Ignited Minds written by Late Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. The book was first published in 2002. My intention is not to repeat synopsis of the book here. You can very well read it at wikipage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignited_Minds

I would like to share the ripples that this book created in my mind on some of the topics that APJ discussed. I have taken few quotes from this book, some of my thoughts and then some research on internet to present scenario then (2002 when book was written) and now (March 2016).

Shall we ever see cars designed and manufactured in India dotting the roads in Frankfurt or Seoul?

The subject is very close to my heart as I started my postMBA career with Tata International in Auto Components Division. People anywhere in world do not buy cheap cars, they buy safe cars. They buy Brands that they can trust to leave their family and dear ones in nothing but a metal box. Essentially it is trust in engineering and manufacturing capability of the brand. When APJ questioned export to Frankfurt or Seoul, primarily the question is, will we be ever able to develop that trust and confidence in those people for engineering capability of India.

If we look back into the history, the first export of Made in India car was in 1987.  Maruti Udyog Limited started exporting to the West, when a lot of 500 cars were sent to Hungary. 1 However even though manufactured in India, this was not truly designed in India! It was in the 1960s that Telco (now Tata Motors) first exported its medium commercial vehicle (MCV) trucks to Kuwait. 2 However this was not a passenger car.

Indica from Tata Motors becomes the first Designed In India car ! Even though it was produced in 1998 the exports started in 2004. This book was written in 2002 and probably that is why APJ still has that question in his mind. It is worth to mention few paragraphs from Tata Website. 3 It tells us why and what APJ felt

Until about two years ago, India was no different from other less developed countries in one crucial aspect: it had not designed and produced a car indigenously. India’s case was even curiouser: the country had sent missiles into space but had not been able to produce an indigenous car.

The story began, said Mr Tata, in 1993, when, speaking at the annual convention of the Automotive Component Manufacturers’ Association (ACMA), he put forth the idea of an Asian car to be produced as a collaborative effort by the Indian automobile industry. The response of the industry, Mr Tata recalled, was a mix of skepticism and cynicism.

While most of the people will consider Indica to be first car to be exported which was designed and manufactured in India little less is known about Premier Vehicles exported in 1970s. I’m not sure whether these were also designed in India? Below is extract from another blog. 4

In the 1970s Premier exported cars to Mauritius, as pictured here in this photo from a PAL annual report . Premier also exported cars to Dubai in the 1980s. “There were also stray exports to Latin America, Indonesia, Africa and Nepal in the 60s and 70s,” said Maitreya Doshi, Premier’s managing director.

Today scenario has changed a lot.  The automobile industry accounts for 7.1 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Even if we consider Premier’s exports were to developing or underdeveloped nations, today we export to most competitive and established markets with stringent safety and pollution norms.  Below are number of cars exported from key manufactures in 2015. We can say Made In India has considerable favourable acceptance in world market.

Coming back to original question i.e export to Frankfurt. Below table is based on data extracted from Trade Data from World Bank. Even though not too impressive, still at least 1% of Germans are accepting Indian Engineering!  Did APJ mean that selling cars to Frankfurt is like selling ice to Eskimos? With below figures we can claim that we have had ice breaking.

There is still second part of the question that I could not research much. While all foreign car manufacturers started production of their existing models or in some cases, even outdated models here in India, very little was done about building local design capabilities. The scenario has changed now. Many foreign companies have established design centers here. (I would appreciate sharing of facts and figures by any enthusiasts about bench capacity or any other measure of this type of investment !)

With enough thoughts pondered, we move to next question from APJ

When will Indian satellite launch vehicles place satellites of other nations in orbit?

I take immense pride in being a part of Defence and Aerospace Division of Larsen & Toubro Limited which has contributed significantly to PLSV program of IRSO. 5

With the successful launch of PSLV-C30 carrying six foreign customer satellites (one each from Indonesia and Canada and four nano satellites from the USA) along with India’s Multi Wavelength Astronomical Observatory ASTROSAT, ISRO crossed the 50 international customer satellite launch mark. 6

It is interesting to know that it was Berlin and Seol which first believed in capability of Indian Engineers in satellite launch vehicles when PSLV-C2 carried satellites from Germany and South Korea as early as 1999. I wonder how come APJ missed to consider this! May be he wanted not just one of case but a repeated endeavour which India has now proved now beyond any doubt. India is launching satellites for so called Developed Nations. While many PSUs are struggling to remain afloat, Antarix is running profitably.

Again a quote from the book, an answer to APJ’s question, ‘When India becomes capable of imposing sanctions against any country, if they are needed, then I will sing a song of India’

Can we say, at least in area of Satellite Launch Vehicles, we are can impose sanctions or deny access to technology/launch services to hostile country even if it is Developed Nation. APJ has quoted that in 1970 United States declined to export beryllium diaphragms for gyros and sensors for ISRO. Today are we now in a position to decline satellite launch services to USA, if need arises?

A teacher once said, ‘Give me a five-year-old child. After seven years, no God or Devil will be able to change the child.’

How wonderfully these words explain the ability of teacher to mould young minds! We all will agree that our teachers were honest to their profession. They had chosen this career because they wanted to be teachers. In those days there was hardly any race for materialistic pleasures and success was not measured in type of house or brand of car you own. Today we all are running to earn more and more money.

Now when we visit any school or college, the teachers boost how many doctors, engineers, film actors, cricketers and such eminent personalities that school has produced. Have we ever heard how many great teachers that school has produced? In my own class of 57 students only one perused career in teaching. A class of most brilliant students of grade A from one of the best school of Thane could not produce more than 1 teacher!

One thought comes to my mind. In one of the meeting at office we were asked “Who is responsible for quality of the product?” It is too dangerous to leave quality to only handful of people under department of Quality. It is responsibility of every one right from design to marketing. They all contribute to the quality of product. Similarly, responsibility of giving education and developing skills cannot be left alone to teachers! Every one of us is a teacher in some of the other sense. Like it is said a mother is the first teacher the child has. In corporate it is our responsibility to train the team that works with us in their professional jobs. How much time we really spent with them in mentoring? How many times we discuss beyond reviews and status updates? This is more about training than teaching.

Let’s talk about teaching in primary education. How many of us are capable of teaching subjects of primary education? Almost everyone who is able to read this blog is capable. However who many of us really desire or act to reach to those who need education? Every educated individual carries that responsibility to give something back to the society. This reminds me of my friend who use to visit a Municipality school on weekends to support those students prepare for matriculation exam. To teach someone we really don’t need to be formal teachers. We need an attitude and commitment.

I still have some more notes from the book. However, for the first blog, I think, this is more than enough!

External References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki
2. http://www.tata.com/article/inside/n13uJaLbFGw%3D/TLYVr3YPkMU%3D
3. http://www.tata.com/article/inside/bPF2afb3P0E%3D/TLYVr3YPkMU%3D
4. http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/in-images-a-history-of-premier-automobiles/?_r=0
5. http://www.bsxindia.com/AirCmde%28Retd%29.pdf
6. http://www.isro.gov.in/isro-crosses-50-international-customer-satellite-launch-mark
7. http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/isro-to-launch-23-satellites-for-foreign-countries-115092800599_1.html

Reading Now : Unusual Billionaires by Saurabh Mukherjea

Book I just Finished: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari By Robin Sharma

Book I Finished Last Month: Food Body By Isha Foundation

Books Read in past

Business & Management

1. Managing Oneself – Peter Drucker
2. The Crowdfunding Bible: How to Raise Money for Any Start-up, Video Game or Project -Scott Steinberg

3. The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change in the Post-Crisis World – Ruchir Sharma
4. Lee Kuan Yew: The Unofficial Biography – Ethan Ang
5. Unusual Billionaires – Saurabh Mukherjea

Personal Development

6. Exercise For The Brain: 70 Neurobic Exercises To Increase Mental Fitness & Prevent Memory Loss: How Non Routine Actions And Thoughts Improve Mental Health -Jason Scotts
7. Speed Reading: Top 10 Ways on How to Read 300% Faster in Less Than 30 Minutes (Speed Reading, Speed Reading books, speed reading techniques) – Carrie Walsh
8. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari By Robin Sharma
9. See You God – Sudhir Mittal

Short Stories & Fiction

10. Stories from Tagore – Rabindranath Tagore
11. Wise & otherwise – Sudha Murthy
12. How I taught my grandma to read and other stories – Sudha Murthy
13. Revolution 2020 By Chetan Bhagat
14. Half Girfriend By Chetan Bhagat
15. One Night @ the Call Center By Chetan Bhagat
16. Shiva Trilogy (The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras) By Amish Tripath
17. ASURA: Tale Of The Vanquished – Anand Neelakantan

Others

18. Myth=Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology – – Devadutta Patnaik
19. 99 Thoughts on Ganesha: Stories, Symbols and Rituals of India’s Beloved Elephant-headed Deity – Devadutta Patnaik
20. My Gita – Devadutta Patnaik
21. Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You
22. Conflicts that changed the world – Rodney Castleden
23. Leaders that changed the world – Gordon Kerr
24. Food Body Isha Foundation

Wish List

1. From Third World to Firs: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom – Lee Kuan Yew
2. Business Sutra : A Very Indian Approach to Management