The Indian "Military Industrial Complex" Begins...
Some very fateful events are taking place in India. Yesterday, India's biggest Industrial elite, Mukesh Ambani and his Reliance Industries Ltd. signed a pact with a French firm Dassault Aviation for partnering in the defense and homeland security sector in India (see here). Put simply this means, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, instead of producing mobile phones, electricity, petrol/gas etc., for the common man, will now produce guns & bullets, tanks, rockets, missiles, fighter jets etc., for the government killing machine! Reliance Industries said that, they are entering defense industry sector because they were looking to diversify their business due to a slowdown in their core business of oil and gas. What a wonderful diversification Mr. Ambani!
Many of you - who have taken some elementary course in economics - must be knowing that in our scarcity ridden world there is an opportunity cost of every action that we take. The implication of this human action law is that when an economy is producing more guns & bullets, it cannot produce more bread & butter. The opportunity cost of producing guns & bullets is the foregone production of bread & butter. In a country like India where still more than half a billion people are living in abject poverty, where 58% of people still defecate in the open, Reliance industries' decision to enter defense industry means wastage of society's precious resources and a lower standard of living for the common man. The only entity who is going to benefit out of this is the State (aka, government) because as the Twentieth century American writer Randolph Bourne said, War Is The Health of the State.
This fateful event marks the day of starting of the Indian 'Military Industrial Complex'. Military Industrial Complex term was coined by the late American general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his famous farewell speech as US President (see here and here). Americans did not listened to his warnings and the result is in front of our eyes today when the American military industrial complex is waging wars all over the planet. The same warning is now out for the alert Indian citizens when one of the biggest Indian industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries has entered the defense business. This defense industry will become so vast one day that it will be impossible to stop it without collapsing the whole economy and society. Nobody knows what future has in store for the people of this country, but if history is our guide then Indians must get alarmed by this fateful event.
Mukesh Ambani must be ashamed of himself that instead of serving the common man, he is now going to enhance his services to the evil politicians and bureaucrats. People, instead of blindly supporting the welfare warfare government, must strive for peace & prosperity, and condemn this ugly beginning of the Indian Military Industrial Complex.
Many of you - who have taken some elementary course in economics - must be knowing that in our scarcity ridden world there is an opportunity cost of every action that we take. The implication of this human action law is that when an economy is producing more guns & bullets, it cannot produce more bread & butter. The opportunity cost of producing guns & bullets is the foregone production of bread & butter. In a country like India where still more than half a billion people are living in abject poverty, where 58% of people still defecate in the open, Reliance industries' decision to enter defense industry means wastage of society's precious resources and a lower standard of living for the common man. The only entity who is going to benefit out of this is the State (aka, government) because as the Twentieth century American writer Randolph Bourne said, War Is The Health of the State.
This fateful event marks the day of starting of the Indian 'Military Industrial Complex'. Military Industrial Complex term was coined by the late American general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his famous farewell speech as US President (see here and here). Americans did not listened to his warnings and the result is in front of our eyes today when the American military industrial complex is waging wars all over the planet. The same warning is now out for the alert Indian citizens when one of the biggest Indian industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries has entered the defense business. This defense industry will become so vast one day that it will be impossible to stop it without collapsing the whole economy and society. Nobody knows what future has in store for the people of this country, but if history is our guide then Indians must get alarmed by this fateful event.
Mukesh Ambani must be ashamed of himself that instead of serving the common man, he is now going to enhance his services to the evil politicians and bureaucrats. People, instead of blindly supporting the welfare warfare government, must strive for peace & prosperity, and condemn this ugly beginning of the Indian Military Industrial Complex.
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