From: kudu@enel.ucalgary.ca (Gopi Kuduvalli, The Gemini)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Why we can't make fighter planes ?
Date: 5 Apr 92 08:05:32 GMT
Organization: The University of Calgary

The short answer to all your questions is one word: ECONOMICS.

I have always wondered at the general lack of understanding of the 
economic priniciples behind industrialization in this forum. The reason 
may be the near-absence of exposure to economic ideas other than 
socialism is India, especially amongst engineers. Agreed, that there is
small minority of engineers who pursue an economics or management-oriented 
graduates studies. Also, the basic commerce degrees in all the Indian
universities (presumably) teach the fundamentals of both interventionist and
free-market economies. However, debates comparing the two economic systems 
are almost never heard amongst the common educated class (!?). The result
has been a tacit assumption among most people, and particularly engineers
(they are the ones matter in building economies), that the default 
system of economy is socialist/interventionist. Even after being 
exposed to the free-market/capitalist way of thinking of the West, most
engineers (R. Parthsarathy, an example?) seem uninitiated into discussing
the relative importance of the socilaistic way of thinking for the pathetic
economic performance of post-independence India.

Now, I will not get into a discussion of laissez-faire, free-market economy
vs socialist economy. The answer to why we (Indians/India) are not
making any fighter jets is the question: Where is the funding for such
project going to come from? All of the Govt.s exchequer is drained in
subsidising lossy public sector enterprises and other havily govt. funded
ventures. If a project as complex as building fighter jets is to be 
funded by the govt., firstly, the people involved (the engineers, the workers) 
must be in a financially secure and comfortable enough position to execute
the project. In other words, the general economic situation of the country 
itself has to be healthy. Othewise the people working in the project 
see that a mega-project is being funded by the govt. out of tax-payers
money, while the workers themselves are at a disillusioned state 
with their financial status. 

Secondly, there should be graceful (?) way of eliminating people who are not 
able to contribute to the project. i.e, the inefficient section of the 
workers/engineers should be LAID OFF. Now, the socialistic paradigm with
which the industry is managed in India, with the concomitant (archaic)
ideas of job security and employment for the sake of keeping people 
employed, creates large chunks of work force in organizations that are
highly inefficient or some times even non-working. The result result of
a combination of financially disillusioned, and non-working work force, 
is a half-hearted, inefficient execution of the project being undertaken 
leading to a low-quality product or still worse-- the total failure of 
the project.

So, in summary, no fighter jets until we achieve economic growth.

-- 
-- Gopi, The Gemini (kudu@enel.UCalgary.CA)
"Abbreviators' job is to make the best of a job, which though intrinsically
bad, is better than nothing"
			- Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World Revisited"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian