July 2013

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 jul 2013

According to a latest global research on maternal and child nutrition, economic prosperity leads to faster rate of increase in the number of obese women as compared to rate of decrease of underweight women. Moreover 10% increase in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reduces stunted growth among children by 6% but leads to 7% rise in obesity. Middle and low income countries like India are most affected by stunting, malnutrition as well as obesity among mothers and children. The paper mentions that although India has made progress in reducing mortality but still a lot is desired as most programs focus on survival diets and not on diet diversity for better growth and development. The investments are to be made in nutrition relevant schemes. Some Indian experts argue that merely focusing on correlation between GDP growth and health sector development leads to over simplification of these complex health issues. Read on...

Live Mint: Undernourishment and obesity seen as India's economy grows
Author: Vidya Krishnan

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jul 2013

Household/Domestic savings are the most important constituent of the amount of money that a country saves (other contributors are private corporate sector and public sector). The recently released RBI report dated 27 June'2013 provides indicators of financial stability of India and mentions that the Gross Domestic Savings as a proportion of GDP has fallen to 30.8% in 2011-12 from the earlier 36.8% in 2007-08. This reduction is attributed to dramatic fall in financial savings, that includes savings in the form of bank accounts, life insurance, pension etc, which itself is a result of high inflation in recent times. This means people have to spend more money to buy the same amount of goods that they bought in the past, thus affecting their savings. Double digit rise in salaries and rate of return on consumer financial products like fixed deposits, public provident fund etc has also been neutralized by high inflation. This environment has created a surge for investment in gold and real estate and lot of Indian companies have been forced to borrow from outside India. These factors have further exacerbated the dollar-rupee problem as India has less gold production and it has to be bought in dollars in the international market and also the external borrowings are to be repaid in dollar, thus creating a high demand for dollar and devaluation of rupee. So inflation and to some extent other issues like mis-selling of insurance by insurance companies, financial frauds etc are the main cause of the current problematic state of the Indian economy. Read on...

FirstPost: This economic number shows all that is wrong with Indian economy
Author: Vivek Kaul

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 jul 2013

Indian pharmaceutical market is currently estimated at US$ 12.35 billion and is ranked 13th in the world. According to a recent research report on healthcare industry this is expected to jump to US$ 26 billion by 2016 due to multiple factors - continuous rise in health insurance, increase in government funding in healthcare, rise in quality of care, better access to necessary treatments. Some experts argue that this doubling of market sales of pharma and drug industry is unrealistic and estimate only about 13-14% growth annually. World Bank estimates that healthcare insurance will cover half of the Indian population by 2015 (630 million people). Government schemes like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) for providing insurance to below poverty line population is also boosting the growth of health insurance. Insurance sector has to streamline and build appropriate and competitive pricing structure and claim mechanism to sustain the speed of growth in the health sector. Read on...

Live Mint: Health insurance surge to put India in top 10 pharma markets
Author: C. H. Unnikrishnan

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 jul 2013

Ravi Chopra, director of People's Science Institute, says that India has to pursue 'green approach' to development to reduce and avoid destruction by natural disasters like the one that recently happened in Uttarakhand. He suggests planting more trees; limit construction on hills and on the river banks; caution while building roads and highways in mountainous regions to help prevent landslides; better management of visitors and traffic to such areas and maintaing the overall ecological balance. Read on...

The New Indian Express: Green approach to development can minimise human tragedy - Expert
Author: Ranjana Narayan

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 jul 2013

Although India has become the third largest economy in the world after US and China but there are multiple issues, disparities and inefficiencies within its political and socio-economic domains that give it shades of a third world nation. So it might not be a major power in its own right but it can be what Parag Khanna terms as 'swing state' meaning that India is capable of shifting the balance of power in Asia and even in the world. This is the reason why India has become an attractive alliance partner for major nations. India has continued its policy of non-alignment and has preferred bilateral military ties providing itself a place of importance on security and economic fronts in Asia. Read on...

The Times of India: India is key to Asia's balance
Author: Subir Bhaumik

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 jul 2013

Internationally famous hospitality and lifestyle designer, Tony Chi, considers Indian architectural heritage and quality of large pool of skilled human resources as two positive elements that contribute to India's strength in the architectural design space. His work incorporates environmental concerns and focuses on sustainable design. He believes that the design should be invisible in such a way that it generates positive feelings and responses without making itself visibly aware.In one of the projects in India he intends to minimize unbalanced development that has happened in the past by providing a design concept that works on the convergence of basic amenities and good infrastructure. Read on...

The Economic Times: India's design history wows global hospitality designer, Tony Chi
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 jul 2013

Clinical trials are an important constituent of the drug development process. Their purpose is to investigate the benefits and side effects of medicinal products on human subjects and are intended to ensure the product's safety and efficacy for the larger society. India's clinical research market is currently estimated at US$ 500 million and is projected to increase to more then US$ 1 billion by 2016. The current debate about the clinical trials in India is a result of the increase in the number of deaths related to such trials that amounted to 2868 between 2005-2012 and the subsequent amendment to the Schedul Y of Drugs and Cosmetics Rule of 1945. The amendment enacted on 30th January 2013 was intended to tighten the norms related to the conduct of clinical trials particularly in terms of taking informed consent from trial subjects and putting in place a modified compensation mechanism in case of injury and death by putting total and complete liability on the sponsor of the trial. The amendment finds substantial support from human rights activists and NGO's while pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations are divided in their opinion on the amendment. Moreover due to the stricter compliances and complex approval processes there is reduction in the number of clinical trials and their approvals, only 12 till April 2013 while the figure was in three digits last year. Industry experts argue that the current environment governing and regulating clinical trials will increase their cost and will make India unattractive for multinational corporations to conduct their trials and they will explore other destinations thus affecting the market prospects. Read on...

mondaq: Future Of Clinical Trials In India
Author: Priyesh Sharma

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 jul 2013

India with extraordinary cultural and socio-economic diversity requires business leaders with unique skills and styles to succeed in highly competitive and dynamic global business environment. Experts differ in their opinion of leadership style that could be a perfect fit in the Indian context. Suggestions include adaptive situational style, participative style, global leadership style and even autocratic style. According to a survey conducted by a job portal, 69% of employees find democratic or participative style to be a better option in the Indian environment. Read on...

The Economic Times: India Inc wants participative, adaptable, global leaders - Experts
Author: Neha Singh Verma

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 jul 2013

According to a recent PwC study on Indian HR, 81% of CEO's consider unavailability of critical skills in workforce as the biggest threat for success and 41% of businesses intend to focus on increasing diversity and inclusion at workplace. Experts say that although companies have implemented talent and leadership development strategies but they haven't been as effective as expected. More innovative HR models with better reward mechanisms are required to nurture and retain talent. Read on...

Moneycontrol: 81% of Indian CEOs see talent shortage as biggest threat
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 jul 2013

Right to Education Act is a step in right direction to provide education to larger number of children in India. But the main issue that is faced by the current primary education system is the quality of education and the development & enhancement of learning ability in students. According to experts the current system focuses more on rote learning and not on improving overall knowledge of subjects and concepts. Recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) provides data that further points towards the deficiency in the system particularly related to reading and math levels in all Indian states. In 2012, 53.2% of Class V students can't read Class II-level text, up from 51.8% in 2011. While only 11-20% of Class V students could do mathematical division in the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Experts point out that lack of investment in educational infrastructure, insufficient training of teachers and ineffective curriculum are some reasons for dismal performance of the primary education system. Read on...

Moneycontrol: Primary education in India needs a fix
Author: Sriram Balasubramanian

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 jul 2013

Different Indian states are applying and propagating competing models of growth and development. In some aspects they have achieved and demonstrated success but when analyzed on all factors needed for long-term and inclusive growth they are all found lacking. Moreover considering India's diversity and differences in regional developmental priorities, no one model could be replicated for all of India to provide an effective, efficient and inclusive growth and developmental model. India can create a unique model by understanding these regional successes and incorporating basic elements of these competing models in its overall development plan. Read on...

The Times of India: India will benefit from contestation between different models of growth
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 jul 2013

Use of licensed software brings global economic benefits. According to recent study published by INSEAD (French B-school) and BSA (Sofware Alliance), 1% rise in global licensed software usage will generate US$ 73 billion to the world economy as compared to US$ 20 billion from pirated software. There is a lot of concern in case of India where software piracy is quite high and it amounts to about US$ 2.93 billion in 2011. If India increased licensed software usage by 1%, there would be an economic benefit of US$ 1.3 billion. Read on...

Live Mint: 1% rise in licensed software can add $1.3 bn to Indian economy
Author: Pankaj Mishra

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 jul 2013

According to a financial expert there are two things that a country need for long term growth - number of workers and how productive they are (quantity and quality of its workforce). India is in the right direction of building its workforce to 140 million between 2000 to 2020. To improve India's long term economic growth and efficiency, the expert suggests ten steps - (1) Improve governance (2) Fix primary and secondary education (3) Improve quality of higher education (4) Adopt an inflation target and build macroeconomic policy faramework around it (5) Initiate a medium to long-term fiscal policy framework (6) Increase trade with neighbours (7) Liberalize financial markets (8) Innovate in agriculture (9) Build more infrastructure (10) Protect the environment. Read on...

Bloomberg: A 10-Step Program for India's Economy
Author: Jim O'Neill

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 jul 2013

There is a global trend towards bringing transparency into relationships between the healthcare industry and healthcare professionals particularly doctors. There is a law in the US, Physician Payment Sunshine Act, that deals with such issues and provide information through a free public website. Most recently France has enacted a law that makes it mandatory to reveal interactions between organizations and professionals like R&D deals, clinical trials, consultancy agreements etc. India still has to initiate strong transparency mechanisms for such relationships in its healthcare environment. Read on...

Silicon India: India Lacks Transparency Laws in Healthcare Industry Dealings
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 jul 2013

Entrepreneurs and investors are turning to India's agriculture sector as a result of increasing consumer demand, inefficiencies in the farming processes and shortage of quality produce. According to Professor N. Vishwanadham of Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore there is about 30% loss from farm to fork and there are large number of opportunities available for entrepreneurs in the area of food security and distribution. India's contribution to the international food trade is less then 1.5% although it is one of the largest food producer. There is a consistent increase of venture capital and private equity investments in the agriculture sector (2011 - Deal Count: 9, Deal Value: US$ 104.4 million; 2012 - DC: 16, DV: US$ 356 million). Read on...

The Economic Times: New ventures that build technology-based solutions to boost agriculture
Author: Peerzada Abrar

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 jul 2013

In the 68th survey of NSSO (National Sample Survey Organization) released recently it was mentioned that proportion of people employed in agriculture decreased by 50%. This signifies maturing of the Indian economy (estimated GDP of US$ 1.8 trillion) and a shift of employment to other sectors like manufacturing and services. It is observed that earlier employment in agriculture was disproportionate to its contribution to GDP. Although manufacturing sector's proportion of employment and its contribution to GDP are almost identical but in case of services there is a large gap. The challenge that Indian economy faces in terms of these structural shifts in the employment patterns is that of skill shortages which are already visible. Most companies have to retrain graduates before they are absorbed in the workforce. Managing the influx of agricultural workforce into other sectors and provide proper training and skill them would be a daunting task. Read on...

Live Mint: A new focus to India's jobs debate
Author: Anil Padmanabhan

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 03 jul 2013

To attract and encourage private investments in medical education in areas lacking such facilities, the government of Uttar Pradesh in India will provide a capital subsidy of Rs 20 crore; exemption in stamp duty, development and inspection fees; pay 5 percent of the interest on loan taken to establish the institution; construct road infrastructure upto 3 km for improved connectivity; uninterrupted electricity. Read on...

The Indian Express: Incentive scheme to attract private investment in medical education
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 02 jul 2013

According to Sekhar Basu, Director of BARC (Bhaba Atomic Research Center), no significant innovations in science and technology has happened in the past decade in India and it is merely becoming a buyer and market for technology and innovations done elsewhere. He also mentions the adverse effects of brain drain and explains that if India doesn't start to develop its own technologies it will have to spend large sums of money to acquire latest technologies. Moreover this will result in lack of inspiration to innovate and create products and technologies for everyday application and make real scientific progress. Read on...

The Times of India: Foreign tech influx smothering Indian science
Author: Subhro Niyogi

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