Tag: Amitabh Kant

Confiscated G20 sherpas’ mobile phones, held over 200 bilaterals: Amitabh Kant on how the New Delhi Declaration came to be

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The journey towards the New Delhi Declaration of the just-concluded G20 summit began with a blank screen. India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, in an exclusive conversation with CNBC TV18, said he was convinced that starting with a clean slate would be the best approach to avoid conflicts. He outlined 15 key principles and sought inputs from various countries, including the G7, China, emerging markets, and Russia.

Securing secrecy and focus on geopolitics

Kant emphasised the importance of maintaining secrecy and focus during the negotiations. He explained that when the G20 sherpas arrived in Delhi, they were taken 60 km outside the city to Manus, where measures were taken to prevent information leaks.

Kant said, “Every time we had a meeting on geopolitics, we ensured that no one came with a mobile phone. They could only take notes to convey to their leaders because the challenge was if the drafts were leaked out to the media, then the whole geopolitical settlement would get wrecked.”

“It was very complex, but I was very sure that I’ll push it to the limits. You know, the good thing was that I had already worked very hard on all other issues. So the challenge left was climate, energy, and geopolitics,” the Indian G20 sherpa said.

Drafting the declaration

Kant described the intensive drafting process, stating that they went through about 15 drafts, starting with a blank screen. Instead of starting with pre-existing texts from previous G20 meetings, Kant initiated a fresh draft, incorporating inputs from all fellow sherpas.

Kant announced that India, Brazil, and South Africa would collaborate to prepare a balanced draft that considered everyone’s views. After an all-night session, a revised draft emerged.

He said that the drafts went through numerous revisions, and over 200 rounds of bilateral discussions were held. “I asked each participating country what they wished to add. The G7 introduced several additional elements, China contributed a few, and emerging markets incorporated numerous suggestions, while Russia also made its contributions,” Kant recounted.

These meetings were crucial in understanding each country’s red lines, explaining India’s commitment to fairness and transparency, and addressing challenges from different perspectives. “We started with a fresh draft and kept everyone involved in the process,” Kant said. “After many rounds of discussions and bilateral meetings, we reached a consensus.”

Convincing the G7

Kant stressed the importance of convincing the G7 nations that issues beyond war, such as development, progress, and digital transformation, were equally vital for emerging markets. After persistent efforts, a consensus was reached. “For us, developmental issues are more important than just focusing on one issue of the war,” he emphasised. “Finally, we were able to convince them to adopt a more moderate stance,” he said.

Kant pointed out that the final declaration strongly addresses geopolitical issues, but the language was carefully crafted to align with Bali and quote UN resolutions; address principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, political independence, and the prevention of territorial acquisitions. He urged people worldwide to read and understand the document.

The New Delhi Declaration reflects an Indian ethos, promoting the idea of “one family, one future,” and emphasises that the current era should not be defined by war, he said.

PM Modi’s vision

Amitabh Kant credited India’s success to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He stated, “In the end analysis, I could get all this consensus through largely because of the elevated state of India, and I think the stature and the standing of the prime minister as the leader.”

Kant emphasised that India’s strong position and the prime minister’s vision played pivotal roles in achieving the consensus.

Asked about the future of the G20 and India’s role, Kant said India has set a high standard for G20 leadership. He highlighted the importance of India’s strong position in global affairs and its ability to achieve consensus on critical issues.

“I don’t think any country in the world would have been able to achieve what India has achieved under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership.”

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Run up to G20 Summit Highlights: ‘Trust between India, UAE are key drivers in the signing of the FTA deal,’ says minister

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With less than two weeks to the G20 Summit, the B20 Summit India 2023 — the official G20 platform for communication with the world’s business community — is taking place in New Delhi this week. The first plenary session was led by B20 Chair N Chandrasekaran, who serves as the chairperson for Tata Sons and announced a proposed India-based global business think-tank. Catch highlights on the ongoing B20 Summit here:

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Lack of digital infrastructure makes it difficult to pull people out of poverty: Amitabh Kant

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a recent interview with CNBC-TV18, India’s G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant proposed the establishment of a global coalition aimed at creating a comprehensive governance framework for digital public infrastructure (DPI). Kant stressed that the absence of robust digital infrastructure poses a significant challenge in elevating individuals from poverty.

Kant further underscored the pivotal role that the private sector can play in building digital public infrastructure, highlighting that numerous companies have already capitalised on the platform for business ventures. While acknowledging the ongoing concerns surrounding the situation in Ukraine, Kant indicated that the G20’s primary focus is steadfastly directed towards developmental initiatives and technological progress.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 this year in New Delhi. This significant event will take place at the recently inaugurated Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition-Convention Centre (IECC) situated within the Pragati Maidan locale.

Below are the excerpts of the interview.

Q: Let me start by asking you about the taskforce. It was constituted in January, we are now almost in the last lap as far as the ministerial is concerned. Take me through where things currently stand on putting together framework that we intend to present at the G20 meeting?

A: The taskforce has had several meetings. The important thing to realise is that there is a vacuum in the governance of digital public infrastructure (DPI). Most innovation in the last two decades have come through big tech, in western part of the world it has come through Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Google. In China it has come through Tencent and Alibaba.

What India did was to create an alternative, which was based on public interest as a public layer, and on top of which we allowed private sector to innovate and compete. And therefore we built on open source, open API’s, we built on interoperability, and that led to digital identity, it led to bank accounts, it led to fast payments, it led to innovation through Diksha and SWAYAM in education, it led to Digi Locker, it led to startups providing paperless cashless credit. Other startups started doing a wealth creation taking stock markets to tier-II, tier-III cities. And then we had many startups doing cashless paperless insurance. So we believe that this is the first time that a developing nation has come up with a technological solution, which really will be critical for the world. Because you can technologically pole vault, you can really bring in greater level of financial inclusion, you can actually build up identity banking, fast payments through the digital public infrastructure.

The challenge is that there is no governance structure on that. There was a lack of a definition of DPI, though the first DPI’s really started with the Internet but there is no definition as of now. So the G20s aim was to really first say that there is something called a digital public infrastructure, define it, standardise it, and then built up an international architecture for its governance. A lot of that work has been done during the course of India’s presidency. But more than anything else, what India has done is to evangelise DPI through the year, we’ve held a host of workshops, we’ve held a host of seminars, we’ve evangelised it to an extent where everybody accepts that this is truly the future of the world. The digital public infrastructure is the alternative model, which the world must take forward.

Q: Speaking of this alternate model that India intends to showcase at the G20. I want to come back to what you said that there is a vacuum in terms of governance framework. In fact, there is no definition of digital public infrastructure, loosely at least as far as the India experience is concerned it is said to be societal scale digital solutions or digital systems that are really at population scale. So, has the taskforce now arrived at a definition as well as a governance framework that will be presented perhaps as part of the presidency that India will take forward at the ministerial?

A: What we have tried to do through the course of the year is the basic acceptance that there is something called digital public infrastructure, which is based on open source, open API, interoperability, lay down some principles, have the high level principles of it defined, take them forward. That is what the Digital Economy Working Group, which is actually meeting at present will be doing, and the ministerial level will be doing and taking it forward.

I think, we’ve done a lot of…huge amount of work through the year on this. And I think we will be successful in getting a definition out, we will be successful in laying down the broad principles and laying down broadly an architecture which will enable us to lay down the international governance and financing of digital public infrastructure.

Financing also is critical, because it’s important to understand that there are four billion people in the world who do not have a digital identity, there are two and a half billion people who do not have a bank account and there are 133 countries in the world, which do not have even fast payments. So if you do not have this, then it’s very difficult to lift people above poverty line and it’s very difficult to do direct benefit transfers, which India was able to do during the COVID-19…we were able to put money into the bank accounts of 800 million people straight away.

For the global South, which is India’s priority, it is very important that we are able to do this. And that is what we will be doing during the course of our presidency. We have done this very effectively throughout, we will crystallise it, finalise it, and spearhead it during the course of our presidency.

Q: You said that there is broad consensus on a definition as far as digital public infrastructure is concerned, as well as the broad principles for the governance framework. But if you could shed some light on where things stand, what are the defining sort of pillars that we could perhaps see in the finalised text?

A: So it would be premature for me because the ministerial meeting is going on right now. And then it will come to the Sherpa track, and then it will go finally, to the leaders. But the important thing is that there is a broad understanding between all countries that DPIs are important. Though all the G7 countries- Europe, America, Russia, everybody accepts that DPI is the way forward and that is important for us. There is a broad acceptance that DPIs have to be based on open source, open API’s and interoperability, there is a broad acceptance, and therefore, we would we will take this forward. But the element of DPIs have got reflected in various other working groups as well. For instance, in the health track, there’s been a lot of discussion on how DPIs can be utilised for improvement of health outcomes.

In the development working groups, we’ve used data for governance and how data can be used in a very big and a very powerful manner to improve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) very effectively. And we’ve also seen very powerfully, the implementation of DPIs in agriculture sector, so how digitisation and the use of data can be a very big driver of change and transformation in the agriculture sector.

So DPI really cuts across, and in the case of financial inclusion, it comes in the finance track. So what we’ve seen is DPI has cut through all the Sherpa track, it cuts through finance track, and it has become the center of technological transformation and digital public infrastructure is one of our key priorities and DPI figures very prominently in them.

Q: Speaking of the emphasis on digital public infrastructure and something that we intend to showcase, I want to understand where you see potential global cooperation. As far as payments is concerned, we’ve now seen India ink several agreements with other countries for taking the UPI outside of our own borders. We’ve seen similar talks as far as Cowin is concerned, not sure what has happened on that front, but where are the potential areas of global cooperation that you foresee? What about the Aadhaar and the basis of digital identity?

A: So you’ve seen a lot of work on this being done through MOSIP and IIIT Bangalore, you’ve seen a lot of this work, innovation happening through our development finance, and we’ve tried to work on several fronts and taking forward the MOSIP framework to several countries of the global South. In fact, a large number of countries from the global South have come and innovated with MOSIP so that they can straightaway take digital identity which can be adapted to their country.

You’ve also seen a vast number of countries utilising fast payments of India UPI and linking it up to their payment system very effectively. So what we’ve seen during the G20 presidency is a scaling up of our ambition, and our ability to take our learnings to many other countries. And we will continue to scale that up, as I said that 133 countries require fast payments in the world, we will continue to scale that up very vigorously. And I think what we would require as an alliance where resources can be put in which many other countries, including IMF and World Bank are keen to do, some of that solution we will find during our presidency, but we’ll continue to pursue this as an aggressive agenda throughout G20 in future as well, so that the digital public infrastructure becomes a reality for the world of tomorrow.

Q: On this alliance that you spoke of, what is the thinking there? Is this alliance going to sort of be the body that looks at global governance when it comes to digital public infrastructure? Or is it also looking at ways of financing because, when we talk about digital public infrastructure, the assumption is that it will continue to be financed by the public, i.e by the sovereign, by the government. So what is this alliance likely to do? Look at governance or also look at ways of financing, given the aspects of global cooperation you just spoke off?

A: So one is that it’s important to understand that in DPIs, both the public and the private play a key role. In India, a lot of innovation and competition in the marketplace has come from the private sector. So private sector has a very critical play. The public sector comes in only as far as the public interest component is concerned. And on top of that public interest layer, private sector competes. So without the private sector, you would not have had stock markets reaching the rural areas and tier-II, tier-III cities, you would not have seen insurance, you would not have seen credit flow in a big way, nor would you have seen fast payments to this extent where PhonePe competes with Google Pay and WhatsApp competes with Paytm. So you’ve seen a whole range of new startups emerging, you’ve seen Zerodha, Upstox, Groww, you’ve seen Go Digit, Acko, all these are companies which could grow, they became national assets on the back of the public interest layer that India had built up. And I think that is the strategy which every other country will need to work on, that build the public interest layer on top of which private sector competes. That’s important. But the basic principles of that is and which needs to be accepted- the architecture of the digital public infrastructure is what you will see getting accepted during the course of our G20 presidency, that’s important.

Second is about building an alliance on which work is still going on, on whether this needs to be driven by a range of companies or whether it needs to be driven by international financial institution, that is what we are trying to configure and we’ll take it forward in the coming years.

Q: So two potential announcements, one on the possibility of an alliance that looks at governance as well as financing issues. And two, as you pointed out, the governance framework, the architecture, as far as digital public infrastructure is concerned?

A: Some of these issues will be discussed during the Digital Economy Working Group ministerial meeting, which is presently on right now.

Q: Talking about our own experience, and while there has been significant progress, specifically on issues like identity, as well as on better targeting of fiscal measures on the part of the government, there continue to be some more areas where we need to put better safeguards in place to ensure that there is greater access, but also ensure that the shortcomings are rectified. For instance, let’s see what the CAG has pointed out as far as the Ayushman Bharat scheme is concerned where one mobile number is linked to several lakh beneficiaries. So given the experience, as well as the learnings, what do you believe needs to be done, where we find ourselves at this juncture where significant progress has been made, but there is distance to be covered?

A: Some of these issues which CAG has raised have been responded to by the then CEO in an article today in Times of India, and I think you should read that to figure out that a lot of institutional measures were in place for that, and I don’t want to get into that issue. But the important issue to my mind is, that there are two critical challenges for the world- one is, cyber security will play a key role and therefore there have to be principles of cyber security, which need to be accepted across G20 countries, which is critical. Second is that, increasingly, you’ll see a lot of convergence of artificial intelligence with digital public infrastructure as you’ve seen increasingly you will have local languages being used to raise queries and respond to them and getting an immediate answer on which government scheme will be best suited for a beneficiary in, say, the rural areas of Bihar or the rural area of Orissa, and so on. So I think the future really lies in building up cyber security to a great extent, and also the use of artificial intelligence, which to my mind will be very critical, because AI will provide a lot of ability to technologically leapfrog for the benefit of our citizens in rural areas.

Q: So are there any specific areas if this in a sense is likely to be the second wave of disruption, specifically in the context of AI being merged with some of these initiatives that we just spoke off? Are there any focus areas where we could see this being built out?

A: The issue of AI will definitely come at the leaders level, because this is an important issue in terms of generative AI, in terms of regulation, in terms of its evolution. So some of these issues will come up for discussion before the leaders as well.

Q: I also want to ask you, as I pointed out we are in the last lap now, approaching those big dates in September, when we are going to see world leaders here in India, I imagine that you’re having sleepless nights virtually as part of the negotiating process, as well as ensuring that everything is in order. Take me through where things currently stand and what is keeping you most excited at this point in time?

A: So we are in the process of negotiating the leaders declaration, which is a very challenging and a tough job. So we do that negotiation from two o’clock in the afternoon and it goes on till late night. Every word, every comma, every full stop, is fought for by different countries. Different countries are at different stages of growth and evolution and therefore on a range of issues including digital transformation, climate, energy, you have to bring everybody along. G20, is about your ability to bring consensus, your ability to take everybody along. And that has been a very exciting, tough, and a hard working area. But I think it’s a very fascinating area to work around. The Prime Minister has given us the task to be inclusive, decisive, ambitious and action oriented, and that is what we are trying to do in the New Delhi leaders declaration.

Q: It’s also challenging environment geopolitically given where we find ourselves with Russia, as well as with China. And there is a significant trust deficit on the part of the world in dealing with both these nations at this point in time, how much harder is that making, arriving at a consensus for you?

A: For us the focus has been on developmental issues, focus has been on all issues of sustainable development goals of issues of driving strong sustainable growth, inclusive growth as well. Focus has been on technological transformation, on multilateral institutions of 21st century and gender and women empowerment. We’ve right now put Ukraine on a back burner. That’s not an issue of importance, as far as development and growth is concerned, that’s not an issue of importance for the global South. We’ve acted like the voice of the global South. That is an important issue for some countries, but I think we should leave it. I don’t think we should bother too much. We should continue to focus on developmental issues at present.

Q: Let me end by asking you about the preparation now for the ministerial. Having so many world leaders in the capital at one time is going to be challenging from a security point of view, from an infrastructure point of view, just give us a sense of the kind of arrangements that are being put in place to ensure that that this runs smoothly?

A: We are going to work very hard and we are doing that work, we will bring out the best of India, we will improve our infrastructure, we will ensure security, we will do everything possible. I would only request people living in Delhi to work from home or to move out of Delhi and have a nice holiday outside during the period of 6th September to 9th September, so that there’s no traffic breakdown in Delhi during that period and that common citizen is not impacted. But it would be good if they can have a nice holiday during that period so that we can conduct this G20 in a very coordinated and peaceful manner.

Q: Is the government going to incentivise this holiday, that you expect people to take between 6th September to 9th September?

A: We are not going to incentivise, we are just going to promote nice holiday for citizens so that they can go and take a break during this period or work from home.

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Digital public infrastructure: First time a developing nation has devised a tech solution, says Amitabh Kant

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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“I think the important thing to realise is that there is a vacuum in the governance of pivotal public infrastructure,” Amitabh Kant, the Indian G20 Sherpa, told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview. He highlighted how India’s innovative strategy is addressing this governance gap and reshaping the global technological landscape.

“What India did was to create an alternative… we built on open source, open API interoperability,” he said. Kant’s words underscore the crux of India’s approach — harnessing a public interest layer that supports private sector innovation. This unique model has led to the development of a robust digital public infrastructure (DPI), where private enterprises thrive within a framework of openness and collaboration.

“This is the first time that a developing nation has come up with a technological solution…” Kant said. His observation highlighted the significance of India’s DPI model, which has enabled digital identity, fast payments, and paperless credit, thereby fostering financial inclusion and empowerment. The success of direct benefit transfers to millions during crucial times exemplifies DPI’s real-world impact.

“The challenge is that there is no governance structure on that,” Kant said, thereby acknowledging a hurdle that DPI faces — the absence of a defined governance structure. He also spoke about the necessity of establishing an international architecture to guide DPI’s development. Moreover, Kant underlined the importance of financing, as DPI can bridge the digital divide for billions without access.

“A lot of work has been done during the course of India’s presidency,” Kant pointed out, delving into the convergence of AI with DPI. He aptly labelled AI as a “double-edged sword,” heralding remarkable advancements while posing significant security challenges. His stance underscored the urgency of robust cybersecurity measures to ensure the safety and integrity of DPI in the AI-driven landscape.

Kant stressed on the imperative of comprehensive cybersecurity frameworks to counter the evolving cyber threats. “Cybersecurity is absolutely essential,” he said. His concern echoed the broader call for a proactive global approach to safeguarding digital infrastructure.

“There is a broad understanding between all countries that DPIs are important… everybody accepts a DPI as the way forward,” he said. Kant’s assertion reveals the G20’s unanimous recognition of DPI’s significance.

From G7 nations to Europe, America, and Russia, the global community acknowledges the role of open source, open APIs, and interoperability in shaping DPI’s future.

Kant’s observation that “a large number of countries in the global South have come and innovated with Masek…” underscored the expanding influence of India’s DPI model. The global South’s engagement underscores the potential of DPI to empower nations worldwide, paving the way for financial inclusion, technological progress and sustainable growth.

Kant envisioned an alliance that brings together global entities, fostering the implementation of DPI worldwide. “What we would require is an alliance where resources can be put in which many other countries, including IMF and World Bank, are keen to do,” he said.

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UP may approve a special package for builders to waive penalties in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary case

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Uttar Pradesh cabinet may soon approve a special package for builders in Noida and Greater Noida as per the recommendations filed by the committee headed by former Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, CNBC Awaaz reported.

The report adds that the state government is all set to waive both penalties as well as interest imposed on builders for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary case.

The committee has also advised the Yogi Adityanath-led government that three authorities — Noida, Greater Noida, and the Yamuna Expressway — should allow the registry of flats without asking the defaulter developers to clear land cost dues, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The committee has made multiple recommendations to the UP government and finally submitted its report on Monday, which will affect at least 1,67,000 homebuyers waiting for possession for almost a decade. The state government has forwarded the recommendations to the three authorities for deliberation and action.

The government will thereafter give its final approval to the report either in its original form or with some changes made.

“We will discuss the report in the upcoming board meeting scheduled on August 13 and take an appropriate decision. We will follow the UP government’s directive on its implementation,” said Lokesh M, CEO of Noida authority said to Hindustan Times.

The Kant-led committee has further recommended that Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP-Rera) must identify finished projects still waiting for their occupancy certificate only because of remaining dues by its developers.

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High growth of 8-9% could be driven by manufacturing, urbanisation says Kant

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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High growth of 8-9 percent could be driven by focus on manufacturing and urbanisation, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.

“About 5,500 census towns need to have master planning, and sustainable urbanisation is the way forward, which is a huge opportunity to drive growth in India,” he said speaking at an event for release of report titled ‘The Rise of India’s Middle Class’.

The bulging middle class holds immense power to drive sustained economic, political and social growth in India, told Kant.

“As the number of middle class rises,” he said, “this will drive demand for quality healthcare, education, housing, consumer goods and many other things.”

The government increasingly will have to focus on education and health as well as creating job opportunities.

“The vision of India becoming a fully developed country by 2047 really implies that the middle class needs to be the key driver of India’s growth story,” the G20 Sherpa said.

“Rise of the Indian middle class is also indicative of economic transformation that the country has undergone over the decades. Since the 1991 reforms, millions have been propelled into the middle class. Technological advancements and sustained growth have also led to a growing and expanding middle class,” he said.

Talking about challenges Kant said, the southern part of India is growing and urbanising rapidly while the eastern part of India needs to do a lot of catching up because it’s the most populous part of the country.

Therefore, there is a need to ensure that there is a regional balance in growth.

If India has to achieve sustained growth over a long period of time, he said, India has to fire on all cylinders.

“It can’t be that you only depend on services sector that some economists are saying. If you have to grow jobs then you need to fire on all cylinders, you need to grow in services, you need to grow even more in manufacturing, you need to grow your food and you have to enhance your agricultural productivity, and you need to grow rapidly in urbanisation,” he added.

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India must fight corruption, raise per capita income for sustained growth: Economic experts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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To fuel its growth trajectory, India must fight corruption and raise its per capita income, economic experts Borge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, and Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, believe.

They made these remarks at the CII Annual Session 2023 in New Delhi. On the second day of the business conclave, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee held a plenary session with WEF President Borge Brende and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant. The annual conference is following the theme “Future Frontiers: Competitiveness, Technology, Sustainability and Internationalisation” this year.

The session, moderated by Banerjee, focused on India’s economic trajectory and the challenges it faces.

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During his address, Brende highlighted India’s potential for economic growth and expressed optimising about the nation’s future. He went so far as to assert that India has the capability of adding another trillion dollars to its economy within the next two years.

In order to achieve this, India must work on continuing to be stable, fighting corruption and removing red tape, he said.

Furthermore, Brende commended India’s thriving start-up ecosystem, noting that foreign direct investments (FDI) play a major role in supporting the growth of approximately 77,000 Indian start-ups. He also pointed to the success of US-based start-ups, attributing their achievements to the secure financial partners brought on board through types of funding.

He also cited a statistic that four out of 10 large market cap companies in India did not exist a decade ago.

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At the same session, Amitabh Kant, the G20 Sherpa for the year the nation holds the presidency, spoke on critical issues facing India. He stressed the need to significantly raise India’s per capita income and added that sustained economic growth of 8 to 9 percent for three decades is necessary to achieve this objective.

He also emphasised the urgency of climate action, pointing out that it is the most significant opportunity for Indian businesses today.

The CII annual session, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, provides a platform for policymakers, business leaders and experts to discuss and shape India’s economic agenda. This year the conference is of special significance as it coincides with India@75 and the G20 Presidency.

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G20 meet in Srinagar | Sherpa Amitabh Kant says no better place than Kashmir for shooting movies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Monday that there cannot be a better place than Kashmir for shooting movies and the centre has gone out of its way in providing assistance in shooting movies.

Srinagar, J&K | There cannot be a better place than Kashmir for shooting movies. We’ll (Centre) go out of our way in providing assistance in shooting movies and shoot locations and help to shift film destination from any other part to Kashmir: G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant pic.twitter.com/AE3hGFzyH7

— ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2023

Former NITI Aayog CEO said this as Jammu and Kashmir host the third tourism working group meeting of G20 countries in the capital Srinagar from May 22 to May 24. The newly formed union territory hosts its first major international event since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

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Furthering Kant’s sentiment of J&K being an ideal film location, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (MoS) for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said at the event that the majestic mountains, verdant valleys, the culture and mysticism of Jammu and Kashmir make it an ideal destination for film tourism.

Telugu superstar Ram Charan, who is invited as the chief guest for the event, said, “We love Kashmir. it is such a beautiful place. It is the best place they chose to have the G20 meeting.”

Charan also remembered his family’s long association with Kashmir.

“Kashmir is that kind of a place, I have been coming here since 1986, my father shot extensively here in Gulmarg and Sonamarg. I’ve shot in this auditorium in 2016. This place has something magical, it is such a surreal feeling coming to Kashmir, it draws the attention of everyone.”

New Delhi believes that this G20 event presents a unique opportunity to highlight the tourism potential and cultural richness of the region to the global community.

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Amitabh Kant calls for unfettered access to US nuclear technology to build small modular reactors

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant called for the United States to provide “unfettered access” to nuclear technology to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in India. Kant emphasised the need to involve the private sector in the atomic energy sector to leverage the efficiency benefits of SMRs.

He also suggested that India should collaborate with the US to establish the co-production of SMRs, leading to reduced costs and improved efficiency.

“India also needs to work with the US so that it is provided unfettered access to cutting edge technology by granting general authorisation to India,” Kant said addressing a session at the energy transition working group of G20 meeting in Mumbai.

”We should create an ability to co-produce SMRs in the US and India, and further bring down their costs,” Kant said adding that the initiative can be a win-win situation for both countries and will radically reduce time, cost overruns and and capex.

Also Read: India needs to scrap old labour laws, make infrastructure more accessible to create large scale companies, says Amitabh Kant

The career bureaucrat-turned-Sherpa said such an access will ultimately lead to manufacturing of SMRs in India and their export also.

It can be noted that India has struggled on the nuclear energy expansion front with big plants like the one at Jaitapur being built with French cooperation yet to take off.

On the domestic front, Kant advocated for private sector participation in the atomic energy sector. “Private sector participation needs to be allowed in the atomic energy sector for SMRs to take advantage of higher efficiencies,” he said, adding that state discoms should also build such plants of up to 300 MW capacity with help of the private sector.

The atomic energy regulatory board has to pitch in with needful regulations for timely execution of such projects, he said.

Advantages of SMRs lie in the speed of installation and cost savings, enhanced safety, flexibility of installation, base load power in support of renewables and better waste management, he said.

This is the time for policy changes to ensure that modular reactors are installed in India in a manner wherein installation is increased and cost is saved, he said.

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India needs to scrap old labour laws, make infrastructure more accessible to create large scale companies, says Amitabh Kant

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday stressed the need to scrap old labour laws, decriminalise them and make infrastructure far more accessible to ensure Indian companies penetrate the global markets and succeed in scale and size.

Speaking during the launch of his book Made in India: 75 Years of Business & Enterprise, Kant emphasized that the growth of MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) in India is contingent upon having very large companies.

During the book launch event, Kant also talked about India’s potential in the field of green hydrogen. According to him, green hydrogen is the area where India has the potential to become a world leader. Today, the cost of producing green hydrogen is $4.5 per kilogram, but Kant believes that India has the potential to bring it down to $1 per kilogram. Achieving this would require significant investment in technology and infrastructure.

Also Read: Amitabh Kant: Centre did its bit, now states need to buck up

Here are excerpts from a panel discussion at the book launch which also had N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, hosted by CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan.

Q: How do we actually get India to export more, how do we get India to take more share of global trade? In your book you address the issue of the fact that we only got a handful of large conglomerates, so how do you ensure that that number moves up? How do we ensure that we have thousands of scale enterprises and not just small enterprises because that is going to be responsible for the kind of growth aspirations that we have?

Kant: If you look back at the years when India has really grown and India has grown at 8-9 percent for four to five years, but it hasn’t grown for decades like other countries have done. However, every time we have done that, it’s because our exports have grown. So exports are the key to growth. And that really means that you need companies who will penetrate global markets, you need size and scale of manufacturing. And that’s why we brought in the PLI scheme.

The production linked incentive scheme was very simple. Many people mistake it for subsidy, it’s not. It says we want you to every year keep raising your production. You fix your targets and achieve them. If you don’t achieve them, you don’t get it. But in five years’ time, it gives you the opportunity to become global in size and scale. And once you have companies of that global size and scale, you will have tier-II manufacturers, tier-III manufacturers, like Maruti came in and then all these MSMEs came in the automobile sector because of Maruti, it’s an automatic backward-forward linkage.

Therefore you need large companies for MSMEs to flow. I mean MSMEs will grow if you have very large companies and then they will penetrate global markets. It’s very important. So I think for large companies to also happen in India, we need to scrap a lot of labour laws which were made a long time back, we need to decriminalize a lot which the Prime Minister is pushing for, you need to make your infrastructure far more easy because your logistic costs are high, that’s what Gati Shakti is doing. So a lot of that work is in action right now.

I think in the next 2 to 3 years, you’ll see India becoming more and more efficient in many of these areas to enable large scale and size. Look at the sectors where India has the potential. I think to my mind, green hydrogen is the area where India has the potential. Today the cost of producing green hydrogen is $4.5 per kilogram. India is the only country which is climatically blessed, it has top class entrepreneurship, it is possible for it to bring it down to $1 per kilogram. You can be the biggest producer and exporter to the world, but it will not happen without size and scale. So size and scale is really the key to it.

Q: At the Delhi launch of the book, external affairs minister said India is uniquely positioned, uniquely poised, but let’s not go around looking for the China fix of efficiency. If we don’t go looking for the China fix of efficiency, what is the India Fix going to be over the next 25 years?

N Chandrasekaran: It’s definitely a very, very unique opportunity for India for multiple reasons. There are three transitions and there are moving geopolitical situations. From the transition’s point of view, the first is digital and AI, second one is energy and third one is supply chain. In all the three transitions, I would say that India is probably the best placed country in the world.

First on the digital. Just two primary reasons. First, there is no country in the world which has demonstrated a large scale digital intervention and digital platform for public services delivery, which is transformative at scale, whether it is the UPI, Aadhaar or the Jan Dhan Yojana, we can go on an on.

The second thing on the digital side is it’s no secret that we have the best talent available from a digital point of view for the future. The scale and the depth that India has, again, it is unparalleled. You can add all the talent that’s available from next 10 countries but still they will fall short. So these two are big tail winds.

If you take the energy transition, India is probably the only country in the world which has to achieve the energy transition, purely only accounting for growth. Most other people, whatever be the country you take, their energy transition to renewable or new energy, what have you has to be substitution. Whereas in India, if whatever be the doubling, tripling, whatever is the GDP number you take by 2047, the needs of growth that we have between now and 2047 or 2050 is at least three times more than what we have.

And all of this will be new energy and we will do renewables, we will do wind, we will do solar, we will do 10 other technologies and that is a unique opportunity because with growth, you can fix anything. Priority should be growth, growth, growth.

And when you do something for growth, you are not so much under stress like when you do it for substitution.

Thirdly, the global supply chain is going to be rebuilt and it is being rebuilt as we speak. It is not that it is going to happen, it is happening. We are in the middle of that. Any supply chain is an ecosystem play. So I keep referring as India plus, I never use any other example of saying that we are replacing somebody, we are not replacing anyone. We have an opportunity to create a global alternative supply chain base, which I call it as India plus because India can’t do it alone. However just the sheer size, scale and everything else that we have positions India to be the lead in this alternative supply chain, somebody else cannot take the lead, it has to be India and India is taking the lead and the supply chain will get built over the next 10-30 years.

But above all of this, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, what has fundamentally changed is the belief and the aspiration of every Indian and every sector. You can feel it in the urban, you can feel it in the rural, you can feel it in poor people, rich people educated, uneducated, it is there everywhere.

As a country, we had the audacity in the middle of the COVID — when every other nation was going after Pfizer and Moderna, which normally we would have done how to find the money, run helter-skelter to see how to get Moderna Pfizer or which country we can import from, instead of all that to say that we will build our own vaccine in the middle of a crisis, there is something to be said about that.

So this whole Make in India, started as a campaign or a slogan. The slogan became a movement, movement became a belief and now we are in the execution phase. So I really believe that we should give ourselves the chance and we had to make bets. We have to take risks. Everything we do will not work, but it’s ok.

Q: You know, you’re right in pointing out that we are currently in the execution phase as far as Make in India is concerned. And in your words, the global supply chain is being rebuilt and India stands to gain from that rebuilding, so to speak. But you straddled both software services, which is where you spent a large part of your career and now outside of that as well, that has been the big India growth story that has been our engine of growth for several decades now, the aspiration of becoming the factory floor of the world, how easy or challenging will that be?

Chandrasekaran: Nothing is easy in life. All the business people will tell you that to make Rs 100 crore profit, even to become EBITDA positive is not easy. So we are not doing these things because something is easy. And if you are doing easy things, why we will succeed, everyone else will do the same thing. So I think we have to do things where we have a chance.

What is going for us? The geopolitics is going for us. It’s clear the current geopolitics, I think we are uniquely positioned and this will last for a few years. I don’t know, it will last for three years, five years, six years, I don’t know. And you cannot miss the moment.

So the geopolitics allows you to form partnerships – technology partnerships, finance partnerships, supply chain partnerships, customer supplier partnerships, all this is possible because the timing is there.

Second, we have the talent, yes, they are not skilled. We are putting together a complete value chain in the electronics. We are doing the precision manufacturing now. We are slowly moving into packaging, assembly, then getting into semiconductor testing, then we had to put a fab design, then eventually to vertically integrate, we had to put a fab – that’s the whole chain.

We have a lot of skills in India on the fab design, but we don’t have skills in precision manufacturing and it’s hard work. Some of us are working on a quality model also, but we have scale. So if we have the vision to do this, time is now, money will come.

While I am not going to say that it’s easy to get $10 billion-$50 billion, but money is available once you have the right project and right management team.

Q: Everyone is talking about how we can double as an economy by 2030 and so on and so forth. One issue I think we need to be mindful of and I think Amitabh Kant mentions that in his book very specifically, is let’s not get carried away with five to number three in the world, but let’s focus also as far as per capita is concerned and there is a big difference there, there is a big difference between us and some of the countries that we just spoke of. The other issue is the issue of financing. We have this aspiration, what will it take to finance this aspiration? Where will the financing come in from? And what do you believe will need to be done in terms of capacity and capability building specifically from that perspective?

Uday Kotak: Congratulations to Amitabh Kant, I think it’s a fantastic book. If you read the whole book, you must not miss the last chapter. The last chapter is about our future. It reminds me of a simple line- let’s not keep the baggage of history but learn from the lessons of history. And that’s in my view, what Amitabh Kant’s book highlights.

I have seen Amitabh in his own career, he has always explored the art of the possible and he is now mastering the science of execution because both going together is what is going to make it happen.

India stands out as one of the most stable financial systems in the world today. I want to publicly congratulate the RBI and the government for an outstanding job of making India stand out.

When I look at every night or every morning, one more bank in the US is in trouble or somebody in Europe is in trouble, I say we’ve got something right. We have got our act together, we have created a stable financial system, well capitalized and it’s a goldilocks time – lowest non-performing assets, clean credit, reasonable growth in the book, and none of these risk issues like we are seeing in the developed nations. So I genuinely feel very good about the stability and the solidity of the Indian financial sector.

Having said that taking a cue from Amitabh, where do we go from here? And how do we take this wonderful situation we are in? I think we need to be feeling good about ourselves, but always introspecting, what is it that we can do better? So if I think about capacity building in the financial sector, we really need to get some of the important guardrails in place. I think the concept of IBC was a great concept, it really was the basis of creditor being in control but I think there is work to be done. I think we really need to fix the judicial system which is consistent with a bankruptcy law because at the end of the day, if banks lend money, we must be able to recover the money. If we have a problem there, it constrains our ability to take better risk.

In the same context, I think we must now get this balance right between the needs of the corporate sector.

When N Chandrasekaran tells me that he wants to buy a Rs 50,000 crore company in India, I will have to tell him, please go to a foreign bank and get it funded outside because I cannot fund you in India. If we have to grow forward I think these are risks, I think Indian banks have to be able to understand and manage these risks like acquisition financing, project financing. We got into trouble on infrastructure financing. If you look at 2008 to 2018, it was a year when we did not get infrastructure financing right and banks took the wrong risks because the guard rails of the system were not in place. Therefore, we need a unified well-coordinated system.

I do believe India has the brain power and the risk management to be able to manage a financial sector which meets the aspirations of all of India’s growth as we go forward.

Q: Has N Chandrasekaran been talking to you about making a Rs 50,000 crore acquisition?

Uday Kotak: N Chandrasekaran doesn’t talk anything below Rs 100,000 crore.

Q: As you look at where we are today and as the landscape plays itself out, what are the big bets that you’re willing to make on the power of consumption and technology?

Falguni Nayar: I want to go back to the history that everyone is talking about. Being a startup representative, I want to just say that just around the time when Startup India movement started and I think that big photograph of PM Modi on a stage with a lot of startup entrepreneurs gave a lot of credibility to startup businesses.

In 2015, our turnover was about Rs 20 crore and from there, we’ve grown about 300 times and that is what gives us confidence that tomorrow is also there for our platforms. As I travel and meet our brand partners all over the world in beauty and in fashion, what I can say is that they are noticing India and they are noticing power of Indian millennials, power of GenZ, which is coming of age and they are very excited about what India has to offer.

I think India is becoming one of the top markets for all these players. And I’m convinced that the next decade will be the decade for Indian consumption. Obviously consumption is driven by income, so first incomes have to go up. But I’m very confident that the young India with the power of their enterprise will take India into a generation where both income and consumption will grow.

Talking of the platforms, I think Chandra already said that we are very aware that our platforms are some of the best in the world. When we meet against these, these global partners, they compliment us for having one of the best platforms. It’s not just about coming from India, but it’s in the world one of the best platforms are coming out of India because of the sheer talent that is available and ability to do complex task.

So I think if we were to marry technology with problems that we need to solve in the country, which is what most of the startup entrepreneurs have addressed, I think the sky is the limit in terms of driving our Indian consumption and attracting many of the global players to come into India to address those markets.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t export. So beyond that, we would of course like to dream how we can take our Indian brands into global markets.

Q: Whether it’s banks, world-class and world-size banks, which is what you were talking about, or it is world size and world-class companies that are exporting to the world, and of course, he highlights the Korea example several times over in the book to make that point. What will it take for us to be able to build size and scale, this missing middle has been one of our perennial problems, how do we address that? Are we at an inflection point of being able to address it?

Kotak: I think the mindset is positive. The mindset is about reform, taking the country forward. What we need to keep in mind is that as we go down this, we want many, many cars to run on the roads. And the more the cars are, the risk increases, there is of course, risk of accidents along the way. The answer to that is for us to get better road regulation, get our systems, our signals and all that in place. Rather than taking an approach that we have taken historically. Because there are accidents we don’t want so many cars on the road. Let’s encourage more cars, let us encourage and build more roads, traffic and congestion is an inevitable part of it, we will manage it. But we will have to take the risks of potential accidents along the way and manage those accidents, rather than saying we don’t want accidents.

Q: You have talked about bets and risks. What are the big bets and big risks that you are willing to make at this point in time?

Chandrasekaran: We were already doing a number of things, we are doing huge transitions in automotive, we have pivoted to electric vehicles, we have pivoted to fuel cell in commercial vehicles, then renewable power, both size and transition we are doing. We are working on carbon capture. We are putting together the electronics vertical, we are putting together the mobile telephony infrastructure, whether it’s 5G, 6G, and 6.5G. They are getting into batteries, lithium batteries, so I think we will do whatever is needed. And whatever we can do, we will do.

However, the point fundamental point is the opportunity is huge. If India has to realise its potential, forget about whether we will grow 6 percent 6.5 percent- 7 percent – it is good for some headlines every other week. I think the opportunity is even double-digit. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy.

I think what opportunity is not there – you take consumption. I think the trends are very clear. India is becoming a formal economy. The aspiration of the people is increasing, the per capita income is going to increase. The affordability for spending is increased and then once we cross – I think there is enough theory that the 3,000 mark, once it crosses, then you see a hockey stick in consumption. Whether it is $3,000, or $3,500 we don’t know.

But at the same time, we have a lot of disparity, one state is at $8,000 and another state is $800. So, we got to figure out a way to fix it, if you want to really capture the true power of consumption.

The second thing is demography, I think Amitabh Kant talked about age and so on so forth. So we have got do skilling, and we have to do 21st-century skilling. We have to differentiate between what is industrial skilling we need to, and what is digital skilling we need to do.

Similarly in the whole infrastructure, B2B side all these industries, everywhere there is so much growth opportunity. But it’s going to be a lot of hard work. It is going to be a little bit chaotic. Because order doesn’t come and Indians by general we like clarity out of chaos. So we will come through, but the point is we have to work at it.

Q: Let us address one of the issues because Mr. Kant brought up the demographic advantage and I think that gets held up very often, it is one of the critical advantages that India enjoys as the world ages. But where will the jobs come from? Skilling is one aspect. But where will the jobs come from? Especially as we are now talking about AI being the next disruption in India, leading in the AI war, and so on and so forth, where do you create the jobs for this demographic?

Chandrasekaran: I want to, first of all, tell you that the creation of all these industries are going to create a very strong MSME ecosystem. India needs 100 million jobs, and probably now 90 million jobs, whatever is the number, all of this is not going to come from big companies. So it’s going to come across sectors. There is going to be a huge amount of jobs that’s going to come in the consumption, hospitality, healthcare, and services sector can explore. The services sector, not only for India, and for the rest of the world.

There will be a remote healthcare, services sector, which in my opinion, can be another IT industry. Okay, if you are creating 10 million jobs and 10 or 15 million jobs in IT, but BPO, we can create a similar number of jobs in the healthcare sector, that is a potential. Will it happen tomorrow, it will not happen tomorrow? Will it happen over the next 10 years? Yes.

The hospitality sector is a big thing. Entire MSME ecosystem, if you are going to develop an electronic semiconductor base, the number of companies you will create is just enormous. Each of those companies will have 50, 100, 150, 200 people. And all of this will mushroom, wherever these companies are housed, all those companies will come.

There is no reason for the electronics manufacturing semiconductor, not to repeat the IT industry, why not. We can repeat the whole model again, it’s just not that it is exactly a copy of the same thing. But the potential is the same thing because the world needs it. The world is going to need chips. There will always be volatility, this year they will say, no, no, now there is a glut. But it will change because there is no way technology and chips are going to disappear. So I think the opportunity is there, but it’s just that we try to capture it in one spreadsheet, it is not possible.

Q: Speaking of capturing in spreadsheets let us address this issue with you as well. Chandrasekaran was talking about the opportunity of creating another IT services sector in India, it could be remote health, for instance, as an example that he held up? This aspiration, of moving from having been the back office of the world and that is the experience that we have had for over two decades now and we have delivered on that successfully, to being the front office of the world, and the potential that that holds up?

Kotak: COVID has opened our eyes to the new vistas of opportunity. What COVID did is you could be in any part of the world and virtually operate in any other part of the world. This is India’s biggest opportunity. We have thought about most of our software services as significantly back office. We have to change our mindset that an office for somebody in America is operating out of Chennai, or Calicut. We have got to make that change in our minds. And I think the world is much more open to having a lot more jobs happening from anywhere in the world in the virtual dynamism which we are seeing post-COVID.

COVID has really opened up huge possibilities for India to have the front-end office jobs, combine it with AI and various other opportunities India can be the leading office of the world front or back. We need to take that opportunity now because that’s where Chandra, we can create a lot of jobs. I agree healthcare is another big one. And again, there will be out-of-the-box areas for jobs. Sports, you are talking about IPL, Kabaddi, so many games, sports is going to be the next big thing.

We happen to be as a family, we associated with a Kabaddi team, Kabaddi players who barely had enough subsistence or today making a crore, Rs 2 crores of. Those jobs did not exist. So we have a whole new generation and imagination.

Leisure is going to be a big industry. So let’s not sort of restrict our imagination of the future of jobs. Let us open our vista and we will create a completely new paradigm of opportunities across the board.

Chandrasekaran: Another sector is tourism, and it is a huge sector. So, it is a question of identifying and the devil is in detail; each of these must be mapped and each one of these has huge potential. So, the opportunity is there, but there is no easy picking.

Q: Let us address, some of the other untapped opportunities that we just spoke of. I think one of the things that both we heard from Mr. Kotak, as well as Chandra, was this ecosystem effect, as far as small businesses are concerned. Platforms like yours give air to a lot of private labels, what has been the experience of seeing this ecosystem being created? And where do you see this going? My second question to you is because if India has to grow at 10 percent, or 10 percent plus, which is what everybody here is talking about, it cannot do it without its women. Unfortunately, we have seen a not-so-great trend on that front, whether it’s labor force participation or women in entrepreneurship. I mean, even today to hear you being called out as a woman business leader, I mean, that tells us the story as well, doesn’t it? So what will it take to create this ecosystem of enterprises at the small and medium level that will have access to platforms like yours? And how do we just get more women to work?

Nayar:  I will first address the first question and I think, again, small is beautiful is always what I will have to say. If you look at the global supply chain and fashion, the company that is doing well in the US and giving a run for its money to all of the US fashion labels is someone who believes in small lot production that they do in China. And through that, because I think today’s consumer wants a lot of, newness and stuff like that so through that they are addressing the needs of the entire country like the US.

I think India is very well suited for that and I think platforms like ours, what we do is that we have more than 6,000-7,000 brands, and each of them is getting size and scale in India because when you want to become an exporter, the home market size and scale is important. So when you have size and scale in the country, and on top of that aspire for exports, so at least in beauty and fashion, where even small is beautiful, I see a lot of brands coming out of India meeting like about direct to consumer stories.

There are so many brands that have sprung up and when you give, foreign brands run for its money by being as popular as an Indian brand in the country that itself is the replacement of jobs that would have otherwise gone abroad. So I think replacing international production in the country, as well as having a strong base that allows you to export and aspire to export is great.

I personally feel that the MSME component is going to be very strong going forward, thanks to platforms, which will take away a lot of headaches. We say that will take away your supply chain headaches, we will tell you how much you should produce, and how much we will buy. We will take away your sales and marketing headache. So I think that allows them to use this skill on innovation and marketing.

Talking about women, I have always said that I don’t like to compartmentalize women and I personally feel that since women hold half the sky, I won’t be satisfied till I really see equal numbers. So I mean, seeing small numbers is not really worth talking about till we get there. But my only thing is that I think empowerment begins at home. And I would like to see each of the men empowered, closest to their home for women to make progress. With that, I think it also comes from confidence. I am just fortunate to have Nykaa stand for women’s empowerment.

As we started building a brand, a lot of women came up to us and said we really love the fact that you are asking us to dream, because for too long, women have not even dared to dream. I think if they can only dream for themselves, the world will be theirs. So with that, I think we have a long way to go. So with that, I hope for the best.

But I think India has a very fortunate place and this is a very fortunate century decade, whatever you say for women, and it will only be positive from here that also I can predict.

Q: Falguni talked about the ability to dream, and I know that all of you sitting here on this stage have always believed in dreaming big. What’s the next big dream that you have for the bank but more importantly for India?

Kotak: I would love to see a financial institution from India be amongst the top two or three in the world.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow