Sep 2010, Russia&India Report by RBTH

Mumbai

A cultural feast awaits tourists on banks of Volga P.08

A Business Report from The Times Of India. In association with Rossiyskaya Gazeta ●

New Delhi

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Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Culture Celebrating poetic bonding

Defence Multi-role Transport Aircraft can cruise at 810 km per hour

Defence ties flying high with $600 mn MTA deal reuters/vostock-photo

Giving a new dimension to defence ties, Russia signed a pact with India early September to jointly produce and design multipurpose transport aircraft.

80 years hence, Russia recalls its tryst with Tagore

Sergei Ptichkin

Rossikaya gazeta

Irina Prokofieva specially for RIR

It’s a flying machine that will stretch limits of aeronautical engineering. With a payload capacity of 20 tons and speed of 810 km per hour, the multirole transport aircraft (MTA) is set to be another milestone in decades-old India-Russia defence relationship that is evolving from a buyer-seller to co-developers of cutting-edge military equipments. The project has been on the drawing board for quite some time, but it took wings early September when India and Russia inked an agreement to form a $600 million joint enterprise for designing and producing MTA. This plane will first appear in the Air Forces of India and Russia. continued on PAGE 2

India will be formally marking the 150th birth anniversary of iconic poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore next May.The celebrations have already begun in Shantiniketan, the university founded by the sage poet in West Bengal, with spirited renditions of songs, dances and plays composed by the bard. Russia, however, is celebrating its tryst with the Nobel laureate in September this year. It’s exactly eighty years since Tagore visited the

Military planes fly over Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square

Kremlin opens its doors to attract quality talent from abroad

Tim Gosling RIR

‘Modernise or die.' In keeping with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s mantra for creating a modern and resurgent

Soviet Union in 1930, an appropriate time to look back at the man, his legacy, his connection with Russia and how Russians see this many-sided polymath. continued on PAGE 6

Dialogue Building cultural bridges

Workforce The modernisation mantra powers the easing of immigration rules

Russia hopes that the new immigration policy will not only attract talent, but also bring in foreign investment.

Rabindranath Tagore visited Russia in 1930. A Russian scholar, who teaches Bengali, recalls her love affair with iconic Indian poet and what the poet means to Russians.

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Yaroslavl, the millennium city photoxpress

Innovation and Investments need of the hour

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An Indian teaches Russians the joys of the game

Putting pharma on the fast track

REPORT

The cricket mania catches on

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Russia India

...Marching towards a common future

Russia, a law was enacted in May to ease immigration rules for highly skilled workers. The new policy will have twin benefits: it will bring in the much-needed experience and skills from abroad to develop high-tech industries and draw in more foreign investment in Russia by making it easier for multinationals to

bring managers and specialists. Whilst Russia richly deserves its reputation for educating scientists, it loses many of them to other countries, as it does not have enough commercial opportunities to retain the best and brightest. That's the driving principle behind attracting companies

such as Nokia and Intel to Skolkovo - the $2bn project to build "Russia's SiliconValley" just outside Moscow. Russia also badly needs to attract experienced managers across its corporate sector to improve efficiency, productivity and innovation. A report from IBM published last year says that while the quality of Russia's scientific research institutions is amongst the best in the world,management schools rate poorly in global rankings. continued on PAGE 4

Russian language is back in reckoning Russian language scholarship in India is perhaps as old as the independent India itself. After a decline in the 1990s, it is now on the rise. Arun Mohanty

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The history of Russian language teaching in India is fascinating and dates back to the pre-independence period. There were enthusiasts from former Soviet Union who had managed to cross all barriers to reach British India for teaching Russian language and literature to Indian lovers of the beautiful Russian lan-

guage. People who wanted to read rich Russian literature in original had enthusiastically joined these classes. The former Soviet Union became a popular country in British India during World War II, thanks to the heroic battle that the Soviet people waged against the fascist forces. India saw a strong friendship movement with that great country in 1940s, and people cutting across party lines joined this mass movement, which had the blessings of Rabindranath Tagore. continued on PAGE 4

Partnership

Russia india BUSINESS report

bookmarks

in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

Fifth generation jet fighter, next big project

www.uacrussia.ru/en Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) www.sukhoi.org/eng Sukhoi Company (JSC), Russia’s major aircraft holding

News in brief innovations Indian and russian biotech firms to shake hands The Russian biotech sector is interested in partnering with Indian biotechnology companies to take up joint research and development of products. The biotechnology associations of both countries are currently engaged in identifying areas for collaboration and technology transfer. “We are working on creating a platform for joint activities between the Indian and Russian biotechnology sectors. We are investing efforts towards building a

uac-ta.ru

common platform and bringing different stakeholders on an unanimous ground,” Raif G Vasilov, COO of the Russian Biotechnology Association (RBA), said during his recent visit to India. He added that the prime emphasis now is on agri biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. “The Russian biotechnology sector is already strong in certain areas, and we are keen on transfering the technologies that are developed in Russia to the Indian partners,” Vasilov said. RIR ria novosti

A multi-purpose transport aircraft and its technical parameters

The aircraft, which may serve various functions, including that of a fairly economical civilian cargo plane, will be developed by a joint Indo-Russian team of engineers. The first flight of the aircraft is expected to take place within six years. The shareholders' agreement for setting up the joint enterprise include: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) with 50 per cent ownership; the Russian concern OAK-Transportnye Samolety with 25 per cent; and Rosoboroneksport with 25 per cent. The joint enterprise, to be called MTA Limited, will be registered in India within the next two months. A branch of MTA Limited will be registered in Russia. On the Russian side, the airplane’s design will be managed by specialists from Ilyushin, maker of one of the 20th century’s best transport planes, the Il-76. According to The Voice of Russia radio, the aircraft would be developed at Aviastar-SP plant based in Ulyanovsk city on Volga. The Indian Air Force is expected to order at least 35 and Russian Air Force as many as 100 medium lift transport aircrafts. MTA can be used to transport army sub-units to evacuate the wounded, including civilians, in case of a natural disaster, and to transport military technology and cargos

stowed in special containers. Going by the record of multifaceted Russian militarytechnical cooperation, the ambitious MTA project is set to be a success. In the 1990s, Russia and India created the joint enterprise BraMos Aerospace to develop and produce a multifunctional winged missile. For the first time, Russia had sent technological documentation concerning the Russian anti-ship missile P-800 Oniks to another country, bringing to the fore special trust that marks its relations with India. In terms of combat features, there is no other missile like it in the world. On the basis of the P-800 Oniks, Russian and Indian experts succeeded in creating an even more modern missile whose name combines the first letters of two

rivers: the Brahmaputra and Moskva. The BraMos can be stowed on ships, submarines, airplanes and ground launchers. It can strike over-water and ground targets, and is almost impossible to intercept. Experts say that the BraMos is the pinnacle of winged supersonic missiles with a flight distance of upto 300 kilometers. The next milestone will be the Russian-Indian project to create a fifth-generation jet fighter, which will be nothing short of a revolutionary breakthrough in the business of designing warplanes. Both sides are working hard doing the requisite paperwork before

reuters/vostock-photo

CONTINUED from PAGE 1

Indian soldier stands guard near a truck mounted with Brahmos cruise missiles in New Delhi

the signing of the agreement between the two governments. The documents are reportedly 99 per cent ready. The new jet fighter will be based on design by Sukhoi, the company that created the flying prototype of the promising aviation complex of frontline aviation (PAK FA), known as the T-50. Russia has now pitched its formidable Mig-35 for the Indian Air Force contract to buy 126 fighter jets. The cost-effective Mig-35, practically a fifth-generation military machine, boasts a powerful radar with an impulse phased cascade and an ultra-modern system for directing fire. The plan is to equip this jet fighter with the very newest missiles: air-to-air and air-to-surface. A ship version of the wellknown MiG-29K has been developed specially for the Indian Navy. India also plans to buy 21 MiG-29K fighters. This plane has been such a success that the Russian Navy has also placed an order for a number of them. The sturdy decades-old defence ties between India and Russia, driven by trust and technology-sharing, is set to fly higher in days to come as the two sides get ready to extend their military-technical cooperation agreement by another 10 years.

modernisation Skolkovo bill passed by State Duma The State Duma passed the bill on the Skolkovo innovation hub last Tuesday, adding perks for participants, but legal experts and potential investors said further work was needed to ensure the project's success. President Dmitry Medvedev has made the Skolkovo project, to be located just outside Moscow, a priority to modernise Russia's economy through the development of high-tech industries. According to the bill, foreigners will be exempt from

work-permit quotas that can complicate companies' efforts to hire staff from abroad. Expats and their immediate family members will initially be authorised to work in the country for three years, with an indefinite number of threeyear renewals possible. The bill also introduces the so-called extraterritorial principle, under which investors' physical presence at the hub is not mandatory until January 1, 2014. This means potential investors are allowed to set up shop in Russia. RIR

finance Moscow to start trading the chinese yuan The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) is going to start trading of the Chinese yuan before the end of the year, an official representative for MICEX, said. According to estimates, the trade volume between Russia and China could reach $5060 billion by the year end. At least 30 banks are interested in this new instrument in Russia, including credit organisations from Siberia and the Far East – Russian regions bordering China. MICEX

spokesman says for the moment, things concerning other currency pairs, such as the rouble/rupee or rouble/peso, have not been discussed. Russia's trade volumes with India and Brazil are, even combined, much less than those with China. However, RussianIndian and Russian-Brazilian trade demonstrates impressive growth. Trade volume between Russia and India for the first five months increased by 35 per cent, coming to $3.41 billion. V.Kuzmichov

bookmarks

www.dsm.ru/en Find analytic reviews of the Russian pharmaceutical market www.pharmaceuticalsinsight.com The latest trends in Russian and global pharmaceuticals markets

Russia india BUSINESS report

Business

in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

Prospects Indian companies can help in the modernisation of the Russian pharmaceutical industry

Pharma market lures global giants Russian Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko, who arrived today in India, will make a fresh pitch for attracting Indian pharma companies to set up factories in Russia.

FASHION WEEK: Russian fashion experts discuss 2011 trends

THE QUOTE

Mihir Chhaya

Head of Representative Office in Russia, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited

nounced that 460 billion rubles in state budget funds had been earmarked for modernisation of the healthcare system in Russia’s regions. Two signal events — the drafting of a law on medical insurance and the coming into force on 1 September 2010 of a new law on medicines — have allowed Russian healthcare to reach a qualitatively new level.“The attractiveness of the domestic market as an investment for foreign companies has increased,”says Chulibrk. He recalled that in 2006 when his company was building its own factory in Russia, it took 27

months to register his medicines in Russia.“Now, with the new law in place, the timeframe for receiving permission to register medicines are strictly regulated and substantially reduced,” he said. The burgeoning market has attracted global giants like Polpharma, Actavis, Stada, and Sanofi-Aventis, who are now building their own factories in Russia. Teva, Novartis, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AEC PARTNERS, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and AstraZeneka have all announced their intention to localise production in Russia.

laif/vostock-photo

at all Russian facilities. Much of that investment figure will be state funds, funneled through either regular budget allocations or one of the federal target programmes — state funding vehicles created to accomplish certain development goals. The government was ready to appropriate as much as 120 billion rubles ($4 billion) of state funds for supporting the pharmaceutical industry.

Within the framework of Pharma 2020, Indian manufacturers are going to offer their versatile experience in training of human resources and in deep processing of raw materials for pharmaceuticals as well as in manufacturing of various pharmaceutical components. Pharma 2020 is a very fresh and welcome initiative. We are serious about investing in Russia. We have the oft mentioned “India Advantage” in branded generic and speciality medicines.” Local manufacturers should be enthused by the contents of the policy. While ensuring ethical practices are enforced in the pharma market space, it is also necessary to ensure not only a level playing field for all players by the government, but also to seriously think about how much to regulate and what to regulate, especially when speaking about medium & small pharma players or branded generic players who provide the real choice to the patients by the plethora of their range of products. Further, the government is also invited to review its perception of the pharma industry.

The Russian market is one of the most attractive destinations for pharmaceuticals

$6.2 billion pharma investment target for 2020 The strategy of Pharma 2020 is to raise the competitiveness of the industry, stimulate the production of innovative medicines, modernise factories’ equipment, remove administrative barriers for drug registration and launch educational programmes. The goal is an ambitious one: to raise the share of domestically produced medicines from the current 23 per cent to 50 per cent over the coming 10 years.

Doing so will reduce the country’s dependence on imports, as well as make medicines more affordable for consumers and the government. The strategy calls for 188 billion rubles ($6.2 billion) of investment in the pharmaceutical sector over the next decade in three key areas: research and development, training and infrastructure development, and introducing good manufacturing practices

www.minprom.gov.ru

than for imported medicines because of being produced locally. Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have pitched for Indian investment olga koltunova in this crucial sector.“We are rir ready to discuss these projects The outlook for the Russian and create new enterprises to pharmaceutical industry create medicines,”said Mednever looked better, with ex- vedev last year.“The pharmaperts predicting the market to cological market is developexceed $60 billion by 2020. ing in Russia. It’s a growing Spurred by Pharma 2020 vi- market. Indian producers are sion, a government strategy fairly well represented here aimed at developing an inno- and have recommended vative Russian pharmaceuti- brands. The development of cals industry using foreign ex- the pharmacological industry perience in research and in our country is a national production, foreign drug- priority, which is being permakers are planning to pump sonally coordinated by the in $4 billion to set up a base as president of Russia.”Deputy local producers. Prime Minister Sergei SobyaTop Indian pharma compa- nin has invited Indian pharnies are also avidly eyeing the macists to create joint enterRussian market. India's phar- prises and build factories to maceutical exports to Russia produce medicines in Russia. scaled upto $532 million in India has responded enthusi2008 and are expected to go up astically. "They are ready to insubstantially this year. Al- vest in the Russian pharmathough the Indian pharma ceutical industry, including India-Russia joint ventures. Russia is preparing the list of Foreign drug makers medicines that it needs,”Commerce Minister Anand Sharare planning to set ma said during his visit to up a local base, to Moscow in June.The two sides pump in $4 b in the are working on a protocol on Russian market joint production. Russia, on its part, has priorcompanies have been in busi- itised the modernisation of the ness since the Soviet times, health system and the develtheir share of the Russian mar- opment of pharmacology as ket remains a little more than twin strategic goals necessary 5 per cent. But with the new for national renaissance.“The Russian policy, the picture is Russian market is one of the going to change dramatically. most promising and attractive Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd for pharmaceuticals. In terms managed to notch up $130 mn of economic growth, Russia is sales in Russia in 2009, a sharp on a par with other countries jump of 27 per cent from pre- in BRIC-MT [Brazil, India, vious year. Ranbaxy, too, has China, Mexico and Turkey],” cornered a sizeable chunk of said Zdravko Chulibrk, head the Russian market. Indian of the Moscow branch of drugs fare well in the Russian Chemofarm, part of the Germarket on account of its qual- man group STADA.The pharity and cost competiveness. maceutical sales in Russia in “During the financial crisis, it 2009 totaled $17 billion. The was especially important that sales are expected to go upto Indian medicines in the Rus- $22 billion in 2011 and to $24 sian market are inexpensive,” billion in 2012. says Sergey Shulyak, Director A year ago, Medvedev set the General, DSM Group, a re- goal of increasing the sales of search company. Prices were medicine to 1.5 trillion rubles often 20-30 per cent lower by 2020. Recently, Putin an-

Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko: Russia wants a strong Indian presence in the pharmaceutical sector

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People

in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

bookmarks

www.russiancentre.org.in/eng Russian Centre of Science and Culture, New Delhi www.pushkin.edu.ru The Pushkin State Russian language Institute

CONTINUED from PAGE 1

Indians sincerely believed that it is only Soviet Union that could defeat the fascist forces. Soviet contribution and sacrifice to save the world from imminent fascist menace was unparallel, and this drew huge sympathy for the Soviet people across the globe. India was no exception. The Soviet victory over fascist forces accelerated India’s freedom movement and we achieved our independence in less than two years after the World War II ended. This is why former Soviet Union became so popular among Indian masses, who wanted to know more about these heroic people. Indians wanted to know about happenings in that country from primary sources and hence the urge to learn Russian language that led to systematic Russian teaching in 1946. The intensive exchange and strengthening of ties between independent India and Soviet Union bolstered Rus-

sian language teaching in India. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s significant visit to USSR and Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev’s visit to India in 1955 opened new vistas for fruitful and multifaceted cooperation between our two countries. As a result of these visits, dozens of industrial enterprises were built in India with Soviet assistance.. Tens of thousands of Indian specialists and engineers worked hand in hand with Soviet specialists in these enterprises, and Indian engineers and workers started learning Russian language in order to better understand their Russian counterparts working in those factories . The necessity for learning Russian language was so important that the first Institute of Russian language was inaugurated in Delhi in 1965 by the education ministers of both countries. The historic Indo-Soviet trea-

embassy of russia in india

Tolstoy, Gorky and Pushkin cast their spell on Indians Mr. Fyodor A. Rozovskiy, Director, Russian Culture and Science Center in New Delhi, addresses a three-day international conference entitled 'India and Russia in the Third Millennium: Dialogue of Cultures' in the Indian capital on September 17-20.

Language is yet another dimension of the dialogue of civilisations between India and Russia ty for peace, friendship and cooperation signed in 1971 in the wake of Bangladesh liberation war made the Soviet Union a strategic partner number one for India. The aftermath of the signing of this treaty witnessed unprecedented expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries in all spheres of human activities, and bonds between our countries became so strong that it was termed as “special relationship" in 1980s

, making many envious of our time-tested friendship. This is the period when Russian language became one of the most popular foreign language in India. Thousands of Indians went to former Soviet Union for learning Russian language. Russian language was taught in more than 43 Indian universities, which means every second or third Indian university had a Russian language department. “Russian language was popular in India because it was the languageof a super power with whom we enjoyed timetested friendship," says Professor Ramadhikari Kumar, the president of Indian Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.

Moreover, the fundamental and applied sciences in USSR were very developed; Indian scholars wanted to have access to Russian research journals and hence, there was a strong urge to learn Russian language, says Professor Kumar, former rector of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was in the first batch of the Indian Institute of Russian Language founded in 1965. The interest in Russian language in India saw a decline in the 1990s following the Soviet disintegration and the loss of superpower status by a new Russia. Russian language teachers tried their best to keep the interest in the language intact and formed the Association of Russian

Foreign managers hold the key, incentives galore for new arrivals CONTINUED from PAGE 1

This means "skills are an obstacle for many Russian companies", the report says "with 59 per cent reporting labour resources as a significant obstacle to development". Foreign managers will hold the key,as Lilit Geovorgyan of consultancy IHS Global Insight puts it, because they "bring relevant skills, since most of the companies envisaged to be the backbone of modernisation are likely to be designed after western prototypes specialising in cutting-edge high technologies". They can also act as role models for the Russian staff under them, helping to mould

future generations in both, skills and mindset, points out Gennady Odarich of PricewaterhouseCoopers. With a serious managerial deficit on mind, the Russian government has used immigration schemes for qualified people from countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia. Signed into law in May, the new legislation transforms a tortuous immigration procedure into one of the easiest in the world, for highly skilled people at least. Qualifying employees and their family receive a three-year visa rather than face a yearly trek home to reapply, with the additional benefit of the chance to bypass

emergency income tax (30 per cent for the first six months) and go straight onto Russia's flat 13 per cent rate. Perhaps the biggest bonus for companies is that highly skilled employees are now exempt from the Federal Migration Service’s annual quota on foreign employees. Contract foreigners who don’t qualify as highly skilled, companies must still apply for permission to employ from abroad. Headhunters such as Nikita Prokofiev of Odgers Berndtson suggest the plan is helping companies focus on importing the most valuable professionals, even whilst they're increasingly looking to hire lo-

cally for most positions. "The market has evolved and now hiring Russians is preferable for many companies," he says. "15 years ago, someone bilingual with a basic command of finance was much in demand, but now companies are only looking for senior people with very specific skills." Besides a strong desire to employ staff who understand the local business culture, this is also due in no small measure to the definition of a highly qualified employee, which runs to no more than an annual salary of 2 million rubles ($67,000). In contrast, salaries in the local market are still recovering from the economic

language teachers, which is doing a significant job to popularise Russian language and literature in India by organising conferences, seminars, talks and lectures on Russian language, literature and society. The third international conference on “Russia in the new millennium – Dialogue of cultures," held at Delhi from 15th to 17th September 2010 was organised by this association in cooperation with International Organisation of Teachers of Russian language and literature and Rossotrudnichestvo - the agency for compatriot affairs and Russian language abroad. The conference was attended by over 150 scholars from India, Russia, UK, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and 27 research papers were presented in six academic sessions. Though the 1990s witnessed a decline in Russian language teaching, the interest in the language of famous Russian writers like Pushkin, Chekhov, Block,Tolstoy, Gorky seems to be undergoing a revival in past several years. Russian language classes offered by 36 Indian universities and several Russian Centres of Science and Culture in India draw a large number of students for learning the language, and it is a matter of great satisfaction that it is no longer difficult to get a job for the Russian language graduates. Russian language is yet another dimension of centuries-old dialogue of civilizations between India and Russia. JNU professor Arun Mohanty is the Director of the Eurasian Foundation.

drawing by Dmitry divin

crisis, while skilled and experienced people from the West expect a premium to relocate. Odarich suggests the appetite for such candidates is strong, with PwC having "many clients asking about the new system - both for current employees and future hires". "It does

seem to be running smoothly - the authorities have put a lot of effort into making sure that the bureaucracy understands the new process at all levels." That's a welcome contrast to the chaos, which ensued when a new customs regime was introduced in the summer.

bookmarks

www.cdi.org/russia/johnson Johnson’s Russia List www.russiaprofile.org Analysis of business, economic, political and cultural trends en.fondsk.ru Strategic Culture Foundation magazine

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Opinion

in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

Forging global strategy with China Alexander Lukin

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hina is Russia’s most important neighbour, given its vast common border and Beijing's expected impact on Russia’s development, especially in eastern regions. The 400-year history of Russian-Chinese ties knows no wars, though there were difficult times and minor skirmishes. Today, Russian-Chinese relations are at their peak. The two nations have avoided problems that strain Russia’s ties with other countries in the region, such as territorial disputes with Japan or political problems with North Korea. Problems connected to the demarcation of the 4,209.3 km frontier, which soured relations for years, have now been completely settled. Hundreds of political, economic, cultural and other events were held in 2006, theYear of Russia in China, which was followed by theYear of China in Russia (2007). The countries’ heads of state meet 4-5 times a year. Bilateral trade has exceeded $56 billion in 2008, making China Russia’s third biggest trade partner. The two sides

are sure of notching up $60-80 mn billion trade by 2010. China is also interested in Russia as a geopolitical and economic partner, though Russia currently plays a much smaller role in China’s politics than China does in Russia’s. Yet, for many reasons, China wants a stable and strong Russia capable of becoming an independent centre of power, as a counterweight in China’s complex relations with the US and Western Europe. Finally, Russia is an important source of goods and raw materials that China cannot buy elsewhere (e.g: weapons) or which it has in insufficient quantities like oil and forest products. The end of the Cold War has driven Russia and China closer, as they resent domination by one power and share strategic interests in creating a multi-polar world. The two countries have promoted groupings like Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRIC and have coordinated their voting in the UN on key global problems and crises like Iran, South Korea and Kosovo.They are, however, opposed to creating an antiWestern military alliance. All this does not mean that the relationship is totally hasslefree. Russia is concerned about

drawing by Dmitry divin

its growing import/export ratio, declining equipment exports and low levels of mutual investment. Some of these problems are already being actively addressed. Thus, the completion of a new oil pipeline from Russia to China, likely this autumn, will allow Russia to double its oil exports to 30 million tonnes a year and become China’s largest provider of oil. During Prime MinisterVladimir Putin’s visit to China in October 2009, a programme of cooperation be-

tween the Far East and East Siberia in Russia and Northeast China in 2009-2018 was signed, involving huge investments in many projects in both countries. Russia has also taken note of some recent publications in China, saying that the country must ensure its economic interests worldwide by using its army and navy to control global resources and their distribution. While it does not see such views as Beijing’s official line, Moscow cannot ignore them as they re-

flect an assertiveness by a section of Chinese establishment. In this respect, Russia’s closer cooperation with other Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and India, which share Russia’s concerns takes on an added importance. The SCO is, however, one forum in which the interests of Russia and China fully coincide. Both Moscow and Beijing want Central Asian countries to be stable, secular and economically developed nations.This is what India wants

Russia, the most equitable Bric? Ben Aris

Business new Europe

he conventional image of Russia is a country of a few super-rich oil barons and more than 100 million paupers. However, despite having more billionaires than almost any other nation, incomes in Russia are more evenly distributed than in any of the other BRIC countries and the USA. One widely quoted measure of income inequality is the Gini coefficient, which measures the slightly broader concept of wealth that includes such things as home ownership. If communism had worked, then everyone would make the same money, which results in a Gini coefficient of zero. In a perfectly unequal society where one

person has all the money, the gini coefficient is 100. Sweden is the most equitable nation with a Gini coefficient of 23 and Namibia is the least at 70. Over the last decade, the rich in the US got richer a lot faster than the poor got less poor, as shown by the Gini coefficient for US household wealth, which rose from 40.8 in 1997 to 45.0 in 2008 (the last available data), according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook. In Russia, the rich certainly got a lot richer over the last 10 years. However, the recent decade-long economic boom meant the poor also got much richer. In dollar terms, Russia’s GDP increased 7.5-fold over the last decade from around $200 billion to $1.5 trillion; at the same time, nominal average wages increased 14-fold

The distribution of wealth in Russia is a lot more equitable than in any of the other BRICs. over the same period from $50 to around $700 a month. Russia’s coefficient rose from 39.9 in 2001 to 42.3 in 2008 – a lower increase than in the US in both relative and absolute terms, and a lower value than the other BRICs: China’s at 46.9, India’s on 53.5 and Brazil’s is 57.0. One of the reasons Russia does so well on a Gini coefficient basis is that everyone was simply given their apartment following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which must count

as one of the largest transfers of wealth from a state to its people in history. The trouble is that until recently, no one could tap this money locked up in bricks and mortar. But with the volume of mortgage loans doubling every month since the start of summer, this wealth is quickly becoming more widely accessible. Critics of the Gini coefficient say that Russia’s rich have hidden most of their money offshore, but this is partly offset by the fact that most of Russia’s poor also hide their money under the mattress; only one in four Russians has any kind of bank account.“The proportion of mattress-stuffed money among Russia’s poor is much higher than among America’s poor, as the US tax net is so much tighter,”says Liam Halligan, chief economist at Pros-

see related articles at www.in.rbth.ru: Fyodor Lukyanov / / What is to be done with China? alexander Salitsky / / Will China help Russia...?

tim gosling / / Who Is the best Bric now? Igor Fedyukin / / Brain Freeze

perity Capital Management. “That suggests US inequality is even worse relative to Russia than the numbers suggest.” This transformation has created a burgeoning middle class in Russia. When Putin launched his long-term reform plan, he called for moving 60 per cent of the population into the middle class by 2020. But according to a report released by Russian investment bankTroika Dialog in August, Russia is already there: Troika claims the middle class (defined as income/capita of more than $6,000 a year) already makes up 68 per cent of the population, against Brazil’s 31 per cent, China’s 13 per cent and India’s 3 per cent.Whatever definition you take of middleclass, it is still clear that the distribution of wealth on this score is also a lot more equitable than in any of the other BRICs.

as well and, as an observer nation, it could take an active role in solving the region’s problems such as fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and in contributing to the region’s development. India could also be instrumental in promoting the democratisation of these countries. The evolution of the BRIC group into a de facto alternative to the G8 would meet Russia’s interests, as well as those of India, China and other nations that are not a part of western blocs. There is huge scope for cooperation on global issues like the reform of international institutions, energy security and climate change. The development of RussianChinese relations does not contradict the interests of other nations, nor does it hinder Russia’s ties with other partners. To modernise the Russian economy – a task set by President Dmitry Medvedev – it is necessary to cooperate with all leading nations and to make use of their experience. This in particular refers to such traditional friends of Russia as India. The author is Director, Center for East Asian and SCO Studies, Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Freed of the need to simply survive, the emerging middleclass typically becomes more political, as it has the most to lose from bad government. The Russian population has borne the pain of transition quietly for most of the last 19 years, but over the last year, a growing number of protest movements are popping up. Both Putin and Medvedev are now talking about the need to promote civil society. Medvedev's decision to cancel the Khimki road and Putin's road trip across Russia in a Lada in August show they are both increasingly concerned about maintaining popular support. Going forward, the Kremlin is already attempting to play a delicate game, balancing the easing of centralised control while at the same time monitoring popular opinion. Ben Aris is Editor of Business New Europe magazine.

All articles appearing on page 5 do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the editors of Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Russia India Report.

RUSSIA INDIA BUSINESS REPORT

Culture

BOOKMARKS

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA THE TIMES OF INDIA WEDNESDAY_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

Gitanjali poet still popular, new translation on the way For many Indians, Tagore is more than just a writer and poet: he is a symbol of its cultural glory and renaissance, the first Indian to win international literary acclaim. He penned India’s national anthem, and, has the unique distinction of having authored national anthems of two sovereign countries. Tagore’s song (‘Aamaar sonar Baanglaa’: My Golden Bengal) first became the anthem of liberation for the people of Eastern Pakistan, and then became the national anthem of a free Bangladesh. For Benglalis,Tagore is clearly a larger-than-life figure. A Nobel Prize winner and a fellow Bengali, Amartya Sen described Tagore as“a towering figure in the millennium-old literature of Bengal”.But Sen finds it puzzling that “in the rest of the world, especially in Europe and America, the excitement thatTagore’s writings created in the early years of the twentieth century has largely vanished”.Such a question naturally could only have occurred to someone who spends most of his time away from his native country and is surprised to discover that his great compatriot is virtually unknown in other countries. I know one such person very well. He is a remark-

able scholar, a Bengali who has lived and worked in the US for about thirty years. After reading my article, written in Bengali in the Kolkata magazine Desh, he immediately sought me out in Moscow. His first question, why I chose to study Bengali, did not take me by surprise, because I am always asked the same thing by Indians.Therefore, my answer is always the same: Tagore.“Nobody knows who Tagore is in America,”he said dolefully. He was, however, surprised when I told him that Russians not only know about Tagore, but also have built a monument in Moscow. Half an hour later, we were standing in front of a magnificent figure with“Tagore” inscribed on it. We then went to chat up with some old women looking after their grandchildren playing in the park nearby. I asked them whether they knew about this monument. They all nodded, and one of them said confidently:“he is the great Indian poet and writer, philosopher and thinker, RabindranathTagore”. She didn’t even stutter upon the name, which is somewhat of a tongue twister for Russians. The scholar as stunned and asked them whether they had read any of his works. One of them said she could not remember the title, but she im-

RIA NOVOSTI

Audio at www.in.rbth.ru

Rabindranath Tagore meets members of the Young Pioneers organization during his visit to the USSR

THE QUOTE

In Tagore's words

In stepping on the soil of Russia, the first thing that caught my eye was that in education, at any rate, the peasant and the working classes have made such enormous progress in these few years that nothing comparable has happened even to our highest classes in the course of the last hundred and fifty years…. The people here are not at all afraid of giving complete education even to Turcomans of distant Asia; on the contrary, they are utterly earnest about it.... TAGORE, LETTERS FROM RUSSIA, TRANSLATED FROM BENGALI BY SASADHAR SINHA (CALCUTTA: VISVA-BHARATI, 1960)

Crossing cultures: translators search for a second home

VERONIKA DORMAN RIR

“Translators are the pony express of enlightenment.”This Pushkin quote would have it that the greatest translators of both Russian and world literature come one after another to answer a bottomless pit of compelling questions, such as:

Dr. Irina T. Prokofieva teaches Bengali at the Moscow Institute of International Relations.

which there is no equivalent? Happy to come together to discuss what some say is the most difficult and beautiful profession around, congress participants shared their linguistic adventures with humor and literary love. Dawei Tian, who translated Gogol’s “Dead Souls” and Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago”into Chinese, recommends that when a problem seems unsolvable, one should adhere to examples from life, and not to dictionaries. In fact, his colleague, Mitsuyoshi Numano, confesses that he wracked his

brain for twenty years over translating Chekov’s play “Dushechka”, which in Russian means “little darling, sweetie”into Japanese. He was unable to find any equivalent in Japanese until new age youth slang gave him a satisfactory answer. All the participants approved a resolution at the congress’ close to set up a translation institute to benefit foreign-literature translators working into Russian and Russian-literature translators working into other languages. This translation institute would work with

contemporary writers, translators, publishers, public institutions and private foundations. This is a project very dear to Yekaterina Genieva, director of the Russian State Library of Foreign Literature and head organiser of the congress. “Some of the gurus of Russian have never come to Russia, so this institute would be like a second home to them.”Sophie Benech, one of those very people, was elated:“this is exactly what we need, translators of Russian literature, are lacking: a home.We need to interact in order to make progress.”

Dr. Arup K. Sengupta (the Bengali scholar) and the author near Tagore's monument in Moscow, 2005

Words and Meanings In case of problems, look to real life

Moscow recently hosted the 1st International Congress of Translators working with Russian to unravel lingusitic puzzles.

mediately began to recount the novel’s plot“naukaadubi”(The Crash). My entranced Bengali friend was speechless. The young generation may not be as familiar with Tagore’s prose, but thanks to Russian composer Alexei Rybnikov, who set the verses from the novel“Shesher kavitaa”(The Last Poem) to music, they are getting a taste of Tagore music. The song has been a huge hit among young people. As Russia celebrates the 80th year of his arrival in Moscow, one can see preparations are much more modest than those preceding Tagore’s centenary in 1961. At that time, the second 12-volume collection of his works was published; a special stamp and a commemorative medal were released. Plays and ballets based on Tagore’s works were staged all over the country. The government had set up a commission

for celebrating his jubilee. Tagore’s name was everywhere: on television and the radio, his portraits and poems were printed in all the magazines and newspapers. It was back then that I as a child first heard his name and inspired went on to devote my whole life to studying his language and culture. Incidentally, back in 1961, Matvei Volodarsky, a movie director, made a documentary called“India’s Great Son: Rabindranath Tagore in the USSR”.Watching it left me with mixed feelings. One thing that was absolutely clear, however, was that the celebration of Tagore’s centenary was an event second in importance only toYuri Gagarin’s spaceflight, a milestone of sorts in the Soviet Union in 1961. The leaders who had invited Tagore in 1930 did so to advertise virtues of the socialist utopia. Nobody, of course, told their Indian friend that a quarter of the country’s peasants had been either exiled to Siberia or executed. What struck him the most was the Soviet Union’s success in education. According to Sen, in his Letters from Russia, written in Bengali and published in 1931, Tagore unfavourably compared the acceptance of widespread illiteracy in India by the British administration with Russian efforts to expand education. The British rulers of India promptly banned the book.

IRINA PROKOFIEVA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

www.indolink.com/Poetry/tgorIndx.html Rabindranath Tagore’s poems in English www.gorkysadan.com Gorky Sadan - Russian Centre of Science And Culture in Kolkata

can one and must one translate everything in literature? Is there any poetry that just cannot be translated? How can one acknowledge language evolution and escape its anachronisms? Is it possible to translate expressions for

Tagore’s description of the two weeks he spent in Stalin’s Russia was far more insightful than the accounts of famous intellectuals who were invited by the Soviet leadership. The music of the time may have changed, but Russians have not forgotten Tagore; they are even preparing to mark his jubilee, albeit not on such a grand scale as 50 years ago. Stripped of publicity and fanfare, it will be a sober academic discussion of different dimensions of Tagore’s poetry and his role in the Asian cultural landscape. Some publications are due. I can mention an essay byTatyana Morozova, a music scholar, aboutTagore’s masterpiece“Gitanjali”,a collection of poems for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. An European transcription of the music is appended to the essay. Russian translation of the Gitanjali goes back to the time of the October revolution. I am translating the Gitanjali verses from Bengali because the existing Russian translations are based on the English version.This time around, no government commission has been set up and Tagore celebrations in Russia will be coordinated by the Indian embassy.

bookmarks

www.cricketrussia.com Cricket Russia website www.russia2018-2022.com/en Read abour Russia 2018/2022 World Cup bid www.russiateam.com National football team

Russia india BUSINESS report

Sport

in association with rossiyskaya gazeta, russia THE times of india wednesday_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

Cricket enthusiasm Indian businessman takes the lead in popularising the game; the League hopes for ICC recognition

Russians are discovering the joys of cricket, thanks to the efforts of Ashwani Chopra, an Indian businessman. Team Russia now nurtures the dream of playing at the World Cup. Anisia Boroznova rir

Imagine a Russian team playing in the T20 cricket match. Well, it sounds exotic, but if the soaring enthusiasm of a small band of cricket enthusiasts is anything to go by, the game, which remains exotic for a majority of Russians is

headed for better times in a country where most people can’t distinguish between cricket and crocket. For many Russians, cricket means Cricket cigarette lighters. But all this changed last year after Eurosport, a European sports satellite and cable network, broadcast several Twenty20 Cricket World Cup matches complete with racy commentary by“the father of Russian cricket”, Ashwani Chopra, an Indian businessman now living in Moscow. The game ended up striking a chord with Russian fans.

A few months later, Russia’s cricket team took part in the European Twenty20 cricket tournament, where it made it to the finals before losing to Hungary. It should come as a pleasant surprise to cricketcrazy Indians that Russia, too, has a national cricket team! Cricket in Russia goes back to 1995, when a group of Indian students began to organise friendly matches using tennis balls and bats. Chopra, who came to Moscow in 1989 to study at State Technical University, and later went to Moscow Aviation Institute, came

Comment

Iconic cricketer Ajay Jadeja, former skipper of the Indian team, had a tryst with Russian cricket recently. Jadeja was invited by the United Cricket League of Russia to watch the final match of the annual summer cricket championship last month. “I found out for the first time ever about cricket in Russia in June from one of my friends. My reaction was: 'Do they even play cricket in Rus-

sia?' Well, now I am here and the players play with a lot of passion,” Jadeja said. It was a voyage of discovery. "It is a different world. Unless you have been here, you are not able to understand what the place is like,” said Jadeja, who spent a week in Moscow and St.Petersburg. “Indians and Pakistanis play together and spend weekends hanging out. This is how

anisia

Russians play cricket with a lot of passion: Ajay Jadeja

they keep in touch with their homeland. It is wonderful to see how, of the roughly 3,0004,000 Indians living in Moscow, 200-300 of them are out there playing cricket. Cricket brings them together.”

up with the idea to get the group together.“I was considered to be a good player in India, and I kept thinking about cricket when I came to Russia. It is like my first love, as essential as air,”Chopra told Russia & India Report (RIR). This passion bore fruit in 2000, when the United Cricket League of Russia was founded. It initially had just four teams: India, Australia, Britain and the world team for players from other countries. Fast-forward to the present, and you have eight teams in the league, with the strongest one, Friends 11, a seven-time league champion. Along with the regular season, now there are also Twenty20 tournaments, a shorter, glamorous TV-friendly version of the sport, which was introduced in 2003 to attract more fans. The Russian team began to participate in Euro Twenty20 competitions in 2008. Their first appearance did not go as planned, but a year later, the Russians fared handsomely by taking silver. “We are seeing progress. I hope we will be recognised by the International Cricket Council before the end of the year, which by then will put Russian cricket on the map,”said an upbeat Chopra.“We have recently teamed up with the

russian look

Twenty20 fever catches on, it's time to cheer for Team Russia at the World Cup

Since 2008, the team has been participating in Euro Twenty20

Russian Baseball Federation. They are helping us a lot,”he added. Unfortunately, Team Russia does not have the money to participate in the Cricket World Cup, but as soon as it gets the financing, the team will take part in qualifying matches. Almost all of the Russian team’s players are those from India and Pakistan. “We all play under the Russian flag. If

we have to play against India or Pakistan, we will not see this as if we are playing against ourselves. We already have four Russian players." Chopra speaks like a cricket evangelist.“Our main goal is to involve more local players on the team.We also want children to start practicing cricket. It has a bright future in Russia and is becoming a fashionable and glamorous sport,” he said.

Football FIFA to decide in December; Russia can be the first country in Eastern Europe to host soccer's biggest show

A resurgent Russia is leaving no stone unturned towards winning the World Cup bid and is confident of building world-class stadiums by 2018. Ilya Zubko Rossiyskaya Gazeta

When Russia unveiled its bid to host the 2018 World Cup last year, the idea struck many as more fanciful than holding the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi. But the success of the bid by the famous Black

Sea resort city appeared to have changed the game. In fact, with months to go before the FIFA executives decide the bid in Zurich, Russia is running neck to neck with its chief rival Britain. With Prime MinisterVladimir Putin cheerleading from the front, the impresarios of Russia’s World Cup bid have converted the minuses of the Russian candidacy into their sales pitch. Russia has hardly any world-class sports stadiums,

except Moscow’s Luzhniki, but the powers-that-be are not deterred. Confident of a world class event, Putin has promised to underwrite the costs. "If FIFA grants us the honour to hold the World Cup, we are ready to provide them with all possible government guarantees," Putin said when FIFA team visited Moscow to assess Russia’s bid for hosting the football's biggest extravaganza. To make theWorld Cup dream

reuters/vostock-photo

High on World Cup dreams, Russia set to defy sceptics

It's Russia versus England, once more – for the World Cup

come true, Russian managers have chalked out an ambitious plan that includes staging the events in 13 cities situated mainly in the European

part of the country that stretches from St.Petersburg in the north to Sochi in the south. In its 1,100-page submission to FIFA, Russia un-

veiled plans to build 10 new stadiums that will cost billions of dollars. The infrastructure frenzy is expected to kick off after FIFA decides the bid on December 2, with the Russian authorities determined to ensure that its spanking new stadiums, airports and roads are better than those of its rivals. One of the key points in any World Cup bid is what the tournament will do to develop soccer in that region. Russia clearly has an advantage, as the World Cup has never been held in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, it’s not clear whether the World Cup will give English soccer an additional boost.

Travel

RUSSIA INDIA BUSINESS REPORT

BOOKMARKS

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA THE TIMES OF INDIA WEDNESDAY_SEPTEMBER 29_2010

www.adm.yar.ru/english Yaroslavl region website www.city-yar.ru/home/en Yaroslavl city gorod.yarportal.ru Virtual Panoramas of the city www.guides.moscowtimes.ru/travel Travel Guide

Travel 'Ancient, but forever young', the city is home to splendid cathedrals, museums and World Heritage buildings

ITAR-TASS

In the centre of 1000-ruble banknote is an engraved picture of the Church of the Precursor in Yaroslavl.

Slide Show at www.in.rbth.ru

Fireworks, music light up Volga at Yaroslavl millennium party A rich cultural feast awaits you in Yaroslavl, which celebrated its glorious 1,000 years recently with a gala millennium party on banks of the stately Volga river.

atively describes it, the city literally breathes history, but blends modernity with effortless ease. The city, that boasts of the world's first female cosmonautValentina Tereshkova, poet Nikolay Nekrasov and PHOEBE TAPLIN actor Fyodor Volkov, recently RIR played host to some of the Fireworks, music and festivi- world's sharpest minds at the ties lit up the banks of the Global Policy Forum. Volga mid-September, cele- Located barely 250 km northbrating 1,000 years of found- east of Moscow, the city was ing of the Russian historical founded in 1010 by Prince city of Yaroslavl, older than Yaroslav the Wise at the conMoscow and home to splendid fluence of two rivers when he cathedrals, museums and killed a local sacred bear with World Heritage buildings. his battleaxe. Over the years, “Ancient and forever young”, merchants and industries as the mayor of Yaroslavl evoc- gravitated towards the city,

To advertise in this supplement contact Julia Golikova golikova@rg.ru ph. +7 (495) 755 3114

making it the biggest city in Russia’s“golden ring”. Yaroslavl is a veritable delight for anyone wishing to soak in Russian art, craft, musical and cultural traditions. This is the place where the first national public theater and the first provincial journal appeared. The city boasts of the famous “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” manuscript and has three out of the 20 most ancient and important icons. The early 16th century Transfiguration Cathedral,Yaroslavl’s oldest surviving church, has been freshly painted white and gold. Besides gold-backed icons and colorful ceramic tiles, vis-

itors can see a live bear called Masha in a cage, or a room full of chain mail and stone images, representing a 12th century epic poem.You can also climb the towering belfry and enjoy the breathtaking view across the city and its two rivers. The millennial celebrations have given a new shine to the historic city. The peninsula at the confluence of the Kotorosl and Volga rivers has turned into a "Thousand Year Anniversary Park". On the cliffs above, the legendary site of the city’s founding,Yaroslavl’s latest cathedral, named for the Assumption, a splendid reconstruction of a previous church,

RUSSIAN LOOK

HOW TO GET THERE

The journey from Moscow to Yaroslavl in a spacious, comfortable express train takes four hours and costs around 600 rubles ($20) each way.

was opened recently. The cathedral is just one of several large-scale projects planned or completed specifically for the millennium, including new cultural centers, zoos, golf courses and hotels.“A lot of our visitors are involved in building projects,”says Paulina Chernobaeva, manager of Ring Premier Hotel. For her, the city is perfect:“Big, but not too crowded with a lot of very beautiful, old churches.” On the bank of the Volga River, the Historical Museum is opening a new exhibition, reviewing 1,000 years of history through materials from the national archives, while the Art Museum, in the nearby Governor’s Mansion, celebratesYarolsavl’s“golden age” with yet more icons. In between the museums on the Volga embankment are some of the town's beautiful churches. The Church of St Nicholas, with its rich, blue frescoes and gilded iconostasis, was the first stone church built by the wealthy merchants who funded the city’s 17th century heyday. Fur traders commissioned the Church of Elijah, whose walls are even

WHERE TO STAY

The 4-star Ring Premier Hotel is between the main station and the town centre. Standard rooms cost around 4,000 ($125) rubles per night. For a more atmospheric place, check out Volga Pearl hotel, which is built like a boat.

WHERE TO EAT

The Vanilla Sky, right next to the River Station at 2 Volzhskaya Naberezhnaya (4852/333776) is a good choice and is known for fried pikeperch with wild mushrooms (400 rubles/ $12). Or try the cheaper Tai Tai café, just across the embankment.

brighter, decorated inside with glowing murals and outside with ceramic tiles. Opposite this church, theYaroslavl Region administrative center is bedecked with anniversary banners. The millennial frenzy has spread its magic. Even the 10 ruble bus tickets have turned silver with “Yaroslavl 1,000 years”printed on them in red. The Music of Time continues to resonate, weaving the past and the present.“You can feel the history,”said Chernobaeva,“when you walk in the city streets, you can feel it.”

This issue has been conceptualised by INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MARKETING, RESPONSE adqueries@ timesgroup.com Co-ordinator: • Feature Mehernosh Gotla (mehernosh.gotla@ timesgroup.com)