The Turnaround

Me and Jonathan were on the Board of Governors in a school in UK. It has been almost a decade since I returned to India, but we still remain in touch – initially in the context of the same UK school and later as both of us moved into the solar power domain. Recently I was on a conference call with Jonathan and catching up on our developments in India’s solar power sector. Our discussions ranged from the economics of solar power in India to state level policies in India and how they need major reforms. I was overwhelmed during our conversation by the fact that Jonathan knew almost everything about India’s solar power sector – the state-wise policies, challenges, power tariffs in India, even to the extent of the latest 5% safeguard duty imposed by India on import of solar cells and/or modules from certain countries and the list continues.

As I closed the conference call, I was taken down the memory lane some couple of decades back. I was in the Philippines managing export of distillery plants from India. I had made many good friends there. I was amazed with the plush malls, shiny Hondas and Toyotas and other cars. India looked years if not decades behind this South East Asian Tigers. When it was my turn to return, I thanked my customer friend for their hospitality and invited them to visit India sometime. I was dismayed with their response when they were reluctant to do so. They feared the snakes would bite them and they could not survive eating only chillies (that was their understanding of spicy Indian food). During my trips to Philippines in late nineties, I used to be the lone Indian on Singapore-Manila flight and often would go hungry as they did not carry veg food on board the flight. No wonder, Pilipino people had no clue about India. I guess this ignorance probably existed in most parts of the world those years.

But why blame the world ! Ignorance about India was in India itself. During my Engineering years, I remember, many of my classmates aspired to go overseas for post graduate studies. In the first year itself, most of them exactly knew top ten universities in the US and their locations there, their faculty and the courses offered. And in contrast they were oblivious of places like Beed, Solapur, Sawantwadi – though some of our classmates hailed from these towns. But if one reflects back, one realizes, what a sharp turnaround we find since the new millennium.

While my Engineering friends and many more likes of them who went aborad, steadily built the reputation of India and Indians over decades, the real boost came from the Indian IT revolution. This coupled with many other supporting developments (ranging from opening up of our economy, nuclear tests conducted by India, many Indians leading Microsoft and Google and Pepsi…..This gave India a new identity. The world outlook towards India changed dramatically. From an insignificant country in terms of economic and political clout, India has transformed itself into a country of great significance at the global level – be it politics, economy & trade, sports, industry (Nano car and Steel empire of Mittals), the Space programs. India is now the sixth largest economy surpassing France and also ranks sixth in installed capacity of solar power plants at globally.

In the late 70s, when the American Skylab plunged into the Indian ocean, nobody would have cared had its debris fallen in India. But today, imposition of safeguard duty on solar modules imported from China, reverberates not only in Chinese solar module manufacturing industry but my friend in the UK knows it too well as his investment banker is nervous about slowdown in Indian solar power industry. Fifty years ago, when the space race between the US and the USSR was at its peak, India struggled to have even basic level telecommunication services in its towns – leave aside the villages. In contrast, today, India has deep penetration of mobile phones and talking about high tech space program -  it successfully sent indigenously built lunar spaceship (Chandrayaan) and another to Mars (Mangalyaan). Not only this, but it launches satellites for developed countries – successfully and with better success rate at lower costs than their American and European counterparts.

This turnaround is neither sudden nor temporary. It of course satisfies my ego as an Indian. It could have been and should have been much earlier. But India, in spite of its diversity, has managed to come this far. I am sure, this is just the ignition phase and the coming years will see India propel into the next orbit and to the next.

Suhas Pansare