Rainbow Trouts in Bhutan

 

I guess it does not take much of marketing to sell a fish that evokes images of kisses, mountain streams and rainbows. 

The rainbow trout, aka Oncorhynchus mykiss, loves cold, clean, fast-flowing mountain streams. Native to the Americas it has, over the centuries, become a valuable table-fish - thanks to its great taste (it belongs to the salmon family), the fact that it can be reared with relative ease in fish-farms, and because it fetches a good price in the markets. In India it sells for over INR 1200/kg and counts among the 'high-value' fishes sold across the country. Globally, the top three exporters of Trout are Turkey, Chile, and Vietnam. In 2023, the rainbow trout market was valued at US$ 4.2 billion 

Inspired perhaps by the success of Vietnam, many asian countries have been trying their hand at rearing and exporting this fish. Bhutan is one of them. With its pristine Himalayan mountain streams it ought to have a natural advantage in this business but the record so far has been limited. What could be the reasons for this? 

Efforts started way back in 2008, National Research Center for Riverine and Lake Fishes (NRCRLF), at Haa. Personnel trained at trout farms in Kokernag, Kashmir, replicated a raceway at Haa, and this has been been the centre for trout farming efforts in Bhutan for nearly two decades. The Trout Breeding Centre at NRCRLF has been producing and distributing hundreds of thousands of fingerlings to affiliated farms which in turn produce around 35 tonnes of fish every year. Yet, even at the most fancy restaurants in Thimphu, you are unlikely to find rainbow trout on the menu. Why is this the case? Where does all the fish production go?

One logical answer to this could be that all the rainbow trout produced in Bhutan goes across the border to the Indian market. It takes about five hours to cross 167km of mountain roads to reach Phuensoling, the border town. Even across this border, competition is likely to be stiff from Indian trout farms. 

In Sikkim alone, for instance, there are 760 rainbow trout raceways with an annual production of 340 tonnes in 2022–23, up from 95 tonnes in 2014–15. The state also operates nine hatcheries, producing 619,000 fingerlings in 2022–23. Next door in Arunachal Pradesh, trout broodstock and seed production is being done in two main hatcheries situated at Shergaon of west Kameng and Nuranang in Tawang district. Shergaon has ova production capacity of 100,000. 

India's rainbow trout production has increased from 147 tonnes in 2004–05 to over 842 tonnes in 2015–16 (31% annual growth rate!), with a notable rise in private sector involvement. Key states contributing to this growth include Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh . With such competition just across the border, it is not easy for Bhutan. 

Two crucial inputs trout fish farms - eggs/ova and feed - is dependent on expensive imports. Annually about 200,000 one-eyed Ova (fertilised eggs) are imported from Denmark. Specialised fish feed, with a purported high feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 1:1 (!) is imported from BioMar in the Netherlands for around Nu.200/kg. Biomar itself learnt the ropes of the fish-feed business from American companies and is among the dominant players now. Quite amazing to think that fishes being reared in the Himalayan streams need to be fed with something that is imported from a tiny country 7,300 km away!

This brings us back to the Vietnamese. How did they make themselves one of the top exporters of rainbow trout? As in the case of cashewnuts they surely have many lessons for those who want to approach agribusiness with a clear head and a hard nose for business!

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REFERNCES & LINKS

• Global Rainbow Trout Market (2023) - https://www.factmr.com/report/2084/rainbow-trout-market
• Bongo Gewog, Chukha, to Launch Rainbow Trout Project 
• https://derafarms.com/products/himlayan-rainbow-trout

Kolkata Diary

I am now in a South Kolkata state-of-mind. 

It took me a couple of days to get used this, and it is so, so different from the mental framework you need elsewhere in North India. For starters, you don't wake up to smoggy, cold mornings, wondering whether it is safe to take in a deep breath. The air is relatively cleaner, the sun rises earlier, and ebb and flow of social interactions is lot more relaxed, friendlier and jovial.

Thanks to the Covid lockdowns, I had not been in this city for more than two years, and I wondered how things had changed in the interim.

As has been my habit for more than a decade now, I started my day around 05:45am with a walk to the lake, aka Rabindra Sarobar. The streets were slowly coming to life in the twilight - flower sellers stringing up garlands, milk-vans doing rounds of the kirana shops, and sweepers cleaning up the roads, oblivious of protests from crows and sparrows. Further down from Dhakuria, on both sides of the narrow roads of Jodhpur Park, people filled up water from roadside taps, sipped chai at tiny dhabas, or bargained with the fish-vendors.  

Everything seemed just the way it was before, until i crossed the railway lines I found my usual entrance to the Lake Park barred by a locked gate. This was new - why had they closed this particular entrance to the park? I went across to a group of men sitting under a tree and asked them if there was another open gate nearby. A portly, bearded old man just laughed and said, "Andar jana he? - bas tapki maaro!" (want to get in? just hop across!) :)

Turns out that the gate was designed for doing a tapki, with easy, well-worn footholds for climbing across the 10ft gate. Welcome back to Kolkata, I said to myself, a place where unreasonable rules are meant to be broken.

Another unreasonable rule that is always broken in Kolkata is about footpaths. They are not exclusively for pedestrians. Here footpaths are an egalitarian public space meant for anybody who seeks a livelihood, and pedestrians get just enough space to file past the shops. On the busiest streets it is quite normal to see more than half the footpath width taken up by an endless row of tiny shops, and eateries. This has been going on for so long that even trees adapt themselves to the shape of these little shops, as is the case with this teashop enveloped by a banyan tree near the Jadavpur University crossing.

The hustle and bustle at these shops is a bit misleading though. People are still recovering from the Covid lockdowns. "People mostly come to just look at the wares", said one shopkeeper at Gariahat market, "It is a lucky day when we manage to sell half of what we used to sell before covid!". The same sentiment was repeated at Bedwin Rolls, an eatery famous for its mutton rolls but there is nothing remotely mutton on the menu now. "At INR 800+ a kilo, we just cannot afford it...usually a kilo works out to be enough for 10-12 rolls, but each would have to be priced at INR 150 for us to make a profit...and nobody wants a mutton roll at that price."

Unlike in NCR Delhi, few shops have had to close down entirely. Most of the small shopkeepers here seem to have adapted by changing the menu or product mix. There are more boards that display availability of oxygen and medicines, and, as expected, home-delivery services seem to be thriving now. For some reason jewellery shops are thriving too.  It seem the arrival of the big boys like JoyAlukkas, has had no impact on the numerous, tiny jewellery shops that dot the lanes of Dhakuria. Ditto for beauty saloons. The one nearest to us is "Rita's Parlour - Your Beauty is Our Duty"! :)

Yet, one big surprise is that hardly any shops accept digital payments. Again unlike in NCR, Tamil Nadu or Kerala, where just about every street vendor offers you the option of paying by PayTM, PhonePe or GooglePay, each and every shop I visited here insisted on a cash payment. 

Why is Kolkata / West Bengal bucking the national trend? 

Herat - City of Spires and Pines

Ancient cities have a life of their own. We read stories about them and build a certain picture in our imagination. Ground realities however turn out to be something else.

Herat is no different. To a visitor coming from Kabul it gives you a glimpse of what cities in Afghanistan could be. Relaxed, dignified, and aware of its own stature and place in history at the crossroads of civilizations.

This was once a city of fire-worshipping Zoroastrians, an area famous for its great wines until the Arabs took over after 650AD. Here ruled the Macedonians led by Alexander, the Turks, Chinese, Mongols and, of course, the Persians. It was also one of the few cities of the Islamic world to be ruled for an extended period by a woman- Queen Gawhershad - remembered today as the builder of the grand towers of the Musalla Complex.

In present day Herat, the first thing that struck me is the pine trees. Almost all the roads are lined with towering old pines. Having seen these trees only above the "pine-line" in the Himlayas, I always thought they needed steep slopes to grow big and strong, so it was bit surprising to see them all lined up in a city that was as flat as a chappati. 

Unlike Kabul which is sectioned by 2000m high 'hills', and urban settlements that have grown along a meandering river, Herat has a clear grid-like layout. A straight road brings you from the airport, right into the city centre. The security footprint here is more subtle - fewer warplanes in the airport, hardly any buildings barricaded  with T-walls and barbed wire. There are no military blimps watching you from the skies or  helicopters constantly buzzing overhead, rattling the window-panes.

The streets and markets are bustling with men and women. Fruits seem larger, jucier and more colorful; the saboos naan a lot tastier; streets are less cluttered and far less dustier, the air crisp and clean. Children crowd around street vendors; strange looking, colorful three-wheelers fashioned out of motorcycles trundle on the streets, looking as though they are going to take off any minute into the skies.

And yet you are constantly reminded that this city is not peaceful as it looks. Violence and robbery on the streets is not rare. A colleague was recently coming out of a restaurant, chatting on his mobile when a car stopped in front of him. He thought the driver needed directions, until he saw a pistol aimed at his head. Within seconds, his mobile was snatched, his purse taken out of his pocket and car was gone.

Things may not be what they seem, but I would like to think that the people of Herat hold one of the keys to peace and prosperity in this war-torn country.

The Hindukush

"When we were children we used to play here and drink water straight from the river - it was so clean!"

The best years of Kabul are often described in past-tense. People talk of the glory days of the kings, of a city that was once a hub of trade and commerce across Asia, of dogged resistance to 'foreign invaders' who could never ever conquer Afghanistan..

The elderly in Kabul have happy memories of the city in the 1950s - those wonderful days when water was clean, when the country was peaceful and winters were what they ought to be - freezing cold. It is amazing to think that this country, proud its aversion to foreign invaders, was also the home of invaders who left an indelible mark on the history of Northern India.

Driven by the zeal of a new religion, Mahmud of Gazni was the first plunderer to make a career out of invading infidels in India. He systematically raided and plundered kingdoms in east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river, no less than seventeen times between CE 997 and 1030. After a brief pause of two centuries, another ruler emerged from Ghor, nested in the Hindukush mountains. The Ghurid empire led by Mu'izz al-Din was influential in creating the Delhi Sultanate.

Then came Timur-the-lame and his army as they crossed the Hindkush range, to launch the 1398 invasion of northern Indian subcontinent, plundering and killing all the way. Such was the number of slaves who were forced to cross the freezing cold of the Afghan mountains that Ibn Battutta refers to them as the "Killer of Hindus", or Hindukush.

Inspired by stories of Timur, one of his descendants, Zahir-ud-din Mohammed - aka Babur ('tiger') - decided to follow suit. As a young man of 21 years, he had taken control of Kabul in 1504. Having failed time and again to regain control over the Ferghana Valley, he turned his attention south-eastwards. In 1526, he made his move into north India, won the Battle of Panipat, ending the last Delhi Sultanate dynasty, and starting the era of the Mughals.

The slave trading operations continued during the Delhi Sultanate and through the Mughal era. It became a standard practicee to send thousands of slaves every year to Central Asia to pay for horses and other goods.

Looking at the condition of Afghanistan today you wonder... after all those centuries of plunder and flogging of slaves across the Hindukush: Where has all the loot gone? 

India's External Debt

According to a recent issue of the Economist, India's financial health is in trouble. 

Rising international oil prices and a decline in exports is straining on our forex reserves, and on the other hand, a large chunk of the country's external borrowings (USD 500 billion now), is due for repayment in a few months. 

Having administered Yen Loan projects a few years ago and seen first hand the frantic to and fro that goes on between external lenders and India's Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, any article or report that sets such borrowings in a larger context was bound to get my ready attention. This one was no diferent.

How accurate was the TE analysis? Which are the external borrowings due for repayment. and what are our options at a time when Donald Trump is churning up the Middle East?

I looked at two sources for getting a better understanding. The first was the latest available DEA Status Report (Sep., 2017) on External Debt, and then QEDS - the Quarterly External Debt Statistics collated by WB & IMF. 

While the the DEA report placed overall external debt at $ 472 billion, the QEDS, which has data from 2017-Q4, puts it at $ 513 billion. So TEs $500b was a fairly good indicative figure.

Here are some other points that emerged from the DEA report, across various parameters:

• Duration: long term debt was 81% while short-term ones were mostly trade related credits;
• Types: commercial borrowings (36%), NRI deposits (25%), government sovereign external debt (SED) was $95 billion  (20%);

Source: DEA report

• Currency composition: US dollar (52%), Indian rupee (33%), SDR (5.8%), Japanese yen (4.6%) and Euro (2.9%); 
• Concessional debt was just 9.3% of the total - mostly from SED;
• Debt Servicing: Gross debt service payments  was $ 43.3 billion during 2016-17, a decrease of 2.2 per cent over the previous year;
• India’s debt service payments are dominated by the External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) which accounted for 75.1% of gross debt service payments during 2016-17;
• Interest rates: External assistance (1.4%), NRI Deposits (4.4%) and ECBs (4.7%) -- overall "implicit" interest rate on total external debt - 2.8%;
• Sovereign External Debt (SED) - $95b in March 2017
• Debt from multilateral sources - 73% (external assistance) - $44b in absolute terms, of which:
• Multilateral: IDA ($23b), IBRD ($9b), ADB ($10b), IFAD ($0.3b)
• Bilateral: Japan ($15b), Germany ($2b), USA ($0.1b), France ($0.4b), Russia ($0.9b)

So when it comes to external assistance by way of concessional loans, they added up to just $44b (9.3%) of the total debt of $471b. Out of this Japan contributes $15b which, at second position, is larger than what we get from ADB but significantly less than the soft-loans from the World Bank. In overall terms, Japanese Yen Loans make up 3% of India's external debt!

It also turns out that there is indeed going to be a sharp increase in loan repayments. However this process started a year ago. Projections on long-term debt service payments shows that repayments were $33 billion for 2017-18, and they are going to be $29 billion for 2018-19, and then declines progressively for the next 10 years.

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LINKS:

* DEA Status Report (Sep., 2017) - https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/External%20Debt%20%28English%29_0.pdf

* QEDS - Quarterly External Debt Statistics collated by WB & IMF - http://datatopics.worldbank.org/debt/qeds

* (22 Mar 18) Mint - https://www.livemint.com/Industry/4yerAga6HW5Z1KbvYdnRLO/UBS-sees-Indias-external-finances-at-risk-despite-high-rese.html

Comparison of gross external debt to GNI (source: DEA)

Japan provides the lions share of bilateral loans (3% of total debt)

An Appetite for Steel

Recent newspaper headlines proclaimed that India is now poised to overtake Japan as the “second largest producer of steel in the world”. This sounds quite impressive - until you see the numbers in perspective. The largest producer of steel in the world - China - produces over 800 million metric tonnes (mmt) while India’s 'record production' was less the 90 mmt in 2015.

The current situation is like that of a huge kitchen that needs to keep itself busy. Excess production capacity is now at odds with low appetite. Over the past 40 years there has been a massive increase in global steel production - especially in China. A country that produced just 37 million metric tonnes (mmt) in 1980 produced more than 21 times that amount - 803 mmt in 2015!

Similarly, on a much more modest scale, India which had been producing 9.5 mmt in 1980 , increased its production to about 90 mmt in 2015.

China’s domestic appetite has been a bit satiated now, so now we are seeing a sharp increase in its steel exports. As with numerous other Chinese products its prices are super competitive, and this is triggering “anti-dumping” measures from other countries, including India. About two years ago, India’s DGFT set a Minimum Import Price (MIP) for 66 types of iron and steel products, while at the same time, imposed duties up to 20% on a number of steel products.

The main countries affected by these measures were China, South Korea and Japan, which accounted for 63.6% of total imported steel volume, and 54.6% in terms of value. As expected, Chinese imports are the largest at over 37%.

Yet, strangely, it is not China or South Korea, but Japan that is at the forefront of the campaign against the restrictions imposed by India. It has threatened to take India to WTO over the import restrictions, and various interpretations of the provisions of GATT 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards.

What explains this unusual stance?

Some commentators claim that for Japan, India is  just the proxy country used to fight a larger war against MIPs and other border taxes. According to others, this is just a reflection of political clout wielded by steel exporters in Japan. Either way, one thing is clear - higher steel prices is not good news for downstream industries, or for the consumers who end up paying more for cars and cooking utensils.

Lobbies like the Indian Steel Association (ISA) and their counterparts in Japan will always try their best to influence governments for their own benefit. Ultimately, it is for the government to strike a balance between the long term costs and benefits of bowing to the pressure of industry lobbies. And that, unfortunately, is linked to election funding...

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LINKS & REFERENCES

https://www.investing.com/analysis/india-and-japan-take-their-steel-row-to-the-wto,-but-it%E2%80%99s-really-a-proxy-200173645

(26Jan17-BL) - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/policy/russia-says-steel-exports-to-india-dipped-by-a-third-due-to-curbs/article9503240.ece

(25Jan17, BT - India to be global no.2 steel producer by 2020) - http://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/india-closes-japan-second-largest-steel-producing-country/story/244963.html

Reuters (23Jan17) - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-india-steel-idUSKBN1541DX

Forbes (23Jan17) - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/01/23/japan-threatens-india-with-wto-action-over-steel-good-it-should-to-benefit-indians/#561e021a53ae

(22Jan17 - Taiwan) -- http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/policy/taiwan-wto/article9496340.ece?ref=relatedNews

Hindu (22Jan17): JAPAN THREATENS TO DRAG INDIA TO WTO ON STEEL AS TRUMP ERA HERALDS TRADE TENSIONS

DGFT Notification on MIP (4Aug16) - http://dgft.gov.in/Exim/2000/NOT/NOT16/noti2016.pdf

(4Dec16, IE) - Indian Steel Association (ISA) for extension of MIP for 6 months - http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/extend-mip-on-steel-products-for-six-months-indian-steel-authority-4409972/

(30Mar16 - VCCircle - Timeline on MIPs) - http://www.vccircle.com/news/engineering/2016/03/30/india-extends-safeguard-duty-steel-imports-till-march-2018l

COKE

* http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Japanese-steelmakers-switching-to-lower-grade-raw-materials?page=2
- Japanese steelmakers (Nippon, Sumitomo) use better technology to lower costs. They process cheaper, low grade coke to better quality before replacing 50% of high-grade imported coke...this keeps their steel competitive in the world markets.

(2Dec2016) - http://www.infracircle.in/indias-coke-import-financial-year/
> India imported ~ 3 million tonnes of metallurgical coke in 2015-16 --- of which 2 million was from Chine alone!...Metallurgical coke, a key raw material for the steel sector, is used for smelting iron ore in the blast furnace. Around 0.7 tonne of coke is required to produce 1 tonne of steel and it constitutes 40-50% of the total cost of crude steel.
The government on 25 November imposed anti-dumping duty in the range of $16.29-$25.2 per tonne on imports of low ash metallurgical coke from countries such as China and Australia for a period of five years.

Steel Production in Perspective

Staying up-to-date is a quite a challenge these days. There is so much information floating around in the print media, and in cyberspace that its a constant struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff; the signals from the noise.

Take for instance the recent headlines in the Financial Express on global steel production. According to the news report, India has "registered a 6% growth in steel output in Jan-Sept... India remained the only bright spot among major steel-producing nations in the world."

Quite impressive to be the 'only bright spot' -- until you notice a graphic tucked away. Now this tells you that a growth of nearly 6% actually translates in an increase in production from 67 million tonnes to 71 mT. The exalted position of the "third largest producer of steel in the world" looks quite pathetic when you realize that the guy in the fist position has produced 604 mT of steel -- nearly 10x times the Indian production during the same period!

An increase of 4mT gives India an "impressive" 6% growth while just about the same increase (3mT) gives China a growth of "only" 0.4%.

Is there a better case of comparing watermelons and lemons?

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REFERENCES & LINKS

- Financial Express (22Oct16) - India registers 6% growth in steel output in Jan-Sept. http://www.financialexpress.com/markets/commodities/india-registers-6-growth-in-steel-output-in-jan-sept/426301/
- World Steel Association - https://www.worldsteel.org/
- Top Steel Producers (2015) - https://www.worldsteel.org/statistics/top-producers.html

ShinMaywa US2 Seaplanes for India

This has been a long standing mystery: What is holding back the first major India-Japan defence hardware transaction - the sale of ShinMaywa US2 Maritime reconnaissance aircraft?

The US-2i is quite a unique aircraft, capable of short take-offs from land as well as water with a range of over 4,500 km. Powered by four big turbo-props, it can land even on rough seas amid three-metre high waves.

Perhaps this is just the sort of recce-aircraft that we needed while searching for the AN-32 that disappeared while flying from Chennai to Car Nicobar. The $1.65 billion defence deal was slated to be signed in the first quarter of 2016 with the first two aircraft delivered off-the-shelf and the remaining ten built under license in India.

The deal has been "under discussion" since 2012. Over the past four years there have been numerous speculative reports as to why an ostensible commitment at the highest levels of government, is yet to translate into action.

Today's Times of India states that Japanese defence ministry is trying to reduce the price-tag of the USD 1.6 billion for 12 aircraft in a bid to revive the deal. This is a new one. Until now none of the reports had claimed that the price was a sticking point.

Recently, India purchased six C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft for an estimated price of USD 1.2 billion. Even at the risk of comparing chalk and cheese, the price-tag for a a sophisticated amphibious aircraft does seem to be quite reasonable.

In fact the reasons for the delay stated so far have been:

Policy related -

• Japanese side has been waiting for the amended Defence Procurement Policy-2016, which is yet to be available for the companies wanting to do defence business in India
• Department of industrial policy and promotion is awaiting for Acceptance of Necessity (AON) from the Indian Navy
• While Japan had been pitching for the sale of these aircraft as a special case, for the moment it did not figure on India’s list of priorities

Bureaucratic / Red Tape:

• Deal delayed further as the next Defence Acquisition Council cannot take place, since there is no Chief of Integrated Staff (CISC) in place in the ministry of defence.
• The major hurdle remains successfully navigating through the myriad of layers of bureaucratic red tape, something that Japanese defence contractors, given Japan’s self-imposed ban on exporting military hardware, have very little experience in doing.

The last reason sounds more plausible. Getting the bureaucracies in India and Japan to talk to each other must count among the most formidable challenges of today. Surely this is not merely a question of an inflated price-tag!

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UPDATES:

- (8 Nov., 2016) - Japan, India likely to ink pivotal US-2 aircraft deal - http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/11/06/national/japan-india-likely-ink-pivotal-us-2-aircraft-deal/#.WCFsZNV97IU
- “The sticking point then was India’s insistence that Japan relocate production to the ‘enth’ degree”

- ( 25 Oct., 2015) - INDIA, JAPAN RESOLVE PRICE ISSUE - Price concession of more than 10% brings down the cost of the US-2 planes from USD 133m to USD 113m per piece - https://inserbia.info/today/2016/10/india-japan-solve-aircraft-price-issue/

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LINKS & REFERENCES

* (11Sep16) - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Japan-may-cut-price-to-ink-aircraft-deal-with-India/articleshow/54272792.cms

* (18May16) http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/indias-nod-to-buy-japanese-amphibian-plane-us-2i-to-face-further-delays/258215/

* (5May16) - http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/is-the-japan-india-military-aircraft-deal-dead/

* (28Feb16) - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/japan-noncommittal-on-supply-of-strategic-amphibious-aircraft-to-india/article8290054.ece

* (12Dec15) - India-Japan Joints Statement 2025 - http://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/26176/Joint_Statement_on_India_and_Japan_Vision_2025_Special_Strategic_and_Global_Partnership_Working_Together_for_Peace_and_Prosperity_of_the_IndoPacific_R


* (6Jan14) - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/japans-amphibious-aircraft-not-a-priority-for-india-now/article5545706.ece.


* http://theweek.com/articles/575407/japans-defense-industry-super-excited-about-amphibious-plane
- Japan and India have been discussing the sale of the amphibian since 2012. 
- US-2's manufacter ShinMaywa traces its history back to one of the founders of Japanese aviation, Seibe Kawanishi. This Kobe-based industrialist made his fortune selling woolen blankets to the military during Japan's turn-of-the-century wars against Russia and China.
- After the war, Nakajima's company became Fuji Heavy Industries — the parent company of Subaru, the automobile-maker.
-  Kawanishi churned out 2,800 civilian and military aircraft between 1928 and 1945 — an average of 165 planes a year.
- Building under license has always been Japan's favorite way to gain and maintain cutting-edge skills and technologies.

A Look at Rexit

A day before Brexit, there has been a sharp drop in the number of shrill op-ed's and commentaries on "Rexit" - the exit of RBI Governer, Raghuram Rajan.

Reactions to Rexit have, by now, covered the entire spectrum of reactions and predictions, from the impending collapse of the Indian economy to 'good riddance'. As a man-on-the-street, I have been trying to understand why the governement decided not to extend Rajan's tenure, who, by all accounts seemed to be the perfect man for the job.

So far, the many opinions rationalizing Rajan's exit centred on a handful of points: The RBI governor was exceeding his brief; he was playing to the gallery by taking on the role of a public intellectual and a government functionary at the same time; He was not being senstive enough to the plight of rural India by refusing to lower the interest rates, etc..

Today I came across an entirely new angle presented by Gurumurty. According to him, Rajan, with his Western education did not sufficiently understand the importance of small towns, the unorganised sector. He illustrated this with two examples:

• Morvi, Gujarat: The town produces 70 % of ceramics, 80% of CFL lamps, and the largest producer of clocks in India. It has the highest per-capita income in the country.
• Tirupur, Tamil Nadu: Here, entrepreneurs with less than 10 years of formal education export more than USD 4 billion worth of knitwear garments.

According to Gurumurthy, towns like Morvi and Tirupur account for more than 58 million unfunded, unorganised businesses that needed a capital of INR 12 Lakh Crores (USD 184 billion). A new financial architecture called the Mudra Bank, to fund these unorganised businesses, has been stonewalled by Rajan at RBI citing regulatory arbitrage and systemic risk.

Obviously there is more to Mudra than meets the eye. Finance is certainly a problem for SMEs, especially for those located in rural areas where the going rate from local money lenders ranges from 30 to 120 percent. If RBI under Rajan was not too keen on having yet another banking/regulatory body (apart from NABARD, SIDBI and NHB) what were the arguments against it?


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LINKS & REFERENCES

* Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) - wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Units_Development_and_Refinance_Agency_Bank

* Mudra Bank - Genesis - http://www.mudra.org.in/AboutUs/Genesis

* Unnikrishnan, Dinesh (Firstpost, 2015) -- http://www.firstpost.com/business/mudra-bank-has-an-obvious-risk-of-endorsing-shadow-banks-2189251.html
- National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and National Housing Bank (NHB)

* Gurumurty - http://linkis.com/newindianexpress.com/4AnuK
* Sanjay Baru - Interesting - http://m.firstpost.com/politics/the-numbers-rbi-governor-raghuram-rajan-did-not-get-2014-and-282-2846970.html
* Harish - http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/in-fact-where-raghuram-rajan-may-have-erred-in-policy-2865447/

Hello Finland!

How did Finland become home to Nokia?

On the face of it seems like an unlikely picture - a frigid, Nordic country as large as Thailand or Rajasthan state, with a population less than a third of Delhi's, it has managed to build an amazing manufacturing industry, centered on sophisticated equipment.

In a recent article, Ricardo Hausman, points out that the Finns started out quite logically by building on their biggest strength - its forests. So it was hardly surprising that a country with the highest forest-cover (75%) in Europe, would have a stong lumbering industry.

Yet, it went much, much beyond timber-based industries. It take good tools to bring down the huge trees, so they make excellent cutting machines; It is easier to transport paper than wood, so they have an advanced paper manufacturing industry.

A snowbound country with a population density of just 16/sqkm can be tough, so they built a good transportation, and a wireless communication industry.

How many other countries have transformed their weaknesses into strengths?

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REFERENCES:

* Ricardo Hausmann - http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ricardo-hausmann-advises-poor-countries-not-to-focus-solely-on-adding-value-to-natural-resource-exports

* Trade in Finland - Imports & Exports - http://atlas.media.mit.edu/profile/country/fin/

* Examining Benefication - http://ricardohausmann.com/?p=878

* Forest Cover in Finland - the highest in Europe -- http://www.forest.fi/smyforest/foresteng.nsf/allbyid/BE3C5576C911F822C2256F3100418AFD?Opendocument

Jewels & Pebbles: Public Sector Companies in India

In "The Idea of India", Sunil Khilnani notes that under Nehru’s rule:

"...the state was enlarged, its ambitions inflated, and it was transformed from a distant alien object to one that aspired to infiltrate the everyday lives of Indians, proclaiming itself responsible for everything they could desire: jobs, ration cards, educational places, security, cultural recognition."

Much of this infiltration has been accomplished by Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs, aka PSUs). As the first 'Five Year Plan' led to the next ones, the scale & scope of PSUs was steadily expanded. While there were only five central PSUs with a total investment of Rs. 2900 crore at the time of the First Five Year Plan, there were as many as 260 (excluding 7 Insurance Companies) with a total investment of Rs. 7, 29,228 crore,as on 31st March, 2012.

The point worth highlighting here is that these 260-odd PSU's include only those owned directly by the central government.

The ones that are doing well have been ranked into three categories:

1. Maharatnas ('great-jewels') - 7
2. Navaratnas ('nine-jewels')- actually there are 14 here!
3. Miniratnas-I & II ('small-jewels') - 70

In order to qualify as a minor jewel (Miniratna-II) a company has to be profitable for three consecutive years. Since this is the lowest bar, we can safely conclude that all other central PSUs (260-91=169) are loss-making companies.

Apart from the 260-odd central PSUs, each of the states have their own companies. Then there are also companies that have been floated indirectly by the government through its financial intermediaries.

If 65% of public enterprises owned by the government of India are sending taxpayers money down the drain, how much more is being wasted by the dud companies created by the state governments and public financial institutions?

Now that is something worth figuring out...

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LINKS & REFERENCES:

* MiniRatnas -- http://dpe.nic.in/publications/list_of_maharatna_navratna-and_miniratna
- EPIL - http://www.engineeringprojects.com/cm-msg.asp

* Early history of EIL -- http://www.scribd.com/doc/13345037/Early-History-of-EIL

* Parmatam Parkash Arya, B. B. Tandon (): "Economic Reforms in India: From First to Second Generation and Beyond" -- at Google Books

* Parliament debate on disinvestment -- http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/Result15.aspx?dbsl=1491

The End of Special Status States?

All of us like to feel special. If you are in India and if you happen to one of the states in the union, being marked out as 'special' brings not only warm fuzzy feelings, but also a bigger dollop of funds from the central pool.

Until now 'special status' states meant that you were either one of the seven sisters from the North East, or one of the northern Himalayan states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand. It meant that your state fulfilled each of the five conditions required to earn the title: (i) hilly and difficult terrain; (ii) low population density or sizable share of tribal population; (iii) strategic location along borders with neighboring countries; (iv) economic and infrastructural backwardness; and (v) non-viable nature of state finances.

The special states are able to give corporate tax and excise duty waivers. It gets them 100% central funding for infra schemes like PMGSY. But the cherry on the cake is the larger chunk of central funds - Normal Central Assistance (30% shared by 11 special states; 90% of this is grant), and Special Central Assistance.

The game changed a few months ago when Bihar demanded special status. Not to be left behind, Orissa and Rajasthan too joined the chorus. The reigning czar of planning, Montek,  then took out the checklist and showing them that they fulfill only the last two of the five-point criteria. The states continue to grumble anyway.

All is this is likely to end with today's announcement that "special status" is going to disappear completely. According to a PIB press release, the Report of the Dr. Raghuram Rajan Committee for Evolving a Composite Development Index of States (another of those titles!) submitted its recommendations to the government today.

RaRa's committee has come up with a new index for measuring backwardness based on per-capita consumption (NSSO data). It simply divides all states into three categories - Relatively Developed, Less Developed and Least Developed.

All the special category states would now be placed in the decidedly less endearing category, Least Developed.

-------------------------------------------------

LINKS

* PIB Press Release -- http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=99675

* Bhattarharjee, Subhomoy (2013): WHAT IT MEANS FOR A STATE TO BE COUNTED AS SPECIAL, Indian Express, 14 Jun 2013-- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/what-it-means-for-a-state-to-be-counted-as-special/1128832/0

* Indian Express editorial (30 Sep) on Rajan's new Index: HOW CONVENIENT -- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-convenient/1176217/

Skilling You Softly

By all accounts, India is sitting right now on a "once in a life-time" opportunity. For the next twenty years it will have the largest working-age population in the world. Most of them would be moving out of agriculture to seek jobs in construction, manufacturing or services.

The economists have a fancy term for this phenomenon - "demographic dividend". What this simply means is that the country stands to gain (dividends) if this transition takes place smoothly. That is, if farm-workers are able to learn new skills; If they are able to find better paying jobs, then we will all become prosperous and live happily ever after.

The problem with "if" is that it continues to remain in the realm of possibility unless we do something about it. So what has government of India done so far? A National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been set up; Targets have been set for various ministries, to ensure that millions of jobs are created, at least on paper.

NSDC works with about 85 private-sector partners to provide skill-based training in 21 sectors, across the country. Most of this 'skilling' is for youngsters moving into the manufacturing sector.

However, as Megnad Desai pointed out recently (FE 5 Aug), merely liberalizing manufacturing will not help. The devil lies in the details and in this case, the details of the labor laws. "India has made its cheap labor expensive by saddling itself with scores of laws, which interfere with manufacturing and make the creation of large units uneconomical. So 90% of the labour force in the informal sector has no rights and has to work in small manufacturing units as contract labour or rot in the countryside in low-paid rural jobs or suffer NREGA".

We have tied ourselves in knots with so many labor-related laws that entrepreneurs are just not willing to expand capacity and create new jobs. In India there we have 45 laws at the national level and close to 200 the level of state governments that monitor the functioning of labour markets. Under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, firms employing more than 100 workers cannot fire workers without the government's permission!

So it is hardly surprising that as per the Economic Census 2005, India had 42 million enterprises with an average of less than three employees! In contrast, thanks to our labor laws, even today, we have less than a million registered companies (2012).

So now is a good time to wonder: Which is worse - to be unskilled and jobless or to be skilled and jobless?

------------------------------------------------------
LINKS

* Mishra, Neelkanth (2013): THE HIDDEN GROWTH, IE 6 Aug 2013 --- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-hidden-growth/1151479/

* Desai, Megnad (2013): GETTING NOWHERE FAST, FE, 5Aug13 -- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/getting-nowhere-fast/1151155
- India has made its cheap labour expensive by saddling itself with scores of laws, which interfere with manufacturing and make the creation of large units uneconomical.
- So 90% of the labour force in the informal sector has no rights and has to work in small manufacturing units as contract labour or rot in the countryside in low-paid rural jobs or suffer NREGA.
-  Public money appears to the politicians and, hence, to all who work in the public sector as limitless and costless. This is why schemes come pouring out of the NAC and UPA to spend even more money. If you cannot solve a problem, spend money to smother it.

* National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) -- http://www.nsdcindia.org/faq/about-nsdc.aspx#ac

* Srivastava, Mehul (2011): Why India Is Rethinking Its Labor Laws --http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_04/b4212013616117.htm
- Companies must keep 6 attendance logs and 10 separate accounts for overtime wages, and file 5 types of annual returns. There are at least 11 definitions of the word "wage."
- The success of the Software Technologies Parks of India Act—and of special economic zones in China—has spurred the revival of a 45-year-old plan that creates special enclaves with more infrastructure and fewer labor laws.

* Basu, Kaushik (2006): Why India's labour laws are a problem -- BBC -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4984256.stm
- In India there are 45 laws at the national level and close to four times that at the level of state governments that monitor the functioning of labour markets.
- Industrial Disputes Act, 1947:  Formal sector employing more than 100 workers cannot fire workers
- Data from the Ministry of Labour reveal that in the year 2000 there were 533,038 disputes pending in India's labour courts; and of these 28,864 had been pending for over 10 years.
* Tokyo - largest zoomable photo - http://io9.com/the-largest-photo-ever-taken-of-tokyo-is-zoomable-and-975127382

- no worker can be made to work beyond 75 hours of overtime a quarter.
- a report by McKinsey, the consulting firm, estimated that if India overhauled its labor laws, its manufacturing exports could grow from $40 billion in 2002 to $300 billion by 2015.

Bonds to the Rescue

H. Kuroda, the new governor of Bank of Japan made a dramatic announcement today. Instead of trying to keep the interest rates low, the bank would henceforth buy long-term bonds to force more money into circulation. This, hopefully, will encourage everybody to spend more and pull the Japanese economy out of its 20-year-long doldrums.

The point that caught my attention came in this para of an NYT report:

"the central bank said it would buy longer-term government bonds, lengthening the average maturity of its holdings to seven years from three years and expanding Japan’s monetary base to ¥270 trillion by March 2015. Under that plan, the bank will buy ¥7 trillion of bonds each month, equivalent to over 1 percent of its gross domestic product — almost twice the pace of the U.S. Federal Reserve."

Yen 270 trillion translates into Rs. 1.55 Crore Crores (155*10^12) and US$ 2.83 Trillion!
According to BoJ, Japan's current monetary base stands at Yen 146 trillion. So if all goes well the expansion is going to be about 50 percent in two years.

What is India's current monetary base?

According to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) press release dated 22 March, 2013, India's latest recorded money supply (M3) stands at Rs. 73 Lakh Crores (73.5*10^12).

So the difference in money cirulating now in India, to what Japan expects to have in 2015 is the difference more than double our current levels -- Rs. 82 Lakh Crores (82*10^12)!

Note: All figures in US$ Trillion; India's monetary expansion is assumed to be 16%

.................................................................................
LINKS & REFERENCES


Japan - Monetary Base 2013 - http://www.boj.or.jp/en/statistics/boj/other/mbt/mbt1303.pdf

RBI - Growth Rates for M3 -- http://rbi.org.in/scripts/SPF17.aspx

Tabuchi, Hiroko (2013): JAPAN INITIATES BOLD BID TO END FALLING PRICES, NYT, 4 April, 2013 --- url --- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/business/global/japan-initiates-a-bold-bid-to-end-years-of-falling-prices.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
- The central bank said it would aggressively buy longer-term bonds and double its holdings of government bonds in two years, doubling the amount of money in circulation in the process. The bank will aim for a robust 2 percent rate of inflation “at the earliest possible time,”
- The policies are part of a new asset purchase framework that focuses on the monetary base instead of the overnight interest rate, which has remained close to zero for years doing little to increase prices or otherwise help the real economy.

* RBI Press Release on Money Supply -- http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/PressRelease/PDFs/IEPR1658RM0413.pdf

* George Soros's view - http://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-on-bank-of-japan-2013-4?goback=%2Egmp_49695%2Egde_49695_member_229425408

SRI - New Farming

India plants rice over an area of about 43 million ha and produces around 125 million tonnes of rice, which is over 43 percent of national food grain production. The average yield remains low at around 2.85 t/ha.


Over the last few years, there has been much talk of a new method of crowing crops called the System of Rice (or root) Intensification (SRI). It has dramatically increased yields with wheat, potatoes, sugar cane, yams, tomatoes, garlic, aubergine and many other crops and is being hailed as one of the most significant developments of the past 50 years for the world's 500 million small-scale farmers and the two billion people who depend on them.

Farmers in a Bihari village named Darveshpura are being feted for coming up with astonishingly high yields - one Sumant Kumar has grown 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land, using only farmland manure and without any pesticides. Another small farmer from a nearby village, broke the Indian record for growing wheat.

Are we really poised on the edge of another Green Revolution?

A detailed study by researchers led by Palaniswami K have reported in the EPW that the SRI method does seem to have increased yield and reduced the use of water in select locations. This team used data from 13 rice-growing states in India to come to this conclusion.

It will be interesting to see if this is more than just a flash in the pan...

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LINKS & REFERENCES:

* Palaniswami K (2013): DOING DIFFERENT THINGS OR DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY? EPW,  http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2013_48/08/Doing_Different_Things_or_Doing_It_Differently.pdf

* Vidal, John (2013): INDIA'S RICE REVOLUTION, The Guardian, 16Feb13 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution

* Siddiq, EA (): BRIDGING THE RICE YIELD GAP IN INDIA, FAO - http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6905e/x6905e09.htm


* SDTT-SRI - http://sdtt-sri.org/

Wasted in Transit - Really?

Over the past four days, both houses of the Indian Parliament have been debating the need to permit Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.

One of the main arguments for FDI has been that it would bring down the "collosal wastage in transit" of perishable agricultural produce. According to the present government's estimates reported in the Parliament, this wastage is in the range of 30-40%, resulting in a net loss of Rs. 65,000 Crores (~ $13 billion).

Another wing of the the government, the Department of Industry Policy and Promotion (DIPP) the wastage stands at 25-30% for fruits & vegetables and 5-7% for foodgrains.

Yet another government body - perhaps the one directly concerned with this issue - the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) puts the wastage at 5.8% to 18% for fruits & vegetables, and 3.9% to 6% for cereals.

So, where does the truth lie?

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Rajya Sabha - verbatim debates - 6Dec12 - http://164.100.47.5/newdebate/227/06122012/13.00pmTo14.00pm.pdf

* CIPHET - http://www.ciphet.in/default.asp

Sweet & Sour, Heavy & Light

One has heard of tea-tasters but it is hard to believe that at one time, there were also professional crude-oil tasters.

In the 19th century workers in the fledgeling oil industry used their sense of taste and smell to classify petroleum into four categories - sweet, sour, heavy and light. These days the same classification is used to determine the cost of the petrol or diesel that goes into our motor vehicles.

Any crude with more than 2.5% sulphur is called sour. Most of it comes from the Middle East. Sweet crude, on the other hand, is what is exported out of Africa, Europe (North Seas) and also supplied by the oil wells in India. Light crudes yield the more valuable gasoline, naphtha and kerosene while heavy ones give more diesel, fuel oil and residue. So in the crude-oil business, sweet & light is anyday better than heavy & sour.

One point, however, remains unclear: Is there any such thing as heavy & sweet oil?

------------------------------------------

REFERENCES & LINKS


* Choudhury, Ranabir Ray (2006): The balancing act with trade parity oil prices, BL 09Jan06, URL - http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2006/06/09/stories/2006060903550300.htm

* Types of Crude Oil - http://nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1,41,538,2035,5196,5197,5199

* Description of the MC 252 Crude Oil - http://oilspill.fsu.edu/images/pdfs/mc-252crude-oil-desc.pdf

* Ranjan, Amitav (2012): HOW PRICES ARE FIXED, BARREL BY BARREL, IE 07Jun12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-prices-are-fixed-barrel-by-barrel/958747/
- Sweet vs. Sour - any crude with more than 2.5% sulphur is sour
- Heavy vs. Light - Light crudes yield more gasoline, naphtha and kerosene while heavy ones give more diesel, fuel oil and residue.
- Though indigenous crudes from Assam and Mumbai High are sweet, they accounts for only 17 per cent of the total processed.
- Indian imports comprise nearly 80 per cent of sour crudes of which 82 per cent are from the Middle East. Of the 20 per cent imports that are sweet, Africa sends 99 per cent.

Labor Pains

In a recent article, M. Sabarwal pointed out that the recent surge of  worker-strikes in the Indian manufacturing industry (Orient Craft, Maruti-Manesar, Munjal Showa, Honda-India) were not about the usual labor-related issues: minimum wages, a safe working environment, or social security.The flash-point, he noted, was the informalization of work (90% of employment) and the explosion of contract labor (30% of total; 50% of non-farm employment).

This adds an interesting dimension to a long-standing complaint of FII and FDI investors in India, voiced by the World Bank (2008) - "India’s labor regulations - among the most restrictive and complex in the world - have constrained the growth of the formal manufacturing sector...Better designed labor regulations can attract more labor- intensive investment and create jobs for India’s unemployed millions..."

So which are the labor laws & regulations that need to be re-designed?

A paper by Ghosh, Fields and Dasgupta (2006) offers some pointers:

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947:

• Provisions introduced in 1953 relating to payment of compensation for layoff and retrenchment
• Amendment in 1957 required the employer to compensate the workers affected by closure in the same way as if they were retrenched.
• The 1976 amendment reduced the demand for labor by 17.5%, increasing the pressure on the unorganized sector to absorb excess labor supply.
• Chapter V-A requires an establishment employing 50 or more workers, in the case of valid retrenchment, to provide the workers with thirty days’ notice and 15 days’ pay for every year of continuous work by the worker at the firm.
• 1982 Amendment - Employers employing 100 or more workers must give notice of a closure to workers or their representatives and to the government, 90 days prior to the date of intended closure.

Indian Contracts Act, 1972:

• Provisions can be used  to resist dismissal under grounds that are not covered by IDA, 1947

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REFERENCES


Sabharwal, Manish (2012): PUTTING INDIA TO WORK, Indian Express, 26Mar12 p11


Basu Kaushik, Fields Gary and Debgupta Shub (2006): Retrenchment, Labor Laws and Government Policy: An Analysis with Special Reference to India, WB Papers

SMEs: Mittelstand and Chuken Kigyo

.
An interesting article in the Economist drew my attention back to Small & Medium Enterprises and to the combination of factors that makes them world class players in Germany and Japan, but not in India.

The article titled GERMANY'S MITTELSTAND - BEATING CHINA (Economist 5 Aug 2011) takes the example of KSB Pumps to describe the unique industrial ecosystem in in Germany where  universities work hand-in-glove with manufacturers; of suppliers clustering around big manufacturers and of owner-managers' rubbing shoulders with workers.

In Japan, such companies are called chuken kigyo (strong, medium-sized firms), and they serve more than 70% of the worldwide market in at least 30 technology sectors worth more than $1 billion apiece. Their niche areas are mostly at the high-end of electronics, engineering and materials-science.

Israel, Taiwan and South Korea have also managed to replicate similar models for SMEs.

What prevents Indian SMEs from building a similar reputation for world-class quality?
------------------------------------------------------------

REFERENCES / LINKS:

GERMANY'S MITTELSTAND - BEATING CHINA (Economist 5 Aug 2011) URL - http://www.economist.com/node/21524922

Venohr (2010): "The power of uncommon common sense management principles - The secret recipe of German Mittelstand companies - Lessons for large and small companies", 2nd Global Drucker Forum Vienna 2010, URL - http://www.druckersociety.at/repository/2010/day01/15%2730-17%2700/Venohr_101118_PPT_Beamerversion.pdf

Patents for Software in India

The Indian Patent Office does not allow patenting of software-related inventions. Given the size of the Indian software industry, what is the opportunity cost of such a stance?

According to the Economist, WIPO data shows that between 2003-07, USA topped the list for business-software patent applications at around 33,000, followed by Japan (!) at 26,000, South Korea (12,000), Germany (4000) and China (3000).

The Indian IT software and services industry has been pitching for patenting of software embedded with hardware arguing it would help increase commercial value of domestically developed software and augment exports. The counter argument is software processes are just mathematical algorithms  that do not qualify as inventions.

Ironically, even those who favored the counter argument would have sent each other congratulatory messages using patent-fee-paid software...


---------------------------------------------------------------
LINKS / REFERENCES:

• Economist (2011): INNOVATION IN JAPAN: SAMURAI GO SOFT, The Economist, 14 Jul 2011 - http://www.economist.com/node/18958643
• FE (2011): Software patents under Ordinance face reversal, Financial Express, 29 March 2005- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/software-patents-under-ordinance-face-reversal/82155/0
• Ruby - A Programmer's Best Friend - http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/