R&D key to India’s status

My article R&D key to India’s status appeared in the Edit Page of The Pioneer

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With Beijing taking a giant leap in filling the gap in research to match that of developed nations, India is still lagging behind. We need to take some lessons

If one looks at India’s development during the five last decades, one can only admire the progress made by it. However, there are some fields where the country has been left far behind by the ‘great’ powers, particularly in the domain of innovation. China’s case is worth studying. Huawei technologies, which  often for the wrong reasons, has been in the news in recent months, has been a role model in terms of innovation for the Middle Kingdom.
In February 2018, Reuters reported that the giant telecom group of companies increased “its annual spending on Research and Development (R&D) to between $15 billion and $20 billion as it races to be a global leader in 5G technology.” Can you name any Indian telecom company investing in R&D in this way and on this scale? No. The big Indian business houses simply prefer to remain in the “service” field, without taking the risk of investing in any long-term vision. As a result, during the next 10 or 20 years, China and Western companies will remain the leaders while India will have to buy their technologies, with all the risks involved.
According to Reuters, Huawei, China’s largest telecommunications equipment and smartphone maker, spent $13.23 billion on R&D in 2017, a whopping 14.9 per cent of its total revenue. The world’s top R&D spenders, Amazon and Alphabet, the two biggest spenders on R&D in the US respectively, spent $22.6 billion and $16.6 billion in 2017. About 80,000 of Huawei’s employees or 45 per cent of its total workforce are engaged in R&D. Should India not start emulating world leaders such as Huawei or even Google, Apple or Amazon instead of just being proud of the Indian origin of Google’s CEO? In the defence domain, China is innovating too. Earlier this month, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) announced that the first armed amphibious drone boat was successfully delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)
The Global Times pointed out: “China has built the world’s first armed amphibious drone boat, which military analysts said could be used in land assault operations and is capable of forming a combat triad with aerial drones and other drone ships.”

Marine Lizard

Named ‘Marine Lizard’, the drone left the factory in Wuhan in Hubei Province: “The 12-metre-long Marine Lizard is a trimaran propelled by a diesel-powered hydrojet and can reach a maximum speed of 50 knots while maintaining stealth. When approaching land, the amphibious drone ship can release four continuous track units hidden under its belly and travel at 20 km/hour on land,” wrote a local newspaper. Another gadget, said to be capable of delivering precision bombs, is the weirdly shaped helicopter drone Blowfish A2. The Chinese Press said that it already “sparked interest from many countries’ militaries.”
In a statement from the Guangdong-based Zhuhai Ziyan UAV company, the manufacturer explained: “The 1.87-m long, 0.62-m tall helicopter drone has a maximum take-off weight of 38 kilograms and is capable of carrying a 12-kilogram payload. In its strange belly-less fuselage, the Blowfish A2 can carry radar, jamming devices, guns or bombs under its spine.” The speed of the helicopter drone is 130 km/hour.
The examples can be multiplied. The most prestigious is undoubtedly the J-20 (or Mighty Dragon), a single-seat, twin jet, all-weather, stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft developed by China’s Chengdu Aerospace Corporation. The first aircraft was delivered to the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) in March 2017 and inducted in February 2018. The J-20 is the world’s third operational fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft after the US F-22 and F-35.

In March 2016, on the occasion of the third plenary session of the National People’s Congress, President Xi Jinping asked the PLA delegates to “pour efforts into developing cutting edge defence technology, which has strategic significance.” Xi, who chairs the powerful Central Military Commission, affirmed: “The capability to innovate will determine the future of the Chinese armed forces.”
In recent years, China has been pouring funds into developing high-tech weapons; some of this armament is also being exported. Another article reported that the Chinese scientists continue to research stealth and camouflage materials that can hide from a broad spectrum of electromagnetic waves, “after they successfully fabricated a material that can hide a hot object from heat-sensing infrared cameras.”
The research, published in American Chemical Society Journal, affirmed that the new material, a kind of aerogel film, has good thermal insulation properties: “It is enhanced by coating its fibres with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a protective waterproof layer.”
One can also give the example of a new turbofan engine to power China’s carrier-based stealth fighters, though the exact outcome should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt. According to The Global Times, a team of young researchers and aero engine designers received an award “for successfully designing and prototype testing of a new top-class turbofan engine that will help Chinese fighter jets take on their advanced foreign counterparts.”
The new engine may be installed on China’s new carrier-based stealth fighter jets; the previous aircraft had faced serious issues. The manufacturers’ statement said that this will help China rival advanced foreign fighter jets.
Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told The Global Times: “With the new engine, China’s future advanced fighter jets will finally solve the ‘heart problem’ …This is great, great news.” All this does not imply that the outcome of the Chinese research will soon be reaching the level of the US or European technology but it simply means that the gap between China and the most advanced nations is being filled up …while India is left behind.
At the same time, all is not rosy in China. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post recently observed: “The slowing Chinese economy may be claiming some unexpected victims …Despite healthy capitalisation, investors are finding that some companies’ underlying technologies may not be as innovative as hoped…”. In other words, the most innovative will be the fittest to survive. Even if tomorrow China produces less new Baidu, Alibaba or Tencent, there is no doubt that the future belongs to those who innovate.
In Nehru’s socialistic world, research was a state monopoly, it can’t remain so forever. The private sector, with its dynamism, has no choice but to invest large parts of its profits in the future. The next Indian Government has lessons to learn from China if it wants India to become a great power.

India looking the wrong side!

My article India looking the wrong side! appeared in NitiCentral.com.

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China has the unpleasant habit to peep into everybody’s computers.
In India, it is not a major issue as the nation was too busy trying to guess (if not bet on) the next move of the BCCI president.
But it bothers others; quoting a new US report prepared by the Defense Science Board, Reuters recently mentioned Washington’s worries: “Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major US weapons systems”.
(In Australia, the Chinese ‘dark visitors’ would have done better: they are said to have stolen the blueprints of the country’s new intelligence headquarters).
Quoting the US report, The Washington Post affirmed that the ‘hacked’ designs included advanced Patriot missile system, the Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the F-35 strike fighter.
Many rightly ask: has China the ability to bring down the communication networks and corrupt vital information in the case of a conflict? Nobody can answer this question with certainty.
Though a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman stated that the US report was ‘erroneous’, the Chinese latest hacking prowess will certainly speed up the Middle Kingdom’s R&D programs in the defense field.
Spokesman Geng Yansheng asserted that China already has the ability to build the weapons needed for national security, why should Beijing steal designs. He says that the US report both underestimates the Pentagon's security capabilities and the Chinese people's intelligence.
But what is disturbing for Washington, (I wish India would also be disturbed) is the recurrence of the fact.
Last month, the Pentagon said that China was using espionage to modernize its military and that the US government had been the target of hacking ‘attributable directly to the Chinese government and military’.
In February already, the US computer security firm Mandiant affirmed that a PLA unit was behind a series of hacking attacks targeting the US and that the data from some 100 US companies had been stolen.
It is clear: China is getting prepared.
On May 28, 2013, Xinhua reported that the PLA’s Academy of Military Science (AMS) released a report titled ‘The Strategic Assessment 2012’. Chinese experts and scholars from several different disciplines analyzed the international strategic situation and ‘sensitive issues’; they also suggested some counter strategies.
Chen Zhou, chief editor of the AMS 2012 report said that “the annual assessment report is to let the world learn about our viewpoint and to hear our voice.”
The Voice of China says that the Asia-Pacific region has become “the new global geopolitical, economic and military center” because “the US has accelerated its eastward shift of its strategic focus.” The report warns of ‘security risks to China's environment’ and possible clashes with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands.
For Beijing, think-tanks’ discussions on the purported threats are not enough; the nation needs to be ready.
The People’s Daily reported that the PLA would soon conduct its first joint drills involving cyberwarfare, special troops, army aviation and electronic countermeasures units “to test the integration and co-ordination of its land and air forces”.
Xinhua announced that the joint exercises are scheduled for June at China's largest military training center, on the Zhurihe base in Inner Mongolia: “Eight military academies will also join the exercises. …The high-profile drills were aimed at showing the world China had successfully narrowed the gap with Western countries in terms of modern warfare strategies.”
Clearly, the PLA is keen to test its IT skills as the drill will simulate ‘non-contact assaults’ alongside conventional operations.
Xu Guangyu , a former general now associated with China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing told The South China Morning Post: “'Non-contact assaults means digital operations, including cyberwarfare, electronic warfare and intelligence warfare systems, as well as others. …Assault operations' doesn't mean the PLA will stage a 'pre-emptive strike' drill, but it is based on the existing 'active defence strategy' to simulate how to fight back if our country is invaded.”
According to Xinhua, the PLA will test new types of combat forces including units using digital technology in order to prepare for an informationalized war.
Another interesting piece of news, the Chinese Defence laboratories have been extensively using 3-D printing technology for its aviation industry, thereby saving money, materials and time.
One can imagine that once plans are ‘borrowed’ from the top US laboratories, China is able to create aircraft components from 3-D printers. It bypasses the traditional manufacturing processes such as casting, forging and assembling.
3-D printing, or laser rapid forming, is the manufacturing technology of tomorrow. Blueprints made on computers (or stolen from third parties’ computers) can be turned into actual objects by a special printer which adds layer after layer of different materials until the designed shape is materialized.
Stratasys, the world's leading manufacturer of 3-D printers affirms that its printers are able to combine more than 100 different materials to form a 3-D product; it includes wood, plastics or metals.
Apparently, this technology would have been used for preparing parts and components of the C-919, China’s first commercial airliner, the J-15 jet fighter; the J-15 and J-16 multi-role fighters as well as the 2 stealth planes, the J-20 and the J-31.
Obviously, the prototype has not come out of a 3-D printer, but it has greatly speeded up the production process.
Remember former US defence secretary Dr Robert Gates had announced that China would not have a "fifth-generation aircraft by 2020", but the day Gates landed in Beijing in January 2011, the J-20's had a successful maiden test flight in Chengdu, Sichuan.
I have the feeling that China took India for a ride in the desolate plateau of Depsang Plain. While the planners in South Block will now ploddingly strengthen the defenses of Ladakh, China happily prepares for the next generation ‘informationalized’ war.