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FIRST PERSON

Dear Friends!

he new, 7th issue of our magazine is timed with the St Petersburg forum, a leading annual international economic and business summit. The forum, traditionally held in Russia’s “northern capital,” has a well-deserved reputation of “Russian Davos” and is yet another platform for joint work by representatives of Russia and India. The articles carried by the magazine are a collective attempt by authors and experts to interpret the major and new trends in Russian-Indian relations, unresolved problems and prospects for cooperation after the December meeting in New Delhi between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the run-up to the St Petersburg forum, leading Russian and Indian political scientists and economists carried out a joint “brainstorm,” the largest ever “round table” meeting which became a brainchild of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA). They pondered the moves to make the Russian-Indian top level meeting scheduled for October 2013 in Moscow most effective and raise bilateral partnership to a new level. In the interviews and articles for the magazine, experts say that successful development of bilateral relations requires an improvement of public diplomacy instruments and more intensive interaction between the business circles and civil societies.

A “roadmap” for Russian-Indian cooperation for the next five to ten years with clearly defined goals, events, timeframes and those responsible for meeting KPI targets could be another stimulus. Our authors believe that the issue of drawing this “roadmap” can be broached at the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Moscow later this year. Russia and India have developed very deep, strong and ramified relations. There is no feeling today that there can be problems both countries cannot resolve, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told our magazine. This opinion instills optimism in all of us as yet another incentive for joint work towards strengthening the “all-weather strategic partnership” between Moscow and New Delhi.

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Сontens

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

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A Mission Beyond Three Seas Moscow shows an example of regional cooperation with India

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India-Russia energy cooperation needs a focused approach

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White Nights’ Business Companion

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Plus the electrification of the whole country

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Spring Is the Time to Prepare the Summit

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“There Are No Problems We Can’t Solve” Interview with the new Foreign Minister of India Salman Khurshid

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Indian Top Court Gives Nod to Kudankulam N Plant Built with Russian Help

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India’s Arctic Aspirations

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Biotech rapprochement

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Gazprombank Discovering India

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Indian Opposition Presses with Coal Industry Privatization Claims

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Indian Incarnation of Russian Swindler

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Next Indo-Russian Summit Would Aim at Transforming Ties

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Russian-Indian Relations: the Significance of Subjective Factors

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The World Through the Eyes of Indians

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New quality of long-time partnership

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India should become strategically important long-term investment for Russia Interview with the Director General of The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Andrew Kortunov

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Livid Russia to Change Tack after Losing Indian Defense Deals 76 Hindustan’s missile pantheon

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CULTURE

To the Indian rhythms Summer Bazaar at the Indian Embassy on Moscow’s Vorontsovo Pole Street

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Himalayan treasures in Moscow

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The Masala Drive The first popular carnival devoted to Holi, the traditional Indian festival of spring was for the first time ever held in Moscow

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We need a new project Vice-president of India’s Observer Research Foundation Nandan Unnikrishnan shared his ideas about current Russian-Indian relations and their prospects

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Globalization: Many Indias, Many Russias

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A second discovery of India British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an historic visit to India

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India and China: how to observe the red line

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The Great Power Game in Central Asia

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Haunted Castle at the World’s End

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Squaring the India-Russia-Pakistan Triangle

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Russia and India: Standing Up To Nuclear Terrorism Together

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Make the Most of Your Karma Simon Yеpiskoposyan reports from Goa on what makes an increasing number of Russian citizens move to India and gives tips on downshifting arrangements

Film Critic Alexei Vasilye Indian Movies Should be Brought Back to Russia

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TOURISM

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SUMMIT

SUMMIT

White Nights’ Business Companion

By Sergey IRININ

By analogy with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, analysts have increasingly often dubbed the economic summit in St. Petersburg the Russian Davos, thus stressing the conference’s high importance and ability to impact processes in and beyond Russia.

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his year’s slogan of the June 20-22 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2013) is “Finding Resolve to Build the Global Economy”. The forum programme includes the following Programme Pillars: – The Global Growth Agenda; – Russia’s New Horizons; and – New Catalysts for Change. SPIEF is a unique economic and business conference under the aegis of the President of the Russian Federation, annually attracting over 5,000 politicians, businessmen, prominent scholars, public activists and media representatives from all over the globe to discuss “burning” problems facing Russia and the world. SPIEF 2013 will provide a unique platform for global leaders to engage with their peers in finding solutions to the most pressing issues affecting the world today: political challenges, the fragility of the global economic recovery, the economic and social fractures emanating from the crisis, the importance of capitalising on 4

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new emerging opportunities and the ongoing shifting power equations. The forum’s history dates back to 1997, when SPIEF convened in St. Petersburg for the first time to discuss integration issues facing the CIS countries. The successful initial step opened up good prospects for the future. The second forum, held one year later, already yielded 52 agreements and protocols of intent worth a total of US$ 2.5 billion. The conference embraced 28 round tables grouped into five theme blocs: “The CIS: Economic Growth Prospects”; “Cooperation within Industries and Economic Sectors”; “Regional Economic Cooperation and Development”; “Environmental, Social and Cultural Issues”; and “Reckoning for Investment”. In May 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin decreed to make SPIEF an annual event. Initially, it was expected to determine the CIS role in the global economy, explore the prospects of new market formation and provide an instrument for drawing foreign investment into CIS countries’ economies.

SPIEF 2012, which took place June 21-23 last year, brought together 5,347 participants from more than 70 countries, including 290 members of official delegations. On the list of official programme participants were heads of 157 leading foreign and 447 Russian firms, including the CIOs of 55 foreign and 23 Russian companies. The conference saw the signing of 84 agreements, including nine worth a total of RUR 360 billion (among them four credit agreements for a total of RUR 164.4 billion). The forum’s business programme featured over 70 events, such as round tables, debates, briefings, panel discussions and business dialogues, as well as technology presentations and business lunches. “The time has come for G20 to take upon itself the burden of efficient leadership,” Vladimir Putin said addressing forum participants. “This means G20 shouldn’t turn into an elite club caring for its members only; egoism and backroom deals don’t add to stability and trust. G20 is being called upon to become a pad for working out a set of fair rules

for the global economy’s sustainable development.” Russia being in the chair in G20 this year, SPIEF 2013 will receive the leaders of the Business Twenty (B20) consultative business group to help work out an agenda for the G20 Summit, due in St. Petersburg in September. The forum’s pad will be used for hosting Youth Twenty (Y20) events June 18-19 and those of the B20 Summit June 19-20. The В20 Summit will consist of six sessions to discuss themes proposed by the target groups, and a plenary session in the format of open panel discussions. The Global Growth Agenda will feature among the SPIEF Programme Pillars. Discussions within that bloc will focus on factors impacting the world economic development, and on measures to be taken to restructure the economy and encourage sustainable growth. A separate session will be dedicated to outlining the directions of the Russian economy’s development and identifying Russia’s role in today’s world. The sessions will be attended by key officials of the Russian Federation Government.

Sessions within the New Catalysts for Change bloc will discuss ways of bringing innovative technology and innovative approaches into the effort to tackle issues facing the economy and society. World-renowned experts in business, finance, technology and politics will share their assessments of the international situation in the course of traditional Studies in Leadership: Conversations to Make a Difference, to be held as part of the forum programme. Also, SPIEF will play host to the June 22 Russia-ASEAN Business Forum. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was established as a pad for high-level, comprehensive and independent discussions of ongoing economic and geopolitical processes in the CIS countries. The forum’s vector of interests has changed over the years to give more attention to global challenges. Today, it would be difficult to imagine the international economic landscape without the St. Petersburg forum, which is seen as an organic and, no doubt, lasting element of the

present-day pattern of economic relations. As a proof of this, “We have a wide range of issues to tackle – I refer to infrastructure, transport, logistics, healthcare, financial services, and venture projects,” President V. Putin said in his address to SPIEF 2012. So, welcome to Russia!

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Spring Is the Time to Prepare the Summit By Sergei STROKAN

Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid has made his first working visit to Russia, during which he met with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Co-Chair of the Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. With more than six months still to go before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia, Moscow and New Delhi are intensively working on the summit agenda. The outcome of this work is critical for making the Moscow summit in December productive and fruitful.

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he opinion that Russia and India have built deep, strong and extensive relations over the past decades has become commonplace. But for an old orchard to continue to bear fruit, it needs new planting, pruning and fertilizing. This spring analogy seems proper in reviewing the results of Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid’s first visit to Moscow in April of this year. Mr Khurshid is a remarkable figure in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s new government for a number of reasons. Last autumn, after a series of high-profile corruption scandals and attempts to table a motion of no-confidence in the government, Manmohan Singh moved to outrun the opposition, seize its trump cards and present an overhauled Cabinet. Seventeen new appointments in the government made in late October were supposed to solve two key tasks: make the Cabinet much younger (the youngest minister, Sachin Pilot, is 35 years old) and give broader representation to re6

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gional elites from Indian states. The latter is especially important in view of the coming parliamentary elections slated for 2014, the outcome of which will largely be determined in key Indian states. The “surgery” performed by Manmohan Singh, 80, on his government was designed to rid him of the reputation of “lame duck” and boost the chances of the ruling Indian National Congress for reelection for another five-year term. Reshuffles in the Ministry of External Affairs appeared to be most striking. S.M. Krishna, 80, was succeeded by Salman Khurshid, 59, who had worked as justice minister until then. His predecessor had been constantly criticized and often got into embarrassing situations. Being younger and more active, Khurshid brought in a new – aggressive and energetic  – style in the ministry’s work. It’s noteworthy that unlike S.M. Krishna, who is a Hindu, Khurshid is an Indian Muslim. And he is hoped to normalize relations with Pakistan and China and step up cooperation with Russia.

Khurshid, who has paid his first visit to Moscow, is also co-chair of the Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin is its Russian cochair. During their talks in Moscow, Khurshid and Rogozin were trying to determine what needs to be done in the “orchard of cooperation” to make the upcoming summit meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Manomhan Singh fruitful in terms of contracts and agreements. According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, it is necessary to increase the number of high-level Russian-Indian contacts. In fact, contacts lead to contracts. Broader contacts are needed for addressing a large number of issues and expanding bilateral ties in various areas from agriculture to humanitarian cooperation, from culture to energy, and from defence and technical to defence and industrial cooperation. “I would like to propose additional, off-session, meetings,” Rogozin said, adding that

they should be held not only in capitals but in regions as well. Salman Khurshid suggested holding the next meeting in Russia’s Far East, Urals, Western Siberia, St. Petersburg or Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympic Games next year. The proposed intensification of contacts appears to be quite timely. In fact, there have lately been several irritants in Russian-Indian relations such as the delay in the transfer of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to India, the revocation of Sistema’s license and disagreements over the Kudankulam nuclear power plant project. However, the co-chairs made it clear in Moscow that they could solve the problems which had been actively discussed in the press over the past year and which raised concerns in both countries. India is looking forward to the Vikramaditya handover. As for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the last preparations are now underway to commission the first unit. Unit No. 2 is 90% ready for operation, and nego-

tiations are underway for building units 3 and 4. Once commissioned, the Kudankulam nuclear power plant will play a very significant role in sustaining power supply in India (see Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid’s interview to Russia&India). Along with military-technical ties, energy remains one of the key areas of bilateral cooperation. India wishes to participate in Sakhalin-3, and ONGC Videsh Limited intends to develop oil fields in Siberia. Record low temperatures in Russia’s Far North do not scare Indian specialists. Another promising area of bilateral cooperation has been identified in India’s invitation to Russia to take part in building the Deli Mumbai Industrial Corridor. The concept of the industrial corridor, which involves Japan to a great extent, allows many other countries to join in because it would be impossible for any one country to implement this project alone. This is why we asked Russia and we hope that it will agree because it has a rich work experience in India.

In general, Salman Khurshid’s visit to Moscow showed that bilateral relations have recovered from the catatonia of the last several months and are on the rise again. As we all know, there are no problems only if nothing is done. Observers say that the government reshuffle in India and the appointment of Salman Khurshid bring a new intrigue into the Russian-Indian relations ahead of the forthcoming summit to be held in Moscow late this year. Nandan Unnikrishnan, Vice President of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, believes that this is a much stronger government than the previous one and is steadfastly committed to the national interests at the talks with any foreign partner, including Russia. At the same time, unlike the previous government, it will not avoid making critical decisions in order to stay in power at any cost. Greater negotiability is conducive to ground-breaking decisions, including in such fields as foreign policy and business cooperation, Unnikrishnan states. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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SUMMIT

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“There Are No Problems We Can’t Solve”

Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid has made his first working visit to Russia. Its central event was a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Co-Chair of the Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. Prior to the talks, Salman KHURSHID told Russia&India Editor-in-Chief Sergei STROKAN about the Commission’s work and promising areas of bilateral cooperation. R & I: Mr Minister, this is your first visit to Russia. What are your expectations for your meetings in Moscow and your work as co-chair of the bilateral commission?

Let me begin by saying that Russia and India have built very deep, strong and extensive relations. Strategic partnership includes annual top-level meetings that are fleshed out by the Russian-Indian inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. Continuous development requires an enormous amount of preparatory work covering the full range of issues. And this is what we are going to do, among other things, in Moscow. R & I: But there have lately been several irritants in Russian-Indian relations such as the delay in the transfer of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to India, the revocation of Sistema’s license and disagreements over the Kudankulam nuclear power plant project. Do you really

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believe that there are no problems between the two countries?

There are no problems only if nothing is done. But as relations evolve, there will inevitably be questions that require our joint attention. We worked quite closely on issues that were mulled over in the press over the past year and that could have become a matter of concern to both of our countries. However, we have no feeling that there are questions we cannot solve. Moreover, we are looking forward to the Vikramaditya handover. As for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the last preparations are now underway to commission the first unit. Unit No. 2 is 90% ready for operation, and negotiations are underway for building units 3 and 4. The Kudankulam nuclear power plant will play a very significant role in sustaining power supply in India. R & I: Some in Russia question the mechanism of tenders for military-technical cooperation projects. Critics say they are opaque and corrupt. Is it not the time yet to

admit that tenders in the field of military-technical cooperation have outlived themselves?

lem for Russian companies. In fact, many of them win tenders.

When you say “some”, you accidentally define what such judgments are really worth. In fact, you cannot say, “all or many people in Russia question it”. There are always different opinions in a free society. Some of these opinions are quite perfunctory and some are laden with mistrust and cynicism. Therefore, they are not worth our time. However, let me get to the point. We in India have rich and instructive experience in management and in building a more open market economy. This process helped create the mechanism of tenders based on free competition for government contracts. Nevertheless, the decision on each deal has to be made in a certain context that defines its mechanism. In some instances, deals are made under direct inter-governmental agreements, in other instances through tenders. However, I do not think that tenders in India should pose a prob-

R & I: In other words, interstate agreements cannot replace tenders?

You see, there are strategic sectors where interstate agreements are still critical. However, in open societies such as ours, there must be transparency and public control. R & I: India has asked Russia to join in an ambitious project to build the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Are Russian investments so important for you?

The concept of the industrial corridor, which involves Japan largely, allows many other countries to join in because it would be impossible for any one country to implement this project alone. This is why we asked Russia and we hope that it will agree because it has a rich work experience in India. R & I: Energy is one of the key areas of our cooperation. India wishes to participate in Sakhalin-3,

and ONGC Videsh Limited intends to develop oil fields in Siberia. How do you assess prospects for such cooperation?

Details of such cooperation should be discussed by technical experts, but I can confirm that ONGC Videsh Limited is interested in going to Siberia and the Arctic. This is one of the promising areas of investment and cooperation. R & I: Mr Minister, a territorial dispute has lately led to further deterioration of relations between India and China. Moreover, the current situation is sometimes compared with that in 1962 when tensions developed into an armed conflict. How will you handle this problem, taking into account the fact that China has assumed a firm and unyielding position?

I do not think we should talk about this in terms of being firm or soft. This local, specific issue should not have an adverse impact on Indian-Chinese relations as a whole. Disagreements stem from

different views on the Line of Actual Control. Therefore, while being aware of the enormous public attention riveted to this issue, we should not artificially whip up passions and should solve it in negotiations.

DOSSIER Salman Khurshid (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian politician and presently the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of External Affairs. He belongs to the Indian National Congress. He is a lawyer, and a writer who has been elected from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in the General Election of 2009. He belongs to the Farrukhabad area. Prior to this he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha (1991–1996) from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency. He became the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce in June 1991, and later became the Union Minister of State for External Affairs (Jan. 1993 – June 1996). He started his political career in 1981 as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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SUMMIT

Next Indo-Russian Summit Would Aim at Transforming Ties

By Rajeev SHARMA, The writer is a New Delhi-based journalistauthor and a strategic analyst

The next Indo-Russian annual summit, to be held in Moscow toward the end of this year, will be much more substantive than the previous edition of December 24, 2012 in New Delhi was. Well, it has to be.

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he 13th annual summit of December 2012 was a hurried affair. President Vladimir Putin was in India for less than a day and his official engagements lasted just a few hours. His effort then was to attack issues of more urgent importance like Sistema, Kudankulam 3rd and 4th units and Russia’s poor run in the India’s defense deals while reviewing along with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh other important issues, including mechanisms for boosting bilateral ties, for which he was short of time. 10

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The Indian premier, it can be safely assumed, would not have such delimitations of time during the 14th Indo-Russian summit in Moscow. The principals from the two sides would have a plate full of bilateral agenda to consider and clear during the next summit. The issues will inevitably relate to deeper cooperation in the fields where the two sides have already been cooperating: defense, energy, trade and economy, space, culture and some niche areas like pharmaceuticals. The first and foremost target for the two countries’ leadership would be boosting their bilateral trade

which is far short of the kind of close political relations between the two sides having a strategic partnership for decades when the term ‘strategic partnership’ had not even been coined. This year India and Russia clocked their bilateral trade figures at $ 11 billion. The two sides are committed to raising this figure to $ 20 billion by 2015. Even if this target is met – which is not unlikely – the two governments are convinced that they have the potential of reaching the stars. During the recent bilateral talks at various levels, officials from the

two sides have pondered over the inevitable question: despite the extremely close ties between the two governments and vital pushes from the two governments, why is it that the bilateral trade remains so niggardly? They have cited the extremely vibrant trade figures between the United States and China and China and Japan which are in hundreds of billions of dollars despite tense political relations between the two sides in each case. The official s of India and Russia have often discussed in recent past why they can’t have their bilateral trade around the $ 100 billion mark! This would need a superhuman push by the two governments considering that they are dreaming of increasing their trade ten-fold when their respective private sectors are contributing zilch. Such a mega push can be engineered only at the apex political levels and hence the importance of the upcoming 14 th Indo-Russian annual summit. Russia is the first country with India entered into an institutionalized mechanism of having annual summits with and that too from the year 2000 onwards. All these years, India has added just one more country to this highly privileged and restricted mechanism – Japan. Ironically, the two countries that India is great friends with are deeply suspicious, and even inimical, with each other – Russia and Japan. This provides a wonderful diplomatic opportunity for India as New Delhi can act as a catalyst for improving Russia-Japan ties. Such a move from India is not yet in the public domain but it is a matter of when, not if, that India acts as a bridge between Russia and Japan, even as Moscow and Tokyo are already showing signs of rapprochement. The next Indo-Russian annual summit should also be an exercise by the two sides in narrowing down on their bilateral irritants and maximizing on their convergences. Defense ties, or more particularly the Russian supremacy in the Indian defense sector and Russia’s numero uno status in the Indian defense field which is presently under severe

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threat, would naturally be very high on their agenda. India sees Russia as a longstanding and time-tested friend that has played a significant role in its economic development and security. Since the signing of the “Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership” in October 2000 (during the visit of President Vladimir Putin to India) India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation taking place in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship including political, security, trade and economy, defense, energy, science and technology and culture. But from the Russian point of view this means little as the Russians have lost a number of big ticket Indian defense deals in the past one year alone. So much so that there is a craving from the Russian side for switching to the governmentto-government mode for defense deals, much like the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism that the Americans have been increasingly employing with the Indians on defense deals in the past few years, which is effectively a governmentto-government route. This is a huge concern of the Russians which the Indians can ill afford to ignore. Some ways and

means will have to be found out by the two leaderships to address this issue on a long term basis. The two governments already have an institutionalized mechanism of inter-governmental commissions for making it happen. The two governments have two such inter-governmental commissions – one on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister and another on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC- MTC) co-chaired by the two Defense Ministers, both of which meet annually. One of the two commissions has already met in Moscow at the level of the foreign ministers while the second one at the level of the defense ministers is going to meet within a couple of months. The primary task of these two inter-governmental commissions is to thrash out an agenda for the annual summit between the two sides. The two commissions are already focused on boosting trade and defense ties. Their recommendations will choreograph the rediscovery of the two strategic partners when the 14 th annual summit is held in Moscow later this year.

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DISCUSSION FORUM

DISCUSSION FORUM

The difference in the situation in the two countries may lead to a positive and promising result: the consolidation of Russian high-tech and mining potency with India’s industrial opportunities. The prospect for combining Russian research with Indian engineering (which is already taking place in the defense sector) and inexpensive and quite good Chinese labor looks very attractive.

Russian-Indian Relations: the Significance of Subjective Factors By Sergei LUNEV, Doctor of History, Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Foreign Ministry and National Research University – Higher School of Economics

There are illusions in Russia that India is thankful for economic, political and military support rendered by the USSR. It is absolutely not true, because India has long forgotten it.

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t would be imprudent to set all hopes upon the objective basic reasons underlying the successful development of Russian-Indian relations. Real work on a daily basis and changing Russian and Indian elites’ approaches towards partnership are essential, otherwise the stagnation of bilateral ties might worsen to degradation. Unquestionably, India has already joined the group of world

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powers and turned into a special sub-system of international relations. Together with the USA and China, it is the most likely candidate for the status of a global center of influence, and the future of the world will probably depend on the development of relations within the USA-China-India triangle. Russia, the European Union and Japan have an opportunity to be part of a new pattern, but much will depend on their political will and dynamics

of economic development. Russia should attach special significance to the development of relations with India due to its place in the world political and economic system. The strategic partnership between the two countries has been natural and objective. Russian and Indian national interests coincide or at least do not contradict each other. Geopolitical considerations predetermine the necessity to strengthen mutual ties. The

famous Arthashastra treatise, allegedly written by Kautilya, noted that “your immediate neighbor is your enemy and your neighbor’s neighbor …is a friend.” The proximity of Russian and Indian positions on global issues is not accidental. An analysis of voting at the UN General Assembly on a broad range of world politics issues shows that Russia and India vote similarly, while on international security themes they vote unanimously. The two countries reject a unipolar world. Russia and India are objectively interested in easing the conflict potential in relations between the North and the South. Political processes in South Asia obviously resemble the post-Soviet situation: –  presence of a state which is clearly superior to others by the main economic, political, intellectual and military strategic indicators –  common history of the countries in the region –  certain cultural and civilizational similarity –  smaller countries are striving to strengthen their geopolitical positions with the assistance of states located beyond their region, and –  disruption of economic ties within a hitherto consolidated economic complex. India’s situation is amazingly similar to Russia’s. This geopolitical similarity determines similar approaches to CIS problems for Russia and to South Asia relations for India. We cannot but note the similarity of Russian and Indian foreign economic goals. The two countries should strive for integration into the world economy, and increase their competitiveness while protecting

domestic production. The common objectives of Russia and India stem not only from their similar places in the world economy, but also from the size of their territories and populations. By quantitative indicators, the roles of the two countries in the world economy are similar. From the point of view of qualitative parameters, Russia and India belong to different groups of countries. While Russia still has the opportunity to go a high-tech path, India is unlikely to enter the post-

industrial phase of development. A tremendous share of poor population is a major obstacle to using developed countries’ models: for example, it makes no sense to launch resource-saving technologies, because it is absolutely unclear what to do with the released labor force. India has made tremendous achievements in high technologies, in the first place in software design. But these products are mostly intended for exports, not for domestic consumption. It is explained by the fact RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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DISCUSSION FORUM

The Indian elite is rather skeptical about Russia’s present-day role in the world system. In Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty-First Century, Russia is relegated to the third group of countries by significance. Although the report is not an official document, it reflects the existing sentiment in India. that the release of labor force due to broad use of high technologies will lead to a most serious increase in social tensions. Meanwhile, India has excellent opportunities for industrial development. So the difference in the situation in the two countries may lead to a positive and promising result: the consolidation of Russian high-tech and mining potency with India’s industrial opportunities. The prospect for combining Russian research with Indian engineering (which is already taking place in the defense sector) and inexpensive and quite good Chinese labor, looks very attractive. The end product would go to a huge sales market: the two Asian giants foremost focus on their domestic markets and post the highest long-term growth rates in the world. If realized,

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such a scenario will lead to a paradox: the Russian reforms with the view of phased rapprochement with the West will be implemented on the basis of developing political and economic ties with the East. The proximity of the two countries’ approaches to fundamental development problems and certain common patterns of cultural-civilizational values deserve special mention. It gave our countries the opportunity to develop inter-civilizational dialogue as it was looking for new mechanisms and instruments for positive interaction between various civilizations and rapprochement of peoples and their cultures in different areas. At present, stagnation has manifested itself in Russian-Indian relations. The main cooperation guide-

lines (military cooperation and aerospace) still keep positive dynamics (the breakthrough in nuclear power engineering on which great hopes were pinned has never happened). As it stands, the potentials of the defense sector and aerospace are insufficient to secure long-term positive development. This article addresses one crucial negative factor in bilateral relations, namely the psychological perception of partner by the elites. The “third” wave of immigration to North America and Europe created a powerful Indian community which occupies a rather privileged position in the new homeland. There are practically no persons in the Indian elite who would not have relatives or close friends among U.S. citizens. This situation resulted in the appearance in India of political leaders who call for taking cues from Washington only, which can dismantle a five-decade consensus in foreign policy. After the Cold War, Russia gave up the “zero sum” game, but Washington never overcame its world vision in black and white. For example, the Russian diplomats working in India noticed that the attitude of certain officials towards them immediately worsened after visits by high-placed U.S. nationals. Interestingly, of all Indian political forces the Indian National Congress is the most pro-American. As a majority of rightist nationalist organizations of the world, the Bharatiya Janata Party began to take more critical positions with respect to the USA, while center left politicians, too, urge restrictions on ties with the United States. A complete turn to the USA ran into New Delhi’s awareness that the USA does not regard any country as equal, and being a junior partner is inadmissible to India.

Also, Russia has illusions that India is thankful for economic, political and military support rendered by the USSR. It is absolutely not true, because India has long forgotten, and Russia does not remind about it. In the post-bipolar period, Russia actually took no action to improve its image abroad. The West formed and is continuing to form Russia’s image for the whole world, and complete defamation of Russian reality and history remains its main method. Electronic and printed mass media of the West are amazingly unfriendly towards Russia, highlighting no positive points in the coverage of Russian policy. All this information is supplied to India and Asia in general, whose overall attitude to Russia is taking a turn for the worse, too. Defamation of Russia is dangerous not only politically (obviously, the population’s friendliness is the basis for developing relations). It is one of the factors that take out a country as an economic rival of the West. If the local mass media lobbied Russian interests, it would be more difficult not to let Russian companies participate in the modernization of enterprises built by the Soviet Union in India. As an example, we can compare the activity of the Russian and French defense sectors. A number of Indian newspapers and magazines whose print runs reach into millions, regularly publish antiRussian articles, which are usually paid for by France, and this is common knowledge. But Russia does not even take the trouble to respond to these custom-made articles, despite the fact that a number of accidents with Russian military equipment occurred because of India’s purchase of counterfeit parts for Russian hardware, insufficient training of India personnel, etc. Russian defense sector officials nearly ignore professional journals of the Indian military, which heavily influence opinions of the national military elite and the persons who make decisions on military cooperation. Hardly any efforts are made to work with pro-Russian circles or

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organizations. The disdainful attitude to hundreds of thousand persons educated in the Soviet Union and Russia is particularly surprising, despite the fact than many of them are representatives of Indian elites. Interestingly, many U.S. centers who send their personnel on secondment, commit them to meeting with former graduates. As a result of the scaling down of Russian propaganda in India, opinion polls in India show that although Russia is still among the most popular countries, the attitude towards it gradually worsens and is now on a par with what Indians feel toward the United States. Just 36 percent of those polled said Russia had a positive influence upon the world situation (it was one of the highest results in opinions about Russia in a world poll). In Russia, 47 percent of respondents gave a positive opinion of India’s role, whereas the percentage of its ill-wishers was very small, i.e. it was in Russia that India was a most popular foreign country. As for the Russian elite, it continues to believe in Eurocentrist “ideal model,” feels an inferiority com-

plex with respect to Europe and has a traditionally very pessimistic view of its own country which always led to cynicism (before the Bolshevik Revolution, in the Soviet era, and at present). A certain disappointment with the West’s policy is manifested in growing skepticism towards the USA, but not towards Western Europe. The largely pro-Western approaches of the domestic elite are a major obstacle to the strengthening of the Asian vector in our foreign policy. It seemed for a long time in the 21st century that Russia began to attach far larger significance to Asia, yet Russia has not met the expectations on this account. As a result, Moscow’s sticking to the approach to India as a country of secondary importance remains a very negative basic factor. Russian and Indian businesses have not developed normal relations either. Interestingly, Indian business persons were the only social group that welcomed the breakup of the USSR, according to sociological polls. Indian industrialists used to deal with Soviet bodies and have no solid ties with the private sector that emerged

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Russian entrepreneurs have a poor knowledge of Indian reality. Furthermore, they are not particularly welcome in South Asia. Often, Russian businessmen are treated in India in the same manner as their counterparts are treated in Russia, and therefore they encounter bribe-taking and fraud. Meanwhile, Indian courts tend to defend compatriots practically in all cases. Russia reiterates that India places considerable restrictions on its exports to India (on several occasions in the past India accounted for the largest number of anti-dumping probes against Russian metallurgical companies, along with two other countries). in Russia. They, too, keep making justified complaints about corruption and mafia in Russia. On the whole, Indian business is not keen to seek rapprochement with Russia. As for Indian state-run companies, they remain over-bureaucratized and inflexible. Russian entrepreneurs have a poor knowledge of Indian reality. Furthermore, they are not particularly welcome in South Asia. Often, Russian businessmen are treated in India in the same manner as their counterparts are treated in Russia, and therefore they encounter bribe-taking and fraud. Meanwhile,

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Indian courts tend to defend compatriots practically in all cases. Russia reiterates that India places considerable restrictions on its exports to India (on several occasions in the past India accounted for the largest number of anti-dumping probes against Russian metallurgical companies, along with two other countries). Rebuilding the previous level of political trust between Moscow and New Delhi takes place in a new economic situation in the two countries. The governments have far fewer opportunities to influence the dynamics of foreign economic relations which are focused in both

countries on the USA, Europe and East Asia. The situation may change if top Russian and Indian politicians began to actively lobby Russian economic interests in India (including the interests of private companies) and Indian interests in Russia. We should not pin too much hope on the objective basic reasons that ensure successful development of RussianIndian relations. Real work on a daily basis and changing Russian and Indian elites’ approaches towards partnership are essential, otherwise the stagnation of bilateral ties might worsen to degradation.

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The World Through the Eyes of Indians By Alexander KONDRASHIN

The Australia India Institute, a leading think tank in the Asia-Pacific region, conducted an opinion poll to learn how the Indians felt about their country and its relations with major world powers. According to the survey, Indians were optimistic about prospects for the national economy, had increasingly warmer feelings towards the USA and were apprehensive about China and Pakistan. Their attitude towards Russia is largely positive, but reserved. Also, Indians believe that the world’s largest democracy is very corrupt and that India needs a strong military.

T

he respondents were asked to rate their feelings towards other countries on a scale of 0 to 100. The United States ranked first at 62 degrees, Singapore ranked second at 58 and Japan third (57). Indians ranked these countries higher than the BRICS partners: Russia (53), South Africa (47), China (44) and Brazil (44). More than 80 percent of those polled said Indian-American relations were strong and three-quarters wanted them to become stronger within the next decade. Also, the survey offered a tricky question about a role model for India where the United States topped ratings as well with 78 percent. The poll also found that ordinary Indians were eager to have military superiority in the region. An overwhelming majority (95 percent) said India needed a powerful army to reach its objectives in the world. The following factors are believed to have significance for it: the possession of nuclear weapons (79 percent of respondents), the country’s image abroad (78 percent) and wise political leadership (75 percent). Pakistan and China are viewed as the main sources of threat. Ninetyfour percent of respondents regard RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Pakistan as immediate threat to the country’s security, identifying terrorism as the basic reason for their concern. More than 80 percent said China was a threat to security. A mere 31 percent said a rising China in the recent years was a positive factor for India. Two-thirds were convinced that India should be part of a broad international coaltion as deterrance to China. Seventy percent of Indians agreed with the “Churchill formula,” i.e. that democracy as a form of government was preferable to others. Almost 100 percent support independence of courts as a crucial factor 18

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in a power-sharing system, while 87 percent believe that the mass media should not be censored. Corruption is viewed as the most dangerous disease. Almost 100 percent of respondents agree that corruption

is widespread in their country, that its rate has increased in the recent years, that corruption is a major obstacle do development and that anticorruption fight should be a priority for the Indian government.

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Longstanding partnership finds new bearings By Gleb IVASHENTSOV, Deputy Director of the Russian APEC Study Center

Russians see India as a good old friend. For many years the Soviet Union and India were pretty close to allied relations and maintained cooperation practically in all fields. What is the state of affairs today? After the events of the past two decades – changes in Russia, India’s economic boom and the new lineup of forces in the international scene could not but introduce new nuances and priorities to Russian-Indian relations.

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India’s giant leap Today’s India is even more multifaceted than it used to be just recently. Only 65% of India’s people can read and write; yet the country is the world’s second after the United States as to the number of research and engineering personnel with fluent command of the English language (over 80 mln). A visitor to a remote Indian province should not feel surprised at the sight of a wooden plough, a potter’s wheel, or an oxcart – all precise replicas 20

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of ancient household artifacts the ancestors of today’s residents of the Indian subcontinent used hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. On the other hand, India has long been self-reliant in achieving and maintaining nuclear capability, building space rockets, putting satellites in space and making supercomputers in no way inferior to their U.S. and Japanese counterparts. In 2011 India with its $4.46-trillion GPD, estimated in terms of purchasing power parity, was the

world’s third largest economy, bigger than Japan. The 2000 target of doubling the GDP per capita by 2010 has materialized. The current objective is to double the per capita GDP by 2020. According to a forecast by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) India’s share in the global GDP will reach 8.5% in contrast to Germany’s 2.9%. Over the four years before the world financial turmoil India’s GDP had been growing by an annual 9%. India is determined to make this growth rate habitual. Turning India into a superpower of knowledge and developing research-intense technologies is another ambitious goal. The government program India Vision 2020 identifies such strategic guidelines for the Indian economy’s long-term development as energy production, including nuclear power, a cluster of information technologies, the defense-industrial complex, the airspace sector, aircraft-building, high-tech electronics, etc. All these areas were declared as national priorities. The country has created a comprehensive research and engineering complex of world importance, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Over 1.5 million people are involved in research. Public investment in science is approaching one percent of the GDP, but the Indian government plans to achieve a twopercent level within several years to come. The government is encouraging private investment, including foreign one, into research and development. India has created its own equivalent of the Silicon Valley – Bangalore - where ever more leading IT companies from around the world tend to open operations. India holds sixth place in the world after Russia, the U.S., China, the European Union and Japan by the scale of its space activity. It is expected that in 2014-2015 the country will start its own manned space flights program. India’s scientists plan to launch a moon space probe with a descent module and a moon rover.

Government-run reform The reform program India embarked on in the 1990s in a bid to propel its economy into the group of the world’s most vigorous ones was anything but “shock therapy.” There was no landslide privatization of public sector enterprises. Over a very brief period of time (2001-2003) only minor stakes were taken out of public sector economic entities, which allowed for identifying their real value and achieve public assets’ liquidity on the market. The government retained control of the banking system, nationalized in 1969, which in 2009 enabled India to stand the blow of the world financial crisis far better than the United States or Western Europe. In contrast to other countries India saw nothing that might look as an industrial slump - there was just a slight fall in the GDP growth rates from 9% to 6.5%. The government went ahead with its social programs for easing poverty, providing fresh water and sewage facilities and medical care for the population and building schools and roads in rural areas. The prices of power supply, seeds and fertilizers for farmers and many other items continued to be subsidized, which earned the economic reform wide popular support. Not a single reform project has failed over the past two decades, although India has seen a succession of six cabinets and five prime ministers.

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Foreign policy benchmarks Has India’s economic leap brought about any change to its foreign policy benchmarks and in the people’s attitude to Russia? It is an open secret that India’s new elite these days sees the United States, still retaining its economic, military and technological advantage over the other countries, and steadily growing China as the main actors on the world scene. Taking exception to this kind of opinion would be hardly reasonable. Few would deny that in terms of its international influence modern Russia is not what the Soviet Union used to be. At the same time New Delhi invariably underlines its determination to maintain “privileged strategic partnership” with Russia. The reasons for this are many and varied. Some are global and others, regional. India finds a mono-polar pattern of the world order unacceptable, for it is determined to contest the position of a world leader and a major force in the space stretching from Suez to Singapore. The country’s most important and complex foreign policy issues are in relations with China and Pakistan – India had military conflicts with both in the past. The United States’ stance on Iran is India’s major concern. India would like to see an extremism- and terrorism-free Central Asia from the standpoint of unham-

pered access to the energy resources of that region. New Delhi is aware that all these issues are hardly soluble without Russia’s engagement. Similar tasks However different Russia and India may look, they share quite a few identical tasks. Both are democratic states, and their commitment to democracy in internal affairs pre-determines their mutual striving for democratic ways of handling international affairs – building an equitable multi-polar world order and resisting the relapses of bloc politics. Both have multi-million multi-ethnic populations, both had a chance to learn from experience in Kashmir and Chechnya (better and faster than the others) the deadly effects of such ills as terrorism and separatism. Both are multireligious states. The followers of Islam account for large shares of their populations and their historical ties and proximity to the Islamic world dictate their special roles in handing such issues as Afghan, Iraqi or Middle East settlement. What does India count on? India pins great hopes on the largely unique contribution of cooperation with Russia into implementing its military-political doctrine. Experts at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) say that since the RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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early 1960s India has purchased from the Soviet Union and Russia $50 bln worth of armaments, more than any other country. More than half of the military equipment India’s armed forces use these days is of Soviet and Russian manufacture. Just as all other spheres of our interaction, Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation has acquired some new traits over the past decade. Russia has gone much farther than just selling weaponry, military technologies and knowhow to India. Moscow and Delhi have been increasingly active in the field of joint defense research. The supersonic cruise missile BrahMos (Brahmaputra-Moscow) stands out in that respect. By many parameters it is unparalleled in the world. Joint research is in progress into a fifth generation jet fighter. In arms trade with India Russia is far ahead of its chief competitors – the United States and Israel. India is the sole country that has acquired AWACS plans of joint Russian-Israeli manufacture, and it will be the exclusive foreign recipient of the high precision signal from the Russian global satellite navigation system GLONASS it will be able to use for defense and security purposes. The upgraded aircraft carrier The Vikramaditya (formerly The Admiral Gorshkov), when delivered 22

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to India under a bilateral contract, will add much strength to the Indian Navy. This will be important not only for ensuring the security of India proper, which has an exclusive economic zone of 2.2 million square kilometers in the Indian Ocean. Stretching along India’s shores are shipping routes from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia, China and Japan. The energy security of a vast region of the world and resistance to sea piracy and terrorism are inseparable from the overall national security strategies of the Asian countries and all major powers of the world. India, almost entirely dependent on the import of fuel, objectively needs cooperation with Russia in the energy industry, including the tapping of oil and gas fields and in building nuclear power plants in its own territory. As it puts great emphasis on “naturalizing” foreign ideas and R&D, India has displayed much interest in Russia’s achievements in advanced fields of science and engineering and corresponding joint research. What makes India important to Russia? Russia needs sustainable bilateral partnership as much as India. Moscow has never had a conflict of interest with India, in contrast to

its relations with the United States, the West European countries and China. Nor is there any risk of such a conflict on the horizon in the foreseeable future. India’s greater role in world affairs, globally or in the Middle East, Southwest Asia or the Far East – in view of the country’s tangible economic presence in all of these regions and the large Indian community – would objectively ease foreign policy challenges to Russia. Russia-India cooperation on key international issues proceeds in harmony with interaction with the ‘troika” of Russia, India and China, and the BRICS quintet (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), whose members are moving steadily towards the group’s gradual transformation into a fullformat mechanism of cooperation on key world economic and political issues. Moscow has regularly confirmed its policy for granting India a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and also for backing India’s bid for full-fledged membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the APEC forum. India retains its importance as a potentially vast market for Russian manufacturers. While bilateral trade remains insignificant, at about $10 bln, cooperation in industries where Russia still has competitive advantages – nuclear power, space

exploration, power engineering, aircraft building, creation of weapons of the future – works as an external driving force for Russia’s internal modernization. Reopening of the transport arteries linking Russia and India, the first place the “unfreezing” of the North-South international transport corridor might prove a powerful incentive to growing RussianIndian trading and economic ties. Iran has invariably been an integral part of that corridor, so joint decisions at the highest level in India, Russia and Iran will be crucial to stepping up Russian-Indian foreign economic ties. India’s experience may help solve Russia’s problems A great deal has been said in Russia about the need for borrowing best foreign practices. From the United States, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea. But for some reason, not from India. In the meantime, India’s experience might prove far more helpful than anybody else’s in addressing a wide range of problems facing Russian society and the country today. Here are just some of the promising areas. India and Russia are federative states. Power sharing among the central and local authorities under the Indian Constitution has dem-

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onstrated its effectiveness over a period of more than sixty years. Possibly, studying the vertical chain of command in India would be useful to our lawyers and politicians whose task is to address the issue of relations between the central government and the regions. Or take such a crucial issue as military reform and creation of a professional army. Those in charge of Russia’s budget and finance use the invariable argument – a professional army is a luxury Russia cannot afford. But India’s armed forces – incidentally, the world’s third in strength and fourth in combat potential, are contract-manned. Probably, it would make sense to look into how India’s budget manages to bear such costs. India’s experience of creating effective private farms might be of use to Russia, as well. True, the average Indian farmer’s productivity is still way below that of his counterparts in the United States, France or Germany. However, in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, and in some others, too, many welloff private farms have existed for more than three decades and their equipment and yields match world standards. These farms owe their success to a well-considered system of collective borrowing, fertilizer subsidies, and highly productive

seeds and technologies, which have brought about a real “green revolution.” Why should not our experts examine more closely the way farming is done in India, which despite its population of over one billion has been self-sufficient in food for more than forty years now and even become an exporter of foodstuffs to other countries, including Russia? India boasts quite a few remarkable high-tech ideas and products. The country exports nearly $50 bln worth of software products a year, holding second place after the United States. Quite noteworthy are India’s “high-tech products for the poor” – the Tata Nano car for $2,000 and a laptop for $20. This project for expanding Internet education at India’s schools and universities is government-backed. The low-price notebooks will be distributed among 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the nation. Surely such a notebook would be highly welcome in Russia. New products and ideas in some other fields, too, have a bright future. In 2006 India issued about 5.5 percent of all of the world’s pharmaceutical patents. Over the past twenty years longstanding partnership between Russia and India has found near bearings. There is far less bombastic rhetoric and far more cooperation in specific matters to the benefit of each other’s interests – mutual or unilateral – amid a no easy regional and international environment. Predictable and constructive Russian-Indian partnership and trust provides ample evidence of its viability.

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India should become strategically important long-term investment for Russia

The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) prepared a report titled “Russia and India: Towards a New Bilateral Agenda.” RIAC Director General Andrei KORTUNOV briefed R & I observer Alexandra KISELYOVA on experts’ opinion of the level of Russian-Indian cooperation and the proposed ways to step it up ahead of a top-level meeting in Moscow. R&I: Mr Kortunov, Russia and India have a historically positive experience in bilateral relations. At the highest point of these relations in the Soviet era, both countries clearly identified themselves and each other: the USSR was a superpower, a pole of the bipolar world, while India was the leader of developing countries, the Non-Aligned Movement.

The situation has changed dramatically since. What are the feelings of Russian political elites and business communities towards India at present are their ideas about India adequate to the real situation? On the other hand, what is India’s attitude towards Russia, meaning not officials’ remarks but at the level of subjective perception? 24

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You might say Russian-Indian relations have been developing on the foundation laid in the Soviet period. Russia unquestionably has a positive view of India. I believe Russians take more interest in India, its culture, arts and cinema than in any other Asian state. The genetic memory of India keeps the image of a country with which Russia never had any serious disagreement or conflicts. At the same time, the established Soviet stereotypes sometimes play a negative role, as India is still viewed as a poor developing country. I believe Russia deeply underestimates what is happening in India and how rapidly the country has changed in the past few decades. Even within the BRICS forum, Russia views China as its key partner in the In-

the same lines. There is a feeling that Russia is a positive country and that India does not have serious disagreements with it. Yet Russia is gradually drifting to the sidelines. In many official Indian documents it is mentioned rhetorically, rather than in practical issues. The danger is not in anti-Russian sentiment developing in Indians but in that Russia may be ousted from the competition for India. R&I: What place does India occupy in the Russian foreign policy today? Does Russia have a coherent long-term strategy which identifies objectives in relations with India and the specific actions to reach them?

There are several aspects on which the government is working; each has its own vector, dynamics and expectations. In the economy, the target to reach a 10-billion-dollar turnover was set long ago. Two-way trade is approaching this figure. Understandably, the volume of trade is insignificant given the potentials of Russia and India. It is small compared with Russia’s trade with large European countries, not mentioning cooperation with China, where the target is to bring bilateral trade to 200 billion dollars a year. There is an understanding of the current state and prospects for bi-

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lateral military cooperation. Since the issue is sensitive, we don’t know much about the Russian strategy in this area or how innovative, or, rather, inertial Russian approaches are. Russia has long supplied weapons to India, and it has to keep the Indian market for itself if possible. We know that India is becoming very attractive to other suppliers of armaments and military equipment, therefore Russia will obviously find it harder to keep its niche. There is an idea that Russia and India could interact at the regional level. For example, both countries are interested in a stable Afghanistan after withdrawal of the international coalition next year. Consultations over the issue are underway. But I believe it is premature to talk about any large-scale bilateral cooperation in Afghanistan or Central Asia. Russia is also interested in India’s remaining an active BRICS member. However, there are quite a few unclear points. If BRICS were to expand, will the Russia-India-China (RIC) forum continue to function? Anyway, I have no idea who is handling this issue for Russia. There are plans in certain areas; officials formulate tasks and set targets they wish to reach in cooperation with India. Relations seem to be OK, but regrettably, their dynam-

ics do not conform to the tempo of world changes. From my point of view, Russia is not giving India the attention it deserves at present. In this connection, Russia is losing many opportunities which it should not lose. We have to build our relations with India more vigorously, perhaps more aggressively. We need a new expansive vision, a higher level of inter-departmental coordination, more active interaction between the state and private sectors. India should become strategically important to Russia, as a long-term investment. Relations with India must become a national priority. Russia must invest in these relations, without expecting quick returns. Sooner or later, these investments will certainly pay back. R&I: The RIAC report notes that trade and economic ties are the weakest parameter of bilateral relations. Why isn’t Russian business eager to enter the Indian market, despite India’s impressive economic development indicators and mutual affinity? And how can we encourage Indian business persons to come to Russia, to make this process two-sided?

I can cite a long list of obstacles to the development of Russian-Indian economic relations: insufficient in-

dian-Pacific region. India is regarded as a regional state whose significance is confined to South Asia. Yet today, that country is turning into a power with global ambitions, and by the middle of the 21st century it can become one of the three leading world centers of power together with the United States and China. And Indians’ self-appraisal is changing rapidly. According to opinion polls, Indians assume that by the mid-21st century, their country will be second only to the USA in terms of influence upon international affairs. Understandably, they can overstate their capability, yet it shows their level of aspiration, which has to be taken into account. The Indians’ attitude towards Russia is apparently changing along RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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formation, undeveloped infrastructure, lack of loan mechanisms, the existing visa problems… Simply, you might say that there is a lack of political will. If there is a conviction that it is important, that it is the future, all technical issues can be resolved. I believe the initiative should come from Russia. India is interesting to many countries: also, it has a huge domestic market. Hence, it can find opportunities for economic growth without Russia. The conviction that the Russian positions in the field of supplies of armaments or in nuclear power engineering are unshakable can play a mean trick. So, while using a good background such as warm feelings and a positive historical experience, we have to understand what Russia can offer the Indian partners, take new niches and look for untraditional ways. For example, Russia could enter the Indian food market or launch interaction in information technologies. Every Russian-Indian summit or the signing of inter-governmental agreements should be followed by a long series of more specific accords, projects or events. This work should always involve business communities, civil society institutions, experts and universities, in short all the elements of well-developed relations. This task should not be assigned to the Foreign Ministry alone. Cooperation mechanisms have to be arranged at all levels to comprise a 26

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complex inter-departmental program. In my opinion, the ideal instrument would be a sort of a “road map” for the next five to ten years, which spells out the tasks, actions, timeframes and those responsible for implementation. At present, bilateral cooperation intensifies once a year, as a rule, during Russian-Indian top-level meetings. Sadly, such efforts cannot be called consistent, goal-oriented, or continuous. R&I: Russian-Indian partnership in the international arena is largely based on the coincidence of interests of the two countries, the similarity of their positions on basic issues and the roles they play in their respective regions. How fully do Russia and India use their joint potentials to influence the formation of a new world order and the establishment of a complex balance of multi-vector forces? What opportunities have not been used in this area?

What we now have in the world are deep, fundamental trends towards shifting the balance of forces, a change of “the currency” of international politics, so to speak. Indeed, it is very important to find a balance between the old and the new, between traditional institutions and emerging bodies. This balance must ensure stability and yet enable the world to go on. We do have things to discuss with India. For example, this country is not a UN Security Council mem-

ber. Understandably, it is a matter of status, prestige and practical policy for the Indians. The question is what Russia thinks about it. Under what conditions and in what form can India join the UN Security Council? There are different options, and they can be discussed. Another potentially important theme for Russia is that India has become a nuclear weapons country. It does not participate in any negotiations on reducing nuclear armaments, and no confidence principles in this area have applied to it so far. We have to involve New Delhi in dialogue, treating it as a “nuclear club” member. “Nuclear club” membership implies not only rights, but also commitments. The question is how this interaction can be arranged in a form acceptable to India. Russia should certainly work on this issue. Like Russia, India is part of the G-20. This platform opens certain opportunities to consult over a range of problems, especially because Russia will host the G-20 summit this September. Also, there are more specific things to consider. India is very interested in the Arctic, as is China. Russia is a member of the Arctic Council which comprises the states bordering on the Arctic region. Russia therefore should define its position: should it restrict or encourage India? What forms of participation in developing the Arctic could be reserved for non-Arctic states? Russian and Indian interests

regarding Central Asia coincide. But Russian-Indian cooperation has been limited in the region so far; it could be expanded. There are many such issues. I believe there are good pre-requisites for accords on a majority of them, because there are practically no antagonistic contradictions between the two countries. R&I:  Does Russia have an opportunity to use its status and positions in international institutions to support India in major issues, and thereby win its favor?

It certainly does, in some matters. On the other hand, Russia should not do it to the detriment of its own interests; it has to take into account many factors, not just India. Wherever possible, Russia should meet its Indian partners half way. The problem of such emerging centers of force as India is that they still have to operate within the old frame of reference and may feel discomfort. So they need a guide to provide assistance in some issues. Russia can play an important role here. I think New Delhi will heed Russian advice and recommendations because they understand that these recommendations are not dictated by the wish to get India as an ally or limit the freedom of maneuver for Indian diplomacy. Actually, it might be the other way round: India can help Russia. In its time, India showed flexibility concerning Russia’s WTO membership.

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R&I: Another top-level RussianIndian meeting is due at the end of this year. Which issues do you think must top the agenda? What proposals or concept is RIAC preparing for this event?

As for the agenda, we’ve identified four guidelines which we believe have significance. Firstly, it is economic cooperation: it goes beyond the boundaries of traditional fields in which Russia and India have been cooperating. These are new guidelines involving small and medium business and the use of advanced technologies. Of course, if trade turnover remains at around ten billion dollars a year, inter-state relations won’t make much headway. It means there will be no groundwork to cement these relations. Much depends on how the Russian economy will develop and on whether it will implement structural changes. This would provide more opportunities for cooperation with India. Secondly, it is military cooperation. Russia should overhaul its interaction with India in this field, too; it needs to raise it from supplies of armaments and military equipment to joint development, production and maintenance of modern weapons systems. If Russia succeeds, not only will it be able to gain a firm foothold in the Indian market, it will also expand its influence there. Together with Indian partners, it might start working in the markets of third countries. Another important theme is humanitarian cooperation: informa-

tion support, education, science and culture. It secures a dramatic change in the situation with fairly low investment. For example, Russia should attract more Indian students to study in Russian colleges, launch contacts between universities of the two countries, and enhance informational and educational presence in India. This could help it return to the group of India’s leading partners. Lastly, the cooperation in regional and partly global issues. Perhaps, the most pressing issue is what will happen in Afghanistan after 2014. The situation in Pakistan will be important, too. It is necessary to stabilize the situation in both countries at the same time. Other key issues concern a change in global governance within the framework of old (such as the United Nations) and new institutions (G-20, BRICS). This is a package of problems which I believe have to be considered at the next top-level meeting. It would be fine if not only RIAC, but also other organizations and institutions that deal with these problems, keep offering their ideas to Moscow and New Delhi. Let nine out of ten such ideas be unfeasible, but we have to keep alerting our leadership, the public and experts for the sake of increasing the dynamics of RussianIndian relations. The success of this work largely depends on patience, perseverance, willingness and readiness to keep this problem in focus every day. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Nandan UNNIKRISHNAN: “We need a new project…” “We need a new project to capture the imagination of Indians and Russians,” said participants in a “round table” discussion organized by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). The Council pays much attention to the project “Russia-IndiToward a New Bilateral Agenda.” Taking part in the discussion, held within the framework of the project on May 23, 2013, was the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), the oldest Indian foreign policy think tank.

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ussia was represented by prominent experts in oriental studies, representatives of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, delegates from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Rossotrudnichestvo Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian 28

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Cooperation. The Indian delegation included experts from ICWA and other research centers. The participants discussed the provisions of the RIAC work-book “Postulates on Russia-India Relations.” The Indian colleagues praised the RIAC analysis and suggested holding a more detailed discussion of a number of bilateral problems. Specifically, the parties focused on the approaches of the two countries to establishing a new world order. ICWA experts stressed that India was interested not in redistributing global influence to the new “poles” but in a truly polycentric world order where it could be one of many active players. Russian and Indian experts agreed that although high-level cooperation between the governments had been successful, the contacts between businesses and civil societies of the two countries needed more vigorous promotion. They noted that young people in India knew little about Russia and that the presence of the Russian massmedia in India’s information space had considerably weakened. The experts stated that perfecting the

instruments of public diplomacy and providing expert support to decision-makers was essential for the successful development of RussianIndian relations. RIAC and ICWA intend to continue to cooperate in studying bilateral relations and elaborating proposals for their development. Vice-president of India’s Observer Research Foundation Nandan Unnikrishnan, a participant in the “round table” discussion, shared his ideas about current Russian-Indian relations and their prospects with R&I correspondent Alexandra Kiselyova

together in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, because Russia and other countries are around to smooth over the roughness at the Sino-Indian level. The second important point is military cooperation. India does not have this level of military cooperation with any other country, and Russia can hardly be substituted in this area within the next five to seven years. Russia can be important to India as a rich source of energy resources which India badly needs. However, interaction in this area is hampered by geographic and political issues. In general, I’m firmly convinced that India’s national interests will suffer a major setback if it drifts away from Russia for some reasons. R & I: What are Indian business persons and ordinary people’s feelings towards Russia?

The new Indian elites do not fully understand or acknowledge the significance of Russia for India. They forgot about the Soviet Union; they are not aware of the role the USSR played in India’s industrialization and the development of our economy. The contemporary histories of Russia and India have something in common. In 1991, the Soviet Union

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broke up while India launched economic reforms. For both countries, turning to the West was the only way to resolve their problems. The private sector makes up 75 percent of the Indian economy. Indian business persons largely look up to the West, and in the past five years, they have begun to pay more attention to China and Southeast Asia, but not to the North. They do not see Russia as an economic partner. In politics, the situation is different. The West is not a definite ally of India, because there are many issues in which India has serious disagreements with the West. In nationwide media reports Russia is primarily mentioned in connection with the coverage of world events, such as BRICS summits or Russian-Indian top-level meetings. There is also negative coverage concerning Russia’s failure to meet its commitments in military supplies. Of course, there is a shortage of information about Russia in India, and it is necessary to work on it. Russia has more opportunities in addressing the issue because there are practically no state-owned mass media in India. Russian newspapers and television channels should open news offices in India to work for local audience. For example, the Russia Today channel has top rat-

ings in Great Britain and the USA. I’m sure it would advance to leading positions if it actively entered the Indian media scene. Also, I have this proposal: Russia and India should semi-annually exchange delegations of journalists, with six participants on each side, and every time invite new people for such exchanges. The project does not require too much funding; private capital could be attracted for the purpose. Such a project would certainly be productive. The language barrier is a serious obstacle in communication between ordinary Russians and Indians. There aren’t many people in India who speak or at least understand Russian. At one time, thousands of Indian students studied in Russia, but now their number has decreased by several times. Few people are interested in Russia; so the “investors” in good bilateral relations are scarce. Interaction largely runs at the level of state concerns; it is a serious problem. Mutual interest requires a solid reason. It will be difficult to change anything in everyday feelings towards each other until we find some joint project (perhaps in business or culture) which will capture the imagination of both Indians and Russians, especially the younger generations.

R & I: Mr Unnikrishnan, what is your opinion of Russia’s role in the life of modern India. Are relations with Russia among the priorities in the Indian foreign policy?

Of course, strategically, Russia is a very important partner for India. Nowadays, it is customary to talk about a polycentric world with China, Europe, the USA, and so on. India understands that Russia can be a balancer, for example in relations with China. Indian-Chinese relations are not very warm, but we work RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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R & I: Let us look at economic cooperation issues. You’ve mentioned that Russia traditionally has good positions in the Indian market in certain sectors, such as military cooperation and nuclear power engineering. At the same time, competition in those sectors is increasing because India is becoming more and more attractive to foreign partners. Are there opportunities to launch joint RussianIndian projects in other areas?

Indeed, there are such opportunities in various areas. For example, India and Russia could cooperate in agriculture, because food security is equally very important to each country. There are demographic problems in Russia, but it has land and agricultural resources, while India has people who could work on this land. Indians migrate all over the world; their number exceeds two million in the USA alone. But Indians do not settle in other countries which makes them different from other migrants. They can work there for years, but they keep their Indian passports and always return to their homeland (perhaps, the USA is an exception as it has a policy to attract highly30

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skilled Indian migrants). Also, Indians do not engage in politics in the receiving countries. Given Russia’s climatic conditions, Indian agricultural migration to Russia could be seasonal, i.e. during the farmwork period. I believe we have very good prospects here. Pharmaceutics is another area where we can have great opportunities. Russia currently imports more than 90 percent of medicines. As far as I know, it set the target to produce 85 percent of medicines on its own by 2020. India is a world leader in the production of quality and inexpensive medicines. Of course, there are many western companies in the Russian market that compete with their Indian rivals, so assistance in this area is probably needed at the level of government decisions. Mutually advantageous cooperation can be launched in the diamonds market, as India has the most developed diamond-cutting industry in the world. The problem is that we don’t have very large companies to sign billion-dollar contracts. Nevertheless, acceptable options can be found in this area. Therefore, if we give it a thought, we can find many untraditional ar-

eas of the economy where Indian and Russian interests coincide. Wishing it is most important for all other things to get going. Regrettably, the Russian and Indian business elites do not yet see this potential. Although the Russian and Indian governments keep declaring large investment attractiveness of their countries, there has been no active investing in each other’s economies. Projects by the Severstal and MTS companies can be the examples of Russian investments in India, but that’s about all. Perhaps, the state should play its role and address this issue. The conditions for foreign business people operating in Russia and India differ. We have a very complex and overbureaucratized procedure to obtain permission, which is nearly incomprehensible to a foreigner. In order to develop and keep your business in Russia, you need to constantly maintain a certain level of administrative contacts. Also, both our countries have the problem of corruption. It scares foreign entrepreneurs, and they prefer to invest in China, where you can get a permit to open business in a simple procedure and then work calmly without fearing extra problems. I believe the authorities in both counties should take measures to create a more favorable climate for business people. R & I: What is your view of the prospects for Russian-Indian interaction in the international arena? On what principles should this aspect of cooperation be based?

It is important that both sides trust each other and do not allow our bilateral relations become a hostage to the relations with other countries. What I mean is that Russia regrettably has certain mistrust regarding India’s relations with the USA, in the same way as India is mistrustful of Russian-Chinese relations. In my opinion, there are no real reasons for mistrust on the part of Russia, because Indian-U.S. relations have a strategic limitation due to the Pakistani problem. The United States cannot play on both sides forever, selling arms to Pakistan and India and financing Pa-

kistan while assuring India of permanent friendship. So Indian-American relations simply cannot develop beyond a certain level. I believe Russian government officials are aware of it. On the other hand, India continues to be wary of Russian-Chinese relations, and the latest visit to Russia by Chinese leader Xi Jinping only strengthened this mistrust. If Moscow prefers China to India strategically, New Delhi will have no other option but to go for closer relations with the United States. Secondly, it should be taken into account that India is growing into a large power. It is gaining confidence that it can defend its national interests more aggressively, and that in this, it should not necessarily have to seek compromises with other states. Although Indian and Russian interests coincide, there may frictions between them in certain issues, for example concerning Syria or Iran. It happens because similar interests of the two countries would have a different expression. For example, both India and Russia want Afghanistan to be a stable neutral state, yet their positions slightly differ. We believe that the Americans are waging our war there. India is very interested in not letting extremists in Kabul come to power, but it is not ready to send its troops to Afghanistan. That is why India regards the U.S. military presence in the region as a benefit. But for Russia, it creates problems, which, of course, should be taken into account. I believe we should take these differences calmly. They are bound to appear in certain cases, but they should not have a significant influence on our bilateral relations, because we support each other in an overwhelming majority of issues. The main thing is that India should be seen in bilateral interaction as an independent and equal partner with interests of its own. Russia expects this treatment from the USA, and has to give the same treatment to India. R & I: How effective is the Russian-Indian top-level dialogue?

I believe the leaders of our countries should meet more often, us-

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ing any opportunities for it. If we are truly strategically privileged partners, annual meetings are not enough. For example, the Russian and Chinese leaders meet at least six or eight times a year. These should be not only official visits, but also bilateral talks at BRICS summits and on the UN and G-20 platforms. We should constantly coordinate our actions, in order to find ourselves at the right point at a certain moment. Most importantly, we should not consider our relations through the commercial prism only. Sadly, this view of India prevails in Russia at present. The discussion of any problem is reduced to issues of military and technological contracts. You cannot regard India as a friend only because it buys armaments. This approach should be changed. R & I: Mr Unnikrishnan, could your share your impressions from the “round table” discussion of Russian-Indian problems? What are the main results of this event?

Firstly, I was amazed at the professionalism of the Russian participants whom RIAC had gathered for the meeting. Each was a top expert

in the field of our bilateral relations. We were offered to discuss the RIAC-prepared Postulates on Russia-India Relations. I’ve studied them carefully and find it difficult to disagree with them, and on the whole, I could subscribe to them. It was my first experience of interaction with RIAC. Hopefully, Observer Research Foundation which I represent will launch permanent cooperation with this institution. Our organizations operate along similar lines: we are a common platform for exchange of opinions between specialists from various areas and representatives of institutions and organizations. During these meeting, we jointly work out ideas and proposals which can be passed to government bodies and departments as groundwork for decisionmaking. It is gratifying that we’re beginning to see, after a two-decade pause, the rebuilding of old ties that were severed once; Russian and Indian experts are meeting again to discuss pressing issues of the two countries. Several such meetings a year can play a significant role in the development of bilateral relations. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Globalization: Many Indias, Many Russias By Tomila LANKINA

Tomila LANKINA is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has authored/ co-authored number of books and numerous articles on federalism, comparative democratization, and local governance in post-communist and developing states. Her current research explores the effect of historical legacies of empire and colonialism on long-term development and democracy in Russia and India. She kindly agreed to contribute an exclusive article on the subject for the “Russia&India” magazine.

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ussia and India are among the world’s largest countries. India’s Uttar Pradesh has roughly the same population as the whole of Russia –139 million – and another one, Punjab, that of Australia – 20 million . Russia is territorially the world’s largest polity: some of its regions dwarf several European states. The countries’ regions are extremely diverse socially, politically, and economically. Yet, much of the academic, media, and policy discourse on these and other large countries like Brazil or Mexico is framed in nation-state terms. Accounts of underdevelopment often maintain a country focus, and so do those that drum up a nation’s leap into modernity while neglecting regional variations in quality and substance. The sub-national gaps in socio-economic development are widening with globalization. 32

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Bangalore is not the whole of India; neither is St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, or Tomsk. Why these enormous variations and why should we care? India and Russia display many similar regional developmental trends. In India, some states and districts within them have become hubs of economic dynamism and growth. Despite critiques of globalization as a force driving the ever widening socio-economic disparities, in such developmental hubs, growth has had a trickle-down effect lifting many people out of poverty by providing access to higher paying white-collar occupations. As a center of a network of call centers, of innovation, and technological know-how, Bangalore has become as much a household name in the West as it is in India. Russia has been slower than India to embrace globalization. Yet, here too globalization has encouraged the

developmental take-off of some regions – examples are some districts in Moscow, Kaluga, and Novgorod oblasti, which have attracted comparatively high volumes of Foreign direct investment (FDI) – into production or business either by buying a company in Russia or by expanding operations of an existing business. The unfortunate side effect of these processes is the pronounced and ever widening developmental disparities at a subnational level. In both India and Russia, policy makers, with various degrees of commitment, have sought to narrow the widening spatial gap in development. Yet, many oblasti or subnational states that had been poor, backward, and under-industrialized in the 1970s and 1980s – that is, in Russia, before Gorbachev’s political and economic liberalization and eventual replacement of communist planning with market

reforms; and in India, before the adoption of neo-liberal policies in 1991 – have continued to remain sidelined in the processes of globalization-fuelled growth. What is it that makes some regions tick and others sink in the era of globalization? Clearly, current developmental policy matters. Yet, a growing body of scholarship has suggested that we have to go beyond the realm of recent policy to find explanations for these patterns of growing spatial variations in development. Some explanations are to be found in the developmental choices made by India’s state-level policy makers in the early post-independence period. Thus, Kerala benefitted from mass education expansion supported by its communist state governments , which contrasts with, say, the policies of Bihar, one of India’s least literate states. Although Kerala’s districts have not been the same kinds of hot-spots of globalized growth as has been Bangalore, it now boasts India’s highest level of human development  – an important factor in promoting economic growth. The USSR was of course a pseudo-

federation, with all key decisions made at the center. Many of these decisions however had the effect of kick-starting development in some regions at the expense of others.

Regions that have embraced globalization are often those where Soviet-era infrastructure, however decrepit, served as a platform for setting up new FDI-supported operations. Yet, recent research suggests that we also have to look at more temporally distant historical legacies to uncover the latent sources of dynamism and growth. Let us pursue further the example of human capital. In Kerala, with its historically strong presence of Indigenized Syrian Christianity, Western Christian missionaries set the foundations of mass schooling in the early 19th century, making Kerala one of the most literate states even during the time of British colonialism. Missionary schools provided education access to historically disadvantaged lower caste groups. Post-colonial governments simply built on the foundations that were already there. What is now Bangalore had been likewise comparatively advanced in human capital development even in the colonial period. According to the 1931 British colonial census, male literacy rate in the Bangalore district of what was then the state of Mysore, was close to 12 percent,

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while female literacy, close to 2 percent – not exactly high figures, yet high by the standards of many other districts in colonial India. By way of comparison, in the Bihar district of Sonthal Parganas, the figures for male and female literacy were 5.3 and .5 percent, respectively . In other words, less than one percent of the female population was literate in the Sonthal district in Bihar, four times less than the rate in Bangalore; and male literacy in Bangalore was over twice the rate of male literacy in Bihar’s Sonthal Parganas. In addition to Christian missionary activity or education policies of progressive local rulers that may have kick-started human capital accumulation early on, there is emerging evidence that agrarian institutions may have likewise shaped development. In India, in some districts the British unwittingly supported particularly oppressive forms of land tenure whereby cultivators were severely exploited by landlords. These districts are characterized by a long history of underinvestment in basic public infrastructure like schooling . Similar evidence is emerging for Russia. Ar34

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eas around Moscow which were part of the Central Industrial Region in the imperial period, as well as some Northwestern territories, and some districts in Siberia, had been hubs of rapid human capital accumulation, urbanization, and development. These were often areas with poor soil quality. Compared to the Black Earth regions of Russia, which had a higher association with serfdom, in non-Black Earth regions, many more peasants were involved in commercial occupations like fishing and crafts, rather than being tied to land. This encouraged the development of literacy and numeracy. Thus, in the Central Black Earth’s Kursk guberniya, only 16.3 of the population were literate at the time of the 1897 first comprehensive imperial census. By contrast, in the non-Black Earth Moscow guberniya, the literacy rate was 40.2 . It is fair to say that in many regions, the communists either built on the developmental foundations that were already established in the imperial period, or that their policies of evening out socio-economic variations, say, through mass schooling, did not change the underlying patterns of human capital develop-

ment and accompanying processes of urbanization and industrialization. These resurfaced in the postcommunist period. For instance, Kursk region, along with the other so-called “red belt” Central Black Earth regions, has remained comparatively less urbanized, and has established a reputation for paternalistic politics and voting preferences. In a recent KPMG report, Moscow oblast ranked third in terms of FDI for the 2007-2011 period, while Kursk was in 65th place in a list of 80 regions . These processes of widening disparities leading to the emergence of the phenomenon of several Indias and several Russias have profound implications for territorial cohesion, for social and political stability. In India, states that during the colonial period experienced severe forms of oppression by landowners, or those with historically low human capital, are also those that have been comparatively less developed and relatively more prone to class-, caste-based, or communal violence. Likewise, as a recent thought-provoking study by Natalia Zubarevich and her colleagues at the Independent Institute of Social

Policy (IISP) has shown, there is a growing rift between the metropolitan, globalized Russia of large developed cities like Tomsk, home to Siberia’s first university, where now every fifth citizen is a student; and the other Russias – the rural, in some cases semi-feudal, patriarchal, and weakly industrialized Russias . In the Russia of mediumsized, mono-industrial cities, heavily dependent on state or blue-collar employment with Soviet-era unreformed or only partly reformed and uncompetitive industries, there is a particular danger of socio-economic unrest. A classic example of such a scenario is the town of Pikalyovo, a medium-sized mono-industry city in the Leningrad region. In Pikalyovo, a large share of the local workforce had been laid off in the process of industrial restructuring, prompting dramatic mass street activism in 2009. The global economic downturn has slowed down growth in Russia and there are signs that this is affecting other BRIC states, hitherto resilient to this trend, as well. Historical evidence suggests that islands of economic dynamism have a certain degree of developmental resilience

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that transcends regime types, national policy, or global market trends – Mumbai is now as much a dynamic center of growth as it had been one hundred years ago, during the time of the colonial Bombay Presidency; as is St. Petersburg (Petrograd), now as then a sophisticated metropolis; or the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, one of imperial

Russia’s key rail transport hubs and one of the first territories to opt for mass universal education in the imperial period, now a leading science and innovation center. What should worry policy-makers in Russia and India is the plight of the other, least developed regions, historically, and now increasingly, with globalization, left behind.

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A second discovery of India By Sergei STROKAN

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an historic visit to India. The three days he spent in the former colony, which has grown over into the world’s third largest economy, were called upon to turn over the relationship between London and New Delhi that has evidenced many dramatic moments in the past. The mission effectuated by Cameron, who arrived in India practically in the footsteps of the French President, Francois Hollande, has amped up the struggle of the EU’s leading economies for the Indian market.

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ormer metropolitan nations that built the might of their economies on the colonial resources are again proping for lifelines in Asia after an interval of many decades. Recall that the Indian market boasts a volume exceeding the combined market of the EU. 36

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The trips to India that the leaders of France and Britain made at the beginning of 2013 and that were spaced just several days apart resembled a change of the guards of honor. First, a visit was made by Francois Hollande. Then David Cameron performed a solo party in Her Majesty’s former largest colony for three days. The summit talks in-

volving the European leaders who preside over two leading economies of the world brought into daylight the tough competition between the French and British companies for the market of Asia’s economy number three. It is too early yet to figure out the final results of this contest but London has displayed its willingness to overtop Paris and to make a tangible and lasting comeback to India. It is noteworthy that Cameron took along with him a large party of British businessmen and politicians on this visit to India – the second one since the start of his premiership. The tour resembled a pilgrimage by British businessmen. Suffice it to say that the delegation included the chief executives of more than a hundred companies and banks representing the frontrunner sectors of the British economy, in addition to four cabinet ministers and nine members of parliament. Cameron used the phrase ‘special relationship’ for the first time ever as he called on the Indian authorities to build a new strategic partnership between the countries. It is worthwhile

British Prime Minister David Cameron.

recalling that British officials applied the term initially only to Britain’s allied relations with the U.S. Emblematically enough, the new ‘roadmap’ was made public in a production workshop of a factory run by Hindustan Unilever Limited – an Indian filial company of the AngloDutch giant Unilever that manufactures mass consumption products. India’s rise will be one of the great phenomena of the 21st century and Britain wants to be the Indians’ partner of choice, Cameron said. Along with this, he made a proposal that no foreign leader has made to India since it acquired independence. The British are ready to design and join the development of a unique 1,000-kilometers-long transport and economic corridor. This mega-project would link the country’s business capital, Mumbai, and the biggest technological center, Bangalore, which is the Indian analog of the Silicon Valley. The British plan envisions the setting up of nine economic zones at a time and the emergence of new

cities, factories and infrastructure facilities within them. This will overhaul the landscape of several regions in central and southern India in the future, turning them into new centers of economic growth and drive engines of development of the entire country. Does the former metropolitan nation feel a historic guilt and want to expiate it by assisting India in a still more impressive leap forward? Alas, the reality is far from being that simple. David Cameron made it fairly clear in the course of the visit that the strategic aim of London’s plan to create the economic corridor in India is to help British businesses get the key positions in valuable commercial transactions. In a word, the tendency is clear. The former metropolises that would build their power on the resources of their colonies sometime in the past, are raking through Asia in a search for lifelines for their economies that have mired in recessions. The same tendency could be seen boldly in one more intriguing as-

pect of Cameron’s visit. The case in hand was the plight of a failed deal, in which India was supposed to purchase the Eurofighter Typhoon, one of the developers of which was a British corporation. Let us recall that the Indian government renounced the purchase in 2012 and made a choice in favor of the French fighters Rafale. The Britons, however, are prepared to show their French competitors what for. They have obviously decided to make a ploy of the fact of France’s failure to sign a deal on supplies of 126 Rafale jets, which are manufactured by Dassault Aviation, during President Hollande’s visit to Delhi. Given the situation as it is, Cameron made an eleventh-hour attempt to snatch a juicy contract from the hands of the French contenders -- that is, to try and convince the Indians to revisit their previous choice in favor of the Eurofighter Typhoon. Eurofighters are amazing jets and they are still available, Cameron said with much meaning, adding that the transaction might imply a transfer of technologies and inclusion of the Indian side in the manufacturing of the jets. David Cameron’s new plan reveals his strategic visioning of relations with India and this visioning combines the traditional experience of British diplomacy with an innovative approach, in which the economic component gets prevalence. An increasingly tough struggle for the Indian market demands an evergreater energy and inventiveness on the part of the world powers, since it is difficult enough to understand which of the sides has a bigger need of – or dependence on – the other side. The Europeans’ new expansion into India teaches a graphic lesson to the Russian businessmen and politicians, too. Competitors are showing an ever-growing zeal and versatility and the Russian side will have to devise proportionate responses of its own so as to keep up with them. It would be highly advisable to make some offers as early as at the end of 2013 when the Russian and Indian leaders hold a summit in Moscow. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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India and China: how to observe the red line By Nikolai MOCHAILO

Border dispute between India and China is an old problem that impedes heavily the economic and political cooperation between the two Asiatic giants. But it must be cleared away and this is what the top-rank officials from both countries agreed on in May when China’s new Prime Minister Li Keqiang made a visit to Delhi. The Indian and Chinese leaders ordered their authorized representatives to hold consultations on hammering out a fair, rational and mutually acceptable agreement on the borders in the litigious region of the Himalayas.

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t is probably too early yet to speak about a resetting of relations between Delhi and Beijing. India and China cooperate in some areas and contend in other. Along with this, their territorial dispute continues to play the role of a time bomb for them.

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A visit to Delhi by Li Keqiang, the new Premier of the People’s Republic of China, that took place May 19 and May 20, became his first official trip to a foreign country. The fact of choosing India as the starting point of a chain of foreign visits was considered by many as a

bracing and unexpected move on the part of the Chinese diplomacy, especially if one recalls that the Chinese-Indian relations are traditionally pretty much complicated. It was also viewed as a tentative sign of a possible change of tonalities in bilateral relationship.

Both sides acknowledged India and China’s growing global role and agreed to exchange regular visits at the level of Presidents and Prime Ministers. In other words, the sides demonstrated an instance of “new mentality” that requires greater flexibility in the dragged-out disputes over the areas of remote mountainous terrain, a sizable part of which does not have any special economic value. The historic Indian-Chinese talks contrasted heavily with an incident just two weeks before that when the two countries conducted a war of nerves and showcased their muscle play in the areas adjoining the so-called Line of Actual Control – the demarcation line separating India and China and serving as a de facto state border. The conflict that happened to be the acutest one over many years was kicked off April 15 when the Chinese military crossed the Line of Actual Control and intruded into the Indian territory in the Daular Beg Oldi sector, Ladakh district, at a distance of 19 kilometers. They put up a camp tent there. The war of nerves lasted a whole three weeks and the sides agreed on a withdrawal of troops from the area of the line of disengagement only by mid-May, thus giving consent to the observance of the quo status that had taken shape after the war of 1962. The territorial dispute between India and China concerns a section of terrain located at high elevations in the north of Kashmir, as well as 60,000 square kilometers in the northwest State of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1962, a brisk but bloody war in the Himalayas broke out between India and China and the Chinese Armed Forces emerged victorious from it. The two countries have failed since then to delineate their common border running for about 4,000 kilometers through the Himalayas from Kashmir in the west to Myanmar in the east. India insists that China occupies 38,000 sq km of its territory in Kashmir (the Aksai Chin district). China on its part has always been making claims to some 90,000 sq km of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh.

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“We took stock of the lessons learnt during the recent incident in the Western sector,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said upon the results of negotiations with Li Keqiang. He also said they had asked the Indian and Chinese special representatives to consider further measures for the maintenance of peace and stability on the border. They agreed that the special representatives would meet shortly for holding discussions on how to devise the patterns for signing a fair, rational and mutually acceptable agreement on the borders. Extensive efforts had to be made to defuse a standoff that surfaced more than fifty years after the 1962 conflict and to attain political settlement. The governments of India and China agreed to restore the quo status along the Line of Actual Control that existed before April 15, Syed Akbaruddin, an official spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a much-awaited statement. Observers made a sigh of relief after it. Akbaruddin’s Chinese counterpart, Hua Chunying, said that after the borderline standoff India and China demonstrated restrain and a fruitful approach as they proceeded from a broader interest towards the development of bilateral relations.

Hopes for a continuation of the dialogue on the border problem expressed on both sides are certainly inspiring and the Chinese Prime Minister’s visit to Delhi confirmed this once again. Few people have any doubts that the Indian-Chinese dialogue will speed up in the next few months, but still it is too early yet to prefigure a happy end. Cumbersome issues remain lingering and let us look this aspect in more detail. First and foremost, it is not immediately clear why the territorial problem surged so steeply after so many years. Back in 1996, Delhi and Beijing signed an agreement, which said that none of the two countries would take the steps that might bring up a revision of the quo

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The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister of China, Mr. Li Keqiang after their official talks in New Delhi on May 20, 2013.

status, which had arisen along the demarcation line after 1962. Notwithstanding it the Chinese military intruded into the Indian territory as if they were returning home. This, in fact, was the grossest violation of the status quo throughout the entire history of the borderline problem and it simply could not compare with the previous smaller incidents. A question arises then about the goals Beijing might have pursued by a gesture or demarche as conspicuous as that one. The Chinese substantiate their actions by saying the Indians have put reinforced installations along the Line of Actual Control and they demand their dismantling. Evidence indicates that the new Chinese leaderships sought to put India’s firmness 40

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to a test when they ordered the army units to cross over the control line. The objective was to see how the Manmohan Singh cabinet would react to the demonstration of a growing Chinese discontent with the way the Indians view the Line of Actual Control. This action took the form of an armed raid, which luckily did not trigger a conflict. Without a doubt, holding the helms of power both in Delhi and Beijing are pragmatic thinkers who realize perfectly well the huge price tag that a possible conflict will have. The two neighbouring states, both of them members of BRICS, have many interconnections. Commercial and scientific/technological components are beginning to play an ever-greater role in their coop-

eration. Some analysts believe that if India and China launch cooperation with the field of IT they will have a good chance of turning into global leaders in that sphere and the fact will signal the start of an Asiatic century in IT. Experts also name the energy sector as one more highly promising area of cooperation, since China and India with their fast-growing economies want the energy resources badly and this requires a more active bilateral collaboration in international oil and gas projects. In addition to this, the sides plan to go forward with the setting up of a free trade area. Noteworthy enough, the Indian business quarters have been treating their Chinese competitors with much apprehension until fairly recently but notable shifts have occurred in the mentality of Indian business people in recent years. Representatives of many important sectors of business have brushed aside the traditional fears and suspicions towards China and some Indian companies have gotten down to operations there. Common interests serve as a safety bag that prevents the two sides from stepping over the red line in their territorial dispute. But along with this there should be no rosy visioning of the prospects for the incipient resetting of relations between Delhi and Beijing. While they are actively cooperating in some areas, they remain contenders in others and the intensifying struggle for the Asian and global markets is one of the spheres of this contention. As for the territorial problem, it still remains a time bomb for both sides. The fact coming to mind in this connection is that China’s former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Delhi in April 2005 and attained agreement on the start of talks on settling the decades-old territorial dispute. The decision was labelled as ‘historic’ then but as a Russian classical fable says, “the cart stands still until this day.” This means that politicians and diplomats will have to work hard – and as carefully as bomb technicians.

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The Great Power Game in Central Asia By Rajeev SHARMA

Central Asia was the hotbed for a great game of political rivalries between Russia and the then supreme global power Great Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. This great game was at its peak during the 1813-1907 period. The British feared Russian control of Central Asia could create spring board for invasion of India.

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entral Asia once again became a chessboard for a renewed great game among major powers with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet Union collapse gave birth to the five Central Asian states: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Shortly thereafter huge oil and gas deposits were discovered in Central Asia and this triggered Western oil companies’ beeline to the region and the onset of the pipeline game.

The stakes were raised further immediately after the 9/11 terror strikes on the US mainland and America setting up airbases in Central Asia to militarily dislodge al Qaeda’s brother-in-arms outfit Taliban from the seat of power in Kabul. This was the period of an airbase game in Central Asia. Russia took a considered decision to allow the Americans set up military bases in Central Asia. Central Asia has been vulnerable among four historical seats of power:

*  North: Huns-Mongols, Russia, USSR, Russia. *  East: Han, Tang, Ming, ChinaSilk Route. *  South: India-accepting Central Asians. *  West: Persia, Arab empires, Turkey, Iran, Europe, US. Different Game, Being Played Differently Russia was in catch-22 situation. Moscow shrewdly calculated the pros and cons of the Americans setting up bases in Central Asia, knowRUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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ing full well the American track record of not vacating the country once the Americans set up bases there. But then the Russians were equally worried about the new jihadi melting pot that Afghanistan had become during the Taliban rule (1996-2001). After all, the US-led war against terror was in Russian strategic interests too. By now the Chinese dragon too had started flapping its tail. China was all too eager to replace a much weakened Russia as the counter pole to the US. Once the American military ware and soldiers started landing on the Central Asian soil, how could the Chinese be far behind! But the Chinese dealt a different stroke in Central Asia – entering the Central Asian space in the quest of resources and making long-term investments in the region for strategic gains.

Major issues in the Central Asian space are political stability, colour revolutions, rise of religious fundamentalism, terrorism, narcotics, transportation links to ports, competition for energy resources and stabilization of Afghanistan. Major players are Russia, US, China, and the European Union. The new great game in Central Asia is witnessing intense competition for influence, power, hegemony and profits. This competition is between US, UK and NATO countries against Russia, China and 42

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Shanghai Cooperation organization (SCO) countries. Instead of competing for actual control over a geographical area, the new prizes in this competition are pipelines, tanker routes, petroleum consortium and contracts. It is a different game, being played differently. Security Concerns There are a lot of security concerns in Central Asia. Some of these are flagged below: * Terrorist organizations in Central Asia: Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Hizb-UtTahrir (HUT) are operating from the region. These terrorist organizations are cause of concern for all regional players including India. * Recent terrorist incidents in Tajikistan: a cause of concern for all Central Asian nations.

* Transit route for narco-trafficking from Afghanistan. * Spillover of terrorism and terrorist organizations (Al Qaeda, Taliban) from Afghanistan into Central Asia and need for counterterrorism. India Too A Player in Central Asia India too joined the new great game in Central Asia. Russia did not resent the Indian moves in the region which is immediate neighborhood for Russia and an extended neighborhood for India. The stra-

tegic significance of Central Asia for India cannot be overstated. Its location and resources are of immediate significance for India. Moreover, three Central Asian countries –Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan – are neighbors of Afghanistan, while Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan are neighbors of China. Unlike many other states, India is perceived in Central Asia as a benevolent player focused on capacity building and development. India’s help in human resource development, technology and capital is being appreciated by the CARs. But then India faces a number of constraints too in the region. Its total trade with Central Asia is a meager $ 500 million, which is far below potential. But then boosting trade is not that easy in view of absence of

direct transportation linkages and limited size of the markets. To add to the woes, all Central Asian economies are in a state of transition. Uranium and Hydrocarbons There is yet another reason of Central Asia’s strategic significance: its considerable deposits of uranium. Though virtually all Central Asian Republics have known reserves of uranium, only Kazakhstan is the member of Nuclear Supplier’s Group. India has already sealed a pact with Kazakhstan for supply of

uranium. India has begun talks with another Central Asian country with Tajikistan for a Kazakhstan-type deal. However, India is yet to begin similar negotiations with the rest of the three Central Asian countries. India is also getting its act together for tapping the huge hydrocarbons potential in Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has acquired 25% stakes in Satpayev block. Besides, a petrochemical complex and gasbased fertilizer plant is under consideration. In Uzbekistan, OVL and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) are in talks for expanding their footprints. How Russia is helping India Russia can help India in a big way in bringing India closer to Central Asia and indeed the Russians are doing that precisely. This can be achieved by first setting up multiple direct transportation linkages traversing the entire Central Asian region. There are four surface connectivity alternatives that are being currently pursued by the stakeholders, though all these alternatives are not available for India for geo-political reasons. These four alternatives are as below: • International North South Corridor (Russia-Caspian Sea-IranMumbai or Russia-KazakhstanTurkmenistan-Iran-Mumbai). • Zeranj- Delaram road in Afghanistan which will allow India to use trans-Afghan corridor. • The Pakistan route which clearly is not available to India and

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thus the importance of Iran and Russia for the Indians. International community, other than Indians, can access Central Asia by using the Pakistan route through Gwadar port and the Karakoram Highway. • The Central Asia- Persian Gulf Transport corridor, proposed by Uzbekistan. India’s Historical Links with Central Asia India has had traditional links with Central Asia for centuries. The famous silk route passed through Central Asia and a Southern spur reached India. Buddhism travelled along the silk route to China and the Far East. The trade of yore facilitated cultural exchange such as scripts, geographical data, theatrical traditions, epics, poetry and performing arts. The multi-ethnic, societies share similar values of diversity and tolerance with India.

Besides, there are similarities in language, culture and food in modern times. With each of the five Central Asian states, India has had historical links. Here are a few examples: – Kazakhstan: Saka dynasty origins traced to nomadic tribes of Kazakhstan, Buddhist relics in Sairam mountain region. –  Kyrgyzstan: Texts of Birch mark tablets and Brahmi script discovered similar to those in 7th Century Kashmir. –  Uzbekistan: Temur /Babur hailed from Ferghana valley, Sufi traditions from Bukhara, archeological similarities in buildings of Samarkhand and medieval India. –  Turkmenistan: Bairam Khan, mentor of Mughal Emperor Akbar hailed from what is modern day Turkmenistan. – Tajikistan: Sufi poet Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil’s writings inspired Tajik-Persian poetry.

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Squaring the India-Russia-Pakistan Triangle By Rajeev SHARMA

On 11 May, 2013 the results of general election in Pakistan made it clear that Nawaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz ), would return as the country’s prime minister for a record third time. Immediately thereafter, Sharif waved an olive branch to India. This was an election that was watched very closely not just in India but also by the Russians.

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harif expressed his desire to mend fences with India, assured that Pakistani soil will not be allowed to foment terrorism against India, pledged to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 to book and declared his intention to blow the lid off the Kargil can of worms. The question is: will Sharif’s return to power augur well for improvement in India-Pakistan relations. From the Russian point of view, the question is how it should improve its own bilateral ties with Pakistan without annoying the tried, tested and trusted friend like India. It is well known that India has been operating its diplomatic lever with Russia in dissuading Moscow to cozy up to Islamabad. Last year, for example, Russian President Vladimir Putin was supposed to visit Pakistan in what would have been the first-ever visit to that country by a Russian president. The Pakistani media had gone gung-ho about the supposed visit by Putin even though Moscow had never confirmed the visit. Eventually, Putin did not visit Pakistan, though he did visit New Delhi for barely a day on 24, December, 2012 for the 13th annual summit with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 44

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India has kept mum on Sharif’s remarks for two reasons: (i) because Sharif is not the Prime Minister of Pakistan yet, (ii) because India can respond only after these promises are articulated through the official channels after Sharif takes over as the premier. But, informally speaking, the Indians are neither enthused nor optimistic about Sharif’s remarks. The Pakistani political establishment is known to indulge in smoking peace pipe with the Indians at the time of ascending to the seat of power. But once they are firmly entrenched

they do exactly the opposite. Sharif himself had made similar statements when he won power in Pakistan twice earlier. Asif Ali Zardari also made similar proclamations in 2008 when he took over the reins of power in Pakistan. And yet, just a few months later, Mumbai was attacked in a well thought out plan choreographed by the all-powerful Pakistani military establishment. Russia too is very keenly watching the unfolding political events in Pakistan. Their main concern is how to deal with Afghanistan when the USled NATO forces begin drawdown of

their forces from Afghanistan from February 2014 and completing the process by next year end. The international community is flummoxed over the post-2014 Afghanistan situation and Russia too is equally concerned over the matter. It wants to keep Pakistan in the loop. The Russians know very well that Pakistan is a key country for an effective outreach to Afghanistan. In any case, it is hard for any foreign power to negate the Pakistan factor in the Afghanistan conundrum. But at the same time Russia does not want friendship with Pakistan at the cost of close strategic ties with India. So far, Russia has failed to make any headway in pushing open the door of better relations with Pakistan, mainly because the India factor. But Russia has been able to do the next best thing possible: engaging with Pakistan on Afghanistanrelated issues in a trilateral dialogue format with the other power in the group being China. Both India and Russia are apprehensive of Afghanistan’s descent into chaos and the threat of the land-locked nation once again becoming an epicenter of Islamist terror. However, on one key issue, India and Russia do not see eye to eye. India would like to see the NATO/ ISAF stay on in Afghanistan for a

longer period, not just to clean up the mess in Afghanistan but also sort out Pakistan. The Russians are faced with a catch-22 situation. On the one hand, the Russians are not in favor of long term presence of Western troops/bases in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Russians are also uncomfortable with the idea of the Western forces leaving prematurely and leaving a bigger mess behind. Russia and India have common interests, positions and vision for Afghanistan. They both have complete convergence on Afghanistan as both face share deep interest for security and stability in Afghanistan. However, it will be erroneous to believe that the Pakistan factor could cast a shadow on age-old Indo-Russian ties or even to entertain such thoughts that improved Russia-Pakistan ties could lead to a significant change in Russia’s Afghan policy. Actually, the Russians are simply interested in testing the Pakistan waters with a single-point focus on post-2014 Afghanistan. All that the Russians would be wanting at the present juncture is to have at least a working relationship with Pakistan without trying to force a paradigm change in relations between Moscow and Islamabad. The Russians won’t even

be entertaining an idea of changing Pakistan’s policy and tailor it to suit Moscow’s strategic needs. The Russians are not fools. They learn from the history and know that in many ways past predicts the future. They are more like the Chinese when it comes to having relations with Pakistan. If at all Russia gets closer to Pakistan, Moscow will never jump headlong into the Pakistani morass. This is what China has been doing vis a vis Pakistan and has been extremely tight-fisted while releasing aid to its “all-weather” friend even at the time of worst crises like the massive floods Pakistan reeled under in 2010. Moreover, the Russians have seen how Pakistan has treated a close ally like the United States. Why should the Russians choose Pakistan over India? A bird in hand is worth two in bush. India too should not be unnecessarily paranoid about the supposed Russia-Pakistan détente, though evidently India has huge stakes involved when Russians and Pakistanis share the same stage, even if it is for the purpose of a Russia-China-Pakistan trilateral dialogue on Afghanistan. Any perceived bonhomie between Russia and Pakistan would tantamount to stitching the coat around a button! RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Russia and India: Standing Up To Nuclear Terrorism Together By Vladimir ORLOV, Pir Center president and Alexander CHEBAN, Pir Center expert

The prospects for terrorists’ using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are negligible in Russia and India, though in the latest rating, they were in the group of the first ten states by the level of terrorism. Since terrorists in both countries show interest in WMD and related materials, they may face a most dangerous threat of WMD terrorism and make a consolidated stand against it.

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he international community has entered the 21st century amidst new, untraditional threats to global security where international terrorism occupies a special place. One of its most dangerous varieties is WMD terrorism, i.e. terrorism which uses weapons of mass destruction. WMD terrorism is particularly dangerous in the countries with – active terrorist organizations that show interest in WMD and – large stocks of WMD and materials for their production. Russia and India belong to the group of countries where both of the factors are found. Terrorist groups, mostly Islamic, have been active in either country. Each has problem regions from the point of view of terrorism: the North Caucasus in Russia and Jammu and Kashmir in India. The level of terrorist threat in Russia and India is very high compared with other countries. In late 2012, the Institute for Economics and Peace, jointly with the University of Maryland presented the 46

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Global Terrorism Index 2012. India and Russia were among the first ten countries with the highest level of terrorism, ranking fourth and ninth, respectively. Therefore, Russia and India are facing approximately the same high level of terrorist threat. In such a situation, the striving of the terrorists operating in Russia and India for access to nuclear weapons and fissile

being committed is quite low. On the other hand, close to India and fairly close to Russia is Pakistan where the level of security of nuclear ammunition and materials is far lower than in Russian and India. Therefore, there is a danger of terrorists’ getting this ammunition or materials for terrorist attacks in India and Russia. The threat is all the more probable given the fact that terrorists have already shown that they are eager to get WMD and related materials. The terrorists from the North Caucasus have particularly “distinguished themselves” in these efforts. In India, the threat of nuclear or radiological terrorism mostly stems from the poorly protected Pakistani nuclear charges and materials. As of now, no thefts of such materials, not mentioning nuclear ammunition (with the view of using them for terrorist purposes) have been put on record. Sources at the Pakistani Embassy in Russia insist that there have been no such cases, and that it can never happen, because all nuclear facilities in Pakistan are “absolutely safe” from terrorist threat. However, experts’ opinions differ from these assurances, and not in Pakistan’s favor. The above Embassy sources had to acknowledge that terrorists had made at least three attempts to seize strategically important military facilities in Pakistan. Therefore, we might assume that terrorists might try to come in possession of nuclear materials or even ammunition, and that they can succeed.

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It is quite possible that terrorists in the North Caucasus might become interested in vulnerable Pakistani nuclear ammunition and materials. For Russia therefore, the problem of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal and WMD terrorism is pressing, on the whole, as it is for India. Hence, it should take joint measures with India against terrorism in general and WMD terrorism in particular. The two countries are already making such moves. The basic principles of Russian-Indian interaction in fighting terrorism are spelled out in the Moscow Declaration between India and the Russian Federation on International Terrorism dated November 6, 2001. Special attention is given to the Russian Indian Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism. The latest, 7th meeting of the group took place in Moscow on April 11, 2012. The Russian capital will host the eighth meeting in 2013. Russia and India have held joint anti-terrorist drills since October 2005. As for fighting WMD terrorism, both countries closely cooperate within the framework of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT). As of now, 85 countries are GICNT members, including Russia and India. The USA and Russia will co-chair the GICNT until 2015. The examples of multi-party cooperation (involving Russia and India) in combating nuclear terrorism within the GICNT are joint con-

ferences between secret services on preventing acts of nuclear terrorism (Khabarovsk, 2007), joint seminars and, most importantly, the international demonstration exercise Strazh 2012 held in Moscow and the town of Dmitrov, Moscow region, on September 27-28, 2012. The objective of the exercise was to exchange the experience in intercepting illegal transportation of nuclear materials and radioactive sources. Taking part in the event were the delegations of 48 countries (including India) and observers of the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and 198 Russian specialists. Russia and India encounter similar challenges to security, with terrorism being the most dangerous. It necessitates bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism and its WMD variety. This cooperation should certainly intensify, and it is obvious that the threat of WMD terrorism should be given more attention than the two countries are paying to it now, because both factors that enhance the risk of WMD terrorism are found in Russia and India: the availability of WMD and fissile materials and active operation of terrorists who are interested in WMD. The BRICS forum opens broad opportunities for Russian-Indian cooperation in combating WMD terrorism.

The article is based on a report made at the 5th Russian-Indian “Partnership Within a Global Format” forum.

and other radioactive materials is particularly alarming. Russia and India have considerable stocks of nuclear ammunition, and fissile and other radioactive materials which potentially can be used in terrorist attacks. It should be noted that both countries have a rather high level of physical protection of nuclear facilities, so the possibility of a nuclear or radiological act of terror RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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COOPERATION

A Mission Beyond Three Seas By Alexander TOLIN

Moscow shows an example of regional cooperation with India.

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umbai took over Russian-Indian cooperation from the Indian capital in May 2013, as it hosted a bilateral “round table” discussion in the field of medicine and health care, hard on heels of the Russian-Indian forum “Russian Innovations in Industrial, Scientific, Socio-Cultural and Commercial Segments.” The objective of both events was launching contacts and cooperation between Russian and Indian companies and government bodies. The first was

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held in the Russian Center of Science and Culture in New Delhi, the second in Mumbai’s World Trade Center. New Delhi: Demonstration of Russian Innovations The New Delhi forum opened with the ritual lighting of a lamp of friendship and cooperation. Mr. Sergey Cheremin, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Foreign Economic and International Relations Department (DVMS) of the City of Moscow, Chairman of the Board of the Business Council for Cooperation with

India, addressed the participants. “In the first place, we regard India as a very serious, reliable and large partner; the pace and quality of economic cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi aren’t bad on the whole, yet they do not fully use their potentials,” Cheremin said. In his opinion, the promising guidelines in expanding cooperation would be – Using the experience in information solutions integrated in India in Moscow’s Safe City program; – Using the experience of leading Indian software designers in control of transport flows and creating ele-

ments of an intellectual transport system in Moscow on the basis of a joint Russian-Indian advanced computer research center; – Gradual transition from largescale imports of Indian medicines to their production in Moscow; joint development of outlets at Moscow medical research centers; –  cooperation in upgrading health care facilities, including children’s health care by using newest Indian medical technologies and equipment; –  Boosting cooperation with Indian producers of the IDMA association which includes 11 largest producers of medicines accounting for one third of India’s exports of medicines and one quarter of the country’s market; –  Participation of Indian businesses in Moscow procurement and investment programs; – Using Moscow urban economy experience in water treatment, garbage disposal/recycling, transport, environmental protection and other areas, and – Participation of Indian entrepreneurs in establishing Moscow as an international financial center. The DVMS head stressed that the New Delhi forum would bring a practical benefit to all its participants as a follow-up of the already launched working contacts and initiate new joint projects. Speaking at the forum, Russian Trade Commissioner in India Mikhail Rapota noted that MoscowNew Delhi cooperation was top priority in Russian-Indian interaction. “We pay much attention to regional cooperation and believe that the Moscow government is doing everything to raise cooperation to a higher level,” the Russian trade commissioner said. In the course of the forum, New Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit met with the Moscow government delegation. Taking part in the meeting was Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin. Sergey Cheremin elaborated on the implementation of the cooperation program between the Moscow government and the Government

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In the course of the forum, New Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit met with the Moscow government delegation.

of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for 2012-2015, and the objectives of the Mission of Russian Innovations. For her part, Sheila Dikshit praised the development of bilateral relations between the cities and expressed her readiness to provide comprehensive support to it. The parties reached an accord on a visit to Moscow by a strong delegation of New Delhi officials to study the experience in resolving city problems. Sergey Cheremin discussed cooperation issues with Indian Minister

of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma. The participants in the twoday forum agreed that a climate of mutual respect, strengthened by centuries-long friendship between our countries and a high level of political trust in inter-state relations will contribute to further cooperation. The Moscow government supports Indian businesses in all ways, and their number in the Russian capital steadily grows each year. Whereas these firms used to specialize in supplies of light industry products, an increasing number of Indian firms

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Sergey Cheremin discussed cooperation issues with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma.

In New Delhi, the administrative center of Maharashtra hosted a round table discussion of cooperation in medicine and health case.

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COOPERATION

coming to Moscow offer modern technologies in various fields. Moscow sees a tremendous potential of bilateral cooperation in industry and medicine, as well as in resolving city security problems. At the New Delhi forum, Russian representative showed the Indian partners a series of cooperation projects in the above fields. Technologies and projects in information security were presented by the Moscow-based Atlant, Iteranet and the Center of Information Technologies and Systems for Executive Bodies. InterEVM brought forward a project to build a Russian-Indian information and consulting system to promote transfer of innovations and products in the format of “Virtual Center.” An official of the Tekhindustria research center briefed the participants on the production of new generation dampers for various kinds of transport, fiber laser equipment and technology, and the development of new generation electric motors. The Nizhny Novgorod-based Povolzhye (Volga Region) Trade Complex offered India to cooperate in wholesale trade in mass industrial goods in the Russian market. The Senezh Company presented a broad range of innovative wood impregnation technologies and products. The institute for socio-economic forecasting and modeling from Balashikha presented cooperation projects in education and hotel and tourist business. Mumbai: High Technologies in Medicine A week after the forum in New Delhi, the administrative center of Maharashtra hosted a round table discussion of cooperation in medicine and health case. Russia was represented by a delegation of the Moscow government which included officials from the Foreign Economic and International Relations Department (DVMS), the health care department, cardiologists, neurosurgeons, and specialists in transplantology, restorative therapy and sport medicine.

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Mumbai: High Technologies in Medicine.

Maharashtra Health Care Minister Suresh Shetti, President of the All India Association of Industries Vijai Kalantri and directors and well-known specialists of Indian clinics told Russian colleagues about problems and successes in their health care system. The head of the Moscow delegation, director of the DVMS public relations department Alexander Lukyanov told the Indian partners about the Days of Moscow festival in New Delhi in October 2012 and the implementation of the cooperation program between the Moscow Government and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi for 2012-2015. He underlined that “our Indian friends (regardless of where they come from – New Delhi or Mumbai, Calcutta or Bangalore) steadily occupied an important place among foreign partners in the Russian capital.” The Moscow health care system representatives were interested in newest technologies in medicine, training and advanced training of medical personnel, and Mumbai’s hospital management system.

“While holding such a socially significant event as the round table discussion of medical and health care issues in India’s economic center, Moscow shows interest in cooperation not only with New Delhi, but also with Mumbai. It is very important for Indian partners in implementing joint projects,”

Russian consul general in Mumbai Alexei Novikov noted. India has made noticeable success in health care. Here are some key figures: whereas the average life expectancy was 39 years in 1947 when the country gained its independence, it reached almost 69 years in 2012.

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Russia, too, had interesting projects to offer. Indian specialists listened with a great interest to the presentation by Alexander Samkov, the holder of 29 Russian and international patents for heart valve design, including the first ever tricuspid valve. The Russian-Indian contacts went beyond the round table meeting and a series of presentations on both sides. The Moscow government delegation visited the leading Mumbai clinics, including the Asian Heart Institute, well known outside India. It is an ultra-modern world class medical center specializing in diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. It has the largest number of international accreditations among Indian medical centers. It was also accredited by the USA’s Joint Commission International. The center is patterned after the U.S. Cleveland Clinic, the world’s number one facility in this field. Director of the Asian Heart Institute Dr Ramakanta Panda (he studied

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in Cleveland) personally showed the Moscow colleagues the achievements of his clinic which had recently marked its 10th anniversary. Dr Panda is well known for performing heart bypass surgery on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. Also, the Indian colleagues readily showed their liver transplantation sector. “Given the amount of work in a country of over one billion people, the practical experience of Indian colleagues is very valuable,“ said director of the Moscow liver transplantation center under the Sklifosovsky emergency medicine institute Murad Novruzbekov. In the opinion of academician Alexander Razumov, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, and other participants in the round table meeting, a sincere dialogue between the Moscow and Mumbai health care representatives will give a new impulse to the development of cooperation in medicine and health care and comprehensive exchange of experience and medical technologies.

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POWER

India-Russia energy cooperation needs a focused approach

By Vinay SHUKLA, the author is New Delhi based freelance journalist and Eurasia analyst

Moscow and New Delhi have declared their strategic partnership, which for some time has been adorned with another adjective ‘privileged’. However, the bilateral cooperation is still lacking substance. To reinforce all-weather ties, the energy partnership can serve as one of the economic pillars to stabilize the architecture of the strategic partnership to put it on a firm footing.

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ften at various levels Sakhalin-1 is cited as the glittering example of energy cooperation with Russia. In 2001, it was India’s maiden venture in Russian energy sector when it invested USD 2.7 billion dollars through Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s overseas arm OVL to pick 20 percent stake from Russia’s then ailing Rosneft oil major in offshore Sakhalin-1 in July 2001, a production sharing arrangement (PSA). The Sakhalin-1 project is operated by the US Exxon’s subsidiary Exxon Neftegaz, which has 30 percent stake in this large oil and gas field in Far East offshore in Russia, spread over an area of approx. 1,146 sq km. Other stakeholders in the project are Sodeco, a consortium of Japanese companies holding 30 percent and balance 20 percent stake is with Rosneft. In the first phase of Sakhalin-1 two of the three offshore oil fields - Chayvo and Odoptu started production in October, 2005 and September, 2010 respectively.

Development of the third oilfield Arkutun Dagi is in progress and first oil is expected to be produced in third quarter of 2014. According to OVL website in 2011-12, its share of production from the project was 1.498 MMT of oil and 0.494 BCM of natural gas during 2011-12. In order to expand its footprint in Russia after a series of setbacks due to stiff competition from the alliance of Rosneft and China’s CNPC, a desperate OVL in January 2009 spent USD 2.1 billion to acquire London-listed Imperial Energy Corporation Plc which has main activities in the Tomsk region of Western Siberia. Then the local media had noted that OVL overpaid at least USD 1 billion for acquiring Imperial Energy as its oil reserves are much smaller than were claimed by the previous owners. According to local media reports an earlier probe carried by Russia’s FSB security service, equivalent of the American FBI, had established that former

British owners of Imperial Energy were exaggerating the potential of their oil deposits in Tomsk region. According to OVL website during the year 2011-12, production of Imperial Energy was 0.771 MMT of oil as compared to 0.770 MMT during 2010-11. The total output from both Indian investments in Russia is far below India’s aspirations. Back in July 2006 Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg had sought sustained supplies of 1 million barrels per day (MBPD) of crude from Russia to ensure India’s national energy security. Even a decade after first investment in Sakhalin-1 this dream remains elusive. A part of the blame could be put on the Russian side for this, as the Russian companies never took the Indian energy market seriously till the global financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent crisis in the Eurozone economy, the main consumer of Russian hydrocarbons RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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sucked through trans-continental gas and oil pipelines. But India would also have to indulge in self analysis and put things at home in order to adopt a focused approach. At the time of acquisition of Sakhalin-1 stake in 2001 with firm Kremlin backing, cash-strapped Russia was still recovering from the trauma of Soviet collapse, two years later in 2003 the two sides were very

close to signing a comprehensive bilateral energy security pact during then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Moscow visit for summit talks with President Putin. Before the visit it was mentioned among the bilateral documents to be signed by the two leaders, however, it was missing among the list of finally signed agreements. According to sources, the Kremlin was infuriated at the Indian amendments to the draft pact, which virtually required Moscow to share info with New Delhi on its energy ties with third countries. As a compromise it was decided that the oil and gas majors will directly hold negotiations on the basis of commercial interests. Acquisition of Imperial Energy, in principal, was a good idea, since 54

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it could consolidate and expand its assets in Russia. However, its failure to show a turnaround under the OVL management was one of the reasons for the flopped bid of its subsidiary Nord Imperial to acquire huge Trebs and Titov Arctic oilfields. As is evident from the following developments, in spite of declaration of Indian energy majors’ in acquiring this or that oil deposit in

Russia, nothing much has changed on the ground except blame game through media for failures. Russia awash with petrodollars also does not see OVL as a serious player since they do not see it as major source of investment and technology. However, Russia’s new ‘look east’ policy in energy exports has raised hopes in the longer term. Gazprom’s Singapore-based subsidy has already signed some MoU with Indian partners for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and this cooperation could create modalities for boosting LNG exports to India from Russia’s Arctic, Siberian and Far Eastern gas deposits. Indian officials are already hinting that ONGC Videsh Limited is truly interested in working in Siberia

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and the Arctic, regarding as one of the promising areas of investment and cooperation. In March 2013 Indian Oil and Gas Minister Veerappa Moily voiced the idea of extending the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline project to further expand to Kazakhstan’s Shymkent to pump Russian and Central Asian hydrocarbons to India.

The idea is good, but it would depend on how the situation develops in the region after the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Senior OVL officials are very enthusiastic about the Russia-India oil and gas pipeline projects and say the security situation would improve along its transit route in volatile Afghanistan and Af-Pak region, because the prosperity it would bring leading to the economic and social transformation there. The idea of acquisition of hydrocarbons assets in Russia and diverting the resources towards India through ambitious TAPI pipeline project by linking it with a spur to Kazakhstan’s Shymkent is already catching the imagination of experts

and politicians in spite of great security risks involved in their transit through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Speaking on the sidelines of the “Heart of Asia” ministerial meeting on Afghanistan in Almaty Salman Khurshid again mentioned this idea in April and few days later discussed it with Russian leaders in Moscow. Soviet era pipeline networks already link Urals and Siberia with Central Asia right up to Mazar-eSharif on Afghan-Uzbek border, just 1200 kilometres from India’s western frontiers. The pipelines linking Eurasia and South Asia would ultimately lead to formation of energy and transport corridors. The recent outcome of general elections in Pakistan and victory of Nawaz Sharif further gives ground for hope in the success of this future project.

international ban on civil nuclear trade with India. Post- Fukushima legitimate concerns of the local residents in the adjacent costal area further delayed its operationalisation by more than one year. However, the fate of unit 3 and unit 4 hangs in balance as New Delhi is insisting on the retrospective applica-

tion of Nuclear Liability Law and is reported to have expressed readiness to pay more. The Russian side has valid grounds for displeasure as it went ahead despite ban by its parliament –the State Duma in finalising the deal to build two reactors of Kudankulam nuclear power plant in 1998 shortly after PokharanII (Second Indian nuclear tests).

Civil Nuclear Energy Besides hydrocarbons Russia is also a major source of civil nuclear technology, which can contribute to India’s energy security. However, the Kudankulam saga is also holding back cooperation in this promising energy sector. It was from the very beginning a political gesture of Moscow’s goodwill, which ignored RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Plus the electrification of the whole country

By Sergei IRININ

A program of electrification adopted by the Indian authorities has transformed the country into one of the world’s most attractive markets for investments and the promotion of engineering services. Over the past several years, India has been making persistent steps to create a robust and reliable power engineering industry.

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ndia’s economy depends in a big measure on the imports of crude oil and natural gas but along with it about 80% of the nation’s own hydropower production potential remains unutilized. Given this situation, the Indian government has passed a decision to attach priority to the development of hydropower generation in the period of up to 2025, in the course of which the aggregate installed output capacitance of hydropower plants will grow by 50,000 megawatts. Although the share of electric power output by hydro plants shrank to some degree (to 22% in 2011) in recent years, the situation may change drastically. The generating capacity of the hydropower sector increased by over 16,500 MW in the course of execution of the 11th five-year plan (2008 to 2012). In the meantime, research shows the Indian hydropower plants (HPP) might be producing up to 150,000 MW annually

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and investors might find projects in that sector highly attractive. World Bank experts point out a specific feature of electricity consumption in India. The growth of household consumption there is heavily restricted by the absence of access to power supplies for almost 40% of the country’s population. Unreliability of supplies is a bane for the power engineering industry. Electricity outages are rife even in big cities and large industrial centers. The International Energy Agency says that, considering the context of today’s economic reality, India is among the few countries that will see a steady growth of electricity consumption in the mediumterm. The world’s second most populous country is demonstrating really high development rates. The Indian GDP showed an averaged 5.5% annual growth in past twenty or so years and the demand for electricity has outweighed its production by 14%.

Along with it, a number of factors put brake on the sector’s development. Take for instance, an undeveloped system of market regulators that impedes an appropriate buildup of the generating capacity. Shortages of fuel (India covers up to 30% of its demand for electricity through the imports of resources) hinder a possible increase of the plants’ capacitance. The government actively engages in regulating the market of energy resources and electricity so as to avert a social disaster. Experts say the fees for electric power do not cover the costs of its production and this prompts the investors to take a cautious stance on getting into the Indian market of power engineering services. Once in the past, back in the Soviet era, Soviet specialists played an active role in the industrial sector of the USSR’s giant southern neighbor. Moscow would render assistance the Indian power-engineering sector in those days as it offered to use its

own potential in designing and construction. Some Russian companies retained the status of highly reliable and experienced contractors even after the state orders had gone. One can say, in fact, that the Russian companies have managed to return to India and to prove their ability to meet the demands of Indian customers.

In May 2011, the Russian corporation RusHydro and India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC Ltd.) signed a memorandum of cooperation. The document carries the signatures of RusHydro CEO Yevgeny Dod and NHPC Director-Technical D.P.Bhargava. It says that both companies are considering pros-

The International Energy Agency says that, considering the context of today’s economic reality, India is among the few countries that will see a steady growth of electricity consumption in the medium-term. The world’s second most populous country is demonstrating really high development rates. The Indian GDP showed an averaged 5.5% annual growth in past twenty or so years and the demand for electricity has outweighed its production by 14%.

pects for cooperation in the field of hydropower production and renewable energy. Also, they are planning a number of joint hydroelectric projects in India and third countries to be fulfilled on a turnkey basis. RusHydro views India, a country with an impressive hydropower potential, as a promising region for the implementation of its strategic plans. The signing of the memorandum was preceded by a successful accomplishment of a number of Russian power engineering projects on Indian soil. Victory of the Moscow-based Gidroproyekt institute, which acted in cooperation with the French company Coyne et Bellier, in an international bidding contest for providing consultations to the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation became one of the first instances of cooperation of this kind. The scope of the consultant’s duties embraces the drafting of the EPC documentation for a bid that RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Balimela hydropower that is located in the southwest State of Orissa belongs to the group of high-head plants of the diversion type, which are usually built in mountainous areas. The calculated output water pressure (274) is ensured by specialized structural elements channeling water from a remote manmade reservoir through a tunnel to penstocks. The water level difference between the higher and lower pools is created by a natural drop of terrain.

Background Note The Tehri hydroelectric complex is a unique power engineering facility located on the Bhagirathi River in the State of Uttarkhand in northern India (the Himalayas). The complex includes the Tehri hydrosystem (the HPP plus the hydroelectric pumped-storage plant) and the Koteshwar HPP. The HPP and the pumped-storage plant have been built in the rock mass. The installations are united in a single compound to make the operation activity easier and to cut down the capital investment in the project. The main facilities of the hydroelectric complex include a 260.5 meters-high and 570 meters-long embankment dam with a watertight component, a 39.5 meterswide glory-hole spillway for 5,500 m3 of water per second, and four service spillways remodeled from construction tunnels with the aggregate throughput capacity for 3,880 m3 per second. 58

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envisions construction of the Tehri HPP in India, analysis of the technological aspects of proposals, recommendations to the customer on selecting an EPC contractor at the stage of bidding, and consultancy services at the stage of construction. Projects of this type necessitate the consultants’ concentration on advanced technologies helpful in the slashing of construction times and environmental impacts, as well as in easing resettlements of the population. The company is expected to vest all of its expertise in the efforts to achieve the customer’s goal, which is to beef up the profitability of the entire project. Power-generating installations of the HPP and the pumped-storage plant make up a united compound. It consists of onshore water intakes of both power plants, two supply tunnels of the HPP having 8.5 me-

ters in diameter and a total length of 1,640.5 m, two supply tunnels of the pumped-storage plant (5.75 m in diameter, total length 2,030.5 m), underground rooms of both plants (188.0 by 22.0 m each), a common transformer house (165 m by 16.8 m), the 1,500 m-long bypass tunnels having 9.0 m in diameter, and power output installations. Virtually everything from the recommendations (references) by previous customers to the availability of spare capacities to the technologies, the utilization of which is envisioned, to the production cost of services to the professional qualifications of every person in charge of the project has significance in India. In the light of it, the Russian specialists’ victory in the contest sends an encouraging signal. It is important to emphasize that the demand for engineering services

in India is very high and the Russian companies that have gained some solid practical experience there do have something to offer. They propose participation in laying a new technological groundwork for India’s power-engineering sector – from auditing the operational generating facilities and power transmission grids to providing recommendations on how to improve the operations and reliability of power equipment to the designing of new installations to their construction. A range of hydropower plants has already been built upon Russian projects in India. They are Bhakra II (600 MW), Mettur Tunnel (200 MW), Linganamaki (57 MW), Balimela (640 MW), the Tehri hydroelectric complex (a HPP plus a pumped-storage plant, 1,000 MW each), and Koteshwar (400 MW). Russian companies’ engagement in the upgrade of the currently operational power generating facilities makes up one more area of cooperation. The Indian power industry embarked on the reconstruction of hydropower plants more than ten years ago, and the Bhakra plant in Punjab became the first facility to undergo it. In 1991, the Soviet foreign trade association Technopromexport signed a contract with the Indian corporation BBMB for a replacement of five hydro machines, each with the output capacity for 120 MW. The Bhakra plant that came on stream in 1968 and that has grown outdated in many ways since that time has Soviet equipment. Engagement of the Russian companies in the reconstruction of Indian HPPs made it possible to load the manufacturers of equipment back at home with customer orders in the harsh period of transition to market relations at the beginning of the 1990’s.

A technological project plan was drafted and endorsed in the period of 1991 through to 1995 and equipment for the five power-generating units was supplied. All the modernization works were brought to full completion and commissioned by the customer in 2001. March 30, 2009, the Silovye Mashiny (Power Machines) corporation rounded up successfully the enlargement of the Balimela plant. Agreements for a turnkey supply and installation of equipment were signed by Silovye Mashiny and the state company Orissa Hydro Power Corporation in 2003. Each unit has the output capacitance of 75 MW. The same Russian company built and supplied two hydro turbines fitted out with pre-turbine gate valves, two 75 MW hydroelectric generators, as well as all the auxiliary systems, an open distribution unit, and penstocks. Both hydro units have been launched into operation. India has no plans to wind up its programs for the development of

alternative energy. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) assesses the potential of wind-power engineering alone at 45,000 MW. In September 2009, India made public the adoption of the world’s largest program envisioning construction of a network of newest nuclear power plants by 2050. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Indian government plans to build up the output of electricity at nuclear generating facilities by a factor of twelve – to 470 gigawatts – in forty years’ time compared with the current indicators. Still, Delhi will unlikely resolve the ambitious task to set up a integrated national power grid, which will make it possible to redistribute excesses of electricity to the regions where its shortage emerges, unless it goes on to develop hydropower generation. That is why the Russian power engineering companies do have a field for activity in India.

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Indian Top Court Gives Nod to Kudankulam N Plant Built with Russian Help

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clear plant due to its “substandard” equipment. Two, the four safety valves in Kudankulam Unit 1, which have been found to be defective by India’s apex nuclear body Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, have to be rectified as soon as possible so that the plant can be commissioned. Russia has an important role to play in this context because the valves for the nuclear reactor were supplied by the

(DAE) accord final clearance and the quality of various components and systems is fully ensured. The Road Ahead Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) chairman S.S.Bajaj went on record as saying thus in Chennai on May 7, 2013: “As of now, the test reports and the results submitted by NPCIL relating to the first unit of KNPP are satisfactory. A team

specifications, then corrective actions have to be taken by NPCIL. G.Sundarrajan, the main petitioner in the case, has questioned the AERB procedure in this context, saying “The NPCIL is the purchaser of the equipments and there will be a conflict of interest if it has to certify the component quality,” D. Nagasaila, an advocate for one of the litigants in the case, said: “The KNPP is a learning exercise for eve-

Russian company ZiO-Podolsk. G Sunderrajan, an IT professional and the main petitioner in the case before the Indian Supreme Court, had put ZiO-Podolsk in the dock for allegedly supplying “sub-standard equipment” for the Kudankulam plant. Three, the Indian Supreme Court has issued 15 guidelines on commissioning, safety and security and environmental issues concerning the Kudankulam plant and has directed the government that the plant should not be made operational unless AERB, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and department of atomic energy

of experts will be going to KNPP Monday. If all things go well, it will be in matter days we will issue the sanction for the reactor beginning the fission process.” Bajaj also said KNPP 1 will be given five-year operational license and added that the license period may be restricted, if needed, based on the plant’s performance parameters. Besides, Bajaj said the test reports submitted by NPCIL about KNPP will show whether the performance of the equipments are as per design specifications or they vary. In case the test results are at variance with those of the design

rybody. Perhaps this is the first time where a nuclear power project was taken to the court and other forums. Many of the documents pertaining to the project that were kept under wraps were made public because of the case and the people’s struggle.” Clearly, there is still some work to be done by the Indians who are hopeful for an early commissioning of the plant. For its part, however, the Indian government has made it clear to all the stakeholders in the Kudankulam plant that they should not bother about deadlines and ensure that all safety parameters are rigorously adhered to before the plant is made operational.

By Rajeev SHARMA

For Russia, Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India is as important as Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran has been for two decades. Both plants, built with Russian expertise and equipment, have taken much longer than usual for completing the construction, though for different reasons. About Bushehr Plant German companies had initiated work on the Bushehr plant way back in 1975 but the work came to a grinding halt in 1979 in view of the political upheavals in the country climaxing in the Islamic revolution. The new Iranian leadership approached the Russians and a contract for finishing the plant was signed between Iran and the Russian Ministry for Atomic Energy in 1995, with Russia’s Atomstroyexport named as the main contractor. By now the West had started looking at Bushehr plant with suspicion and started exerting pressure on Iran. Besides, the project was delayed several years by technical and financial challenges. Iran and Russia then signed a new contract in 2007 wherein the Iranians agreed to compensate for rising costs and inflation after completion of the plant. The plant started adding electricity to the national grid on 3 September 2011 and was officially opened in a ceremony on 12 September 2011, attended by Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and head of the Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko. 60

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Indian Supreme Court Order on Kudankulam Plant May 6, 2013 was an important day in the Indo-Russian civilian nuclear cooperation when the Indian Supreme Court dismissed petitions of anti-nuclear environmentalists and gave its green signal to the plant. The Indian apex court judgment came on the 630th day of protests by environmentalists and anti-nuclear lobbyists who have exerted pressure on the Indian government since the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, demanding much more stringent safety measures; while some even demanding scrapping of the project. The court gave its go-ahead signal to the commissioning of the plant and held that nuclear energy is extremely important for the country’s growth and a balance has to be struck between the right to life and sustainable development. It said the Kudankulam plant was set up for the welfare and sustainable growth of the people of India and added that various expert groups have opined that there would be no impact on the life around the plant because of radiation.

The upshot of the 46,460-words judgment is highlighted in the following one-liner ruling of the Indian Supreme Court: “Kudankulam plant is safe and secure and it is necessary for larger public interest and economic growth of the country.” Three Red Lines for the Russians However, the Russians cannot take it as a finished business till three things happen. One, the people’s protests should get over. Signals emanating from the plant site in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are to the contrary. The activists have vowed to intensify their agitation. M.Pushparayan of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) and one of the prominent local leaders, who have been spearheading the agitation against the Kudankulam plant, criticized the court judgment and said the agitation will continue. “It is a delayed and unjust judgment. It will not bind us and our protest against the project will continue,” Pushpanarayan said, adding that 25 school children had submitted a petition to the Tirunelveli district collector to shut down the nu-

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India’s Arctic Aspirations

By Nikita SEREGIN

According to some pessimistic forecasts in the fuel and energy sector, the world’s best known oil fields will be depleted by 2025. An alternative to “black gold” is unlikely to be found in a short term, that is why more and more countries are turning to the Arctic region which they believe might fill a want.

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istory says the Soviet Union and the USA began offshore oil production back in the 1940s. The USA launched oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and Russia – in the Caspian Sea. The projects were successful, and by the 1960s, more than 30 countries were conducting geological surveys in offshore zones. Dozens of large oil and gas fields and provinces were discovered. In the early 1970s, they accounted for almost one-third of the world’s oil production. Specialists breathed a sigh of relief. The world’s energy future seemed brighter and inseparable from further development of offshore fields whose share in the world’s recoverable oil and gas reserves reaches at least 45 to 50 percent. Beginning from the late 1970s, the USSR carried out thorough surveys to find deposits on the continental shelf. The effectiveness of prospecting in the Caspian, Barents and 62

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Kara Seas and the Sea of Okhotsk exceeded the best world achievements within a decade. The results achieved in the Arctic region were most impressive: not only did the USSR discover over 100 promising fields, it also found 11 new deposits.

According to official information, the Barents and Kara Seas account for 80 percent of initial potential hydrocarbon reserves of the whole Russian continental shelf. But reserves and production are different things. Oil and gas pro-

Rosneft has already signed contracts to develop the offshore zone with U.S. ExxonMobil, Italy’s ENI and Norway’s Statoil. Foreign partners have 33 percent in a joint venture to develop deposits on the Russian shelf (Rosneft keeps the remaining 67 percent). In exchange, the foreign companies fully fund geological surveys and make Rosneft eligible to purchase a stake in their foreign projects. But five of the 12 areas to which Russian company planned to attract partners, are still available.

duction projects have inherent risks that influence their economic effectiveness. These are uncertainties regarding the market price of oil and gas, incorrect estimates of oil/gas reserves and production costs, possible political and economic events, environmental damage etc. But you cannot help it: there is no other way out at present but to develop arctic deposits. Large-scale development of oil and gas fields on the arctic shelf requires dozensof-billion-dollar investments. The payback period may stretch to dozens of years. This means the prospects for one nation developing Arctic region deposits on its own would be bleak. That is why Rosneft has already signed contracts to develop the offshore zone with U.S. ExxonMobil, Italy’s ENI and Norway’s Statoil. Foreign partners have 33 percent in RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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a joint venture to develop deposits on the Russian shelf (Rosneft keeps the remaining 67 percent). In exchange, the foreign companies fully fund geological surveys and make Rosneft eligible to purchase a stake in their foreign projects. But five of the 12 areas to which Russian company planned to attract partners, are still available. The Russian company is obviously diversifying the group of partners to develop the shelf, trying to attract a separate participant for operation in different areas. Thus it shares the risks in new projects with its partners. For example, the agreement with ExxonMobil envisions the development of licensed Vostochnoye-Prinovozemelskoye sectors in the Kara Sea, and the Tuapse field in the Black Sea. The Fedynskoye and TsentralnoBarentsevskoye fields went to Italy’s ENI. Norway’s Statoil is to develop the Perseyevsky licensed sector in the Barents Sea and the Magadan-1, 64

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Lisyansky and Kashevarovsky areas in the Sea of Okhotsk. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), a subsidiary of the Indian oil and gas corporation ONGC, is an applicant for one of the available oil fields. In May 2012, it informed Rosneft in a letter that it was seeking a stake in one of Rosneft’s three offshore joint ventures with foreign investors. OVL is not a new entrant in the Russian market. The company exclusively engages in international projects and has already tried to invest in deposits in Vietnam, on Sakhalin and in Sudan. In Russia, it has a 20-percent stake in the Sakhalin-1 project and owns the Imperial Energy group which it purchased in January 2009. Imperial Energy mostly operates in the Tomsk region, where it runs prospecting and oil production projects. However, this is where ONGC’s successful expansion in the Russian market ends. In 2008, the company sought to join the Sakhalin-3 project, but

the stake went to Gazprom. ONGC also wished to obtain a license to develop the large Trebs and Titov oil fields, but it was Bashneft that got them in late 2010. The Indian company then started talks with Bashnet over acquiring a stake in it, but they were unavailing. And here is a new attempt. According to ONGC Videsh Ltd Moscow office representative Nirmal Kumar, New Delhi does not see any reasons for the Russian government to reject the Indian proposal, especially because this proposal is made by a friendly and trustworthy country. Furthermore, Rosneft still has five available sectors in the offshore zone for which no contracts with partners have been signed yet. These are the Magadan-2, Magadan-3, Yuzhno-Chernomorsky and Yuzhno-Russky sectors and the Medynsko-Varandeisky block of the Barents Sea. Earlier, Rosneft invited all private players in Russian

oil production to take part in the development of 12 Russian offshore sectors. However, just two have displayed interest thus far. ONGC’s interest in the Arctic region is explained by the tax incentives the Russian government is preparing for the offshore projects. Some Russian analysts believe Rosneft might agree to partnership with ONGC to share the risks of investing in Arctic projects. Also, it might enable the Russian company to step up its expansion to foreign markets. ONGC Videsh holds assets in many countries: Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba. Since the company has no offshore development experience, it agrees to an 8-percent stake on the condition that the second foreign partner gets 25 percent. ONGC’s has been active recently because India has been visibly behind China by rates of expansion of

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its oil industry. However, getting an “entry ticket” to the Russian market is not easy. Russia needs either unique expertise or a sizable asset in the Indian market. So far, ONGC have been unable to offer either.

Rosneft is unlikely to let it in any of the established JVs as it might cause a conflict with foreign partners. Yet the possibility of OVL’s participation in projects to develop the available areas is quite high.

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Biotech rapprochement By Sergei NIKITOVICH

On April 24, 2012, the Russian government approved the complex program of biotechnology development in the Russian Federation through 2020. It is a strategy to develop the Russian bioindustry which includes a range of sectors, from health care to food security and agriculture.

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ollowing Europe’s example, Russia set up several technological platforms for the key biotech guidelines: “industrial biotech”, “food for life,” “plants for the future,” “forestry,” “fisheries and aquaculture”, and “animal health.” They are intended for accumulating scientific and technological know-how, effective planning and management, personnel training, and mobilization of human and financial resources with the ultimate objective to produce innovative products. The efforts Russia expended in this area were crowned with success. Steven Burrill, a leading world bioindustry investor, visited Moscow. He had already invested around one billion dollars in biotech companies in 90 countries and is now in talks over development of this business in Russia. Burrill said he had encountered various difficulties in every country and that he 66

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had no prejudice regarding investment in Russia. Regrettably, Russia’s share in this business reaches just 1 percent. Whereas some 2,000 biotech companies operate in the USA, 600 in China and 300 in India, Russia only has 50. But things are not as bleak as they seem. Russian scientists and biotechnologists do not look half bad compared with their peers in other countries. Their discoveries and new technologies have made a great impression in the world in the recent years, such as research in stem cells, peptides in pharmaceutics, and new fuel production in power engineering. The diversity of themes is particularly impressive in agriculture. Russia’s vast expanse is a godsend for biotech developments in various areas. A European pattern is good, yet Russia should not ignore the timetested ties with New Delhi. Our countries have an integrated long-term program of cooperation (ILTP) in

science, technology and innovation, unique by its scope and versatility. More than 400 joint projects have been implemented since the first ILTP was adopted in 1987. At present, it covers some 12 projects involving leading Russian and Indian research centers: more than 70 Russian and 50 Indian institutes and laboratories. Thanks to the program, important immunology research has been carried out in medicine. Specifically, specialists developed new generation immune response modifiers, and an anti-poliomyelitis

program deserves special mention. India set up a national center using Russian technology to produce vaccines. The two countries have reached accords to expand cooperation in pharmaceutics by launching joint ventures in Russia which will use Indian technologies. Specialists of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, jointly with Indian colleagues, developed and passed to India the laser equipment intended for treating tuberculosis. This enabled India to open a specialized TB treatment center.

An agreement to extend the timeframe of the program to 2020 was signed during Dmitry Medvedev’s official visit to India in December 2010. Aside from fundamental research, it pays special attention to an increasing role of applied research and high-tech interaction. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Rafarma is building a factory to produce finished dosage antibiotic forms in the Terbuny district, Lipetsk region. The facility, which will use antibiotic substances manufactured by the joint venture, will meet the EU GMP requirements. A lack of antibiotic substance production in Russia indicates particular significance of the proposed project. and capsules) in the State of Haryana, for subsequent supplies to the Russian market through the Coral Med distributor. The project costs around 20 million U.S. dollars. A promising guideline for Russian-Indian cooperation is broader interaction in developing and producing substances and finished dosage forms of new generation antibiotics. Rafarma was project initiator for Russia. It proposed to set up a joint venture in India to manufacture antibiotic substances. Expert estimate the cost of the project at 100 million U.S. dollars. The first phase of the pharmaceutical factory to produce antibiotics and anticancer drugs under a joint Russian-Czech project implemented by Rafarma was launched

The directors of large Indian pharmaceutical companies and IT business representatives arrived in Moscow in 2011 on an official visit, as part of the delegation led by T.K.A. Nair, advisor to the prime minister. They discussed pressing issues of Russian-Indian cooperation in telecommunication and pharmaceutics and visited the KhimRar high-tech center. In the course of the visit, the parties discussed the possibility of joint development and production of medicines using Khimrar facilities, as well as the development of innovative drugs on parity basis in various therapeutic areas that have significance both for Russia and India. Another interesting theme for 68

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discussion was Indian companies’ cooperation within the framework of the Severny biopharmaceutical cluster, established on the basis of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. It has the necessary infrastructure and competence at all stages: from development to distribution and marketing of medicines in Russia. The administration of the Indian pharmaceutical company Lupin Limited plans to open its own research center in St Petersburg and launch production. According to business development manager Pankaj Madan, the firm already has “contract production” in Moscow where the Mosfarma factory manufactures tableted antibiotics. The

company plans to expand its presence in the Russian market. Incidentally, it owns the largest research center in India employing over 350 people. Indian products account for more than 30 percent in the Russian market of medicines. Indian business people are interested in investing in the Russian economy, but they are foremost concerned about guarantees of stable development. Experts believe the tax incentives which several Russian regions including St Petersburg offer to foreign residents of special economic zones, can contribute to a flexible pricing policy of Indian pharmaceutical companies. However, Indians complain about problems to get Russian working visas for business persons.

in the Terbuny regional special economic zone in June 2011. It is now the Indian partners’ turn to do their stint. According to the Russian society of biotechnologists, an agreement has been reached with India on joint biotech projects, to be implemented by using unique Russian and Indian developments. The cooperation envisions the establishment of a Russian-Indian science and education center in the field of biotechnologies and pharmaceutics in Russia, a business incubator for agro-biotechnology, production of vaccines using Russian technologies, and a project to use stem cells in ophthalmology based on a unique Indian development which has no analogues in the world.

They are also worried about bureaucratic barriers in drawing various documents for operation in Russia. Potential investors suggested launching “a green corridor” for at least the first dozen of Indian firms entering the Russian market. These problems were considered at a “round table” discussion on pharmaceutics on January 31, 2011. It was organized by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade jointly with the Russian Economic Development Ministry and the Business Council for Cooperation with India within the framework of cooperation in telecommunication and pharmaceutics. India’s Simpex Pharma has been building a factory to produce medicines (tablets RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Gazprombank Discovering India

By Sergei TOMIN

Russian-Indian cooperation in banking is becoming a promising sector in bilateral business partnership. The entry of Gazprombank into India puts this partnership on a solid foundation. Gazprombank opened its office in New Delhi as its clients showed an increasing interest in the capacious Indian market. Gazprombank (public corporation) is one of the largest full-service financial institutions in Russia. It provides a broad range of banking, financial and investment products and services to corporate and private customers, financial institutions, and institutional and private investors. It is one of the three largest Russian banks by key indicators, and third largest by the size of bank stock among the banks of Central and East Europe. It is noteworthy that long before its entry into India, Gazprombank proved its capability as “a supporting structure” of the Russian financial market. The bank’s diversified operation in “continental economies” to which the Russian and Indian economies belong, is on record of its success. For years, Gazprombank has serviced the key branches of the Russian economy, such as gas/oil production, nuclear power engineering, chemical and petrochemicals, ferrous and non-ferrous met70

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allurgy, electric power engineering, machine-building and metal working, transport, construction, communications, agricultural sector, trade and other branches. There is yet another important circumstance behind Gazprombank’s “discovering India.” The bank has strong positions in the domestic and international financial market, and is a Russian leader in arranging and underwriting the issues of corporate bonds, asset management in private banking, corporate finance and other areas of investment banking. The bank’s core activities are commercial lending, project-tied lending, M & A financing, trade financing, custody and trust services, fund management, brokerage service etc. Gazprombank has a ramified regional network with over 300 branches in 52 provinces of the Russian Federation and an impressive clientele comprising three million natural persons and 45,000 legal entities.

Gazprombank steadily expands its international presence. It has stakes in three foreign banks: Belgazprombank (Belarus), AREXIMBANK (Armenia) and Gazprombank (Switzerland) in Zurich (Switzerland). It opened its offices in Beijing (China), Ulan Bator (Mongolia) and New Delhi (India). Gazprombank’s operation in India deserves special mention. Its office was open due to bank clients’ considerable interest in the potential of the Indian market. The objective of the office

EDITOR’S NOTE Gazprom ratings by leading international agencies. Moody’s Investors Service rated Gazprombank’s long-term foreign currency deposits at Baa3 and assigned a debt rating of Baa3. The outlook is stable. Standard & Poor’s assigned to Gazprombank a long-term issuer and debt rating of BBB-, with a stable outlook. Fitch Ratings assigned the BBB- long-term issuer default rating. The outlook is stable.

is to represent Gazprombank and its partners’ interests in the Indian financial markets and contribute to the promotion of its products. Over the period of operation in New Delhi, it established business relationship with the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Indian Ministry of Steel, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Also, it launched business contacts with India’s three leading chambers of commerce and industry FICCI, ASSOCHAM and India CIS. Gazprombank’s successful operation in New Delhi relies on close ties with the leading Indian banks: State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, AXIC Bank, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank, Bank

Of India, IndusInd Bank, Syndicate Bank, Panjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda. It enables Gazprombank to quickly settle any problems its client might have in settlements with Indian partners. Gazprombank launched business contracts with the following foreign banks that have offices in India: HSBC, Barclays, BNY Mellon, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank. Gazprombank also relies on contacts with the leading Indian industrial companies, including BHEL, Larsen & Toubro, International Coal Ventures, Heavy Engineering Corporation, Mineral Exploration Corporation, Vizag Steel Plant, and Jindal Steel & Power, as well as state-owned oil companies ONGS, ESSAR Oil, Indian Oil, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.

India’s capacious and growing domestic market is one of the most attractive markets in the world to foreign companies. At present, India is particularly interested in further development of cooperation in the hydrocarbons sector. Indian companies have mastered world-level technologies and can work together with Russian partners both in production and refining. India is primarily interested in LNG supplies, and the construction of refineries and underground storage facilities. The country will need such projects in the next five decades. ndia’s energy demand is considerable, so this field has a tremendous potential for mutually advantageous cooperation. Gazprombank has come to India in earnest and for the long haul.

New Delhi was selected as the venue for opening the Gazprombank office in India in 2009, as it accommodates the Russian Embassy, the Russian Trade Mission, and the offices of a majority of Russian companies doing business in India. From the first days of operation, Gazprombank took a course to launching close ties with the Reserve Bank of India and the department of financial and economic relations of the Central Bank of Russia. On an annual basis, the Gazprombank office takes part in the work of the subgroup for banking and financial issues under the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Co-operation. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Having audited the privatisation of 142 coal enterprises between 2005 and 2009, public auditors reported to have found numerous gross violations. The most serious of them were the refusal to hold public tenders and sale of coal industry facilities at knock-down prices, which deprived the federal budget of $34 billion in potential revenue.

Indian Opposition Presses with Coal Industry Privatization Claims By Sergei TAMILIN

India’s coal industry did not avoid problems facing the energy sector as a whole and was rocked by Coalgate, a resounding corruption scandal, this summer. The opposition accused the government of murky coal industry privatisation that might have caused the budget to lose $34 billion. With no facts confirming the prime minister’s personal involvement in the sale of state property at low prices, the opposition all the same demanded his resignation, claiming that Manmohan Singh was the coal minister during privatisation.

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ntransigent political opponents – nationalists from the leading Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian communists – pooled their ranks this summer for a decisive offensive against the coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said the prime minister should take moral responsibility for the coal block allocation scam. Indian Communist Party leader Gurudas Dasgupta stressed that the question of Singh’s

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resignation remains on his conscience after the scandalous privatisation of the coal industry. The news of billions of people’s money stolen, which caused a storm in the Indian mass media and paralysed the work of the parliament, was brought to light by the Office of the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral. Following the release of the report, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started sweeping probes into the facts mentioned in

The third biggest economy in Asia, India generates two-thirds of electricity at thermal power plants working on coal. Like some other countries, India has the largest coal reserves in the world, but its coal industry and its flagship state-owned corporation Coal India were in decline for a long time and needed reform that could better meet the country’s growing electricity demand. The reform was started by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the chief ideologist of economic liberalisation in India and coal minister in 2004-2009. In 1991, Singh, who was the finance minister at that time, ventured to put the ineffective Indian economy with excessive state control on a market footing. Fifteen years after that, he decided to reform the bulky coal industry by opening it up to private investments.

However one has to admit today that the coal industry reform has failed. One of the reasons for that is that the Singh government gave too broad powers to the states that did not miss the opportunity to pass over the “tidbits” of state property to their own people behind the back of the federal government, using corruption schemes. And though there are no facts testifying to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s personal involvement in the scams, the opposition is trying to get as much political dividend from this story as possible ahead of elections in some states in the next several months and parliamentary elections in 2014. Nationalists and communists claim that since Singh was the coal minister during privatisation, he should take the main responsibility for Coalgate.

In turn, the ruling Indian National Congress has accused the opposition of politicking and made it clear that there will be no revision of privatisation.

the document to find signs of corruption in the privatisation deals. Sources at the CBI said that its officers would visit more than 50 facilities in different parts of the country in the next several months and study tens of thousands of documents in order to get a clear picture of how they were privatised and on what terms. This led Indian mass media and the opposition to speak of the biggest corruption scandal in the country in recent years, which is commonly referred to as Coalgate. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Indian Incarnation of Russian Swindler

By Sergei TAMILIN

Police in several Indian states warned the local population not to invest in Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, a financial pyramid set up by notorious Russian businessman Sergei Mavrodi, who had cheated thousands of Russians of their money and had been prosecuted in his homeland.

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ormer mathematician Sergei Mavrodi came into the limelight after the breakup of the USSR as unlocked his talent as a swindler by exploiting people’s belief that one could go to sleep a poor man and wake up rich. When he was exposed in Russia, he went to India to fool people there. 74

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“The general public are hereby cautioned not to enter or participate in such schemes and invest money as these schemes are bogus and do not yield any money,” head of the Criminal Investigation Department, Andhra Pradesh, T.Krishna Prasad stated. The high-placed police official made this comment in response

to the Internet campaign to promote Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM), a financial pyramid. It promised to set up a mutual assistance fund which allegedly would have neither winners nor losers, because everybody would win. The Indian MMM, a spin-off or incarnation of the Russian scheme offers residents of Andhra Pradesh and other states to join by investing 5,000 rupees. The investors are committed to attract new players. They are issued electronic equivalent of shares, called “Mavros,” and promised a windfall of MMM dividends. It is noteworthy that before Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox appeared in southern Indian, the scheme became popular in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Panjab, having lured hundreds of thousands of investors.

Now it is time to recall who Russian national Sergei Mavrodi is. A small bespectacled man with a nondescript appearance was once almost as popular as President Boris Yeltsin. It was back in the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and many people who had lost their jobs and the meaning of life, were feverishly looking for ways to survive in a market economy. This was where MMM came to their aid as it launched an aggressive campaign to promote Mavrodi’s financial pyramid. Some 15 million Russians invested in the MMM company established in 1994, three years after the breakup of the USSR. There is no precise damages information. In 1997, Mavrodi’s brainchild was declared bankrupt. In MMM’s heyday, it seemed that the shower of gold would last forever. Investors were offered to join the fund and purchase “securities” featuring Mavrodi’s photo  – “mavrodiks” - that looked like candy wrappers. Well-known actor Vladimir Permyakov became a company boy, starring in MMM ads as Lyonya Golubkov, an ordinary person who was happy with steadily growing profit on investment in MMM. The scheme was functional for a certain period, but the pyramid had to eventually collapse, which it did, bringing down ill-starred investors who had believed in a miracle. They could never recover their money. According to some estimates, Sergei Mavrodi cheated dozens of thousand people of their savings in the 1990s. He was convicted for fraud in 2007, and after his release from prison he seemed to fall back into his old ways. His new pyramid, MMM-2011, an acronym for “we can do much” operated through WebMoney, and its website tagged it as financial pyramid. Several months later, a new criminal case was opened in the town of Novosibirsk against Mavrodi and his associate Alexei Astakhov. They were accused of illegal entrepreneurship, after prosecutors checked MMM advertisement on the Internet inviting the population to invest and promising up to 900 percent interest a year.

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The MMM opened an account in the Savings Bank to collect fees from the investors. Some 100 persons invested nine million roubles in MMM 2011over three months. However, the pyramid collapsed after the authorities opened a criminal case. A similar scheme is now operating in India. In the autumn of 2011, Mavrodi established “the first social financial system” MMM (Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox) India. It operates under the same principle: you register on the website, purchase a virtual ticket, the “mavro,” and invite your friends to join to increase the value of your “mavro.” Mavrodi does not disclose the results of his projects in India. The website carries the notice “the calculation of referral bonuses is not yet complete.” Sergei Marvodi is apparently exploiting two factors in India. Firstly,

the Indian public, especially in rural areas, knows nothing about his criminal record in Russia. That enables him to act boldly, without fearing exposure. Secondly, India, like Russia, is a country where people would believe in a miracle and tend to be trusting. Such is the mentality of the people brought up on myths and fairy-tales. This social environment is a breeding ground for swindlers such as Mavrodi, who take advantage of people’s belief that they can get rich overnight without lifting a finger. Actor Vladimir Permyakov, who helped promote the financial pyramid and can hardly make both ends meet nowadays is a reminder that MMM leaves you broke. MMM did not help the advertisement star to get rich either. Perhaps, his fate should be a warning and a lesson for the Indians. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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DEFENSE COMPLEX

Livid Russia to Change Tack after Losing Indian Defense Deals Rajeev SHARMA

Russia has lost several big ticket Indian defense contracts in the recent past and this repeated failure has put a question mark on the Russian ability to stay afloat in a highly competitive Indian defense market. It has also triggered a vituperative attack on the Indian defense procurement process bringing into question its very transparency and credibility.

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he Russian barbs at the Indian defense procurement policy were at their sharpest best in February 2013 during the Aero India 2013 show in Bangalore when Viktor Komardin, the head of the Russian delegation, alleged that Delhi has bought aircraft, submarines and weapons from western countries at inflated prices “without military logic”. Komardin, the deputy chief of the Russian state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, questioned the financial logic of the Indian government to procure weapons systems from countries that were not as longstanding partners as Russia despite getting no transfer of technology. “Ask your minister of finance. May be he has so much money to spare and India has no social problems,” he remarked sarcastically. Published account of Komardin’s rants against the Indian de76

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fense procurement system, as reported by the Indian media during the Bangalore show, makes it clear how badly miffed the Russians are with the new Indian system. “It is not fair. Arms sales in military technology projects are now all politics. Billions of dollars are paid for procurements without transfer of technology. It is improper, it is unfair. I accept politics but fair should be fair. Russia is a strategic partner of India. We want to be dealt with as partners,” Komardin told Indian reporters as per these accounts. Russia’s New Strategy In view of the changed playing field being made available to the Russians by the Indians, the Russians seem to have changed tact in a big way. The new change in the Russian strategy vis a vis the Indian defense market is that the Russians are more keen on focusing squarely on government-to-government defense

that much of Russia’s current defense portfolio of $ 20 billion in India is because of the very close strategic ties between the two countries. When the Americans could bag Indian defense orders to the tune of $ 8 billion in the past five years alone using Washington’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route, Russia, a close strategic partner of India, should also be given this privilege. This is the Russian thinking. The Russians have not taken kindly to that fact that they have routinely been edged out from the Indian defense competition by Israeli, American and European companies because the Indians had floated global tenders for these. To rub salt into the Russian wounds, a small country like Israel has become India’s second largest defense supplier as Israeli companies have managed to bag orders worth $ 10 billion from the Indians in past one decade alone, many of these through the government-to-government route. Both Israel and the United States are the biggest challengers to Russia’s number one position in the Indian defense market.

DEFENSE COMPLEX

Therefore, according to the new Russian thinking, it won’t be wrong if Moscow impresses upon New Delhi to open up its purse strings for a tried and tested ally and strategic partner like Russia. This is the price that the Russians want the Indians to pay for maintaining a vibrant strategic partnership with Russia. The Russian efforts may well succeed in the coming months. The perception in the highest strategic echelons of India is that there is no way that India should lose out on Russia, whatever it takes. Thus, it is no surprise that India is likely to sign many governmentto-government contracts with the Russians just to keep them in good humor. The first such deal on the block is likely to be India buying from Russia three more Talwar class frigates after Russia delivers to India third and final Talwar-class frigate INS Trikand, which is expected very shortly. The new deal for three more Talwar class frigates is likely to cost over two billion dollars. The last Talwarclass deal for three frigates was signed in 2006 and Russia’s Yantar shipyard

had agreed to build the three frigates at a total cost of $ 1.6 billion. Besides, Russia will sell India 71 MI-17 V-5 military helicopters worth $ 1.3 billion and technological kits worth $ 1.6 billion to assemble 42 Sukhoi SU-30MKI fighter aircraft. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, India and Russia had agreed on the original deal for these fighter jets in 2012. This $ 2.9 billion deal was agreed during Putin’s visit to India on December 24, 2012. The two sides had agreed to set up a joint venture between Russia Helicopters and India’s Elcom Systems Private Ltd to manufacture the helicopters. This is still a work in progress. But there is no way that this delivery can be made in 2013. It is up to the Russians when they can do so and as per the available information they have not given any specific date of the expected delivery. It will take years. Moreover, India has had issues with Russia repeatedly failing to meet its delivery deadlines. Therefore, the Russians are more careful now and don’t give delivery deadlines in a haste.

contracts rather than getting routinely out-competed in the Indian defense market which is increasingly being driven by highly competitive global tenders. As per this new strategy, the Russians would keep themselves out of the global bidding process for the Indian defense contracts and instead focus on the governmentto-government route. They believe that this way they stand a better chance to win the Indian defense deals in view of the immense diplomatic clout their government enjoys with the Indian government. The Russia-India strategic partnership is not just on paper if the Indian government could not tweak its defense contracts guidelines to suit Moscow just as New Delhi has done time and again in past few years for Washington. This is the Russian logic. Moreover, the Russians are not wrong in this belief and they feel RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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FESTIVAL AND FAIR

FESTIVAL AND FAIR

most of them Russians. Professional costumes, makeup and refined movements make the difference between them and the natives of India rather uncertain, with the color of skin being the main visible distinction. The sounds of ancient mantras blend into the rhythms of Hollywood. Anything a guest might please. Even the youngest of guests hip-hop joyfully somewhere near the dancing girls’ feet to the sounds of last year’s Dabangg2 hits. On the sidelines of the general merry-making, the Indian expatriates discuss the latest political news and share their concerns with one

To the indian rhythms The sounds of ancient mantras blend into the rhythms of Bollywood. By Xenia KONDRATYEVA

Summer Bazaar at the Indian Embassy on Moscow’s Vorontsovo Pole Street is an event that has become traditional not only or the Indian expatriates living in Moscow but also for the Muscovites who take an interest in India. The festival and fair of Indian culture and cuisine had an especially big span this year – more than 6,000 visitors, several dozen exhibitors and a multitude of sponsors.

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fforts undertaken by the Indian Women’s Association, the organizer of the Summer Bazaar, have gone beyond the quarters linked to India culturally or professionally and aroused an interest among those who seem know anything about India only from Bollywood films that are making a comeback to Russia. “We started organizing the Bazaars fifteen years ago and they are drawing an increasingly greater public attention,” Madame Malhotra, the spouse of His Excellency Ambassador of India and the President of Indian Women ‘s Association says joyfully. She indicates that the monies raised during the Summer Bazaar are spent for charitable purposes both in Russia and in India. “We’re supporting orphanages and boarding schools for children with limited capabilities in Astrakhan, Yaroslavl, Vladivostok, Severodvinsk and many other cities,” says Mme. Ira Malhotra. “Some of them have been receiving our assistance for many years in 80

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His Excellency Mr. Ajai Malhotra welcomed the visitors of the Summer Bazaar with a truly homelike hospitability.

succession. In other cases, we work upon specialized requests.” While the public in Moscow is enjoying itself to the Indian rhythms, a six-year-old Roman Gupta, a son of Krishan Kant and Marina Gupta is taking a course of treatment in Germany. He has Hirschsprung’s disease, an inborn deficiency of the gastrointestinal tract. Thanks to the efforts of the Indian Women’s Association and numerous other responsive peo-

ple Roman’s family managed to raise enough money for a very complicated surgery and post-rehabilitation treatment. His Excellency Ambassador and his spouse welcomed the visitors of the Summer Bazaar with a truly homelike hospitability. They seemed to be somewhat tired of the endless requests to stand for a photograph but they do not try to get away from the public. This frenzy around them was

a product of the many years of work towards to building up India’s encouraging and multifaceted image in Russia. Indian seasonings, textiles, bijoux, souvenirs, natural cosmetics, and, last but not least, the bracing Indian tea were the specialties that had brought many people to the festival in 2013. The fragrant Biryani, chicken curry, crispy samosa cakes, and endless pastries… Many visitors had to have several encores so as to scent the whole array of spices, which make the Indian cuisine so distinct from any other cuisine in the world. Restaurateurs who have been providing catering for the guests of the fair for many years note a surprising fact – the Russian visitors have not only dropped the past fear of unusual dishes. More than that, they know precisely what they want – ‘No not rothi (type of Indian bread). Naan (also bread), please, and with garlic of course.’ Vidya Velangi, who teaches the master classes at the Curry Corner school of Indian cuisine notes a doubtless increase in the numbers of Russian women – and even men – attending the classes to get familiarized with the subtleties of Indian meals. Previously, the classes would mostly enjoy popularity with the Indian expatriates living in Russia. Teaching people how to discern the nuances of flavors of the genuine Indian tea is the task of the Tea Board of India that was set up by the federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Sakkeer Hussain, the director of the

The children are absorbed in the process of creation of their masterpieces.

board’s mission in Russia explains for the difficulties of this enlightening activity and simultaneously pours the tea of a yet another blend into a plastic glass. “Don’t worry, it only looks weakfish,” he says. “A genuine tea shouldn’t be very dark at all. In fact, it may be very lightly colored but have an intense taste and a strong flavor. The Russians usually don’t understand this and they demand a tea that’s darker and stronger. Our goal is to teach people to tell the difference between the genuine Indian tea and one that is passed off by many producers for being genuine. The producers often admix other teas, which have a lower quality, and put flavoring agents into these mixes but the practice kills off the natural taste of the tea,” Hussain said. Bemused by the aromas of spices, the visitors immerse in the sounds of Indian music that accompanies the bodily expression of complicated emotions by slender dancing women,

another. The topics are the problems in advancing one’s business and the importance of broader trade relations between Russia and India. But one way or another, an expat Indian’s longing for cricket turns out to surpass all other things. On the face of it, reporters are mostly preoccupied with the forthcoming elections in India, and the prospects for consolidation of relations between Moscow and New Delhi given a far from simple situation around the Kremlin’s foreign policy strategy and especially the relations with the U.S. Fred Weir, the Russiabased correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor and his counterpart Sergei Strokan, an international news analyst of Russian daily Kommersant note a much greater span of the festival compared with previous years. India arouses the interest of a much broader scope of people now and, what is even more important, this interest is getting variegated. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Himalayan treasures in Moscow By Alexandra KISELYOVA

A door to the picturesque and mysterious world of Indian spirituality has opened in downtown Moscow in a stone’s throw from the Kremlin. A display of the Himalayan Treasures interactive project was held on the Vetoshny art floor. Participants in the presentation had a unique opportunity to get in touch with the amazing Buddhist culture the historical home of which is found in northern India.

Himalayan Treasures is often referred to as an itinerant exhibition. It was held for the first time ten years ago when St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, was marking the tercentenary anniversary since its foundation. The project has traveled twice all around Russia since then. It has enabled 75,000 people in 45 large cities to familiarize themselves with the Buddhist philosophy, arts and tradition. Enthusiasts from the Cultural Heritage of the Himalayas International 82

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CULTURE

EXHIBITION

Public Organization for the Maintenance of Cultural and Historical Traditions of Central Asian Peoples and the Russian Association of the Karma Kagyu Tradition of the Diamond Way Buddhism have gathered a superb collection of more than 300 exhibits. It includes the sculptures and masks of metal, timber, and gypsum, Tibetan scroll paintings (thangkas), wood-carving, embossing, ethnic bijoux, and many other things crafted in the monasteries of India, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, and Russia’s regions

of Buryatia and Kalmykia. None of the exhibits would be taken up by an antique store, as the bulk of exhibits are not older than fifty years old but all of them, be it the Buddha’s statues or the paintings depicting his incarnations or the Buddhist emblems on fabrics have been created in line with centuries-old canons and they combine aesthetics with the multilayer symbolism and philosophical understatements. The Himalayan Treasures display was unfolded in Moscow for the first time since the start of project. This event looked somewhat exotic in the setting of the Russian capital only at first glance. Buddhism is one of Russia’s main traditional religions. Three constituent republics of the Russian Federation – Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tyva – are historically part of the Buddhist world. That is why the project rallied the support of Moscow City government. “Government departments get enlightened in Buddhism one after another,” Anton Ignatenko, a deputy chief of the department for rapport with religious organizations said jokingly. “Thank you for bringing the light of reason, the light of spirituality to this world,” he said. “For Moscow, the capital of Russia, Buddhism is an inalienable part of cultural and religious heritage.” Himalayan Treasures stayed in Moscow for a whole month, in the course of which the guests could enjoy a meaty cultural program. They had an opportunity to be escorted around the exhibition by highly qualified guides, to watch movies and documentaries about the legendary Himalayan lamas, the history Buddhism and the experience of its promulgation in the West in a movie hall located nearby, or to listen to the lectures on Buddhist arts, the significance of Buddhism for contemporary civilization and the Tibetan medicine that were read by top-rate lecturers. In addition to the huge enlightening power, the Himalayan Treasures project carries a strong practical impulse. It is not at all accidental that its organizers are positioning it as an interactive one. The reaction of the world of nowadays to Buddhism goes far beyond a mere curiosity. Many people turn to its ancient teachings

in a search for the meaning of life, the techniques of harmonizing the relations between ourselves and the reality between us, and the ways of eliminating the emotional and physical problems. Kirill Serebrennikov, an acclaimed movie and theatrical producer who, along with the popular painter Oleg Kulik, donated the photos made during a journey to the Land of Snows, gave the following explanation of his interest towards Buddhism. “As for me, it offers answers to some crucial questions. Why am I living, man often asks himself? The Buddhists give a clear-cut answer to this: we’re living to help other people. Fortunately, Buddhism is something much broader than just a religion. It’s a philosophy intertwined with purely practical techniques.” Any visitor to the display could make Buddhism a part of his or her daily life by attending a variety of master-classes organized within the format of the project. There was an opportunity to test the experience of a Buddhist meditation, to extract sounds from the traditional music instruments, to familiarize one with the ancient tea ceremonies, to cook the famous Buddhist momo dish, or to sketch one of the eight Buddhist emblems of luck. Creating and contemplating these things imparts man with the essence of what they symbolize, and the opportunities to do this do not turn up very often in Moscow. Each of the emblems facilitates a person’s self-identification with the philosophy and practice of Buddhism, on the one hand, and prompts him or her to address one’s own self in a hope for enlightenment. An especially laudable fact was that all the classes were given by really knowledgeable people committed to their cause and communicating the Buddhist worldview to others. Is it not really great to learn the basics of Buddhist art from the masters of thangka or to hear a story about the commemorative stupas (types of buildings) from someone who builds them personally. Enthusiasts of active holidaymaking or those who were still planning trips to faraway lands certainly benefited from meetings with experienced

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travelers. The latter eagerly shared their impressions about the countries of Buddhist Asia. For instance, the tour guide, journalist and author of Russian-language guidebooks, Roman Karachev entitled his authorial readings on voyages to India and Nepal ‘India: In Buddha’s Footsteps’. Even though the disciples of Buddhism are not very numerous in India today, the northern parts of the country make up the historical homeland of the creed, since it was there that Shakyamuni Buddha reached enlightenment, started teaching others, spent the greater part of his life, and died. These days, the places linked to his name attract numerous pilgrims from around the world, including from Russia. Roman spoke about his personal experience of trips to the holy shrines and the specificity of this kind of traveling. He also furnished the commencing travelers with lots of practical advice. A special store was opened on the exhibition floor where the visitors could buy cult objects, accessories, tea of a multitude of blends, and books devoted to various aspects of Buddhism. Some of the authors held presentations and autograph sessions of their works in the framework of the project. The display hosted more than 10,000 visitors during the monthlong stay in Moscow. Also, the organizers provided over a hundred tours around it and more than fifty lectures and master classes. The itineration schedule has been filled up for several years ahead. The exhibition will be held next in Kazan simultaneously with the World University Games, then in Kaluga to the southwest of Moscow, then in the Far East of the country, then in Barnaul in

southern Siberia, and will then start moving westwards again. The plans suggest that the ‘Himalayan Treasures’ will come back to Moscow in three or four years’ time. As one looks back at the feast of Buddhist culture in downtown Moscow, he can say definitively that the program of the display was really tightly packed and highly versatile but the main value of this itinerant venture was the unparalleled atmosphere of amiability and conciliation. Dr Natalya Zhukovskaya, an outstanding Russian oriental researcher said at the closing ceremony: “I’m very closely connected with various Buddhist exhibitions but I’ve never seen anything as joyful as this one.” The motto of the display chosen by its organizers read: ‘Bravery, Joy and Compassion’. And everyone who got in touch with the ‘Himalayan Treasures’ received a fair charge of all the three essential qualities. Their inexhaustible sources are the wisdom of the ancient teaching, the beauty of spiritualized art and the warmth of human hearts. Photo: www.museum.ru

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HOLIDAY

HOLIDAY

THE MASALA DRIVE

By Anastasia BELOKUROVA Photo by Boris GRISHIN

May 26, 2013 the first popular carnival devoted to Holi, the traditional Indian festival of spring was for the first time ever held in Moscow.

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he festival of Holi is well known to any connoisseur of Indian movies. Back in the Soviet era, the spectators would watch with much surprise the protagonists of Bollywood’s melodramas set up picturesque dancing scenes, spray one another with multicolor powdered dyes and sprinkle water from water guns. The essence of the actions unfolding before the Soviet audiences’ eyes was rather dim for them but the beauty and mysteriousness of all that was enchanting. And here is Holi, one of the festivals most loved by people in India. It has finally reached Moscow, a city most typically looking rather gray in spring. The Europeans, for instance, have formed a tradition of marking Holi. But just a few of the dozens of thousands of people who gathered on a rather bleak day in Moscow’s Izmailovo Park knew that Holi is the only feast of children’s disobedience in the whole year. Typically, though, it is not the family members but pets and domestic animals that turn into objects of the kids’ naughtiness. It is

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easy to figure out, of course, that animals need special cleaning after jokes on the part of the young generation. Therefore, here is Holi. In India, the day means that spring has come. It is also an occasion, on which people recall the love between Krishna and Radha. The Indians have a tradition of burning a huge scarecrow during the feast of Holi and the Russians find this ritual to fall in line with their own tradition, as the Russian feast of Shrovetide has for centuries been observed in much the same way. As for the customs of pouring water on others and spraying them with colored powder, it symbolizes energy and willingness to beef up one’s inner spiritual world, the purity of which is contingent on the number of follies of each particular individual. A different interpretation of the rite suggests that Krishna decided to change the color of Radha’s skin one day and sprayed her with dye for the purpose, and that is why one of the meanings of Holi is that young men and girls can make passes at each other in this way. One more – and very practical – meaning of the rite is amazing, too. Holi is usu-

ally marked at the beginning spring and weather may be rather tricky then. To protect people from various risks of catching cold, ayurvedic medicine recommends festive spraying with powdered medicinal herbs, not just dyes. For the Russians, however, who get into contact with Holi in Moscow for the first time, this is a joyful exotic carnival, in the first place. Thousands of people of all ages came to the Izmailovo Park to get in touch with a novel phenomenon. Although the dyes were sold right at the entrance to the Izmailovo kremlin, far from everyone purchased them. One could see with some surprise that some guests of the Feast of Dyes preferred ordinary flour purchased at department stores nearby to the abundance of colors. Quite possibly, the explanation is that the New Year in Thailand, which is so popular with Russian holidaymakers, includes a rite of sprinkling one another with water and spraying with whitish talcum. Or else, the explanation could be that a huge queue of people was standing to buy the dyes that were far from inexpensive. Oth-

erwise the mysterious Russian soul might have tapped some other reasons that are not clear for us, people with first-hand experience of Holi. A cultural program was organized for the guests of the festival. Russian pop stars performed on the stage in turns with the semi-professional dance groups specializing in Indian dances. A special fair was opened for those how would like to get a deeper vision of Indian culture. However, the most remarkable item of the program was a performance staged by

female amateurs of Bollywood movies, who presented an impromptu dance to the sounds of a potpourri from Bollywood pictures. In spite of the generally elevated moods and the rank-and-file people’s highly enthusiastic reaction, the absence of the genuine Indian vividness looked somewhat depressing. Bigger quantities of national music and other exotic trimmings would be quite appropriate. Yet one can state that Holi turned into a true feast unmarred by minor mistakes. The huge number of

Muscovites who came to Izmailovo and took along families with them offered the amplest testimony to this. The carnival was organized by the PROlife creativity workshop led by Olga Nikolayeva (better known to the public as Sun) and supported by the Izmailovo kremlin compound. It gives us a pleasure to say that the celebration of Holi has good chances for growing over into a tradition in Moscow. The joyful and vivid holiday of spring will certainly bring Russia and India still closer together.

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CINEMA

Film Critic Alexei Vasilye Indian Movies Should be Brought Back to Russia

Alexei Vasilyev is the author of a five-part documentary series on Indian movies titled “The Dreamers of Bombay”. He has written and edited a number of books on the motion picture arts and has been promoting Indian films all his professional life. This is the second part of Alexei VASILYEV’s interview to Russia&India correspondent Anastasia Belokurova. The first part was published in Russia&India No. 5, 2012. R & I  Alexei, would it be realistic to resume joint Russian-Indian film production today? Should the filmmakers in both countries use the past experience or should they look for new ways?

The Dreamers of Bombay were supposed to become the first step in a long-term media project. It was made to wake up, through television, public interest in Indian cinema and had to be followed by a thematic reality show, the winner of which would have been given the lead role in a Soviet-Indian film to be shot afterwards. In other words, both sides came to the opinion that the audience had to be worked up first before it took in the idea of going to watch a Russian-Indian movie. But when screenplay outlines were presented, it became clear that the sides did not understand each other. Indian partners proposed stories with aftermaths of some Russian war, with a heroine being saved from the Russian Mafia by an Indian guy. Russians came up with proposals full of clichés about India. For example, I 86

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proposed a story about a girl who, after the death of her mother enchanted by India, goes there, despite her grandmother’s curses and maledictions, and experiences the sensation of déjà vu, finding out that some places and phrases were familiar to her. For instance, she knows for sure that behind this door there is a passageway to the parallel street and there it is. She goes through a series of adventures and finally finds out that she is the daughter of Mithun Chakraborty, whom her mother had met in Soviet times at the Moscow festival and fled with him to India. However the wicked Russian grandmother stole and hid the girl and her mother in Siberia where she was living. Actually, my story was waved through but I was so busy making senseless corrections to the Dreamers of Bombay that had to give it up, and for the good of it because the firm went bust. And yet, I think the story is quite interesting and I would be ready to take it up again if solid, concerned and generous producers come our way.

R & I  You accompanied Rishi Kapoor during his visit to Moscow…

It was the Year of India in Russia and, to cut a long story short, Rishi Kapoor came to Moscow to present his new film Chintu Ji, a delightful satiric comedy where he bravely played himself, a spoiled star and belly-god, who gets involved in election tricks and ends up in a village full of vegetarians and teetotalers. And then he took this film and his old works to an exhibition of Indian movies in Vladikavkaz. I made a booklet for the occasion and since I did not know what its organisers would have shown without my consultation, because they were completely out of subject, I seized the opportunity to interview Rishi Kapoor for the Dreamers of Bombay and for the Indian Movie World magazine that was published in Moscow at that time. I was also asked to set up a cultural programme for him. The organisers took him to a very expensive restaurant but there were no people there and I said: “What’s the point

Belokurova Anastasia, Alexei Vasiliev, Rishi Kapoor and President of the "Amir" Alla Aristova.

of sitting in an empty place? Let’s go to the floating restaurant Oriental Tales. It’s always crowded.” When the Azeris who worked in the restaurant saw Rishi Kapoor, they got very excited and threw together an enormous Oriental banquet with mutual toasting and photographing. Rishi ate heartily and drank too, but he brings along a magic Indian doctor for parties like this: they retired to Kapoor’s room for about twenty minutes and when he came out he was completely in control of himself and I interviewed him for two hours. We then went to Ksenia Ryabinkina, the wonderful ballerina who played in Rishi’s first film Mera Naam Joker. She also appeared in a small role in Chintu Ji where her heroine brings Chintu to his senses. She has a beautiful house outside Moscow and she treated Kapoor to a lavish feast with a variety of strong homemade liquors. Our trip back through dark and snow-covered outskirts was quite exciting, too. We were singing Puchcho Na Yaar Kya Hua and Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai at the top of our voice. The funniest part was to see Rishi so much impressed when I told him that his Bobby and Barood had cashed in about 120 million U.S. dollars in the Soviet Union. He became absentminded for some time and kept talking about this all the way, bug-

ging his producer who had rushed to the restaurant straight from the airport. I can understand him: under the Hindi-Russi Bhai Bhai motto, Sovexportfilm had cheated him out of his commission. But what could he do about it now, 30 years on, with no such country around anymore? R & I  In your opinion, are the classical Bollywood traditions still strong in contemporary Indian movies?

They are not just strong, but they have certain influence on successful European films now and then. I can’t help thinking of a modern Bombay youth film when I watch Three Metres Above the Sky from the thrilling Spanish series.

ples: one is Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and the other one is Main Hoon Na. And while the release of the former in 1995 occurred at the time when our system of film distribution was in shambles, the latter appeared when it was at the peak of revival and the Russian audience was hungry for everything, but it’s such a pity that our distributors missed this chance so inanely. Furthermore, the release of My Name Is Khan in 2010 and its subsequent failure increased mistrust in Indian movies both among the viewers and distributors, and I think it was an act of sabotage to release the film at the time of our complete isolation from Bombay productions. I seriously think that the psychological climate in our country could become better if Indian films played in our movie houses. And I am convinced that Indian films should be brought back to Russian screens. This would certainly add more fun and drive. Sometimes I notice that the authors of modern Russian melodramas borrow large pieces of their plots from Indian films which were made when they were young girls, for example Raja Jani. But actors play boringly and without drive. You see, drive is the most important thing about Indian films where Hema believes that her heels are the best weapon to fight a gang of men and before she uses it, she needs to plume her hair to make sure it really works.

R & I Why do you think distributors refuse to show Bollywood films in Russia? Would this be a good or bad undertaking?

It’s risky. Our audience does not know their stars even though Three Metres Above the Sky made Mario Casas a real star among our girls so bright that he outshined even Taylor Lautner and Channing Tatum without much hyping in mass media. I think it’s important to figure out where to start, which film to choose as the bait as Sovexportfilm did with Awaara in the 1950s. I actually think there were two such examRUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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KULLU

Haunted Castle at the World’s End By Sergei NIKITIN

Kullu is also known as the Valley of the Gods, and not just because the place is divinely beautiful. Nowhere else in India can you find so many gods per area as in Kullu. Each village has a deity of its own, called devata. Also, it is the end of the habitable world, the end of Earth, if one is to believe the Mahabharata epic. The Roerich estate in Kullu Valley is a modest two-storey house under Himalayan cedars, visited by some 100,000 tourists a year.

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aggar is a settlement in Kullu Valley, Himachal-Pradesh, located 384 kilometers from New Delhi, on the left bank of the rapid mountain river Bias, and at an alti88

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tude of 300 meters above the river and over 1,700 meters above sea level. Let the traveler be not misled by assuming that Nagar is separated from New Delhi by a short track of a mere 390 kilometers. For Hima-

layan roads – and Indian roads in general – it is 16 hours of hazardous non-stop drive. Only an experienced driver can take you there safely. The reckless whose overconfidence made them embark on the journey unprepared often ended

up crashed in the bottom of deep gorges with no chance to survive. The road to Kullu runs along a strip of the river Bias squeezed by rock slopes. As you cross the last ridge just before the valley where the gorge becomes quite narrow, you can see why the medieval Puranas called it Kulanthapitha, the end of the habitable world. In Indian mythology, Kullu’s history begins with the Deluge, and the rescue of hermit Manu by Lord Vishnu. It is said it was in Kullu Valley that he got out of his ark, settled and kept the imperishable Vedas for the posterity as he became the progenitor of all mankind. The valley was visited thrice by the Pandava brothers, Mahabharata heroes. The first visit ended in strongman Bhima marrying the daughter of a local demon whom he had slain. The second climaxed in a battle between his brother Arjuna with Lord Shiva for the magical weapon pashupati astra, which belonged to the God of rain and thunderstorms Indra. During the final visit to the valley, the Pandava, one after another, shed their mortal shells, while “the light of Truth burnt bright” before elder brother Yudhishtira and “he knew what was shadow and what was substance” and reached Svarga (heaven). The brothers learnt to grow rice at a high altitude at the place of Pandaraka-Ropa (3,658 meters above sea level). In the 1st century A.D., a nearly mythical hero Behangamani Pal founded the state of Kulata. The legend has it that the local tribes at that time were suffering under the repressive regime of the cruel Thankurs of Spiti, the land of glaciers. As the locals were eager to overthrow the Thakurs, Behangamani Pal took advantage of what now could be described as “revolutionary situation”, and led the uprising, aided by resident astrologer Paljhot. Having secured the blessing of the powerful Goddess Hadimba, he successfully completed his revolutionary mission. This goddess is still venerated as the patron-deity by the Rajas of Kullu. Behangamani’s descendants – the Pal dynasty – ruled

KULLU

the kingdom from the village of Jagatsukh for 14 centuries, until the capital was moved to Naggar. We are now headed for this town. Naggar merely means “town” in Hindi Naggar hardly deserves the name of town, yet it was the capital of the valley from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century. The local castle is believed to have been built by Raja Sidh Singh in the early 16th century, and it was a royal residence before the capital was moved to the town of Kulu. It was later used as a summer palace until Gyan Singh, the last of the Kullu Rajas, sold it cheaply to head of the British colonial administration Major Hay in 1846. The latter converted it to a European-style dwelling by putting in staircases (the locals used ramps instead) and chimneys, and re-sold it to the state at a handsome price. The building served as a court and a hotel for visiting officials. In 1970, the department of tourism of the Khimachal Pradesh State opened a hotel here with unassuming name “the Castle.” As many traditional Kullu structures, the palace is built of alternating layers of wooden beams and uncemented stonework. A lack of rigid connection between stone slabs

enables them to shift to and fro during an earthquake, thus keeping the walls from collapsing. For example, the castle withstood the devastating earthquake in the region in 1905. Over centuries of its history, the castle bore many legends. Some seem to be based on physical evidence. The inner yard accommodates the Jagti Patt temple, a room with a low ceiling and narrow door. The center of the room is occupied by an uneven slab of stone. They say a young wife of a raja, who had grown up in a highland village, could not get used to what she regarded as fashionable castle lifestyle, and was very homesick. The Devata (Gods) of the valley took pity on her, turned into honey-bees and flew this slab to her from her native place at the base of Rohtang Pass. Over time, it acquired religious significance as a deity venerated by local residents. A high-placed British administration official who had the indiscretion to deride the relic, allegedly died in great pain within a week. Another legend has no solid proof, yet hotel guests from Room 103 move out after the first night. Pensive and apprehensive, they flatly refuse to stay on there. The legend has it that once, Naggar was visited by vagrant musicians. A jealous raja asked his wife to point at the one she liked most. The RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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unsuspecting rani (queen) pointed at one of the artists. The guards promptly seized him, and the maharaja personally beheaded the comedian before his wife, as he had believed his wife had been unfaithful. Horror-stricken, the woman ran out onto the terrace and plunged into the abyss. Her innocence is proven by the fact that her body turned into a stone just as it hit the ground. Her spectre has been haunting the castle ever since her death. Room 103 is particularly dangerous, as the tragedy occurred right at its door. There are many temples around the castle. The Vishnu Temple, built during the reign of Jagat Singh (1637-1672) is a reminder of his unsuccessful attempts to replace blood sacrifices with the veneration of a good-natured protector deity. Rama, the 7th incarnation of Lord Vishnu became the key deity of the valley and got along quite well with numerous minor gods of the place who had demanded sacrifices of goats, sheep, cocks, etc. Devoted to Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati, Gauri Shankar Temple is situated just below the castle. It dates to the 11th century. On its altar are the sculptures of the divine couple. In the morning, a temple attendant divests them of 90

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KULLU

their garments, and then washes, anoints and robes them in festal bright-red dress. Mountain flowers and potfuls of boiled rice are laid at the feet of the gods. In the evening, the gods’ garments are changed for nightgowns. The Tripura Sundari (the Beauty in the Three Worlds) temple is devoted to Durga, the Mother Goddess. It is made of cedar in the form of pagoda. As centuries ago, local belles wash the linen in a stream flowing down from the glacier. The laundering style has not changed: clothes are placed in a tub, and a woman begins to stamp on them with her feet, which looks like a ritual dance of priestesses by the walls of an ancient pagoda. The estate whose mansion was built by British Colonel Rennick in 1884 is perched on topmost point of Naggar. Rennick was a large landowner, the most influential British settler in the valley. The British called the mansion “the Hall.” In 1928, well-known Russian painter Nicholas Roerich purchased this property. The search for Shambhala the Resplendent A steep road that gradually narrows to a natural trail runs past the

Roerich estate. It leads to Chandrekhani Pass at an altitude of 3,600 meters. At the 11th kilometer, the path runs into impenetrable rhododendron shrubs. The Pass slopes to the mysterious village of Malana, famous for its deity, Jamlu Devta, and unusual mores of its dwellers. The village is cut off from the rest of the world for six to eight months a year. The Malana population differs from valley inhabitants by sharp facial features, narrow eyes and bronze skin. Their language is a mixture of Sanscrit and the Lahul and Kinnauri dialects of HimachalPradesh. They say Malana was once ruled by a spiteful demon. Village residents asked Jamlu for help. He defeated the demon, who nevertheless managed to utter a mantra, and since then the Malanians have spoken Rakshasa, the language of demons which is incomprehensible to outsiders. According to another legend, the Malanians are descendants of warriors of Alexander the Great. They settled in the area after their leader had left India. Images of warriors clad in armor from head to foot can still be seen on the walls of some ancient houses in the village. There is a legend that a Brahman once came to Malana to claim he was a messenger of Jamlu. As proof of his claim, he showed a scroll to the village elders. As the villagers were illiterate, they offered him to take the scroll to the Jamlu treasure house and see what happened. Accompanied by a pujari, the village priest, the Brahman walked to the depository to face the deity. However, he was unable to come out unassisted, as he had become paralyzed and lost the ability to speak. Such is the power of Jamlu. This deity is also the village’s chief justice, although it administers justice through a priest, called gur. But turning to deity is a last resort, rather as appellate judge. There is a large platform made of stone tiles in the middle of the village. It is called Harsha, and serves as a local court. Homes on one side of the platform form a “judicial area” Saurab-

hed, on the other hand - Dharabhed. Minor disputes are settled by elders within the site. For larger disputes, for example between the families, 16 elders – karmishts - convene in different sections on the Harsha, eight from each side of the village. If they do not come to a just decision, the case is passed into the hands of the deity. Tied to two trees near the platform are the sheep purchased by the plaintiff and the defendant. They then inject deadly poison into the animals. The one whose sheep dies first, is the one to blame. The guilty person should throw a feast for the whole village. Around the judicial platform, and in other places of the village are numerous stones worshipped by the Malanians. They believe that these stones belong to Parasurama, Rama with a hatchet or the sixth incarnation - Avatar – of Lord Vishnu. If a stranger accidentally touches a stone, he is fined 1,000 rupees ($ 25), a considerable sum for villagers. At the end of the village there is a large wooden temple which is always locked. It has a rather unusually carved ornament. The temple keeps a small equestrian statue of the Mughal emperor Akbar. They say his servants once robbed a pilgrim of two coins, who had brought them

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from Malana. As a result, the imperial treasury was infected, and Akbar developed leprosy. Having seen the power of Jamlu, the emperor wanted to appear in person at Malana to worship the god, but eventually ordered to have his own statue sent to the place, which is worshiped along with the village devata during the holidays. Only the priests can enter inside the structure. It is said that the inhabitants of Malana never wash. Their marriage customs are most unusual. Any young man can marry any girl without any ceremonies after paying the almighty Jamlu 20 rupees. And he can get married as many times as he has money to pay the temple. Similarly, any woman can change her husband many times, if only a new candidate with this money is found. Such as the village of Manala, which the Indians believe is the end of the habitable world. According to a legend, it is on the trail leading to the pass that Nicholas Roerich discovered the secret gateway to Shambhala, a happy country with a wonderful climate and unspoiled mores, the main link for communication between Earth and extraterrestrial civilizations. The esoteric artists devoted a whole series of works to this event,

called Shambhala the Resplended. It is not important if Roerich found the gateway to the dreamland or not. In our century of international terrorism, his consistent position, aimed at creating a world without violence, seems to be much more pressing. It was Roerich who urged peoples of the world 70 years ago to preserve cultural monuments in conflict zones. His efforts gave an impulse to the signing of an international declaration for the protection of cultural values, supported by dozens of states under the UN aegis. The Roerich estate, a modest two-storey house under centuriesold Himalayan cedars and African marigold and dahlias by the wooden porch is visited by some 100,000 tourists a year. Some wish to see the blue stone lotuses of the Himalayas against a backdrop of scarlet, yellow or azure sunsets on Roerich paintings, some wish to ponder the mystery of existence. Three flags on flagpoles are flying against the background of the mountain tops that inspired Nicholas Roerich: Russian, Indian and the one bearing a philosophical symbol – three dots in a circle representing the eternity of time encompassing the past, the present and the future. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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DOWNSHIFTING

DOWNSHIFTING

Make the Most of Your Karma

This is a follow-up of the story about Russians who leave their native country for “the land beyond the seven seas.” Simon YEPISKOPOSYAN reports from Goa on what makes an increasing number of Russian citizens move to India and gives tips on downshifting arrangements.

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saw several young people completing their registration for a regular flight from Moscow to Dabolim. They did not have much luggage as they obviously preferred to travel light, except for one girl. We entered into a conversation on the plane. I learnt that my fellow-travelers were quite experienced Goan downshifters. All were residents of Tomsk who had repeatedly visited India. As for the girl I mentioned, it was her first flight to India. Running Away From Reality A couple of definitions of downshifting below seem to be mutually complementary. Some associate downshifting with an attempt to break free from the stranglehold of technocratic civilization, escape to a retreat that our imagination might picture as an “uninhabited island” and find our paradise there. You no longer have to strain yourself; you just enjoy your life. No traffic jams,

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no cramped and stifling offices, no pressure from superiors or information overload. Others, in nearly philosophic speculation, view downshifting as a sort of a tone-down game, a life for one’s own sake, dismissing the imposed objectives and preset values. They argue that the standard criteria of success in a post-industrial

Our reference Downshifting is social behavior which implies living a simple life and trying to escape the rat race of obsessive materialism, in order to avoid the stress of overtime work and psychological load which are part and parcel of the steeplechase for material welfare. It is a search for a balance between pastime and work, and a mental set for the objectives of self-fulfillment and building personal relationship rather than the all-consuming drive for economic success.

society, such as material wealth and career, are not for the downshifters. Both views of downshifting are based on many ideas of the western concept of simple living, which emerged a good half a century ago, when the first hippies came to India. However, “advanced” downshifters of the present might argue that simple living is not the same as downshifting. Furthermore, they believe that the two, in a way, are alternatives to each other. Each view has a point, but it is already clear that those who call themselves downshifters renounce the drive for the promoted universal benefits, such as the constantly increasing material capital, career progress etc, preferring to live for their own sake or for the sake of their families. Downshifters are not homogenous. Some can skillfully use downshifting in certain corporate interests although they are very few.

Russia: the grass is always greener on the other side Back to the meeting with the Tomsk downshifters. The one, who introduced himself as Konstantin, when asked what made him go to India, gave a prompt answer “we’ve been living there.” “For six months already,” he added. Then he proceeded with an hour-long account of the delights of an Indian village compared with the life of a Tomsk resident. It… beckons. The tropical paradise attracts Russians: the climate, the boundless expanse of the ocean, palms, soft-natured Indians, and low prices. Living in Goa is much cheaper than in any Russian city or town. You can rent a decent house for 250 to 300 U.S. dollars a month while a month’s supply of good food would cost as much. Hence, if you rent a Moscow apartment at 1,000 U.S. dollars, you can enjoy yourself on the shore of the ocean… and do nothing. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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Until recently, many Russians have not considered or imagined such a possibility. There are enough apartments to rent in Moscow and other large cities. And the rent can be much higher than 1,000 U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, Goa does not represent all India, not by a long shot. India is far broader and more diverse than just one state. Yet, it is Goa that Russian downshifters prefer, because their compatriots have not yet begun coming there in great numbers. When speaking about Goa, Russians largely mean northern Goa. In the south of the state, there are far fewer tourists or downshifters. Saturday Night Bazar, now a popular market among Russians, is located in northern Goa. It is here that the concentration of Russian downshifters is the highest. Back to Nature If you have property, such as an apartment in Moscow (or some other Russian city) you can rent, you might be considered a potential downshifter. But beside the apartment, you need proper disposition and certain psychological readiness for a dramatic turn in your life. A sure sign of this readiness is con94

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TOURISM

DOWNSHIFTING

stant fatigue, stress, routine work and your frequent thinking about “starting from scratch.” India is not the only country downshifters have taken a fancy to. Thailand would be as popular among Russians, and some figures suggest it has a larger number of Russian downshifters. However, the flow of downshifters to India from Russia and other countries is growing rapidly. Those who decided to downshift in India, should remember several indisputable truths. Firstly, India is not a banana republic where you can do what you want with impunity. It is a developed democracy with its own public institutions, laws and order, which must not be ignored or violated. You must not abuse the patience and hospitality of the Indians. Much is forgiven to foreigners, yet some things cannot be forgiven, and the consequences can be as lamentable as in any other law-abiding country. Secondly, sanitary and hygiene norms in certain districts do not match Russia’s. The Indians are well-used to them, but Russians may find them unacceptable. There is no need to emulate Indians in all ways, because

things might turn out contrary to your expectations. Food is a good example. Before (not after!) taking a meal, ask a native if it is “spicy.” If it is “little spicy” and your liver does not protest, you are welcome to help yourself. If an Indian warns that the dish is “spicy” you should not even taste it! Thirdly, India is a country of traditions or an eastern country. Your dressing, talking and behaving should take into account Indians traditions and customs. It is customary to thank people and give a tip to the person servicing you. Incidentally, it is an important task to prevent unnecessary services. Showing respect is a significant element of the Indian culture. The Indians often use “Sir” when talking to foreigners and have a fine sense of disrespect or disdainful attitude coming from a stranger. Crossing the Rubicon Many Russians think of changing the climate and way of life, and India seems to be a very attractive place for it. What can be done? There are three ways: – Rent property. You can rent your apartment and use the money

to cover the cost of living in another country. You could sell your property with the same purpose. But in this case, you‘d better find out about job opportunities. At first, you might find things nice: inexpensive prices, a measured pace of life, friendly Indians, a good climate etc. But when you have to land a job you will find that getting a legal and good income is not as easy as it might seem. – Sell your assets. This means completely changing your way of life. Some downshifters from this group embrace Hinduism and change their names. – Enjoy long vacations in Goa. You do not need to sell your property or other assets or work in Goa. This group of downshifters takes long and affordable trips to Goa, the least period being two weeks. There are many large and medium business persons and middle class Russians among these downshifters.

DOWNSHIFTING

“You see, it’s a kind-hearted country. Maybe it’s because of the religion or climate, or because the population has such a nature; in short, they aren’t pert. I couldn’t get it for a long time, but then I did. At first, I even tried to have arguments with them, over some reasons or without, and then I understood there was no need. They differ from us. Their lifestyle is different. They love the God and their language is way too complex.” I asked Konstantin if he knew how many peoples lived in India. “Many, very many,” he said, adding that “what I mean is their nature. They see the essence of life in other things.”

The essence of life for the Indians is the issue which worries not only Konstantin or his friends. It eventually brought many people to India, from Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich to our contemporaries, including downshifters. In order to “buy a ticket to India of the Spirit,” as a Russian poet said, they are ready to resort to ingenuity and all kinds of tricks. For if India is your hidden karma, you should follow it. As I was saying good-bye to Konstantin, I asked if he had found in India what he had sought. “You don’t want to seek long,” he replied, “I’ve found a baby elephant...”

In search for essence of life When asked what attracted him and his friends in India, my fellow traveler Konstantin thought a little and then talked non-stop for a quarter of an hour. RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

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BUSINESS CONTACTS

Business Council is a reliable aid of

for cooperation with

Russian

CALLING CARD

India (BCCI) –

and Indian business circles in

establishing mutually beneficial contacts. Business Council for cooperation with India has resumed its activity in 2006 in compliance with the decision of the leaders of Russia and India on expanding cooperation. The initiative of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce of the RF to resume BCCI was supported by JSFC Sistema. BCCI functions as a non-commercial partnership. The purposes of the Partnership are strengthening and developing business ties and trade and eco-

nomic relations between the Russian Federation, India and countries of the Asian-Pacific Region, as well as assisting in establishing mutually beneficial contacts between Russian and Indian business circles. At present Business Council unites more than 300 largest Russian corporations, associations, union of producers, representatives of small and medium enterprises, having business with India.

The new Council Board was elected in 2013: Mr. Sergey Cheremin is Chairman of the Board of the Business Council, Minister of Moscow City Government, Head of the Moscow City Foreign Economic and International Relations Department, member of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation; The Council Board: Mr. Vladimir Verba, General director – general constructor of JSC «Concern of Radioengineering “Vega”; Ms. Oksana Zhendarska, Director (economy & development) of the “SPLAT Cosmetics” LLC; Mr. Alexander Kaznacheev, “Gazprombank”; Mr. Victor Mazhukin, President of the Union of Railcars Manufactures, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC “Russian Corporation of Transport Machine-Building”; Mr. Georgy Petrov – Vice-president, Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation; Mr. Sergey Popelnyukhov, General Director of the “ZAGRANSTROY” LLC; Mr. Mikhal Shamolin, President JSFC Sistema; Ms. Elena Holod, Senior Vice President of “Lanta-Bank”.

Contacts: Ms. Irina Iashagashvili Executive Director of the Council 17 Prechistenka str. Moscow 119034 RUSSIA Tel. +7 495 2281547 Mob. +7 985 9232272 Fax +7 495 7306091 E-mail: [email protected]

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RUSSIA&INDIA 7-2013

Page-proofs Alla Tsurkan Photo Acknowledgments to ITAR-TASS Photo service, Russian embassyin India, Indian embassy in Russia, Russian and Indian companies. In the magazine used data from sites www.museum.ru, www.mos.ru», www. azattyk.org, http://pmindia.nic.in, http://russiancouncil.ru, http:// www.forumspb.com/ru, http://pircenter.org, www.gazprombank.ru Print Viva-Star, Ltd. Blg 3, 20, Electrozavodskaja St, Moscow, 107023, Russia Tel: +7 (495) 780-6705, +7 (495) 780-6706 Circulation: 2000 copies Distributed free of charge Opinions maintained by the BCCI or the editorial office do not always coincide with those of the authors. The Editorial Board is unable to enter into correspondence; it does not review and/or return the manuscripts and illustrations it did not place orders for. The editorial board is not responsible for the content of advertising and promotional materials placed on a commercial basis or for

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Founder Business Council for Cooperation with India (BCCI) Nonprofit partnership Board Chairman Sergey CHEREMIN Executive Director Irina IASHAGASHVILI Address: Bl 1, 17 Prechistenka str. Moscow 119034 RUSSIA Tel: +7(495) 228-1547 E-mail: [email protected] www.rus-ind.com Publisher JSC “Editorial office of the magazine “NP DSSI” Director Irina IASHAGASHVILI Chief Editor Sergei STROKAN Executive Editor Vladimir LANKIN Editor Yelena YEGOROVA Consulting Alexander LUKIANOV Alexander CHINIAYEV Proof-reading Lyudmila Vasilyeva Translators Dmitry Klenin(team leader), Vadim Myznikov, Alexander Zakharov, Daria Naumova Production Crew of the Edition: Anastasia Belokurova, Boris Grishin, Simon Yepiskoposyan, Gleb Ivashentsov, Sergey Irinina, Alexander Kiselev, Diana Klementevo, Xenia Kondratyeva, Alexander Kondrashin, Tomila Lankin, Sergey Lunev Mochaylo Nikolai, Sergei Nikitin, Sergei Nikitovich, Vladimir Orlov, Nikita Seregin, Alexander Tolin Sergey Tomin, Sergey Tamilina, Alexander Cheban, Rajiv Sharma, Vinay Shukla Design & Page Makeup SpectroLite M Ltd. Director General Evgeny SHPAKOV Director Financial Tatiana DEMIDOVA Art Director Grigory KUZNETSOV

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