India needs real reforms, says Dhirendra Kumar CEO, Value Research

Wave of reforms that govt has unleashed threatens to sweep all before it. Or rather, wave of media applause for reforms threatens to sweep all before it.

The wave of reforms that the government has unleashed threatens to sweep all before it. Or rather, the wave of media applause for the reforms threatens to sweep all before it.

In the middle of this noise, it is sobering to take a moment and think about what the attitude of the investors outside India is. Last week, here's what I heard Alan Chua, a portfolio manager with the Templeton Global Equity Group, say about business environment continuity.

He spoke about Thailand, which has suffered huge discontinuities in the system, with military coups and violent changes of government, but a high degree of business continuity.

Businesses grow and expand and businesspeople make decisions that facilitate growth in conditions that are not just conducive to business but are predictably conducive and can be reasonably expected to remain so for extended periods of time.

However, having an apparently bipolar, manic-depressive attitude to reforming the economy does little to instill any confidence in continuity. A government that stays in its depressive phase for years together and then goes into a mania of reforms that builds to a crescendo within days is no doubt very exciting for headline writers and TV anchors. 

A Nuclear-Free Future is Our Common Dream: Letter from the Japanese Activists Deported from India by DiaNuke.org

To our friends who struggle for nuclear free future,

A historic movement is underway in Tamil Nadu State against Koodankulam nuclear power station. People across the world are moved by the resistance and want to express solidarity

We tried to visit India to show our solidarity on September 25 but were denied access at Chennai airport. After an hour-long interrogation, we had our paper written as "Inadmissible person" ,which denied our entrance to India. It is unforgivable for the government, which invites countless nuclear merchants from Western countries, to deny such small citizens like us. We are writing this letter because we would like you to know what we experienced.

When we got off the plane and approached the immigration counter, one personnel came to us smiling.

We asked them where we can get arrival visa. They immediately checked our passport and brought us to the immigration office. There were more than 5 personnels asking questions to us respectively. I was brought to another room and three personnels asked me whether I am a member of No Nukes Asia Forum Japan. I was surprised because they mentioned the concrete name of the organization.

"You signed the international petition on Koodankulam, didn't you? Your name was on the list. It means you are anti-nuclear" a personnel said. It so happens that all three of us our signatories of the international petition (May 2012). Another one asked me what we would do at Koodankulam. I was surprised again because no one had mentioned about Koodankulam. But the man showed me a printed itinerary of our domestic flight that I have never seen yet.

"We already know that you have booked the domestic flight. So you are going there. Who invited you all? Who is waiting for you at the arrival gate now? Who will pick you up at Tuticorin airport? Tell me their names. Tell me their telephone number. Will you join the agitation? " 　They asked many questions and surprisingly, they knew all our Indian friends' names. We felt scared. We felt something wrong would happen to you. So we didn't answer.

India’s ticking nuclear crisis: Part I – Hindustan Times by DiaNuke.org

India has missed its five-yearly nuclear power generation target by 74%, its plans crippled by the protests at Kudankulam and other nuclear plant sites that have left the country's energy security roadmap under a cloud of uncertainty.

The government had set an already modest

target of adding 3380 MW of additional nuclear power by 2012 to the country's 3900 MW capacity at the start of the 11th Five Year Plan in 2007.

But failure to convince local people and activists at almost every site handpicked for a nuclear plant has left the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) with only 880 MW to show as nuclear power added over the past five years.

Similar protests over the coming few years could seriously jeopardize India's current energy security strategy, energy economists, government experts and NPCIL officials have cautioned.

"We have to build consensus," said Professor Surendar Kumar, a senior energy economist at Delhi University.