Category: India Domestic & Economy

India: Killing the Messenger, Ignoring the Message

April 9, 2011: Three recent episodes, seemingly unrelated:

November 29, 2009: Reuters reported that Indian officials were investigating the leak of a radioactive substance into drinking water from an atomic power plant in Kaira, south of Bangalore.

April 10, 2010: the Times of India reported that exposure to radioactive Cobalt-60 in scrap at a disposal site outside of Delhi had left four workers fighting for their lives. The scrap had not originated in a nuclear facility but from industrial waste. Over the next month, government statements reiterated that those who handled potentially toxic waste were supposed to follow “stringent procedures.

August 13, 2010: NDTV (New Delhi Television) reported that British researchers had found a super-antibiotic-resistant bacterium in India. The scientific community, which often follows the practice of naming bacteria after the place where they are first isolated and identified, has given this one the name New Delhi Metallo-1. On April 7, 2011, BBC reported that a group of scientists in Cardiff had found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Delhi drinking water. It is not clear whether these were the same type of bacteria. In both cases, the Indian health authorities immediately dismissed the studies involved.

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Teresita and Howard Schaffer report March 7, 2011 on their findings in India:

In a two-week swing through India in mid-February, we found a government overwhelmed by sweetheart deals and scandals and an economy still strong but with a worrisome softening of the investment market. Foreign policy is proceeding in a workmanlike fashion. The upshot of the scandals, however, is that the government will be even more cautious in making policy decisions, especially those that involve legislation.

Read the full story: Politics Drowning Policy

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer, Pramit Mitra and Vibhuti Hate on the Task Force on HIV/AIDS, as directed by the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

India’s citizens may share one time zone, but they live in vast regions separated by immense distances and customs. They speak 22 officially recognized languages, in addition to English and Hindi, practice different religions and customs, and face diverse HIV/AIDS crises.

Originally published by CSIS on November 20, 2007. View the entire report.

A review by Teresita C. Schaffer of Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance, by Sanjaya Baru.

His basic argument is that economic strength is a critical element of national power and strategy, one that has made possible India’s emergence to its present position, and one that India must continue to mobilise if it is to emerge as a serious global player. Although the book is a collection of reprinted columns, a format not normally attractive, this one deserves a large readership for the importance of its guiding theme and the argument he presents.

Originally published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the Spring 2007 issue of Survival.

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer and Pramit Mitra on the conference conducted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies on September 9, 2004, in conjunction with the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS.

India has entered a critical period in its fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In June 2004, India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) announced its estimate that India had 5.1 million people infected with HIV as of the end of 2003, up from 4.58 million a year earlier. This represents a 10.3 percent increase in estimated infections (a welcome drop in the rate at which infection is spreading from the 13.3 percent increase a year earlier). India is home to the second-largest number of HIV-infected people in the world, and some would argue that it actually has the largest population of infected people. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has moved into the general population in several parts of the country.

Originally published by CSIS on November 1, 2004. View the entire report.