When Japan's Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori conferred about matters of commerce and technology last August in Bangalore, India, with S.M. Krishna, the state of Karnataka's Chief Minister, a key figure at their meeting was Shrikrishna Kulkarni (74th PMD), Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson. Kulkarni, who studied at Tokyo University, is president and CEO of Fanuc India, an arm of Japan-based Fanuc, a world leader in factory automation and robots. Kulkarni was invited by the Indian government to participate in the meeting because of his knowledge of Japan's industrial culture and because he speaks fluent Japanese.

Commenting on the meeting in the Times of India (August 22, 2000), Kulkarni said, "India is looking for a strategy that will help it achieve rapid economic growth — qualitatively in terms of upgrading its economy and quantitatively in terms of raising incomes." Declaring that the policies of Western entities such as the IMF and the World Bank are often contrary to India's best interests, he told the newspaper that a strategic agreement between India and Japan would greatly benefit both countries over time. Kulkarni predicted that an alliance between the two countries would give Japanese firms preferential access to India, "which in the next few years promises to become one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world."

Post a Comment