Research results indicate that a common commercial plastic with good comprehensive performance, which exhibited the potential for applications in advanced electronics, was obtained by a simple industry benign technique.
And Mr Narayanan fears that the government's neglect might begin to prove less benign: that the IT industry might lose as the government promotes manufacturing and agriculture.
Whatever his views, it's to be hoped he is doing his patron-saintly duty and keeping a benign eye on his industry because as everyone - including the prime minister - keeps telling us, 2008 is going to be a tough old year.
They have always competed in a global market, thriving not thanks to any favours from the government but under its benign neglect.Last year, the industry, (including other remote services, known as "business process outsourcing", or BPO) was estimated to have generated revenues of $36 billion, nearly 5% of GDP.
But there would have been a huge political backlash on the part of the drug industry, whose benign neutrality the administration sought and got.
Where the authors of "The Coffee Book" see the evils of globalisation, he sees a mostly benign modernisation of a commodity industry.
What made the difference in Europe for the Japanese auto industry was a benign combination of lowered barriers to Asian imports, evolving European habits in car purchasing, and the automakers' decisions to start replacing imported models with new ones designed locally.
The Conservatives have slashed financing for climate science, closed facilities that do research on climate change, told federal government climate scientists not to speak publicly about their work without approval and tried, unsuccessfully, to portray the tar sands industry as environmentally benign.
A growing environmental concern is leading the chemical industry to develop environmentally benign products and processes.
