cause of concern.  Once you have the third and fourth generation they too will become Americanized, but that does not necessarily mean that they will give up their religion. After all the first American immigrants came to avoid religious persecution. So why should the new generations of Americans be expected to give up theirs ? There will be  some who will , but there will be others who will retain theirs.Religion  however will increasingly  become of less importance as is the case  now for the many Americans, English and even for Indians.

If you want an example of what the American Melting Pot  will look like in fifty to  hundred years from now, look at India from a socio-cultural point of view. Starting from Alexander's time, followed by the Mongols, the Turks, the Persians and others , we have had invaders who have come and in most cases settled down and assimilated while retaining their own religion. Apart from the majority population of Hindu's, we have large communities of Muslim ( the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia) , Buddhist, Sikhs, Christians,Parsi's, and Jews ( most of them  have now migrated to Israel).What makes India unique is the the Indian identity - you  have fair, blue or green eyed Indians, you have brown Indians,you have Indians who are blacks,Indians who have Oriental features - but who  are all Indians. There are twenty official languages recognized by the Indian  Constitution.Although Hindi is the official language in most schools, students also study another regional or state language and or English apart from Hindi. 

During his visit this week President Obama in his  many speeches talked about the diversity  of India. At various times  and during his address to the Parliament, he interacted with the Hindu President, the Sikh Prime Minister, the Muslim Vice President and the Christian power behind the throne. Perhaps a meeting with the  Dalai Lama ( who after fifty years here could be classified as a honorary Indian) would have rounded off the major religions of the world.

Yes, occasionally we have incidents against certain minorities - Muslims, Christians and even Sikhs, but in the overall scheme of things these numbers are relatively small. For the most part, they live in harmony, and increasingly speak in a common language. They enjoy Bollywood ( and Hollywood) movies and shows. They root for the Indian cricket team and so on.

So the message to my American colleague is to look at India's social cultural mix. This is where America is going to be a  hundred years from now or even earlier.  Relax its not so bad.

Creating Wealth Has Never Been This Easy !!

If you are young and have dreams of becoming a billionaire, you are born at the right time.

For centuries if you wanted wealth and power you had to go out and grab it. You got together a band of soldiers which gradually became an army and you ventured out and conquered everything on the way. Some like Alexander and Genghis Khan or his descendants Babur and Kublai Khan went on to create huge empires and entered the pages of history. Thousands of others died  anonymously in in forests, deserts or drowned in rivers far away from where  they were born.

It began to change with the onslaught of industrialization.If you had the entrepreneurial skills,you started a new industry and set up a factory and sold on a global basis. You built up a fortune over a life time, and towards the end you had had a estate of hundreds of acres and built yourself a family mansion manned by hundreds of servants. This happened in England, Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.

Soon after that you had the development of the service industries, hotels, entertainment, advertisements and the like . With the exception of the bankers,  of the ilk of JP Morgan, and the real estate developers who built cities to cater to the rapid urbanization of the cities,   the wealth might not be of the same magnitude of the industrialists.

Starting the 1980's when information technology came to the forefront, it opened up the window of opportunity for people who used their brains to create the software which ran machines , provided entertainment and now help people communicate and stay in touch with each other. Providing the turbo jets for this effort were the venture capitalists who helped the scale up the efforts within a short period of time. Unlike the past when you relied on capital and bank borrowings, the venture capitalists injected large doses of capital to expand.

At the same time you saw the emergence of the high powered , well paid investment bankers and traders , who while still employed and playing with other people's money excelled in  the game of  heads I win , tails you loose. Similarly the  hedge funds and private equity fund managers played with the decks loaded in their favor made and continue to make  large fortunes within a relatively short period.

Which brings me to the conclusion of giving advice to the younger generation - if you are interested in making money quickly, develop the ability to sell your self. Once you are able to do that, it is easy to make money.Fortunately there are many  among the younger generation  who will not follow this advice and who  have  ambitions, to make the world a better place or pursue other careers which are less rewarding . We need them to have a well rounded civilization. Can you imagine a world full of just investment bankers and computer nerds ?

What gets us excited ?

I notice that the online versions of the international business newspapers are trying to localize  the news and have the equivalent of a India edition. The Wall Street Journal in particular has made a tremendous effort to Indianize their online edition.

They carry local columnists and photographs. This makes it an  interesting read  from my perspective. Also I have gotten into the habit of reading the comments or peoples reactions to some of the issues raised in this columns. Being the land of  Argumentative Indians there is no shortage of opinions expressed. I have to confess, I occasionally jump in to express my two cents worth as well.

It is interesting to see that when there are articles critical of India there is a tirade of comments. There are other issues also which get people excited. However today's edition carried a column by a Mr.S.Gridhar who runs the Azim Premji Foundation and which talked about the great work done by individual teachers in rural communities in spite of the odds being stacked against them. Their dedication is spread over decades and is awe inspiring.(http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/09/29/india-journal-a-salute-to-the-unheralded-teacher/ ). Yet there were only three comments ( including one of mine).

While we all get excited about Shah Rukh Khan being searched by the US customs  and other instances where reader take up cudgels, in this instance no one seems to show much interest. Shows our priorities. Sad state of affairs !!!

Déjà Vu

Over the last few years there has been a lot of concern about China and its trade and investment policies. China keeps it currency artificially low, it puts up trade barriers, it discriminates against foreign investors. In addition, the critics say that China does not respect intellectual property, it copies technology, it puts pressure on companies who want access to the Chinese markets to invest there and to disclose technology and so the list goes on.

Why does it all sound familiar ? Was this not all said about Japan in the seventies and in the eighties ? Japan was asked to appreciate its yen, it was asked to open its markets, it was asked to lower its barriers to import.Buy out funds  chafed at their in ability to acquire control of the tightly held companies.

Some  of these complaints were valid. I remember one instance where the Japanese were  placing restrictions on the import of French ski's. The Japanese insisted that the snow in Japan was different from the rest of the world. The French retaliated by insisted that all Japanese car imports were routed through one small port which caused huge amount of delay. The Japanese backed down shortly.

In the meantime the Japanese companies went on a buying spree for assets in the developed world, including an American icon - The Rockefeller Center. The Japanese banks  were among the largest in the world in terms of assets . It was rumored that the grounds of the Imperial Palace were worth more than the entire state of California.  There was concern that Japan would dominate the world. Americans insisted their children learn Japanese.American graduates lined up internship with Japanese companies.

Now it is China's turn. The multinational companies are all complaining that China is limiting their access to the markets and to certain sectors. There is talk about barriers being erected against Chinese exports. Pressure is being imposed on China to let the yuan appreciate.

China has learned from Japan. Its investment  forays overseas , with some exceptions,  have been in the emerging market countries in Africa and Latin America, in search of raw materials and where it can use its financial muscle. Initial  attempts by public sector companies to acquire natural resources in the developed world  met with resistance and China now treads warily.

At the end of the day how will it play out ? The reality is that now days global trade and the global economies are too inter-linked . We have learned  our lessons from the Depression era that barriers do not help. But each country  has to shadow dance and show the big stick , partly for its domestic audience and also to ensure that limits are not crossed. While there is always a risk that a particular leader might be foolish enough to proceed with the threats being made,  at the end of the day nothing will change. Twenty,  thirty  years from now there will Act III of the same play but with a new set of actors and a new bogey man Perhaps it will be Brazil or India. ? Keep watching this space.

Trigger For Change

The newspapers are full of the Commonwealth Games fiasco and enough is being said without adding my two cents worth.

I sincerely hope that this will be the trigger for the public to demand more transparency and accountability from the politicians and the bureaucracy. The government needs to streamline the numerous departments to avoid passing the buck like it is being done now. The Metro is a good example. By giving Mr.Shreedharan the overriding powers the National Capital Region Metro has come in on time and on budget repeatedly since its inception.

Why can we not do this for other major projects ?  I am sure there are many other Shreedharan's around that we do not have to rely on the likes of  Mister  " It will be the best Common Wealth G ames ever. It will be better than the Beijing Olympics " .

The first step towards this is ensuring the strict implementation of the Right To Information and providing legal protection to the information seeker. It will be the first step towards a better , cleaner India which we can all be proud off.

Why India is different ?

While  reading the Times of India this morning I saw a photograph, which made me smile and feel good about about being an Indian.

The photograph was of a woman covered  entirely in a black burqa except for her eyes. She was carrying a
boy - probably five or six years of age dressed up as the Hindu  God Krishna with his body painted blue and and on his head was a gold colored band with a peacock feather - the popular image associated with Krishna. Obviously they were off to a Janamasthmi celebration . In any other country in South Asia or the Middle East, a fatwa would probably be issued against her.

The New York Times recently had an article about the Golden Temple at Amritsar which talked about non- Sikhs who visit the temple regularly and voluntarily  participate in the cooking and serving the communal meals. The Sikh holy book has quotations and hymns  from both Hindu and Muslim saints  - a fact probably not known to Muslims outside India. Similarly you have people of other religions visiting the Dargha at Ajmer or that of Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi.

This ability to accept foreign cultures and religions, assimilate them and live in tolerance with each other is what makes India so different. Yes we do occasionally have some religious fundamentalist - Hindus, Muslims,Sikhs who  instigated by politicians  try to cause trouble, but overall for the most part we live in harmony, celebrate and participate in each others festivals.

I cannot think of many countries in the world which have senior political, defense personnel or bureaucrats who are of a religion different from that of the dominant population . In India  the President is a Hindu, the Vice President is a Muslim, the Prime Minister is a Sikh and the most powerful person behind the throne is a Christian . The President and the Congress Party Supremo are both females.

No country in the world can beat that !!

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Building Highways in India

The biggest challenge faced by the government in building world class network of highways in India is the land acquisition. Along with the outmoded laws, there area myriad of obstacles to be faced by at the state level in acquiring the land.

One way to solve the problem is perhaps to look at who is the biggest land owner in the country ? It is the Railways and they have access to the heart of the cities, to the states, to the rural areas. Railways needs the funds. Perhaps the  National Highway Authority of India can reach an agreement with the Railways for the air rights over the rail tracks and build a highway on top of that. The Highway Authority and the Railways can then both share the revenue. After all the government keeps talking about Public- Private partnership- why not a Public- Public partnership ? Its a win- win situation.

It is not as crazy as it sounds. There are bridges in the United States which have double decks with trains running on one level and cars on the others.

Similarly the  Hong Kong infrastructure visionary Gordon Wu of Hopewell Holdings Ltd, had a plan to do the same in Bangkok, but which got bogged down in politics. When you drive out of the Bangkok airport and look at the rail road track which runs parallel to the highway, you will see a series of pillars which were meant to support the abandoned highway.

With today's technology , nothing is impossible. All it requires is the will to make it happen and a little imagination !!!