Professor Vyjanati Raghavan on Rajya Sabha TV- India-Korea Relations

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forget About Wooing Korea on Indian Standard Time( Vyjayanti Raghavan Centre for Korean Studies, JNU, New Delhi)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul on Monday [Credit: PTI]

Narendra Modi, who has visited 17 countries in the one year that he’s been Prime Minister, made his latest stop in South Korea at the end of a three-nation Asian tour that took him to China and Mongolia.

In Korea, he talked about ‘Make in India’. He talked about Asian Unity. He talked about defence cooperation. He talked about international institutions and the need to reform them. He talked about security dialogues.
India and Korea signed seven agreements, described in the MEA’s usual way as ‘wide-ranging’. But the question now is: What are they worth and will India meet Korean expectations, especially on the economic side?
If the past is anything to go by, the Koreans may well be in for a disappointment. After all, P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in their time had also invited Korea’s small and medium scale firms to come and invest in India. To date, however, there are only 300 Korean firms functioning in India. Their number is growing, but at a snail’s pace.

Hare and tortoise

The main reason is that India and Korea have very different notions of time. One places very little value on it; the other thinks the only way to live is in a hurry, what they call palli, palli (jaldi, jaldi or seekram, seekram, as we might say in Hindi or Tamil).

For the past 40 years, the talk has been there but the walk is missing. Every time an Indian PM goes there, starting with Rao in 1993, to the latest by Narendra Modi, we hear all the right noises. Some progress, like on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, is even made.

But it all remains on paper, except perhaps in the field of education where the connections have indeed widened and deepened. In fact, the political, strategic and cultural dimensions of the India-Korea relationship remain almost at the same level where they were 30 years ago — in the realm of hope and possibilities.

There’s much that could be done if only we could get our act together. Nothing exemplifies this more than the POSCO fiasco. It has come to define the relationship.

The story is worth retelling. Korea came to India with a $12 billion investment proposal in 2005, the largest FDI project that any country had brought in till then. I was in Korea when the news broke and there was much excitement: the Koreans thought this would be their gateway to the 1.2 billion people Indian market for their goods.

They were in for a big surprise. They soon realised that the Indian system did not function in any way that they had ever encountered anywhere in the world. They simply could not fathom its ellipses.
They have waited patiently — and are doing so even now. But time is running out, just the way the MOU did. It came up for renewal in 2011 and the Koreans just let it slide.

If Modi really wants to send a message that India is serious about Korea – over-ruling the External Affairs ministry’s arrogance that the Koreans have no place else to go – he will switch to Korean time for the execution of whatever the two countries agree to do together. Indian standard time will simply not do.

For Koreans promises made must be kept. ‘Yaksok’ in Korean means both a promise and an appointment. Both are sacrosanct. Neither the promise nor the time schedule can be reneged upon.
Unfortunately the Indian style ‘vaada’ is only a verbal promise and like everything else can be changed to suit the context. In this case, India would be a big loser as the Koreans now have no dearth of countries waiting for their investments.

What next

Net-net, India has to get its act together on the economic side because this will then propel cooperation in other areas like marine technology, space technology, ship building, nuclear technology, green technology, R&D in defence and maritime security etc. They could pursue broader joint engagement in global forums like the WTO, G-20, the east Asia Summit, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, that Asean is floating as a free trade area for the Asean+6 countries, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and perhaps the Trans-Pacific Patnership (that currently excludes India) too.

Once Korea is convinced that India means business, they will support it in all forums including for a permanent position at the UN Security Council.

Let’s not forget how, when the going became good on the economic front, the Koreans went to great lengths to ferret out historical linkages between the two nations. They trotted out the story of an Ayodhya princess sailing to Korea and marrying a Korean king and starting an Indian bloodline; they spotted Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry; then came talk about Gandhiji’s influence and, the similarity between Tamil and Korean, not to mention the similarity in folk games like gilli-danda and Jachigi!

India’s turn

Personally speaking – and here I am in total sync with Modi – one area where I think we could greatly benefit from the Koreans is in acquiring professionalism. The commitment to deliver what has been promised and the lengths to which they can stretch themselves in order to adhere to an agreed time-frame is something worth emulating.

That said, it’s not been an entirely dreary story. India-Korea bilateral trade has grown from a mere $500 million in the early 1990s to about $18 billion now. Korean electronic products, mobile phone handsets and even cars have managed to push out many other giants, including Japanese ones, and grab a sizeable portion of the market through what they call their ‘nunchi’ power — the power to sense what the sangdaebang or ‘the other party’ wants.

But this is a case of been there, done that. Now the time has come to push the relationship further.

The responsibility for this is entirely India’s.

Chinese, South Korean firms to set up plants in India

Around 60% of the investment for setting up transmission infrastructure goes towards equipment with the market size estimated to be around Rs.14,000 crore. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

New Delhi: Attracted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme, and, more pertinently, to meet conditions that make it mandatory for foreign companies wishing to sell equipment to large Indian government projects to have factories in India, China’s Baoding Tianwei Group Ltd (BTW) and South Korea’s Hyosung Corp. plan to set up electricity transmission equipment manufacturing facilities in the country.

India and China have been at odds over the supply of cheap Chinese equipment to Indian firms in sectors such as telecom and power generation over security and quality concerns.

“Due to the mandatory requirement that one needs to have a manufacturing base in India and the size of the electricity transmission equipment market here, firm such as BTW and Hyosung have firmed up plans to manufacture transformers and reactors here,” said a person aware of the development requesting anonymity.

High-voltage transformers are used to pump up voltage or to bring it down for electricity transfer across long distances and will play an important role in increasing the footprint of the national grid. Around 60% of the investment for setting up transmission infrastructure goes towards equipment with the market size estimated to be around Rs.14,000 crore. India has installed power generation capacity of 258,701.46 MW.

Queries emailed to BTW remained unanswered till press time. Repeated phone calls to Hyosung’s New Delhi office also remained unanswered.

State-owned Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), which operates around 113,587 circuit km of transmission lines plans to spend Rs.1 trillion to increase India’s inter-regional power transfer capacity of 46,450 MW to 72,250MW by 2017.

Some other firms that supply equipment in the high-voltage segment are Siemens AG, ABB Ltd, Areva SA, Alstom and state owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel). This comes in the backdrop of 300 million Indians lacking access to electricity with per-capita electricity consumption being one-fourth of the world’s average.

Mint reported on 27 May 2010 that PGCIL was making it mandatory for overseas equipment suppliers to have factories in India to participate in its tenders, ruling out imports from China. Another state-run firm, NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power generator, has also made domestic manufacturing a pre-qualification criteria for companies to bid for its equipment tenders.

Subsequently, China’s largest manufacturer of high-voltage transformers, Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. Ltd (TBEA), which has been a major supplier of transformers and reactors to the Indian transmission sector started manufacturing locally.

“PGCIL has been increasingly mandating the supply of power transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment from facilities in India, besides specifying a local service setup in India for HV (high voltage) and EHV (extra high voltage) power T&D equipments, as clause in the PQR (pre qualification requirment). This has resulted in many global Power T&D majors (Alstom T&D, ABB, Siemens, etc.) setting up local facilities in India for manufacturing HV and EHV equipments (viz Transformers, Reactors etc.),” said Amol Kotwal director, energy and environment practice (South Asia & Middle East) at Frost & Sullivan.

The electricity transmission equipment firms’ plans comes at a time when US-based First Solar Inc. and China’s Trina Solar—the world’s largest maker of photovoltaic modules—is considering plans to set up manufacturing facilities in India, drawn by the nation’s ambitious solar power generation target.

Modi, after leading the National Democratic Alliance to victory in the April-May general election, launched the Make In India campaign in September to attract foreign companies to invest and manufacture in India and export to other countries.

Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have placed special emphasis on manufacturing, in which India lags behind Asian economies such as China, to boost economic growth.

“The Chinese equipment suppliers, not to be left behind, have also established facilities in an effort to tap the burgeoning demand for Power T&D equipments in India and meeting PGCIL’s domestic content clause. TBEA has already set up a huge Green Energy Park at Vadodara,” Frost & Sullivan’s Kotwal said.

“Given this trend, it is expected that Korean and other Chinese majors shall soon follow in setting up their manufacturing facilities in India.”

source:livemint

India may produce more cars than Korea in the near future

Hae-lck Lee, executive director of the Korea Automotive Industry Globalization Foundation, spoke to Jaishankar Jayaramiah on the sidelines of the recent ACMA Automechanika New Delhi 2015 trade fair about the Korean automotive industry and its bilateral trade with India.

How many companies from Korea participated in the expo and what was their main agenda?This is the first time that we participated in ACMA Automechanika New Delhi. We had as many as 15 companies including our foundation. Almost all are manufacturers and exporters and a few are into trading. They are mainly looking to tap the market for their products in India and export. We have earlier participated at the Auto Expo with 16 companies and are satisfied with the results. I think ACMA Automechanika New Delhi will also satisfy the Korean exhibitors.

How important is Indian market is for you and why?As you see in the world market, China is very developed as they are producing many cars while European and North American markets are fully matured. But the Indian market is pre-matured and there is much potential for the expansion of the Indian market in the future. Hence Korean auto component makers see India as their potential market. Both India and Brazil are important for us. India comes first but even though Brazil is a small market, it is important for us.


Can you throw light on the Korean vehicle market so as to see its impact in the world market, particularly in connection to India?In the near future, India may produce more cars than Korea. Our car production in Korea is almost the same every year or a little bit reduced of late because Korean vehicle makers have increased their overseas production including by Hyundai in India.
Korean automakers’ overseas production has increased hugely, touching 4,414,000 units in 2014. The market share of imported cars also has increased to 13.9 percent in 2014 from a meagre 0.4 percent in CY2000 and it is forecasted to be more than 20 percent in 2-3 years. Automobile production in Korea declined from 4,562,000 units in 2012 to 4,521,000 units in 2013.
In overall Korean automobile production, Hyundai ranks first as it accounts for 41.5 percent with 1,876,408 units. It is followed by Kia with 37.8 percent at 1,712,485 units while GM Korea is in third place with 13.9 percent by clocking 629,230 units in sales. Fourth is Renault Samsung with 3.4 percent and sales of 152,138 units. Fifth, sixth and seventh places go to SsangYong, Tata Daewoo and Daewoo Bus with market shares of 3.1 percent (140,259 vehicles), 0.2 percent (11,173 units) and 0.1 percent (3,239 units) respectively.


Can you detail the Korean automotive parts market and its synthesis?

The size of the Korean auto parts market is about $ 68 billion with a growth rate of 10-15 percent after the year 2000. The estimated amount of auto parts exports in 2014 stood at $ 26, 635 million, up from $ 5,925 million in 2004 and our main customers are Asia, North America and European Union. These are also the three main regions from where Korea has been importing parts. Auto parts imports by Korea has increased from $ 2,791 million in 2004 to an estimated $ 4,845 million in 2014.


What is the status of bi-lateral trade between India and Korea in terms of both imports and exports of automotive parts?

The share of Korea’s exports to India recently reduced. The country exported $ 1,552,052 worth of auto parts to India in 2011 and increased this further to $ 1,593,720 in 2012. But the level dropped to $ 1,251,537 in 2013. It is estimated to touch $ 1,064,542 in 2014.
At the same time, its imports from India also fell in 2012 and 2013 but it seems to have recovered in 2014. Auto part imports from India stood at $ 59,556, which declined to $ 49,951 in 2012 and further tumbled to $ 45,061 in 2013. It is estimated to bounce back to touch $ 51,832 in 2014. India shares about 1 percent of Korea’s auto parts import every year. Considering the large market size of India, this is nothing. We expect our exports to India will increase to $ 5 billion in the next 5-7 years.


Can you list out the highlights of the Korean automotive industry witnessed in recent years?

The Korean vehicle giants are investing in technologies for next-generation vehicles like green cars (clean diesel, HEV, PHEV, EV, FCV and Smart Cars, Convergence with electronics, ICT and energy besides in the areas like new material development for lightweight vehicles.


What are the steps taken by the foundation to develop the Korean auto parts industry?

AIN Global Foundation (Korea Automotive Industry Globalization Foundation) was established in December 1999 as a non-profit entity under the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy to support Korean small and medium-sized automotive companies. Its main business is organizing Korean automotive industry exhibitions, participating in overseas exhibitions with a Korea pavilion, organizing conferences, seminars and research conclaves. We plan to participate in 10 international expos under the Korea pavilion including ACMA Automechanika New Delhi, Automechanika Dubai and SAE World Congress Detroit. The Korean government has been supporting our participation in some expos.


China is emerging as a major competitor in the global auto components industry. Being another major auto player in Asia, how does Korea view this?Yes it is notable and a very tough situation. Korean companies may not be able to compete with the Chinese companies but we are concentrating on developing technologies and competing on  quality. Who knows India may also emerge as a major player in the future as already the labour costs have been fast rising in China.
source:autocarpro.in

Korea-India ties celebrated on Republic Day

   

                            Diplomatic soiree is held after Park’s visit and before Modi’s

	Indian Ambassador Vishnu Prakash, center; Jeong Kab-yoon, right, the National Assembly vice speaker; and Kim Ki-jai, the former minister of government administration and home affairs, light a traditional Indian lamp on Jan. 26 at the 66th Republic Day of India celebration held at the Millennium Seoul Hilton in Jung District, central Seoul. By Park Sang-moon

The Embassy of India last week commemorated the country’s 66th Republic Day with an event at the Millennium Seoul Hilton in Jung District, central Seoul, which was attended by approximately 400 people.

Republic Day commemorates the adoption of India’s constitution and is one of the three national holidays celebrated in the South Asian country, along with the Independence Day on Aug. 15, and Gandhi Jayanti on Oct. 2.

In a welcoming address on Jan. 26, Indian Ambassador Vishnu Prakash underscored Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory last May in a landslide election.

He also highlighted key diplomatic steps during the past year to strengthen ties between India and Korea, such as President Park Geun-hye’s state visit in January.

Prakash also noted the plan by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) to establish Korea’s first industrial park in India, in the state of Rajasthan, adding that he was pushing ahead with organizing Modi’s state visit to Korea later this year.

“The past three years working in Korea were three great years - and the best three years of my life,” he said. “I feel like [it has only been] three months” since landing here.

Jeong Kab-yoon, the National Assembly vice speaker who participated as an honorary guest, said India is Korea’s “friend and strategic partner,” and the brotherhood “was strengthened while Ambassador Prakash was stationed here.”

Jeong leads a friendship association formed with  and Indian lawmakers.

Hanging on the wall behind the podium was a photograph of President Park shaking hands with Modi during their trip to Myanmar last November for the 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.

At the front of the banquet hall flanking the podium were several acrylic and oil paintings depicting Indian culture and society, all of which were provided by the Indian Art Museum in Seocho District, southern Seoul.

A buffet of Indian dishes was arranged along the far left and right sides of the room, including chickpea salad, chicken curry, palak paneer (spinach and cheese curry), steamed basmati rice, dal makhani (lentil curry) and Cape Brandy bread pudding.

Artists at the Indian Cultural Center, all dressed in traditional attire, provided entertainment for the international crowd with music and dance performances.

Koreans wearing hanbok, or traditional clothing, took to the stage later to dance and sing with their Indian counterparts.

 

SOURCE:KOREA JOONGANG DAILY

Korean Students say "Namaste" in JNU

Amid the growing partnership between India and Korea, a group of students from the Hindi Department of Busan University of Foreign Studies (BUFS) visited JNU to learn Hindi and about Indian Culture. The Centre for Korean Studies (CKS), School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University organizes basic courses on Hindi Language and Indian Culture for the Korean students every year.


Group of students from the Hindi Department of Busan University of Foreign Studies (BUFS) visited JNU to learn Hindi and about Indian Culture.

The basic level course aims at catering to the needs of those students who have had very little exposure to Hindi in Korea. The course the helps the students speak Hindi confidently and communicate effectively. The students are introduced with the basic sound system, syntactic structure and vocabulary of Hindi. They are taught about Indian culture through audio-visual aids.

They also get to learn the informal Hindi. The overall focus of the program is to impart conversational skills. Since they are mostly at the beginners level and for short period, the medium of instruction adopted is through Hindi and both. They are offered 5 courses on Basic structure of Hindi & Composition,Reading Ability,Audio-Video, Oral Expressions and Indian Culture and Society. The teaching faculty are the language experts who have vast experience of teaching Hindi. During the course students also learn Yoga by a trained yoga teacher.

 

 

 

The students are taught courses on Hindi language and Indian Culture using innovative methods. The focus is laid on making the contents interesting and ensuring that the teaching-learning process is not too mechanical.

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During the valedictory function held on Thursday at JNU the students sang Hindi songs and recited Hindi poems. They said they were amused to see India's cultural diversity and fond of Indian food. They were keen to see as many Hindi movies as possible before going back to Korea.Prof. VaishnaNarang, the Dean of School of Language, Literature and Culture studies welcomed the students and emphasized the need for more such programs to foster the cultural relationship between the two countries. Dr. Ravikesh, the program director said "we are delighted to receive such bright students and impart with them true colors of Indian culture and ethos. They get an opportunity to experience India in and outside class.

Yoga class is one such popular activity among them. They are true cultural ambassadors of India in Korea.In fact, BUFS has also decided to provide scholarships to 5 of our students to study in Korea for one semester and get the first hand experience." Prof. VyjayantiRaghavan, the Chairperson of the Centre, on this occasion,concluded that such program also provide an opportunity to our students to interact with the Korean students and improve their Korean skills.With popularity of both the languages getting higher,  it is going to be a good time for the Korean learners at JNU and Hindi learners at BUFS.

 

source:Indiatoday

HHI signs submarine deal in India

Hyundai Heavy Industries’ dockyard in Ulsan. Korea’s largest shipbuilder has set goal of collecting 22.9 billion dollars worth of orders this year. Provided by the company

The world’s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), has established an agreement to build submarines for India as part of a 40-year program to strengthen the nation’s naval forces.

The financially struggling company said it signed an MoU with Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) last week stating that the Korean shipbuilder will work with the Indian company to build six submarines that the nation’s navy is preparing to order.

“Since HSL wants to be a part of the submarine manufacturing project by the navy, they asked us for help,” said a spokesman for HHI. “Because they are the largest shipbuilder in their country, the possibility that they will win the order is big.”

If HSL wins the contract, HHI will dispatch a work force to give technical support that the company needs to build the submarines while HSL will take charge of manufacturing the vessels. The Indian government will spend about $9.72 billion (10.47 trillion won).

In an interview with Indian media, HSL said, “HHI will help us build submarines as they are the biggest shipbuilder in the world and have some of the best high-end equipment and techniques. Since India has a 40-year submarine construction program, this will be a win-win situation for both of us.”

This is some of the best recent news for HHI, which has been struggling to make a profit as its number of orders decreases. The company expects that the project with HSL could help it grow in India in the future. The country is considered a big market for Korean companies in the defense industry. The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade said last year that India will become Korea’s second-largest export market in defense after the United States. According to the industry, the amount of weapons imported by India increased an average of 29.3 percent from 2009 to 2013.

Another Korean firm, Kokam, a lithium polymer battery manufacturer, is also seeking technical cooperation with HSL.

“It looks like India will invest about $76.9 billion in the next five years to replace their decrepit military devices and weapons,” said a spokesman for the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade. “Since Korean submarines, radars and howitzers have good price competitiveness in the market, this will be a good business opportunity for us.”

The institute said India’s recent expansion of its military force is a matter of survival, especially after China has been aggressively strengthening its navy recently to expand its influences in the Indian Ocean, a transport route for about 80 percent of the world’s oil.

Last year, China sent two submarines to run a combat simulation in the Indian Ocean, saying it was necessary to protect the nation’s businesses from pirates.

According to military sources last year, China has a total of 52 submarines in operation, three of which are nuclear powered. India, however, has 14 submarines and only one is nuclear powered, which it borrowed from Russia in 2012. About half of the 14 submarines were built in the 1980s, according to the industry.

source: KOREA JOONGANG DAILY