Re: India's IP policies and US lawmakers.
Ratnendra Pandey <[email protected]>
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A call for "fairness" is a scoundrels last defense. This idea is also expressed in such age old idioms like "an unskilled workman blaming the tool". I am worried at growing sense of "victim-hood" in a large section of Indian population. And, I would not want to see that the idea of victim-hood is driving the policy of the government . That is why I earlier suggested that we are becoming a country of blamers as opposed to a country of doers and problem-solvers. Lets come back to the example of expensive cancer medicine. The problem is with your notion of "fairness". The said medicine is available in market but you do not want to buy it at the price patent holder wants to sell because somehow it does not appeal to your sense of "fairness". An argument takes place as a result between you and the patent-holder. The patent holder pleads that a "fair" price is being charged for the medicine. Your remain unmoved. So, the dispute sums up to just one line: Patent holders perception of "fairness" versus your perception of "fairness". As it should happen, if you do not like price, do not buy. Or find some other seller. Or look for an alternative medicine. Instead, you are unwilling to back down, and you want to rob the patent holder of its right. I guess you also want to teach the patent holder some kind of lesson. Or want to show him his place. Or, you simply want the patent holder to know who is calling shots. You pool resources and rouse people who are suffering from the notion of injured fairness. You pass laws or get an judgement from pliant Supreme Court to legitimize what is an blatant aggression on rights of a patent holder. But,no immoral act goes unpunished even if it is given a legal sanction or an innocent name like socialism. You will have to pay the piper no matter what you do. You might succeed in giving victory to your sense of "fairness" but you cannot escape paying for the unethical component in some other form, at some other place, or at some other time. I personally do not care if one has to individually suffers for its acts, but when laws and policies that affect 1.2 billion people are made on unethical ideas, everyone suffers. That is where India has failed and so has its 1.2 Billion people, most of whom have no clue what they are struck by. Most of them keep repeating what they have been taught in schools. Clueless teachers keep reinforcing the false ideas in classrooms to the captive students who have no where else to escape to. Huge cost centers like UGC, AISTE, IISC, IITS, DRDO, CDAC, NPL, CISR etc waste taxpayers money on guaranteeing lifetime jobs and post retirement benefits on its employees without any apparent benefit in return to the people of India. Let me give this phenomenon a fancy name, "Sam Pitroda Syndrome". [ On a side note: If press or media ever picks up this term, remember it was first discussed on this forum. I hope Burka Dutt does a tv show on "Sam Pitroda Syndorme" like she did on population, and she invites me to speak so that I too can send link to this list urging all to watch me speaking. I promise I will send a summary of what I am going to say beforehand if I am ever invited.] I see that the correlation is direct between the level a person lacks in skill and talent needed to succeed and live happy, and the level of suffering from sense of victim-hood and perceived unfairness. You will rarely find a successful and happy person suffering from these mental roadblocks. There is way to make drugs (and other good things in life) affordable to more people. Most of the topics we are discussing on IP and property rights would have been irrelevant had the last sixty years since independence been used to groom the talent of Indian people and give them skills needed to be a problem-solver and profit makers. The term "expensive" is relative to the earning capacity of the buyer. The products and services can be made more affordable by enhancing the earning captivity of the consumers. Higher earning capacity raises the demand and profits in the market. This encourages more suppliers and entrepreneurs to enter market with new and innovative products to meet the increasing demand and to capture bigger share of profits. But, you see, in socialist thinking, profit making is criminalized and portrayed as an evil human activity. A looser is asked to decide the "appropriate" level of profit that can be allowed. A person who wants make profits is often called a "corrupt or greedy" person. But, a person who steals someone elses property is portrayed an innocent and a victim of some compulsion (The compulsion is usually lack of talent and skills to make an honorable living). Socialists want to make product affordable by stealing from one person and giving it to another through a complex system of laws, regulation, taxation and government spending programs. This is why India failed. The entrepreneur class and innovators are not fully participating in economy leaving India with a few run of the mill mediocre technology providers who then exploit the captive markets. People suffer from sub-par product and service (if they have any access to these in first place). The vicious circle keeps moving. I get a sense that Indian consumers do not even know what to demand and where to set the level of expectations. Basically, to most Indian consumers, the only thing to compare a bad product or service with is yet another bad product or service. The less bad of the two. For example, to a consumer used to 12 hours cut in power supply, a provider who can supply power for 11 hour might look like a huge improvement in relative term, in reality, though, both fail to meet the notion of a utility. Most of the topics that I see coming on this list for discussion, IP, voter fraud, poor telecom infrastructure, security etc all are tied to Indian people lacking earning capacity, right skills and attitude. But, this is technology forum. So, the technology gets blame, inventors and patent holders are called greedy, and the blame then flows to the technology providers , quite a large number of whom happen to be American corporations. Blaming others for ones short comings might provide some emotional comfort but it does not solve the problem. If you cannot afford a product, do not blame it on the seller. Blame yourself and your parents and teachers for not giving you the skills and attitude needed to improve your earning capacity. Demoralization caused by a skewed notion of fairness, injustice and victim hood is one of the key hurdles that is stoppling people of India from achieving full potential and happiness. Property right violations may give some relief in short term, but the moral and economic degradation that it causes extracts a huge price for a long period of time. Sincerely, Ratnendra Pandey From: [email protected] Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 11:42:14 +0530 Subject: Re: [india-gii] India's IP policies and US lawmakers. To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] Well... hunger / starvation are nice bogies to rake up, when it comes to India, as are seers who sleep on bed of nails and rope climbing tricks ! While hunger and starvation are facts, but using that as an excuse to avoid discussing or arguing about the social-righteousness of blatant / blind and unconditional patenting, is not acceptable. The real point of argument, which is being circumvented with all this smoke-and-mirrors talk is -- "fair usage of patenting". Since "fair" is subjective, it must be taboo -- right ? On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Ratnendra Pandey <[email protected]> wrote: My reply generated some spirited response. Links were thrown at readers and statistics from some websites were referred to making Google richer by a few cents in this process. Some kind of statment was tried to be made by quoting some numbers. Numbers crunching is better suited on finance or accounting forums. We generally discuss policy on this forum. And, this particular thread is directly about policy. So, I was expecting someone to justify a policy based on idea that stealing is good or bad for economy. I am still trying to get an answer. Anyway, Let me summarize my observations on what I saw in responses to my post: 1. Socialism: A fool-proof way to get angry response from some readers is to mention India and socialism in the same line. I really do not understand why should it be so? Has the word socialism or socialist become somekind of a slur word? Why do some people feel insulted, or offended when India and its policies on various issues referred to as a socialist policy? Is use of word socialism during discussion considered derogatory? If the word "socialist" or "socialism" has become a slur word, then it is a matter of grave concern because the Constitution of Indian mentions the word socalism in its preamble and says what India is: "SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC". So, the Indian people who get offended by the word socialist are either ignorant that India is a socialist country, or the Indian education has failed in instilling the pride and confidence in the socialist identity. 2. People dying by falling from trains in Mumbai: I deliberately presented this example because the people who die by falling from train are victim of socialist policies. They do not die from some random accident. These people hang from window railings, or door bars, or anything else that they can get there hands on because the trains are crowded that there is no space inside. The odds are against them. These people generally suffer from a disease far more deadly and prevalent than cancer. This diesease is commonly known as hunger. Some people call it starvation. These people have to make a very difficult choice of dying of starvation or dying by falling from train. A person suffering from cancer can live for a long time. But, I have not heard of any hungry or starving person living for more than a few weeks or month. The Indian railway which claims to be run on socilist polcies has failed in providing a safe transportation to users. Such deaths can be easily avoided by making sufficient investment in transportation infrastructure. This can be done without stealing IP. 3. The fact that Indian education has failed to produce innovators and problem solvers who can be counted on to solve India's problem is self evident. I will leave it to the link-searchers and number producer to use the search skills to dig out the statistics using Google (or some open source search engine if available). I am more worried about the vicious circle that India seems to be stuck in. Its ill-effect are two fold. First, we are not creating system, or process, to solve the problems of India due to not having enough problem solvers amongst us. Second, we are not leaving enough role-models for the generation next to learn from and get inspired from. So, do not expect much from the next generation if the current generation does not know what it is doing. Look at the current ones first. In my previous post I wrote. "The system that produces people who want to steal, also produces the people who sit in judgment, through Supreme Courts, high courts, or other regulatory bodies. " May I add that the system also produces people who write tirelessly in media and discussion forums to justify violation of property rights. 4. For someone who really wants to help cancer patients with expensive drugs, an ethical response could be to pool their money and buy drugs for the patients rather than stealing it from the IP owner. There are a number of legitimate ways to help poor and needy. But, stealing is not one of them. Sincerely, Ratnendra Pandey From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [india-gii] India's IP policies and US lawmakers. Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:54:09 -0700 Ashjit, I am glad you asked. But, a better question would have been what the supreme court ruling means to Indians and India. As far the patent holders are concerned, to them it is a loss and any loss, howsoever small , is still a loss. As far as I can tell, US government is not going to scramble B-52 bombers to destroy the plants where these drugs are produced illegally, per the US law. But, we are I have different perspective on this matter to analyze cost and benefit allowing India to produce drugs from stolen IP. A far more number of people die every year in India for simple things like dirty water or dirty air. India does not need to steal expensive IP to save her people from simple and avoidable deaths like those from simple diseases like cholera, diearreaha etc and from other simple causes like death by falling from overcrowded trains in mumbai suburban system. As far as I can tell from my unscientific observation, the number of people who could be saved by drugs from stolen IP are very few (any idea how many patients die from cancer than from other waterborne and airborne diseases)? But, you see, in socialist countries like India where government has to showcase what it is doing, revoking patents on cancer drugs is likely to get more votes than saving thousands of people who die every year from simple things like cholera. It also stokes felling of nationalism when Indian government is seen as fighting a profit seeking American drug company. Cancer is never epidemic. At anytime it affects a very limited number of people. A few cancer patients might be saved by these drugs. Not all patient will survive even with these drugs. So for the benefit of a very small minority of patient who were unfortunate enough to suffer from cancer, we are subjecting the rest of 1.2 billion Indians to moral corruption and unethical environment that comes from stolen IP or living off someone else's hardwork or money. So much for the self-reliant Indians. Is eating stolen food or treating with stolen drugs self-reliance? But, the damage to Indian psyche and character caused by stolen IP is far more than the benefit that might come from it. I have not heard of anyone attaining wealth or prosperity from robbery or stealing. Karma, good or bad, always catches up. Just look at what happened in last twenty years. Indian joined the IT revolution in its infancy, but today, twenty years later, India is no more than a supplier of a large number of cheap H1B type workers. When Indian foreign minister or other official visits Washington, they invariably ask their US counter parts to increase H1-B visa. I just fall into shame when I try to visualize the situation in which the Indian minister or negotiator looks into eye of an American bureaucrat and starts the beggary. "Madam, hamare bachhoon ko H1-B visa de do. [ Madam, can you give H1-B visas to our kids?]. It is a shame that in the last twenty years, India could not upgrade itself from being a supplier of large manpower and not much more. What is more shameful is that Indian economic system is incapable of absorbing its own supply of human resource. By the way this all happened when you had a Prime Minister who is a Gold Medal Winner and a "Topper" besides being a recipient many honorary doctoral degrees. The best from India, yes from one of those IITs, a system of white elephants that guzzle a large amount of taxpayers money each year to produce sub-par engineers most of whom are no better than engineers produced at the likes of Tolaram Moolchand College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Benampet, Hamara Pradesh. Just look at this contrast. The smartest Indian kid can solve 300 IIT style question in 3 minutes, a feat that an American kid can never achieve. However, every so many years, an American kid comes up with some simple and innovative idea that changes the shape of the economy. A Microsoft, Facebook, Google, or Apple is created and the best Indian minds are hired to do the repetitive work. An Indian minister begs for H1-B visas. Indian system has failed in giving character so badly needed to be original, innovative, and risk taking. Rot learning is encouraged. Stealing is justified in one way or another. An impression is generally created that progress is not possible without using unfair means. The system that produces people who want to steal, also produces the people who sit in judgment, through Supreme Courts, high courts, or other regulatory bodies. So, you get the ruling of the kind Supreme Court gave justifying stealing patents. When I was a small child, I was raised with an idea that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; and when character is lost, everything is lost. I am saddened to see that Indian legal system encourages immoral activities that will further degrade Indian character and ethos. We will never be independent, innovative, and original so long as we are encouraging unethical short cuts. Not being able to stand on our feet is far more damaging to India than anything else. Sincerely, Ratnendra Pandey From: [email protected] Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:17:01 +0530 To: [email protected] Subject: [india-gii] India's IP policies and US lawmakers. Can someone shed light on which IP policies they are talking about here: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/7OHPpGiNbNqk5r0UI3USDN/India-not-willing-to-play-by-the-rules-US-lawmakers.html “Like all of you, my blood boils when I hear that India is revoking and denying patents and granting compulsory licences for cancer treatments or adopting local content requirements,” he said. “As a nation, we should handle India like my dad did when I was growing up and I made his blood boil: He put his arm around me and or pulled me where he would go, to make sure his fingers were resting firmly on my shoulder just to inflict some pain if I diverted from the course we would go down. That’s what we should do with their government,” Olson said. (Congressman from Texas) -- RegardsAshijit _______________________________________________ India-gii mailing list [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/india-gii _______________________________________________ India-gii mailing list [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/india-gii -- regards, Banibrata http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdutta http://twitter.com/edgeliving _______________________________________________ India-gii mailing list [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/india-gii