Department of Health Research (DHR), India and National Institute for Health and Care excellence (NICE), UK, will work on three point agenda as per the MoU. it includes bring modern health technology to people by encouraging innovations related to diagnostics, treatment methods and prevention; translate the innovations into products/ processes by facilitating evaluation in synergy with other departments of MoHFW as well as other science departments; and introduce these innovations into public health service through health systems research.

UK had set up NICE to reduce variation in the availability and quality of the UK’s National Health Service’s treatments and care, to generate evidence-based guidance and help resolve uncertainty about which medicines, treatments, procedures and devices represent the best quality care. Its International division, NICE International provides technical support to countries around the world to help them strengthen their capacity and decisions in these areas.

The MoU mentions activities like collaborative projects between the scientists from the two countries, strengthening of existing institutions responsible for turning evidence to policy, setting-up of technical pilots to develop technical and institutional capacities, engagement with the health service providers as a key stakeholder, and joint awareness raising and policy advocacy through global donors.

The countries will now set up a Joint Steering Committee in order to translate the commitments of the MoU.

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United Bank of India has been permitted a representative office in Myanmar and the State Bank of India has expressed its interest in doing so. Sharma stressed the need for permission to open full-fledged banking services. “Even setting up a joint venture state-owned bank with India and Myanmar sharing equity would further enable to strengthen our ties in banking and commerce,” said Sharma.

On energy cooperation, Thanlyin Refinery was cited as an example and upgradation of the Thanbayakan Petrochemical Complex is being carried on. Thanlyin Refinery renovation was financed by US$ 20 million LoC, signed in 2005-06 and Thanbayakan Petrochemical Complex upgrade is being financed by another US$20 million LoC signed in 2008-09.

On exploration, Indian companies are already conducting exploration and extraction of oil and gas in North East region India, which shares common geological traits with neighbouring Myanmar. 7 Indian companies are among the 59 companies short listed for submission of final bids for 18 onshore gas blocks on offer. Indian companies are already active in oil and gas field in Myanmar. OVL and GAIL have announced US$ 1.33 billion investment in China-Myanmar gas pipeline project. Phase I of 200 km Kyaukphyu-Kunming Oil & Gas pipeline worth US$ 475 million for construction of two parallel pipelines for gas and oil has been awarded to Punj Lloyd. PSC-1 onshore block in Central Myanmar worth US$ 73 million has been awarded to Jubilant Energy India on the basis of a global tender in 2011. The two leaders also discussed revival of the discussions on the gas pipeline connection between India and Myanmar through Bangladesh.

Sharma reported progress in road connectivity with ASEAN country via Myanmar to create new opportunities for India’s north eastern region. India has extended assistance for road development projects which include upgradation of the Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo (TKK) road (about 160 kms); Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project which envisages development of road and inland waterways from Sittwe port in Myanmar to Mizoram; and some segments of Trilateral Highway Project (about 1360 kms) connecting Moreh (Manipur, India) to Mae Sot (Thailand) through Myanmar.

BRO has completed the resurfacing and maintenance work of 132 kms Tamu-Kyigone-Kalemyo stretch of the road and handed over to Myanmar. The remaining 11 kms of the 28 km section on the Kyigone- Kalewa stretch is also to be handed over to Myanmar after completion. Indian assistance towards repair/upgradation of the 71 bridges on the Tamu-Kalewa road and the upgradation of the Kalewa-Yargyi road section of the Trilateral Highway was announced during the visit of the Prime Minister to Myanmar in May 2012. The work on the Sittwe Port of the Kaladan Project, which began in December 2010 is expected to be completed by mid 2013. The Detailed Engineering Report (DER) for the road component is expected to be finalised in 2013. A new Air Service agreement to facilitate direct air connectivity was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister in May 2012. Currently Air India is operating 3 services per week on the Kolkata Yangon Sector.

Sharma also addressed the first meeting of Joint Trade and Investment Forum which was co chaired from Indian side by Sunil Bharti Mittal at Yangon on Friday.

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The two ministers spoke about a wide range of issues including regional security concerns. Antony said the two countries had large stakes in the maintenance of peace and stability in the immediate neighbourhood and in the wider Asia Pacific region. Without naming China or Chinese belligerent attitude in South china Sea, the minister said the trade is dependent on the sea lanes and security of the sea lanes and freedom of navigation is critical to the economic and overall security. India supports the freedom of navigation in accordance with the principles of international law.

Antony said “We support the resolution of differences and disputes through the process of dialogue and consensus between the parties to such disputes. All countries must exercise restraint and resolve issues diplomatically, according to the principles of international law”.

Antony added that New Delhi has been of the consistent view that ASEAN is central to any security architecture for the region. “India is committed to efforts of ADMM Plus, ARF and the East Asia Summit for promoting dialogue and consensus building among all countries of the region”, he said.

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“INC will host several key technical facilities for supporting these navigation functions and the key to the navigation support is the time reference to which all ground based systems and the satellite clocks are synchronised,” said ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan.

The first of the IRNSS satellites, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1A, is scheduled to be launched on board ISRO workhorse PSLV-C22 XL at 1.01 AM from Sriharikota spaceport on 12th June. Once all the spacecrafts become operational, IRNSS would provide position accuracy better than 10 metres over India and the region extending about 1,500 kms around the country.

The 1,425-kg IRNSS-1 has a designed life span of about ten years. Its capabilities include terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services. It can also be used for disaster and fleet management and vehicle tracking

IRNSS is designed to provide accurate real time Position, Navigation and Time services to users on a variety of platforms with 24×7 service availability under all-weather conditions. The system will provide two basic services -standard positioning service for common civilian users and restricted service for special authorised users.

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The two ministers agreed on 6 points including continuity of regular bilateral Defence Ministers’ Meetings; promote exchanges between the defence establishments and the Armed Forces of both sides, including through the regular conduct of the Defence Policy Dialogue, Armed Forces Staff Talks and professional military exchanges; to continue ongoing bilateral Naval exchanges to build confidence and familiarity between the two Navies and work towards a bilateral maritime exercise in 2015; to continue to cooperate in the Asia-Pacific region bilaterally and through various multilateral fora including the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus); to enhance Indian Ocean cooperation, including through the framework and priorities of the IOR-ARC and the IONS; and to promote the sharing and exchange of professional knowledge and experiences through participation in training courses in each other’s military training institutions.

India also agreed to send an Indian naval ship to participate in the International Fleet Review that is scheduled in Sydney in October this year.

The two sides noted contributions made by the Indian and ANZAC forces during the Gallipoli campaign and agreed to commemorate their contributions by launching a publication during the Gallipoli Centenary commemorations in 2015.

Antony met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Julie Bishop MP, and the Opposition Shadow Minister for Defence, Senator David Johnston.

In the morning, Antony laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and toured the Australian War Memorial with its Director, Dr Brendan Nelson.

Antony has now left for Bangkok, the third and final leg of his tri nation visit.

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1) ATLAS ELEKTRONIK has a specific offering for upcoming Shishumar class upgrades and Project -75 I*? If so, can you name the products and services? (* P 75I is the first six of 24 conventional submarines planned to be acquired as per the long-term strategic submarine plan of Indian Navy. )

Khalil Rahman, CEO, ATLAS Elektronik India

With regard to the Shishumar submarines these are previous generation HDW submarines supplied from the late 1980s onwards. ATLAS also provides the combat systems, sonars and torpedoes. These are in varying stages of upgrade as the systems age.

2) Focke Schwarzer (Chief Operating Officer of ATLAS ELEKTRONIK INDIA) mentioned ‘ongoing projects’ (May 15th press release). Is it possible to list them and what stages they are in?

Atlas Elektronik GmbH in Germany is currently looking forward to be a part of some of the ambitious Indian navy programmes in the areas of sonars and torpedoes apart from the long term expansion programmes such as Project 75 India.

The company is currently competing on a number of programmes, top among them being the Active Towed Array Sonar (ACTAS).

Besides, the following are the other three upcoming major programmes where we are going to bid:

First one is the new torpedo defence suite, which is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) suite, consisting of a sonar, a decoy and fire control system. The bid is for 12 systems and the RFP has been issued

We are also expecting the bid for 16 shallow water craft. Each of these 16 ships will be equipped with hull-mounted sonar and low frequency variable depth sonar (LFVDS). This is a specialized ASW craft designed to operate in littoral water. This is at request for information (RFI) stage

The third bid is for the towed-array sonar for eight-kilo class submarines, which are undergoing upgrade.

3) We assume ATLAS ELEKTRONIK is already in talks with Indian Industry. If yes, which are the specific companies and for what products?

Yes, we are in the process of negotiating or having discussions about partnerships with key industry players.

We have already some on-going partnerships. So, for example on the portable diver detection sonar- we are partnered with Larsen & Toubro. 

We are also in talks with BEL to see whether we can integrate them into our global supply chain. As we know, BEL is currently the main company in India, which has sonar transducer manufacturing capability.

Besides, The market for torpedoes remains very large in India, both heavy weight and lightweight. We have some really unique torpedo technologies that we are willing to share with India and we are talking to various partners including the DRDO. We are looking at developing partnerships with India in order to allow India to develop an indigenous torpedo that integrates aspects of our technology.

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The agreement was signed by the Indian Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur and the Singaporean Permanent Secretary of Defence Chiang Chie Foo in the presence of the Defence Ministers of the two countries, AK Antony and Dr Ng Eng Hen.

The two sides held wide ranging talks on defence cooperation. They also exchanged views on global and regional security issues including Asia-Pacific Security.

Republic of Singapore Navy and Indian navy also engage in joint military training and exercises annually without involvement of facility usage.

In addition to joint military training, both defence establishments also interact regularly through high-level visits, policy dialogues, courses, seminars and other professional exchanges.

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Penicillin was discovered and its characteristics were published in 1929 but took 10 years before it was used as a drug to treat fatal illnesses. Pre-mix concrete took decades in India to be adopted as a standard construction material, as masons and contractors suspected its qualities and were unwilling to risk building structures with it. In India buildings, homes, commercial and other infrastructure, are still built mostly in the traditional way, i.e. with brick and mortar, giving livelihood to a large number of semi-skilled and skilled masons and laborers who just shift raw material at the site. However, with the pace at which infrastructure is being built, massive migration of people to satellite towns and suburbs around all major cities, and an apparent shortage of millions of urban low cost homes – more efficient and faster construction technologies are needed. Sadly, affordable housing projects by government or private entities tend to just move the site farther away from the city where land is cheaper, squeeze more towers into a small area, reduce the carpet area, circumvent regulations and generally are blind to innovations in process, materials or products.

Are we not aware of new Technologies?
However techniques and technologies do exist and are being used extensively, mainly in the developed west and far-east countries to produce buildings faster and at high quality. Construction industry in many developed countries is well organized and most of the processes resemble an assembly line of a product with various structural components delivered to the site in finished or almost finished form. This is seen as a trend now for certain components that are used in buildings, such as wires, pipes, doors, windows, tiles, fittings and furnishings etc. There are many innovations in all these ‘products’ with companies investing in research and developing new products and solutions (even patenting and licensing them) or copying products developed elsewhere. But when it comes to building the main structure itself the methods adopted are still very conventional and builders shy away even from copying technologies proven elsewhere. The soil is dug and filled with a foundation wall (or pile foundation if it is a high rise – this is a definite change in most urban centers where buildings need to be constructed tall as land cost is high, but this is a different and complex topic and needs a separate space). A foundation is not required in some non-seismic zones with solid rock bed but tradition requires a foundation always. Using reinforced concrete for walls and ceilings and beams where they are not needed such as in low-rise buildings, unnecessary high use of steel etc. are common practices in the industry. Once the foundation is in place, bricks are laid on top of each other, plastered and made into walls, walls are cut to lay internal pipes and cables for water and electricity and plastered again, tiles are pasted, paint is applied, carpentry work is done over that, fittings are screwed in place and paint is applied again. This traditional process is generally messy, highly labor intensive, imprecise with a lot of rework, inconsistent in quality, unpredictable and one of the root causes of project delays. On large construction projects where many tasks are sub-contracted it becomes a nightmare to manage all activities and finish the product on time.

What is the Product Reliability and Robustness?
When we go out and buy a product from a shop it comes with a warranty of sorts, but when people put their life savings into constructing a home the builder doesn’t give any sort of warranty for his product. With governments offering populist freebies and job guarantee payouts, the single biggest plague for the construction industry is shortage of skilled workers.

Even migrant workers are trending to return to their native states to make use of the various welfare schemes, and the previous generation construction workers tend to get their children educated for white or blue collar jobs. Besides, the boom in the services sector has opened up many new job opportunities that are less arduous than working at a construction site.

The building is after all a product like any other. While car companies and computer manufacturers are able to improve the quality of their products at the same price point, or able to reduce the price of their products year over year, nobody ever talks of a builder reducing cost year over year, and rarely hear about builders adopting new technologies and materials.

On the contrary the price of booking a flat keeps going up the later you book even before construction starts and all input costs seem to keep going up while the construction progresses. The longer it takes the less margin the builder makes, which is one reason why builders and promoters offload the flat bookings in phases at higher and higher price points during the construction phase to cover for the inflation in costs. The later buyers absorb the inflation which is a price for less uncertainty, while the early buyers take higher risk but at a lower price point to enable the project to kick off and gave it momentum increasing its marketability. But we are digressing here. In spite of all these complexities can the builders reduce cost, improve quality year over year? Maybe yes if new technologies and new construction processes are adopted, of course other factors like political and regulatory, input costs, inflation etc. may affect the benefits, but all the more reason why a change is required.

New Construction Techniques
New construction techniques are trying to bring the building construction process to a semblance of order and like an assembly line. Technologies to make pre-fabricated concrete slabs, reinforced concrete blocks, are now available to make parts of the building in factories, with consistent high quality and have these parts assembled at the site into a finished building. However, such factories are few and there are some hurdles to cross before they are adopted in large scale across India. There is still a perception that pre-fab blocks are ugly, masons resist change and buyers are unsettled about investing their life savings into new technology.

One of the reasons newer, though less advanced elements such as concrete blocks instead of bricks, are used in certain fast growing urban areas is that most of these flats are bought for investments by those who have surplus cash and don’t plan to live there themselves. However that does not mean these are any less than brick and mortar constructions, it is mentioned to just make the point that one type of resistance to change is removed.

There are of course other sustainable, environmental friendly technologies available such as reinforced mud-bricks, rammed earth, etc. but they are more suited to small buildings and in rural or small towns. Here we are only looking at large scale fast construction at urban and semi-urban areas.

Using pre-fabricated concrete elements in building construction needs radical change in many areas, first of all is the attitude of the construction companies to design as they construct. Complete pre-fab elements such as columns, entire floor, walls etc. are now possible to build with all required pipes, cables, door and window frames built into them, and just assembled at the site. It is possible with these new technologies to construct entire toilets and bathrooms complete with internal pipes, cables, tiles and fittings, at the factory and lifted into place at the site. There are of course some implementation challenges such as transporting large elements by road to the site, need for large cranes to lift and assemble the elements into a building, for example. Different skills at the site as well, but there are ways to overcome these. On the positive side, the need for large scale labor during construction, large storage space for inventory, debris and mess, unpredictable causes such as weather, political events, holidays, inconsistent quality due to variable inputs and skills, are largely eliminated. There may be no reduction in cost or even an increase in cost initially due to longer planning and design phase, transport and other costs; however this extra cost is subsumed in the savings that come from finishing the project faster, and at higher and consistent quality predictably on time.

Radical Shift is needed
The biggest challenge to this approach is the need for a radical shift in the way projects are implemented. Using and assembling pre-fab structures at the site needs detailed planning and very meticulous design, winning buyer’s confidence, overcoming resistance from builders, promoters and construction companies that may see no incentive to change when their margins are so high. This is where the real challenge lies. The workers and their children who may dislike getting into the construction work at the site may now be more open to doing the same sort of tasks in a factory and of course in better working conditions.

S. Balasubramanian (Bala) started his career as a defence scientist, is an experienced and versatile business leader who worked in complex heterogeneous environments with distributed multi-cultural teams and global customers; handled large teams from distributed delivery centres; delivered services to clients located on various continents in Retail, Life Sciences and Telecom sectors. Bala has spearheaded several innovation initiatives in his teams that won several innovation awards. He consults on strategy and innovation for global businesses at Crafitti. He can be contacted at bala.sugavanam@crafitti.com.

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At a summit level meeting, the two Prime Ministers discussed a range of issues like New Delhi – Ahmedabad fast corridor, civilian nuclear deal, defence cooperation, metro rails, Roads, infrastructure projects, energy, investment, trade, high technology etc.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India and Japan are natural and indispensable partners for advancing peaceful, stable and prosperous Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Japan and India have decided to focus on the Naval cooperation. Maritime security cooperation has to be further strengthened between India and Japan, said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe said that talks on civil nuclear cooperation to be accelerated for the early conclusion of the agreement.

Representatives from Liberal Democratic Party of Japan also met with PM Manmohan Singh.

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Yoshiyuki Matsumoto Managing Officer, Honda Motor Co. and Representative of Development, Purchasing & Manufacturing, Asia Oceania Region said, “In the current fiscal year 2014, Honda’s global 2 wheeler sales growth is expected to increase more than the previous years and headed to new heights by its operations in India. There is no doubt that India is one of the most important markets for Honda’s overall business. Today we establish a new milestone with the inauguration of our 3rd manufacturing facility in India in the state of Karnataka. Out of the total 4500 new positions at this facility, nearly 90% are being offered to the local youth.”

“We shall start the mass production of Dream Yuga in this plant from June, which is targeted to cater 100-110 cc motorcycle segment contributing almost half of the total 1.4 crore 2wheelers sold in India. Moreover, our million selling Activa scooter will be produced on the 2nd line,” said Yadvinder Singh Guleria – Vice president – Sales & Marketing.

Spread across 96 acres, Honda’s new plant is situated at Narsapura Industrial Area, which is around 52km from Bangalore. The new plant employs approximately 4,500 associates and entails a total investment of Rs. 1350 crores.

The factory infrastructure has been designed under Honda’s concept of “Joy to the Next Generation” and it proactively reduces energy consumption during production. Honda release says that its “Green Factory” concept is successful in meeting over 30% of its annual water demand by internal rain harvesting system. This is also Honda’s most environmentally responsible plant which has Zero Liquid discharge.

In addition to water saving system, Honda has employed more advanced machining automation, high speed transfer line, robotic welding and painting of frame parts to making this manufacturing facility a benchmark in the 2 wheeler industry.

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