Consumerism’s final frontier (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article2229041.ece)
Western-style malls are the most conspicuous signs of a retail revolution that many believe will turn India into one of the next global superpowers

Ashling O’Connor reports from Bombay
From The Times

The Inorbit shopping centre in the northern suburbs of Bombay is like any you would find in the developed world. Teenagers in the latest fashions hang out on benches, swapping ring tones on their mobile phones and swigging soft drinks from cans. Parents nervously watch their children charge around in the play area while they sip frothy lattes before being dragged off to check out the latest must-have toy.

Three floors, topped by a multiplex cinema, offer a range of familiar western brands Marks & Spencer, Guess, Wrangler, Mothercare mixed in with local names such as Crossword and Shoppers’ Stop. It is a bustling, air-conditioned bubble of commerce. The difference for these shoppers compared with their peers beyond the Third World, however, is the sheer novelty of the experience. Even five years ago, nothing like this existed in India.

White-haired old ladies, wearing traditional saris, straddle the divide between this new retail world and the old one dominated by small family-owned shops often little more than a hole in the wall and open-air markets where goats and cattle wander between the stalls. Guzzling milkshakes in the modern food court alongside denim-clad grandchildren stuffing burgers into their mouths, India’s elder generation seems happy to have made the transition.

All around them, the US mall culture is being embraced. The largest queue in the eating area is not for the traditional Indian fare of dhosas and vada pav, but for Pizza Hut.

It is totally different from five or ten years ago when you had to go to shopping lanes or exclusive showrooms because there was no other option, Mukesh Agrawal, 25, a management student, says.

Wearing a Reebok shirt and trainers, Agrawal says he visits a shopping centre once or twice a week to hang out with friends or buy the latest sports brands. Most of the western brands are affordable, he says. People are becoming more stylish and coming closer to the concept of marketing.
India is undergoing a retail revolution. Spurred by a new brand of consumerism, social classes are being invented with each glass-fronted shopping centre that opens. An unprecedented generation of wealth, spurred by annual economic growth of more than 9 per cent a year, is rapidly moving millions of people up the standard-of-living ladder.

The result is an irreversible social and economic change that many believe will turn India, despite all its problems of poverty, religious friction and neglected infrastructure, into one of the next global superpowers. There is a tipping point when you reach a certain per-capita GDP like a hockey stick effect. We are not there yet. China is, says Anand Mahindra, one of India’s foremost industrialists. But we’re getting close. If we have two more years of 9 per cent growth, we are there. Untapped potential is the reason foreigners are itching to break into India, ranked for the past three years as the most attractive investment opportunity for mass-market and food retailers, according to the annual Global Retail Development Index from consultants A.T. Kearney.

What is happening in retail in India is quite unprecedented in the world, Paul Merrifield, national shopping centre development manager for Aditya Birla, one of India’s top conglomerates, says. The huge population base, combined with heady economic growth, seemingly insatiable aspirations, youth and a lack of existing shopping centre in-frastructure, can only create a unique and enormous potential.

It is still a highly regulated environment, however, in an effort to protect the small shop owner and domestic players. Only single-brand foreign retailers are allowed to operate in India, which explains why Calvin Klein, Guess and Mothercare are common sights. For the moment at least, multibrand operators such as Tesco and Wal-Mart must partner an Indian company.

Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, will enter the market next year through a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises, a conglomerate that owns India’s leading mobile phone network. The US giant, like all foreign companies, has been dazzled by India’s numbers. The most frequently quoted figure that sparks murmurs of excitement in the international investment community is the size of the country’s new middle class: 250 million more than four times the population of the UK.

The consensus in India, which has a population of 1.1 billion, is that this is not an overstatement. There are clearly 50 million households which are truly to my mind middle-class and there are about five members per family, so it’s a reliable number, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti chairman and a self-made multi-billionaire from Punjab, says.

I’d say 25 million people are as far in terms of wealth as Europe. And 25 million is a nation in Europe. So you have one big European nation here consuming Louis Vuitton and Chanel and certainly 250 million people consuming more than the basic staple goods. The range is big.

McKinsey, the consultants, predicts that by 2025 India will be the world’s fifth largest consuming nation, surpassing Germany, with consumption rising fourfold to 70 trillion Indian rupees. Average real household disposable income will grow from 113,744 rupees in 2005 to 318,896 rupees, according to the firm.

Growth is driven by volume in India. On a per capita basis, it is still very modest by developed countries’ standards. But when you look at the fundamentals, we see dramatic changes ahead, Eric Beinhocker, senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, says.

India’s next spurt of growth will be driven by its deep pool of young talent. More than half the population is under 25. Its collection of 14 million young professionals twice the number in both China and the US is topped up each year by two and a half million graduates.

With a severe talent supply crunch in a booming economy, the best have their pick of jobs. It is not unusual for young executives to have had five jobs in the three to four years since leaving university. And they are applying the same short-term thinking to their consuming habits.

The Indian consumer is very young and evolving very fast, Prashant Desai, head of new ventures for Pantaloon Retail, India’s leading retailer, says.
The trend is creating a new fast-living culture at odds with the staunchly conservative values of Indian society. Old Indians buried their rupees in watertight containers; new Indians are putting them into yachts.

A lot of people have made money and they want the lifestyle, so they are spending. It’s a statement, saying: I have arrived’, says Gautam Singhania, managing director of Raymond, India’s best-known tailor, who himself is not averse to flashing the cash commuting in his helicopter and throwing parties on his tri-deck luxury yacht. The younger generation is standing on its own two feet, not just taking pocket money until they get married. They are earning their own. They travel, need clothes and can buy a house and a car against their income. They want to do better than their parents did.

Like many Indian industrialists, Singhania believes the real societal shifts in India over the next few years will happen in the second-and third-tier cities. The big metropolises such as Delhi and Bombay are already well advanced saturated some might say to the point where top-level salaries and living costs are on a par with the developed world.

The small cities are where there will be the biggest changes, because the market has been neglected for so long. There is pent-up demand, he says. We recently opened a 10,000 sq ft store in Andheri (a Bombay surburb) and had sales of 150,000 rupees on day one. A 2,500 sq ft store in eastern India had opening day sales of 250,000 rupees. I know someone who went into a Rolls-Royce showroom and bought one on impulse on his way to buy a $250,000 stereo system. And he came from Indore [a city in central India famous for its forts, palaces and textiles].

Middle-income Indians in mid-sized cities have been unleashed not only by rising salaries and a strong rupee but the advent of consumer credit. If you were here in 2000, you would have seen very different consumer behaviour, V. Vaidyanathan, head of retail business at ICICI Bank, India’s largest loan provider, says. There was less willingness and propensity to consume. Loans were available only to the upper economic segment and the average consumer did not have the confidence to borrow. Things have changed.

Now people can see their own cashflow and has become easy. Finance companies are rushing to give money. India is already Visa’s largest market for debit cards in Asia, with 34 million customers last year. Barclaycard this year launched three credit cards in India.

There is an emerging middle class [who are borrowing] in a country where people have a stable income stream and want to buy big-ticket items and spread their payments, Anthony Jenkins, Barclaycard chief executive, says. Credit cards always start off as a high-end product. We are clearly past that stage in India. We are starting to see mass-market growth. The upside is huge. India, as a country, is still hugely underleveraged: borrowings account for only about 10 per cent of GDP, compared with 35 per cent in southeast Asian countries. The average loan value in India is just one seventh of that in the developed world. Most of India’s 600 million-strong rural population does not even have a bank account.

But the changes afoot are tangible. India, traditionally a nation of savers, is becoming a nation of spenders. The best indicator is the mobile phone market, the fastest-growing in the world with six million new subscribers a month. There are estimated to be 165 million in the country today and this number is projected to grow to between 500 million and 600 million by 2011, as first-time phone owners skip the fixed-line step to communication.

Mobile phones are not the preserve of the rich. Taxi drivers, maids, fruit-sellers and street hawkers all have them, lured by local tariffs of one rupee a minute and handsets costing as little as £20.

We are seeing India transforming and it feels good to be part of it. The real take-off has happened in the last four or five years. India is creating more jobs and that’s created a larger middle class, Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra, India’s third-largest commercial bank, says.

By 2010, there will be 580 million consumers in the key 15 to 44 age bracket in India, according to CLSA, the brokers. China will have 665 million. The test for India, a messy democracy versus a neat, capitalist autocracy, is to make sure a large proportion of the 600 million people still dependent on agriculture for a living are also invited along for the ride. That is one of the biggest challenges for India to ensure more inclusive growth, Kotak says. If we can create jobs, it will be.

The prosperity of mid-tier cities, which act as a bridge to rural India, is key. Without a fairer distribution of India’s new-found wealth, the rich will only get richer and an explosion of social tension lies ahead as the poor are left outside the doors of plush department stores, resentfully eyeing the goodies in the arms of their luckier compatriots.

[B]A holiday paradise

Historian Michael Woods on his 20-year love affair with India
Experts’ choice of top hotels
Where to find the best curries
How to meet a maharajah
Ganges whitewater rafting
Dance like a Bollywood star

For every rising report, there are three negative reports about India.

:)

C'mon Sun, we are celebrating 60th year of our independence & let's not look into negative reports at the moment. There are hurdles just like they were all this time in 60 years but, thankfully we now have a solution. Enough tears have been shed on poverty and misery sorrounding India but let's smile a bit for what we have achieved.

Tomorrow's World Power Turns 60 (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499166,00.html)
By Mathieu von Rohr
Spiegel Online, Germany

It's been 60 years since India won its independence and the country of Mahatma Gandhi is now on track to becoming a global power. But the country's new prosperity remains elusive for many, with millions of farmers still leading lives of abject misery. SPIEGEL visits five very different places to see what India's future holds.

The Republic of India was only four hours old when an untouchable, a girl named Shyama, came into the world in Gurgaon, a village near Delhi. She was born at 4 a.m. on August 15, 1947, in a simple brick house, the third of seven children.

Shyama's mother later told her about the fireworks and the street celebrations that night, and about the historic words of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru: "At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." But one man, Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation, was not celebrating that night -- because millions of people were still starving and because independence also meant partition of the former British India into two countries, India and Pakistan. Instead, Gandhi stayed at home and fasted.

Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. The family that Shyama was born into that night was not among India's poorest. Her father was a low-ranking civil servant. But they were pariahs, members of the Jatav subcaste. Their ancestors had been leather workers, which made them unclean, placing them at society's lowest rung. Not even their shadows were permitted to touch a Brahmin.

An untouchable, a man named Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, had written much of the new country's constitution. It was designed to create a country in which all citizens would have equal opportunities. "If things go wrong under the new constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad constitution ," said Ambedkar, "What we will have to say is that man was vile."

Over the course of the country's history since independence, it periodically seemed that things would indeed go wrong. But now that the Republic of India is turning 60 on Aug. 15, the world no longer mentions the country in the same breath as tales of poverty and hopelessness. Today's stories about India are tales of success.

The legacy of the 1947 partition can still be felt in India, especially in disputed Kashmir.

Shyama was a good student, one of six girls to attend the local college in Gurgaon. She loved to dance and wanted to become a film star. But the other students shunned her. Their families were from the affluent Jat caste of farmers, and they routinely disparaged her as an untouchable and called her even worse names, which she later did her best to forget. Shyama swore to herself that she would be a great success in life. When she was 16 she assumed a new last name so that people could longer tell what her caste was. Because she was born on the same day as India, she called herself Shyama Bharti -- Shyama, the Indian. "I abandoned my name to abandon my caste," she says.

Like the country, Shyama is now almost 60, but she looks younger. She sits in her office in downtown Delhi, wearing a pink sari. She has large, dark eyes and a narrow nose with wide nostrils that makes her look almost aristocratic. She wears her dyed black hair piled up on her head in a hairstyle similar to the one favored by her idol, Indira Gandhi, India's third prime minister.

As a general director of Delhi Transco Limited, the city's electric utility, Bharti is at the highest level she can be promoted to in her career as a civil servant. She has four telephones on her desk, and her business card reveals that she has four university degrees. "As far as education goes, I'm a Brahmin," she says, laughing.

She earns 42,000 rupees, or €760, a month. Her husband receives a government pension. The couple is provided with a driver and a car, a company mobile phone and a large house with servants. The Indian state treats its civil servants well.

Shyama Bharti managed to complete her ascent into the upper middle class long before today's new generation of social climbers, who make their money as call center agents and IT specialists, came on the scene. About 200 million of India's 1.1 billion people are already part of the middle class today, a number that is expected to increase to about 600 million by 2025 -- figures that are enough to make investors delirious.
Shyama Bharati, seen here in her Delhi office, was born on the day India got its independence.

The West has long realized that India is on its way to becoming a global power. The giant country is expected to be the world's third-largest economy within the next three decades. India and the United States signed a joint nuclear treaty only two weeks ago. India has been de facto accepted as a nuclear power, and its next goal is a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The country's elites are literally bursting with self-confidence.

Indians who read newspapers can marvel at the daily stories of progress in their country, and of its rise to prominence. India launches an Israeli spy satellite into space. Indian automakers plan to acquire Jaguar. Free wireless Internet in all of Bangalore. Domestic flights doubled in the space of two years. Bank accounts opened for each and every resident of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

At the same time, India's infrastructure remains a problem. Its roads, buses and airports are in a woeful state of disrepair, and power outages are common.

A trip through India is a lesson in glaring contrasts. India is a land of the future, and yet parts of it are still a long way from the present. It is a country of the fabulously rich and the desperately poor, of Hindus and Muslims, wooden plows and nuclear power plants.

Shyama Bharti will go into retirement on Aug. 15, her 60th birthday. She and her husband will move to her old village, Gurgaon, which has since been engulfed by Delhi's southwestern suburbs. The land the couple bought there 20 years ago is worth at least 100 times what it cost them to buy.

Part 2: A Land of Contrasts

GURGAON: 'It Will Be Singapore in Five Years'

Ashish Gupta sits in a glass booth on the second floor of a salmon-colored, semi-circular office tower in Sector 39 of Gurgaon, and says: "It will be Singapore out there in five years." Today there are still meadows out there, and cows still routinely stroll across the street, holding up traffic. But Gupta is quite serious.

The India of the future is emerging in Gurgaon. Where there was once nothing but brush, now glass and concrete towers are being built to house the offices of Western conglomerates like Siemens, Alcatel and Microsoft. The construction workers live in tents between the buildings. An eight-lane highway cuts through what is still a no man's land, with constant traffic jams lining up in front of half a dozen new shopping malls. A subway is being built to downtown Delhi.

Gupta wears black trousers, a blue shirt and a tie. He attended college in the United States and once worked for corporate consulting giant McKinsey. He is the Chief Operating Officer of a company called Evalueserve. His job is stressful and he is sweating profusely, despite the air-conditioning in his office. The company has 2,100 employees and has only been in business for the past six and a half years. It grew by 100 percent each year in the first four years, and another 75 percent in the interim. Evalueserve is in the process of expanding into China, Chile and Eastern Europe. Gupta's sentences are sober enough, and yet he sounds almost intoxicated: "The question is not how big we want to become, but how big we can become. Theoretically, there is no limit."

Evalueserve is a showpiece company in the new India. While China is growing through low-cost industrial products, India in growing through cheap services: call centers to serve customers in Ohio, IT specialists handling the programming for European clients and market research companies such as Evalueserve that perform tasks like analyzing the shampoo sales of their clients' competitors.

According to Gupta, there is absolutely no doubt that India is becoming a global power. "We need another 20 years, but they'll fly by."

The Indian economic miracle began in 1991, when Ashish Gupta was still a student. Manmohan Singh, the finance minister at the time and India's prime minister today, jettisoned the "democratic socialism" of the country's founding fathers. Until he came into office, large sectors of Indian industry were still state-owned. Singh began privatizing companies and liberalizing markets. The IT industry has been booming since the late 1990s, and the economy as a whole has grown by an average of 8 percent a year in the last five years.

At Evalueserve more than 100 people, most of them under 30, work in a single room, sitting at long rows of yellow desks and staring at computer screens. One of them is Senior Analyst Andrea Demsic, a 30-year-old blonde with cherubic cheeks and a contented smile, who works in the company's Business Research department. She comes from the southwestern German town of Schwäbisch-Gmünd and speaks the Swabian dialect. After earning a degree in economics from the University of Jena in eastern Germany, she says, it was relatively difficult to find a job in Germany. One day she saw a job posting at her local employment office: Seeking analyst for overseas position. She applied for the position and, a year and a half ago, ended up in Gurgaon.

Demsic's starting salary was 21,000 rupees, or about €380, plus a free apartment. She was promoted after the first year. She says that she could imagine staying in India for a while longer.

She is impressed by the ambition of her Indian coworkers, and by the city being built around her. "There is movement here. Everyone wants to achieve something. There are opportunities to climb up the corporate ladder in India. It's so different from Germany."

Thirty-six foreigners work at Evalueserve, and their numbers are also increasing in other Indian companies. Ashish Gupta, the COO, smiles. He needs people who know Europe and speak its languages perfectly, because his customers come from Europe. But he is also happy with the message he is sending to the world: Instead of hiring exclusively Indians to work for the West, Indian companies are now also creating jobs for Western workers.

VIDARBHA: 'They Build Cities and Neglect the Villages'

His wife and two sons were sound asleep when Punjaram Kubde, a farmer, got up in the night and went into the next room, where he kept sacks of seed, fertilizer and poison. He poured himself a cup of pesticide and drank it. His wife found him dead on the stone floor the next morning.

Now his body lies underneath a pile of wood that the men and women of Chondha have assembled on a green hill in front of the village. They have painted his face purple, brought him flowers, rice and coins for his journey into the next world, and wrapped his body in a white sheet.

About 200 people have come to attend his cremation. Their faces are serious. Kubde's is the first case of a farmer taking his life in their village. Some say that if it doesn't rain soon his suicide will not have been the last.

Chondha is in Vidarbha, in the middle of India and one of the country's poorest regions. This year alone, 521 farmers have already killed themselves in Vidarbha. Last year there were more than 1,200 suicides. Almost all of the men used pesticides, while a few set themselves on fire.

The wife of the dead farmer sobs quietly, her body trembling. Her name is Lalita and she is wearing the orange sari she reserves for special occasions. She is only 30, young and beautiful, but she will remain a widow for the rest of her life. Village rules forbid widows from remarrying. Sagar, the couple's eldest son, is 10. A man helps him hold a burning bundle of straw, which he must use to ignite the funeral pyre. Then the men and women of Chondha walk around the fire, throwing in sticks.

Punjaram Kubde was an important man. He owned 12 hectares (30 acres) of land, a large house and a motorcycle. He was 45, a powerful man with a mustache and, like most men here, he was a cotton farmer. He grew a strain known as "Bt cotton," developed by US agricultural chemicals giant Monsanto. According to the farmers in the village, conventional seeds are unavailable these days. No one knows why, but the dealers no longer sell it. Monsanto's genetically modified seed is expensive and a new supply has to be purchased every year. The seed makes up half of the farmers' production costs. Even worse, if Bt cotton gets too much or too little water, it reacts far more sensitively than normal cotton.

When last year's heavy rains ruined his harvest, Kubde was unable to repay his bank loans, and the banks refused to lend him more money. He went to private moneylenders, who lent him the money he needed for new seed, but this year brought more heavy rains and Kubde lost his crop once again. In the end he owed half a million rupees and no one was willing to lend him any more money.

Unable to liberate himself from his mountain of debt, he would have been forced to become an indentured servant to his creditors. He chose an easier way out.

The man who counts the region's dead is named Kishor Tiwari. A former engineer, Tiwari founded his own NGO in the small city of Pandharkawada, where he now has his office. He spends his days sending out e-mails filled with accusations and numbers. More than 6,000 farmers have already committed suicide in Vidarbha, he writes, and more than 2 million farmers are in debt. Tiwari reports the news from an India that has nothing to do with the country analysts are touting these days.

About two-thirds of Indians today are still farmers, a number that puts many things in perspective. They live in villages that consist of a handful of tiny mud huts, each containing a sleeping room, a second room for the kitchen and an outdoor latrine. The muddy paths between the huts are littered with cow dung.

More than 300 million Indians live in poverty and 400 million are illiterate. In many parts of India, dependent feudal relationships still exist, women and untouchables are oppressed, there are honor killings and the practice of setting widows on fire is still not entirely abolished.

Kishor Tiwari is a cantankerous man wearing polished shoes, black trousers and a white shirt. He has himself driven through the area in a car with a sign in the front window that reads: "God has sent this man to the poor."
He sits in the back of his car as it bumps across a street filled with potholes, blaming the liberalization of the agricultural market for the farmers' troubles. First, he says, the government almost stopped buying up cotton altogether, and then it permitted the importation of cotton and genetically modified seed. The end result was a plunge in the price of cotton.

He talks about Mahatma Gandhi, who founded his village commune Sevagram Ashram in 1936, not far from here. Tiwari says that Gandhi's successors have betrayed him. "They build cities and neglect the villages. For Gandhi the village, which is self-sufficient, was the pillar on which this country stands. Instead we now have the enslaved village."
According to Tiwari, the same liberalization that is driving India's growth is breaking the farmers' backs.

Part 3: The Scars of Partition

MUMBAI: 'Within Half an Hour I Would Have Enough Muslims Here Ready to Fight'

The city of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is home to some of the poorest of India's poor. More than half of its residents live in poor neighborhoods like Dharavi, Asia's second-largest slum, which investors have targeted to be converted into a modern residential development.
Mumbai is also home to India's wealthiest citizens. Most of the country's billionaires live here, such as the Ambani brothers, whose father, a former merchant, worked his way up the ladder to earn his billions. Another is Anand Mahindra, who dreams of dominating Europe with the SUVs his company makes.

Mumbai is also Bollywood. The city's film industry produces hundreds of movies each year, productions full of saccharine music and starring actors who are paid millions.

The careers of most Bollywood stars are short-lived, with only a handful becoming legends. The most unforgettable star of them all lives in a villa in the Cumballa Hill neighborhood in Bombay's Midtown district: Dilip Kumar, the first and probably greatest star Indian cinema has ever had.

He stands in the foyer of his villa, dressed entirely in white, holding up a palette and a paintbrush. Surrounded by a dozen photographers and jostling cameraman, Kuman remains unperturbed. Saira Banu, his wife, stands next to him and Jatin Das, a well-known artist. The trio is producing a charity painting for Bombay's street children.

Dilip Kumar is 84. Born in Peshawar in what is now Pakistan, he comes from a Pashtun family of 12 children. His real name is Mohammed Yusuf Khan, but it sounded too Muslim for him to become a star. He has trouble remembering the old days. When asked about 1947, the year of independence and partition, the first thing he remembers is playing football with the British. Then he recalls images of horror and death and the massacres that followed independence, and his three cousins who were killed in the unrest. The old man's eyes fill with tears. Then he says: "It was very eventful."

Partition brought horrific massacres. Already in 1946, the year before partition, militant Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were fighting each other, and when the British announced the borders for the future countries of India and Pakistan, 10 million refugees left their homes, attempting to reach the right side. Many never made it. A Muslim mob butchered a train filled with refugees in the Punjab, Hindus destroyed hundreds of mosques and Sikhs murdered Muslims with axes. Millions died. India and Pakistan were born out of a bloodbath.

Dilip Kumar has spent much of his life campaigning for reconciliation between the two countries and has even been decorated for his efforts. But now, in his old age, it is all coming back to him. He says: "If it ever happened again, within half an hour I would have enough Muslims here who would be ready to fight."

Kumar sits in his armchair like some emperor in the waning days of his life, a glittering dome above his head. A painting on the opposite wall depicts him in his role as Bollywood's great romantic star, posing with his hand outstretched. The old man stares into space and says that he misses Peshawar and occasionally goes to the mosque.

KASHMIR: 'I Am Afraid of Everything'

The wound of partition has never properly healed in India. Here, in Kashmir, it is still wide open.

Dal Lake sparkles in the sunlight against a backdrop of the green slopes of the Pir Pinjal Mountains. Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, is a magnificent place -- but is also one of the world's most dangerous.

Two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, are confronting each other up here, both laying claim to predominantly Muslim Kashmir. China also occupies part of the region. Kashmir is probably the world's most heavily militarized zone. There are 500,000 troops stationed on the Indian side, along with paramilitary forces, police and intelligence agents.

And all this is just because the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, flirting with independence, hesitated to choose a side in the year of partition. Pakistan sent guerilla troops, the Maharaja called for help from India, and a cease-fire line has separated the armies of the two countries ever since.

Despite frictions, Kashmir was long a dream destination for tourists, until a guerilla war of independence, supported by Pakistan, erupted in 1990. Today the region is a war zone, devastated and lacking an economy or infrastructure. But things have quieted down in recent years, as the militants have scaled back their attacks. Is there reason for hope in Kashmir?

The Mirwaiz of Kashmir, Omar Farooq, is the religious leader of Kashmir's Muslims and one of the province's best-known politicians. He lives in a dusty pink house in downtown Srinagar, where a dozen bearded men with guns sit in the entranceway. Farooq, who is only 34, wears a beard and designer glasses, and is currently doing a PhD on Sufism at the University of Srinagar.

What is he afraid of? Farooq's answer can be summed up in one word: Everything. On the one hand, there are the militant groups that murdered his father 17 years ago, so that he was only a teenager when he became his successor. On the other hand, there are the Indians, who also cannot be trusted.

Farooq is a young, intelligent man, but he has already internalized this conflict so much that it seems as if he has been dealing with it for the past 60 years. He is considered a moderate, one of those who want to negotiate with the Indian government. The Indian prime minister recently proposed that the line of control be turned into a "line of peace" between the two countries. There is a proposition for some kind of joint administration of Kashmir by India and Pakistan.

The Mirwaiz is in favor of these efforts, but he is frustrated because there is, in fact, little progress. He believes that it is high time that Delhi do something to back up its declared intentions. Indian newspapers write that Kashmir is faring better than ever, and that its economy is booming. The Mirwaiz smiles sadly. Kashmir is a place that makes people melancholy.

DELHI: 'We Aren't the Only Ones Doing Well'

Shyama Bharti, who was born on Aug. 15, 1947, is sometimes astonished over how much her country has changed. "When I was a little girl India was dominated by the rural population, and the farmers couldn't read and were superstitious," she says, "but now even their standard of living is rising. People are educated and they know their rights and duties."

In those days, says Bharti, her family's house was furnished with only one bed, three blankets, a few chairs and a transistor radio. "Nowadays we have air-conditioning everywhere and everything is fully furnished, and we aren't the only ones who are doing well." Every morning and every evening, Bharti goes to the small altar room behind her kitchen to give thanks to Ganesha, the elephant god.

On weekends Bharti visits her poor relatives, where she is treated like a guest of honor. She tells them that women should fight for their rights and their careers. Sometimes she gives them money. She is thinking about going into politics after she retires. She says that the country gave her a lot, and that it's now her turn to give something back.

She is immensely proud of her sons. The older one has also chosen a career in the civil service, and was accepted into the prestigious Indian Administrative Service, which accepts no more than 300 applicants each year. When his appointment was announced in the newspaper, Bharti and her husband were inundated -- to her delight -- with offers of brides for him. But what about love? "Indians aren't fond of love marriages," says Bharti, "They prefer arranged marriages. It's safer." Her marriage was also arranged.

India's traditions are not disappearing with its economic boom. Indeed, newspapers are reporting a new trend: Middle class families going into financial ruin to come up with dowries for their daughters.

Did the family of her son's bride pay her a dowry? "We did not take one," she says. "Only greedy people do that."

Bharti and her husband selected a pretty girl for their son. She is a senior civil servant, an intelligent woman.

Is she from the same caste? "Of course!" says Shyama Bharti.

SPIEGEL traveled to five different parts of India to get a glimpse of the country's future.

Sixty years on, independent India is booming (http://www.easier.com/view/Finance/Investments/Funds/article-132897.html)
Easier, UK
9 August 2007


60 years of independence next week Sam Mahtani, manager of F&C's top performing Indian Investment Company, believes the structural story underpinning the country's growing prosperity will continue.

India has delivered four successive years of above 8% growth, and is the world's second fastest growing economy after China. Mahtani says India's success story has been the result of a combination of changing perceptions and governmental reforms. Although growth is likely to moderate, the outlook for the Subcontinent is very strong led by growing domestic demand.

"In the decades following independence, growth remained at around 5%. But the government's decision in the 1990's to proactively target growth by aggressively cutting interest rates coupled with the introduction of several key reforms - including the privatisation of major industries such as telecoms and utilities, cutting red tape and improving the mechanisms for foreign direct investment - have improved efficiency in the economy and injected a large dose of liquidity into the Indian financial market. India is now seen on an equal footing to China," he said.

The Indian stock market has grown by 51.8% on an annualised basis for the past three years in US dollar terms. Mahtani says that although earnings are likely to slow to around 15% by the end of 2007, the outlook remains healthy for the long term investor.

"Although company valuations are quite high at 18 times forward earnings, the government's commitment to infrastructure spending and an increase in foreign direct investment should continue to support the economy and the markets. Equally, GDP growth remains healthy although the recent rises in interest rates should see economic growth moderate to 7-8% per annum over the next few years," he said.

The Indian Investment Company – a SICAV fund - is top percentile in the India equity sector over three years. Mahtani, who retook management of the fund in May 2004, said his long-term thematic approach had lent itself well to the fund's robust performance.

"With a governmental commitment of some $300bn to infrastructure spending over the next five years, we have found great opportunities among companies such as BHEL, the monopoly producer of power plants, which stands to benefit from its exposure to this theme.

"Mobile telecoms is another area where we see an explosion of growth. With only a 14% national penetration rate in India, mobile operators such as Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel have a great chance to grow their customer base," said Mahtani.

According to Mahtani, the industry estimates that some 6 million subscribers are added each month and rural areas, where the penetration rate is even lower at just 2% present the most potential.

"As India's rural populous becomes more affluent, past experience has proved that the one of first items a consumer is likely to purchase is a mobile phone."

Other themes being played in the portfolio are cement, petrochemicals and refining. Demand for cement is likely to rise in line with the increase in infrastructure spending and India's strong growth is boosting demand for energy and petrochemicals as well.

"In the area of cement, we like the largest cement producer in the country, Grasim Industries, which has operations nationwide, and Reliance Industries, which is the largest private sector company in India and is a core holding in our fund and a bell weather for the petrochemicals and refining industry," concluded Mahtani.

Canada's missing out in India: Tata (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070809.wrindia9/BNStory/Business/columnists)
Top executive of one of India's biggest companies says Canadian businesses aren't taking advantage of boom

MARCUS GEE
Thursday's Globe and Mail, Canada
August 9, 2007 at 3:22 AM EDT

TORONTO — A top executive of one of the biggest companies in India says Canadian business is missing out on a golden opportunity: India's rise as an economic power.

Alan Rosling, executive director of Tata Group, a conglomerate with 96 companies in various sectors, said yesterday that he is "frankly, puzzled" why Canadian companies have not jumped to take advantage of the boom in India's economy, which has begun to register growth rates almost as dramatic as China's.

"Just as India is waking up - just as it is leaving its great Ice Age - where is Canada? Why this lack of engagement?" he said in a speech to the Economic Club of Toronto.

In an interview later, Mr. Rosling said: "It's difficult for me to think of major Canadian companies that have well-developed Indian strategies."
That is unfortunate, he said, because India and Canada are natural business partners, with similar backgrounds as members of the former British Empire, comparable political and legal systems, and deep links through the large and thriving Indo-Canadian community.

He said he is particularly struck by the low profile of Canadian banks in India. "Given their size, and where they rank on the world scale, and given there's so many Indians here, you expect them to have a natural reason to be banking in India," Mr. Rosling said.

"The American banks, the British banks, the Japanese banks have all got a significant presence in India."

Canadian banks are much less visible, though one or two have been trying to increase their presence, he added.

The telecom sector also drew criticism. Mr. Rosling cited Bell Canada, which decided to pull out of two joint ventures with Tata Group in the 1990s.

The telecom business in India has since taken off, with more than 140 million cellphone subscribers and six million more signing up each month. Tata later sold one of the two ventures, a cellphone operation, for $1-billion (U.S.).

Mr. Rosling, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford who once acted as a leading adviser to British prime minister John Major, is the first foreigner to sit on the board of Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company of Tata Group. The company is a household name in India, with its name on everything from hotels to steel plants to software services.

It made international headlines earlier this year when it bought the Anglo-Dutch steel producer Corus for $6.7-billion, the biggest Indian takeover of a foreign company.

Mr. Rosling acknowledged that India can still be a difficult place to do business, with its famous government red tape and backward infrastructure. But he urged Canadian companies to at least "think about India, even if the answer is no."

After booming China, India is the "second-most-exciting story in the world right now," he said. And with its younger population and better-managed companies, it could well catch up with China in the years ahead.

"At its heart, it's for each company to say, what does this mean for us? What is the opportunity? What is the threat? How do we take advantage of this?"

Mr. Rosling said some Canadian companies might decide to sell their goods into the Indian market. Others might acquire an Indian company, others might outsource back-office functions to India and still others might invite an Indian company to come to Canada to form a partnership.
"Each company in its industry will be different," he said.

A recent report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce echoed Mr. Rosling's criticism of Canada's poor trade and investment record in India.
It said that despite advantages such as the large Indo-Canadian community, Canada exported just $1.7-billion (Canadian) in goods and services to India last year, 0.5 per cent of its total export volume and a quarter the size of Australia's figure.

Primary products such as newsprint, metals and paper make up most of Canada's exports.

However, some Canadian companies have begun to put down roots in India. In partnership with India's Aditya Birla Group, Sun Life has an insurance sales group of more than 60,000 around the country. The company says sales grew 62 per cent in the second quarter of 2007 from the same period a year earlier.

Others, such as SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier, also have a growing Indian presence.

MAJOR EXPORTS TO INDIA (2006)

Cereal
Paper and paperboard
Ores, slag and ash
Aircraft, spacecraft
Edible vegetables; roots; and tubers
MAJOR IMPORTS FROM INDIA

Knitted or crocheted apparel
Pearls, precious stones/metals
Woven clothing and apparel
Organic chemicals
Boilers, mechanical appliances
INDIA'S GDP (2006) $1-trillion (Canadian)
GDP GROWTH RATE 9.2 per cent
GDP PER CAPITA $969.95
INFLATION RATE 6.2 per cent

Insurance opportunity in India: Munich Re (http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=10861#)
by Richard Miller (rmiller@bieurope.com)
Business Insurance, Chicago
Posted on Aug. 09, 2007 6:13 AM CST

MUNICH, Germany— India's overall insurance market will increase to some €100 billion in 10 years, nearly five times its current volume, according to Munich Reinsurance Co.

The growth will be driven by rising demand from India's burgeoning middle class, improvement and expansion of the country's infrastructure, and the resultant higher levels of insurance penetration, which are still low compared with other emerging economies, the reinsurer said in a statement Thursday.

Private-sector companies have been present in India's primary insurance market since 2000, almost exclusively in the form of joint ventures with foreign partners, Munich Re noted. These companies hold a maximum of 26% of the share capital, the current participation threshold for foreign investors. However, this limitation restricts capacity to write risks in the booming market, the reinsurer said.

"A central task of politicians and industry will be to ensure the inflow of sufficient foreign capital to safeguard India's phenomenal growth and increasing concentration of values and to cover the related economic risks," Munich Re said in its statement.

When Holly met Bolly (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2222634.ece)
Hollywood takes the Indian musical to heart with a new film

Anil Sinanan
The Times
August 9, 2007

The American actress Ali Larter laughs, when I ask her if she is about to become the next Aishwarya Rai. “My greatest challenge was to dance Bollywood style, as I have two left feet,” she says.

The film is Marigold, a cross-cultural romcom, in which the star of the hit US series Heroes teams up with the Bollywood superstar and heart-throb Salman Khan. It is the first significant Hollywood film to appropriate Bollywood’s unique style of film-making, with plenty of knowing references for Bollywood buffs and with enough savvy to engage newcomers.

Larter plays Marigold, a struggling American actress who arrives in Goa to start shooting on her latest film, Kama Sutra 3 . When funding for the film fails to materialise, the penniless foreigner is forced to become a dancer in a Bollywood musical to survive in India. Marigold falls in love with the film’s hunky choreographer Prem (Khan); but he has an intended arranged marriage with his childhood sweetheart. Complications ensue, but no prizes for guessing the outcome. The plot may be pure Richard Curtis, but Marigold is unique and even radical on several counts.

It is an astute recognition by Hollywood of American audiences’ interest in Bollywood films. In 2006, five Bollywood films grossed more than $2 million in the US. But, as in Britain, Bollywood audiences in America are predominantly South Asian. Mainstream American audiences are hesitant to view subtitled films and the culture-specific subjects of many Bollywood films appear too alien.

“I hope this movie acts as a window into the Bollywood world,” the American director Willard Carroll says. It certainly attempts to bridge the cultural cinematic gap. It is filmed in English, it is not three hours long, and the title is pronounceable. Basically, it is a romcom that unfolds in touristy India: major sequences take place in lush Goa, in majestic Rajasthani palaces and on the enchanting Elephanta Island, just off Bombay.

“It is not really a Bollywood movie; it is more of a romantic comedy that is set in India,” Carroll explains. But the film acknowledges the traditions and the camp excesses of the Bollywood formula. Characters unashamedly break out into song and dance; respect for family elders is accentuated and everyone lives happily ever after.

Other Hollywood films have featured Bollywood but only as songs on their soundtrack, most notably Baz Luhrmann’s musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Spike Lee’s Inside Man (2006). However, they did not attempt homage to Bollywood itself.

Marigold , though, is set entirely in and showcases modern India. “India is not a land of snake charmers any more. Our economy and films are booming. It is hoped every NRI (non-resident Indian) will take their British or American friends to see this movie,” Khan says.

The casting is unique: Larter is hot property in Hollywood; Khan has been a Bollywood A-lister for more than a decade. Their pairing is likely to draw in a wide range of fans. “Salman’s natural charisma comes across beautifully on screen,” Larter says. “This film is a beautiful kiss to Bollywood that will appeal to all audiences.”

Cynics may argue that the film is cashing in on the trend for all things Bollywood. Why did Carroll decide to make an American Bolly-rom-com? “I fell in love with India and with Bollywood when I visited India four years ago and wanted to make a film in this style,” Carroll states. “Hindi films have made some inroads into America but most Americans have not seen a Bollywood movie. The film gives a positive view of modern India; its theme of family is universal. It is hoped that all American audiences will warm to this as many of them feel family kinship is currently lacking.”

Whether or not Marigold succeeds in its aims remains to be seen, but it looks as if Hollywood has woken up to the box-office potential of cross-cultural comedy, especially in light of movies such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). Bollywood has now been embraced by Hollywood, but on its own terms.

India's economic links to Africa are hard to overlook (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/08/08/2003373243)
By Alex Vines and Gareth Price
Taipei Times, Taiwan
Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007, Page 9

China's increasing influence in Africa has attracted great attention in recent years. But Asia's other rising power, India, is also becoming more active on this front, as its economic links are moving beyond its traditional partners in the British Commonwealth. Indeed, India's non-oil trade with West Africa currently stands at more than US$3 billion and is rising fast, accounting for 1.2 percent of the country's total foreign trade.

India's economic activity in Africa goes far beyond its ever popular Bollywood movies. Indian investment in Cote dI'voire is expected to grow to US$1 billion by 2011, which represents 10 percent of total Indian foreign investment in the last decade. India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC Videsh) produces Sudanese oil, and over the next two years Indian diplomatic missions will open in Mali, Gabon, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Until 2003, the Indian Foreign Ministry had a single Africa division; it now has three: West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, and West Asia and North Africa.

A study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry identified five main sectors that can act as "engines of growth" to boost Indo-Africa trade: pharmaceuticals and the health sector, information technology, water management, food processing, and education.
Nigeria is India's largest trading partner in Africa. Bilateral annual trade turnover exceeds US$3 billion, with oil constituting more than 96 percent of Indian imports from Nigeria. India maintains a three-pronged strategy: term contract for crude purchase, participation in the upstream sector, and refineries.

This puts India in direct competition with the West and other Asian countries to secure West African resources. But India's quest for energy in West Africa is not a core component of the government's energy policy; rather, it is part of its effort to diversify energy sources by offering infrastructure investments, in addition to cash bonus payments when contracts are signed.

Seventeen of the 45 blocks are being reserved for unknown companies that will be given a first right of refusal on acreage in exchange for promises to invest heavily in projects not directly related to oil production, such as new power plants and refineries. These negotiations have been ongoing, and India's ONGC, in alliance with Mittal Energy, part of the Mittal companies run by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, is tipped to get the right of first refusal for a number of blocks.

During a Nigerian mini-bid round last year, ONGC-Mittal was offered the right of first refusal for three blocks. ONGC-Mittal Energy is keen to secure blocks with proven reserves, but also is less concerned about the fine detail of the infrastructure packages than their Asian competitors. The creation of ONGC-Mittal in late 2005 seems to have been intended to cut through bureaucratic processes, learn from the private sector, and strengthen bids as an infrastructure provider.

In 2005, the Indian Cabinet's Committee on Economic Affairs prevented, on due diligence grounds and at the last moment, the overseas arm of ONGC Videsh from entering into a US$2 billion deal for a stake in a Nigerian oil block. But this year's licensing round appears to have been rushed through to raise cash during the dying days of the Obasanjo administration, and it would serve India's government well to watch this process closely, too.

Other parts of the Mittal dynasty have also raised eyebrows in West Africa. In late 2005, Mittal Steel, the world's largest steel company, signed a US$900 million deal with Liberia's Transitional Government to mine iron ore, which many claim allowed Mittal to opt out of human rights and environmental law. The elected government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf last year reviewed the deal, and the Liberian Senate is currently scrutinizing it.

India's business engagement in Africa attracts mixed opinion. Mahatma Gandhi once said that "commerce between India and Africa will be of ideas and services, not of manufactured goods against raw materials after the fashion of western exploiters." However, according to Zambian opposition MP Guy Scott, "People are saying, `The Whites were bad, the Indians were worse, but the Chinese are worst of all.'"

India should not regard Africa as simply a source of natural resources. Instead, it needs to invest in the region's human capital and share Indian know-how. Many Indian goods have much greater suitability for African than Western markets. Sales of Tata cars, for instance, are booming in many African countries.

But shared know-how should move beyond economic links. India's democracy in a postcolonial setting has relevant lessons for Africa. India also offers important experience in agricultural expansion, clean water management, and confronting the growing threat of climate change.

Whatever role India ultimately plays in Africa, perhaps its most important contribution could be to introduce competition. India's government needs to carefully watch how its companies and others rise to this challenge.

Alex Vines is the head of the Africa program at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London. Gareth Price is head of the institute's Asia program.

India's entrepreneurs choose success and long hours (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/07/windia107.xml)
Peter Foster, South Asia correspondent
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
08/08/2007

As India celebrates 60 years of independence, Peter Foster, our South Asia correspondent, examines the transformation of the country into three distinct worlds. Growing extremes of wealth and poverty are apparent throughout the country - from the young entrepreneurs enjoying ’first world’ living standards their parents could only dream of, to the ’second world’ hinterland of boomtown provincial Indian which is now feeling the benefits of economic reform and, lastly, to the 600m Indians who are still trapped in a ’third world’ existence of rural poverty. Today, he looks at the ’first world’ and those living the new Indian dream.

It is only a year since two young Indian entrepreneurs founded their internet start-up business providing cut-price online maths tuition to British and American school students, but already they are surrounded by the sounds of success.

In the New Delhi basement that is home to Transwebtutors.com the builders are in, drilling and hammering to create more space to accommodate a business that is growing at a rate of 400 per cent per annum.

For Nishant Sinha, 24, and Aditya Singhal, 25, the business represents an investment of faith in the burgeoning Indian information technology sector whose exports, currently growing at 30 per cent a year, are projected to reach £15 billion by 2010.

The two young men are the wide-eyed representatives of a new generation of smart, hard-working young Indians who are enjoying opportunities that their parents could only have dreamed of a generation ago.

Both men gave up lucrative jobs with the American management consultancy firm, Kurt Salmon Associates, to strike out on their own, aspiring in their own small way to emulate the giants of Indian IT industry such as Wipro and Infosys.

Their personal stories reveal the giddy pace of the social and economic changes which the educated classes in India have experienced since the economic liberalisations introduced in 1991 began to bear fruit.

When Nishant, the son of a bank manager from Patna in Bihar, one of India's poorest and least developed states, landed his job at Kurt Salmon he earned double his father's salary at a single stroke.

"At 26, my father started work in a bank and was completely focused on his job," he says. "He had no other options in front of him and was providing financially for the rest of his family. The experience was very different for me."

Nishant says it was his father's aptitude in maths that helped him win a place at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi - for which 200,000 students compete annually for just 3,500 places.

"I studied until 2am or 3am every night for several years to pass the IIT entrance examinations and my father tutored me all the way," he says.

"He wanted better opportunities for his children than he had enjoyed himself."

Aditya, from Aligarh, a provincial town in Uttar Pradesh, 90 miles east of Delhi, passed the same IIT examination, opening an avenue of opportunity which his father had been denied as a young man 25 years ago.

"At that time things were very conservative," he says. "My father was the youngest child and he had to stay at home and look after his parents, which was the tradition in those days.

"So after three years working for an engineering firm in Delhi he had to return home.

"In my case the situation was completely different and much more liberal. My parents have done everything to support me, including investing in the business. I'd say I live a life very similar to the average young guy in Britain or the US."

The difference, perhaps, is in the ambition and work ethic of young Indians such as Aditya and Nishant who work at least 100 hours a week trying to develop their business.

Talk of Europe's 35-hour week leaves them shaking their heads.

Both could have opted to remain in their safe, salaried positions at Kurt Salmon, but despite the deep misgivings of their parents, decided instead to bet their futures on the Indian economy which is expanding at a rate of more than eight per cent a year.

Their optimism for the future of India and their business is palpable.

They have clients in Britain, Australia and Canada and already several American businesses are asking if they can take a financial stake in Transwebtutors.

"India has so much potential," says Aditya. "You can see it everywhere.

By 2025 we'll be one of the youngest countries on Earth and with GDP growth continuing at eight to 10 per cent the possibilities for development of all kinds are massive.

"We both had an instinct that we needed to do something that created value both for ourselves and this country and that wasn't going to be achieved by being a salaried employee.

"After all, we are the cream and if we can't create value, then who will?"

Indian independence an inspiration for NZ youth (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0708/S00187.htm)
Friday, 10 August 2007, 12:51 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Youth Affairs
10 August 2007 Media Statement

Indian independence an inspiration for NZ youth

The Minister of Youth Affairs says the story of India’s development since independence should be an inspiration to New Zealanders young and old.

Nanaia Mahuta, who attended Indian Independence Day celebrations in Auckland today, says India’s commitment to democratic values is recognised throughout the world.

“India is a multi-cultural country which faces challenges in meeting the aspirations of all its peoples within the world’s largest democracy. The point is not the difficulties in developing its multi-cultural nation, but India’s success in maintaining its democracy while doing so.

“There is sometimes a feeling in New Zealand that our way of life is threatened by people maintaining and developing their ancestral languages and culture. World experience, including that of India suggests that this is not so.

“Nations are enriched by the presence of people who can claim a lineage to different places, cultures and languages.

“The challenge is to ensure that there is the opportunity for young people of all cultures to maintain and develop their languages and culture, while taking a full part in the life of the wider New Zealand community.
“I congratulate the Indian communities of New Zealand for the way they have continued to support their traditions, and urge all members of the communities to ensure that these taonga are not lost to future generations”.

Are your days numbered? (http://www.contractoruk.com/003375.html)
Graham Taylor
Contractor UK, UK
Aug 9, 2007

Do British programmers and testers have a future any more? As Indian offshorers take an ever bigger slice of the UK market, and packaged applications are increasingly becoming the strategic choice over custom development for blue-chip companies, many in the IT industry are beginning to question whether pure programming and testing has any future at all in the western economy.

“I’d question whether people whose skill set only involves programming or testing to a spec have any future at all in Europe and North America,” says Jim Richards, an ex-programmer who now works as a technical architect.

“People have been automated out of their jobs countless times in history, and there’s no reason, particularly with the ever increasing sophistication of frameworks like .NET and J2EE, why it shouldn’t happen in IT.”

Others are less pessimistic, seeing the future in niche skills that simply can’t be found in off-the-shelf packages and Indian software houses.

"Whilst it's true that more and more development and testing work is being offshored, there will always be a role for onshore development leads and test managers,” reckons Ian Berry, managing director of faster payments specialist consulting company XibIT Ltd.

“And where niche knowledge of a certain application, standard or industry vertical is required, it simply isn't possible to offshore. For example, I specialise in ISO8583, which deals with financial transactions, and that simply isn't a skill you can readily find in your average offshore house. As a result, work is flooding in for me, and I'm attracting rates a .NET or Java coder could only dream of."

Whatever the future of the IT industry, one thing is clear: the only way to survive is to evolve.

When Holly met Bolly (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2222634.ece)

:lol:, nice!

ab041937, thanks for the articles. Inspirational indeed.

Suncity, it's true that there is lots that need to be corrected but then again our nation is 'under-construction'.

Thanks india! for your kind words. Your appreciation has inspired me further. Here is more for you
_________________________________________________________________
India at 60: special report (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2851536.ece)
Since it cast off colonial rule in August 1947, India has become one of the most powerful nations on earth. But what has it sacrificed along the way? Andrew Buncombe goes in search of the Subcontinent's soul

The Independent, UK
Published: 10 August 2007

Ten miles south of Delhi, where the dusty scrub has been cleared and replaced by an ocean of quick-setting concrete, India is road-testing a new vision of its future. Gurgaon is a satellite city with endless shopping malls, high-rise apartment blocks and more than one million people. It is also the laboratory for an experiment with global implications.

Sixty years after gaining independence from Britain, the world's largest democracy is at a crossroads. A crucial struggle is taking place over which direction this economically resurgent nation should be taking. It may not be obvious to an outsider, but spend an hour or so in the consumer's dream that is Gurgaon and it becomes abundantly clear where the powerful and aspirational segment of the population has its collective eyes fixed as India stands poised to make the transformation from an impoverished, backward country into a superpower. And it is not on its former colonial master.

Just come away from the heat and the noise of this vast building site and step into the air-conditioned Sahara Mall. By no means the grandest of the shopping emporiums on the chaotic, fume-filled highway known as MG Road, it is already an established magnet to India's newly wealthy middle class. There are fashion shops, department stores, jewellers, sports stores selling Nike, there is a cinema on the top level showing Bollywood and Hollywood hits. Most interesting is a fast-food restaurant that offers cleaned-up versions of Indian street food, with staff dressed in baseball caps and bowling shirts; an idealised Indian interpretation of an idealised American vision of itself.

Whatever modern Britons may think of India, and despite our celebration of the fact that "curry" has become a national dish, it appears India no longer feels the same way about us. Its people are respectful, yes; polite, certainly. But whatever cultural lodestone Britain may once have represented to wealthy Indians, with their love of cricket and regard for English-style public schools, times have changed. Today, they buy into the American Dream instead.

On the top floor, Sandeep Seth and a friend are sipping smoothies. Mr Seth is 28 and works in IT. He is wearing a college-style T-shirt of brushed yellow cotton. Though his job is in another satellite city, Noida, he lives in Gurgaon and makes the 90-mile daily commute. For all his Western looks and habits, Mr Seth appears to resent the suggestion that India is becoming Americanised. Yet asked about what is happening here on MG Road and what it represents for India, he says: "It's the culture changing. There is a change in the mindset. If people go to the US they will bring things back to India. Society cannot be stagnant."

THE FORMAL return of Indian sovereignty took place at midnight on 15 August, 1947, precisely 24 hours after Pakistan, too, had become an independent nation. Two months previously, on 3 June, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, had announced the partition of the Indian Empire, under pressure not just to grant independence but to create both Muslim and Hindu nations.

Hours before independence was returned to India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the man who would serve as the country's first Prime Minister, spoke to the country's Constituent Assembly about what he famously framed as India's " tryst with destiny". "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," he said. "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."

In the years following Partition, when countless thousands on either side of the religious divide were killed and when millions were forced from their homes and made to relocate to the other side of a line that for them existed only on a map, India's politics were dominated by Nehru and his quasi-socialist beliefs. In its foreign policy, India sought to remain neutral from the machinations of the Cold War and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

In economic terms India, in the post-independence period, operated under the so-called "licence raj", a complex system of regulations and bureaucracy established as part of the centrally planned economy. But, confronted with economic crisis at the beginning of the 1990s and the need to attract more foreign investment, the government of Pamulaparthi Rao liberalised the economy by removing many of the restrictions and opening up the country to foreign capital. It was those reforms – initiated in 1991 and which did everything from opening the financial markets to reducing tariffs – which are today credited as the catalyst for India's economic growth.

Not surprisingly, it has been America that has made the most of this liberalisation and become India's dominant trading partner, creating an influence it was not able to lever politically in the previous decades. In both exports and imports, the US is now India's number-one trading partner. While Britain stands in third place, its total trade with India is considerably less than that of the US. Indeed, Britain's largest export to India is scrap metal.

It is not just in terms of trade that the US is proving the dominant influence. In the field of higher education, America long ago eclipsed Britain as the most sought-after destination for undergraduates. Last year US colleges took in 88,000 students and academics, while Britain only managed to secure 20,000. Even Oxford and Cambridge are being forced to compete to attract India's best brains.

At a book launch one recent sweltering evening at the British Council's offices south of Connaught Place, a documentary film-maker who had studied in Britain was bemoaning the fact that her daughter had no interest in following the same path. "She's only interested in going to America," she said. "I'd hoped that she'd want to do the same as me."

The implications of such a shift in the ambitions of smart, young Indians go beyond simply losing the battle to attract the best students to Britain. Students travelling to the US to study, perhaps spending several years there, are inculcated with American culture while they are there. They absorb its politics, its fashions, its tastes, its clothes and music and, of course, its aspirations. They watch its news broadcasts, they listen to Fox News and to CNN. They go shopping at Wal-Mart, or spend time in shopping malls. When they leave they are likely to retain very strong bonds with the country.

"In a nutshell, it's a loss with very long-term consequences," said Frances Cairncross, the rector of Exeter College, Oxford. " Students may stay for a while and contribute their skills and intelligence to our economy [and] when they go home, their cultural and economic links are with the country that educated them. So we will feel the repercussions for a generation to come."

THERE is a new-found vigour about India that sometimes borders on the brash. You can positively sense the optimism and confidence that exists within the middle classes and political élite, a feeling that after all these years of waiting – and with the shackles of colonialism having been thrown off – India's time has finally arrived.

You can detect this in numerous ways. You can see it in the world of publishing and television, in the expansion of India as a retail destination. You even sense it when the shop assistants laugh at you when you opt for a cheap mobile phone rather than the $400 model they had selected for you. "That's what the rickshawallahs have," they say.

It is apparent in the swagger of politicians such as Kamal Nath, the country's Minister of Commerce and Industry, who declared earlier this year: "We no longer discuss the future of India. We say: 'The future is India.'" One can detect it in the sense of entitlement that imbued the reporting of the recent "123" nuclear technology deal between India and the US.

One of the most powerful indicators of India's transformation is in the world of sport. Recently India learnt that it had been chosen as the latest Asian host for Formula One racing and as a site for the European Golf Tour. In India the move was welcomed as another indication of the country's emergence on to the world stage. "It's a matter of pride for the nation and a big step towards placing India as a true sporting destination," declared Suresh Kalmadi, head of the Indian Olympic Association.

The same was true of the golf tournament. While there was some grumbling from rival organisations, most people involved in the sport were enthusiastic about hosting this event. One afternoon at the prestigious New Delhi Golf Club, where groups of women were preparing to tee off, in (American-style) golf visors, one woman official revealed that female membership had grown from 66 to 220 in two years. "Golf is more than crazy popular here," said Hanisha Daryani. "It's part of the economic boom, it's called the 'India Story'."

All the while India is busily preparing to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, frantically building new facilities and giving Delhi a facelift that has even extended to new hygiene laws for street vendors out of a fear that the country's international sporting visitors will fall foul of "Delhi belly ". When Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, suggested that India's bid to host the Asian games of 2014 would do little to help the country's ordinary citizens, there was outcry. When India lost out to the South Korean city of Incheon, Aiyar was branded a traitor. " There is a segment of Indian society which is extremely rich and which wishes to see itself in the international league," Aiyar later told me. " I wish to see all the people of India benefit rather than just a segment of our people."

Many Westerners, especially those whose view of India has been hazily shaped by holidays that have left an overwhelming impression of India's " spirituality", may be surprised by the readiness of large swathes of the public to adopt this new incarnation so readily.

And yet Indians see no problem. In his seminal book Being Indian, The writer Pavan Varma devotes a chapter to the "myth of otherworldliness". " Indians have deliberately promoted an otherwordly image," he writes. " They've always had a down-to-earth relish for the materialistic world. Far from being disdainful of the temptations of money and wealth, they have consistently given value to these goals."

It is an important lesson. Varma explains there is nothing in Hinduism that ideologically leads a follower to reject the material world for the spiritual.
"Contrary to the notion that Indians are 'spiritual', they are really 'material-minded'," he adds. "They are materialists, believing in substance. There is a continuity, a constant flow of substance from context to context, from non-self to self – in eating, breathing, sex, sensation, perception, thought, art or religious experience."

AND YET for all the swagger one encounters and for all the rapacious consumerism on display, the talk of India having transformed itself into a superpower is, at least for the time being, somewhat overdone.

No one should doubt that the gains made by India's economy, currently growing at around 9 per cent a year, are not genuine and that they will not have an impact that changes the world order. Already India's place in the list of world economies is shifting. Two years ago its economy joined the world's top 10 and earlier this year a report by the investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted that within a decade it will surpass that of Italy, France and the UK to become the fifth largest. The report said that if current trends continue, the Indian economy will by mid-century have overtaken that of the US as well, leaving it second only to China.

But alongside these achievements, India is facing considerable problems as it seeks to emulate the US or even eclipse its superpower status. From a purely logistical perspective, the most serious of these is a shortfall in the infrastructure required to support its vision for the future.

This shortfall is apparent in many frustrating ways: in the water shortages and electrical power-cuts that befall even the biggest cities during the summer months, in the roads so clogged with traffic that it takes for ever to travel even a few miles and which become all but impassable during heavy rains. An investigation published by Business Week magazine included an assessment from Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal planning commission, who has estimated that losses from congestion and poor roads cost India $6bn a year.

All the international companies that have come to India have realised the only way to ensure they can operate is to establish private campuses in cities such as Bangalore and Gurgaon, away from the local infrastructure, and with their own power and water supplies.

Others use planes to provide parts and materials to their factories or assembly plants, saying it is economically unviable to rely on the country's road haulage system. The same is said of the ports. And despite these provisions and despite the country's resource of a well-educated, English-speaking workforce, India's logistical capacity is so inadequate that many companies are opting for alternative countries in which to locate their plants. "We believe in manufacturing in India, but we don't believe in logistics in India – yet," said Wim Elfrink, Cisco Systems' chief globalisation officer.

Anyone taking to the skies in India receives as powerful an insight that exists into the inability of India's infrastructure to keep up with the demands of its middle class. In recent years a flood of new, cheap airlines such as Kingfisher, Sahara and Jet have started flying, based on the low-frills operations that revolutionised air travel in Europe. Journeys that once took several days by train can now be made in a couple of hours and the operation of the airlines themselves is sleek and efficient.

But recently flying has become increasingly less pleasant. Insufficient runway space, air-traffic controllers and more, mean that planes are often late taking off and are routinely required to circle before landing, wasting countless gallons of fuel and disrupting schedules.

THERE is another side to all of this. Not everyone agrees upon the future India should be taking, with the consumerist-driven project taking place in Gurgaon, with its malls and the pastel-coloured apartment complexes that come with names such as Beverley Park and an unspoken promise to satisfy every resident's aspirational dreams.

Many point out that while India's new middle-class may total two or three hundred million people, it is still only a portion of the country's population.

Only a tiny percentage is employed by the much-celebrated technology sector. Most powerfully, while the statistics are hotly debated, there are clear indications that the gap between the new middle-class and the poor is getting bigger and that inequality has grown. The vigorous new India is only for some. Indeed, the reality is that hundreds of millions of Indians live in grindingly desperate poverty.

In a nation of 1.1 billion people, at least 300 million live below the official poverty line of $2 a day. Many millions more live close to this line. The adult literacy rate is around 61 per cent. Life expectancy stands at 64, while the under-five child-mortality rate is 57 per 1,000, though in rural areas the figure is closer to 62 per thousand. There is a widespread problem of child labour.

The Hindustan Times recently ran a series of articles which claimed that one in six Indians lived in an area of armed insurgency. Many of these struggles are decades old, but is it possible that some recruits to the cause are driven there as a result of the growing disparity within Indian society?

"I think these are signs of a lack of inclusion, that people do not feel involved with what is happening," said M J Akbar, a veteran journalist and editor-in-chief of The Asian Age newspaper.

Others have pointed out the environmental costs of the economic transformation. In many cities the roads, already desperately over-crowded, are becoming ludicrously clogged with new, affordable cars. In Delhi alone, the number of new vehicles being registered grows by 16 per cent every year. The implications in terms of C02 emissions and the battle for global resources are vast as India and its 1.1 billion people seek to emulate the lifestyle of the West – a lifestyle that on average consumes 26 times more energy.

In a 2005 interview with Reuters, the writer and activist Arundhati Roy said while thousands of farmers were committing suicide because they couldn't feed their families, people were too distracted by the pursuit of economic growth to think about the impact of growing cash crops such as soya beans, peanuts and sugar cane which use up scarce water resources.

"Even if you know what is going on, you can't help thinking India is this cool place now, Bollywood is 'in' and all of us have mobile phones," she said. "There is no understanding whatsoever of what price is being paid by the rivers and mountains and irrigation and ground water, there is no questioning of that because we are on a roll."

She continued: "The idea of turning one billion people into consumers is a terrifying one. Are you going to starve to death dreaming of a mobile phone or are you going to have control of the resources that are available to you and have been for generations, but have been taken away so that someone else can have a mobile phone?"

In the run-up to next Wednesday's anniversary, I sought out the wisdom of experience. Sir Mark Tully was the BBC's bureau chief in India for 22 years and has been honoured by the Indian state. Tully Sahib, as he is generally referred to, lives in a flat close to the site of a magnificent Mughal tomb that glowed in the early evening light. Though he resigned as a BBC correspondent a decade ago, he continues to work as a presenter for Radio 4 and is the author of many books about India, the country of his birth.

In his most recent book, India's Unending Journey, Tully talks a lot about the issue of "growth". He concludes that while growth is important to help the poorest emerge from poverty, growth by itself is not enough.

Furthermore, he argues the growth must be suited to India's needs and requirements rather than the pressures of the globalised economy.

Tully, dressed in a long, mauve kurta, said that despite the creation of a consumer-orientated middle class, he was not persuaded that Indians had been entirely transformed. "Scratch below the surface and you will still find there is still [a lot] of spirituality – even among those going to the shopping malls," he said.

Asked about India's future, Tully chose to recall a conversation – included in his latest book – with Ravi Venkatesan, the chairman of Microsoft India. Over lunch at the company's Gurgaon offices, Venkatesan showed Tully a computerised diagram that the industrialist believed represented India's options.

The diagram showed a crossroads with arrows leading to three different elephants. The arrow leading to one elephant rose and then fell dramatically; this was the future if India continued on its current path of rapid growth that only helped a minority of people. Another arrow pointed downwards, with an elephant slipping in free fall; this was India's future if the entire global economy came to a halt.

The third elephant – its tail up in sprightly fashion – was balancing the globe on its trunk; it represented "India First" . Tully was told that this could be the outcome if everyone put the nation first, " determined that the entire country should benefit from its development".

'AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD'
By Simon Usborne

"There can be no question of coercing any large areas in which one community has a majority to live against their will under a government in which another community has a majority. And the only alternative to coercion is Partition."

Delivered on 3 June 1947, those were the words of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, as he announced the end of 163 years of British rule, and the cleaving of the subcontinent into two.

A month later, Britain announced that Partition would take place at midnight on 14-15 August. By that time, trouble was already brewing along the arbitrary line designed to protect India's minority Muslim population by creating the northern dominion of Pakistan. Hurriedly drawn up by Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had little knowledge of India and using out-of-date maps and census materials, the line divided communities and left tens of millions of Hindus and Muslims in the "wrong" country. The states of Punjab and Bengal would be cut in half.

On 13 August, just over 24 hours before Partition, the Associated Press reported from Punjab's capital Lahore on the state's "bloodiest orgy of violence in five months of communal rioting". On that day alone, one Lahore hospital reported the deaths of 99 Sikhs and Hindus in knife attacks and six Muslims killed by military and police.

In Karachi the following morning, as Mountbatten and the new governor general of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, addressed the newly formed Pakistani Constituent Assembly in the first of two independence ceremonies, the mood was one of jubilation. Watched by millions on newsreels and thousands lining the streets outside Government House, Mountbatten read a message from King George VI: "I send you my greeting and warmest wishes on this great occasion... In thus achieving your independence by agreement, you have set an example to the freedom-loving peoples throughout the world." In reply, Jinnah assured the world that he would work to preserve peace.

Immediately after the ceremony, Lord and Lady Mountbatten flew to Delhi, where the next day, 15 August, hundreds of thousands of Hindus thronged the streets awaiting their own hour of liberation. The ceremony began at 11pm in the State Council building, where the new Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, said: "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will wake up to life and freedom."

As the dignitaries left the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage, carefully laid plans for celebrations were dashed as delirious crowds broke through police cordons in a near-riot. Elsewhere, thousands rejoiced as they filed out of radio shops, where they had listened to Nehru's independence speech.

But, as many cheered, reports from other areas told of growing unrest. Learning of Partition just weeks earlier, many Indians were still on the move as some 10 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fled their homes to cross the newly drawn border. Moving in caravans sometimes 70 miles long, entire columns of refugees were attacked and sometimes slaughtered, while trainloads of migrants were killed, their bodies sometimes horribly disfigured. The number of people killed in the exodus is still unknown, but many historians put it at about one million.

Lord Mountbatten, who immediately became governor-general of the new Dominion of India, was rewarded with an earldom on his return to London for his part in "expertly managing" Britain's retreat from India.

Gandhi's hand looms over India's surging economy (http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSDEL3293520070810)
By Alistair Scrutton
Reuters, UK
Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:45AM EDT

When Tata Steel bought an Anglo-Dutch competitor this year for $12 billion, the newspaper headline "Empire Strikes Back" symbolized how far India's economy had come in the 60 years since independence.

The aggressive foreign grab by a private Indian firm was a far cry from the image of a simple village handloom used by Mahatma Gandhi in India's fight against British imperialism and his campaign for economic self-sufficiency, or "Swadeshi".

Then, Indians felt self-rule was about economic survival as British competition sucked the life out of local industries. Life expectancy was around 30 years, famine an ever-present threat.

Now, India's capitalist kingpins are on a global buying spree, from snapping up Scottish whisky distillers to eyeing the purchase from Ford of the luxury Jaguar car brand.

Westerners fret about losing their jobs to India's cheap, educated professionals.

"These 60 years have been a trying period," said T.K. Bhaumik, chief economist at Reliance Industries Ltd., India's most valuable company.
"We have faced several calamities but we have created a middle class, a new entrepreneurial class and now young Indians are managing global firms."

But, despite the successes, the shadow of independence -- whether bucolic Swadeshi or the later Soviet-inspired socialist protectionism of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru -- still hovers over "shining" India.

India's policy-makers, many born before 1947 and imbued with the ideals of the founding fathers, have been cautious about opening up the economy further, slow to build on market reforms that began in 1991.

For critics, they are still too often distrustful of foreign investment and continue to feed off a corrupt government apparatus that twisted the ideals of Nehru's state socialism and threatens modernizing reforms.

"Here, it is fashionable to be anti-reform," said Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Research and Investments.

India's fragile coalitions, often backed by powerful regional and caste-based parties, are often unable to push through big-bang reforms for fear of losing mass support.

YOU CAN'T SELL THAT HERE

For sure, foreign investors face challenges.

Take two global giants, the U.S. retailer Wal-Mart and British-based telecoms player Vodafone.

India's $350 billion retail sector is dominated by small neighborhood stores, and the ruling Congress party, which heads a fractious centre-left coalition, is grappling with how to ease the entry of corporates without throwing millions out of work.

Wal-Mart, which has signed a wholesale deal with India's Bharti Enterprises, has been caught in the middle and has faced street protests.

Vodafone Chief Executive Arun Sarin said this year his hopes that India's bureaucracy had changed were shaken by moves to derail his company's $11 billion takeover of telecoms firm Hutchison Essar.

"The billionaire losers' club was trying to unwind the deal," he said. "What I didn't count on was that the bureaucracy would kick in with this kind of evil spirit from our competitors who had lost."

Sarin later said his remarks were aimed at "vested interests" who had tried to scupper the deal.

There is no doubting the successes of independence. According to one estimate, India has pulled a population equivalent to that of Western Europe out of poverty since 1947.

It now exports food, doctors and vaccines to the West.

Decades of "Hindu rates" of low single-digit growth have given way to record economic expansion. India's 50 million-strong middle class could expand ten-fold by 2025, consultancy firm McKinsey says.

"There were two spurts of reforms -- one from 1991-1993 and another from 1998 to 2004," said Arun Shourie, a former minister in a coalition led by Hindu nationalists, which was voted out in 2004 after running a stridently pro-reform campaign.

"These two reform periods created enough elbow room for the private enterprises and middle-class to grow," Shourie, a former World Bank economist and newspaper editor, said.

NO TIME TO LOSE

But if India is to truly free itself from the past, then it has to put its people first: education and health care in South Asia rank only above those of sub-Saharan Africa, a report by the Asian Development Bank said.

There are growing income gaps, especially between urban elites and the two-thirds of Indians who live in villages.

"This is an issue about which we started talking even before we acquired our independence," said former 1990s finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

"India is growing at 9 percent, 10 percent. On the other hand these basic necessities of life are not being adequately delivered and the old debate between growth and development has become very real."

For many, the government has a Jekyll and Hyde character, capable of firing rockets into space but incapable when bureaucrats halt social projects because they disagree on what color pen -- red or green -- must be used to sign memos.

That needs to change fast.

"You in the West have had the luxury of time and started off hundreds of years before us," said Sheila Dikshit, chief minister of New Delhi. "We haven't got the luxury of time."

For every rising report, there are three negative reports about India.

:)

quite true

I think this thread is too sweet...It's going to give me diabetes! :nuts:

Come on guys...

This thread is good, as it shows the positives about India going into its 60th

Good job..ab04197?

India is already 60 years old? Do we have a retirement plan? :nuts:

Thanx guys for your encouragement.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Villages log on to escape bribery and the clutches of the last Raj (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2237920.ece)
Bureaucrat ‘babus’ have long held the country to ransom. Now computers and instant access may end their dominance.

Jeremy Page in Shanabhogahalli
From The Times
August 11, 2007

When S.R. Kumaraswamy, a farmer in south India, needed to collect his driving licence last month, he braced himself for the usual struggle with a venal and slothful bureaucracy.

First, there would be four days’ waiting to see one of the legions of babus or bureaucrats who have quietly tyrannised India since it gained independence, 60 years ago on Wednesday.

Then there would be the bribes – anything up to 1,000 rupees (£12) – about a week’s income. Then the endless paperwork. This time, however, was strikingly different.

When Mr Kumaraswamy entered the government office in his village, he was greeted by a young man sitting at a computer with a printer, a finger-print scanner and a satellite internet connection. He walked out five minutes later, proudly clutching a computer printout of his new driving licence. Nor did he pay a penny in bribes.

“I used to have to plan when to go, whom to meet, how much to pay,” said Mr Kumaraswamy, 55, who earns 4,000 rupees a month farming vegetables in the southern state of Karnataka. “The babus never cared about us. They treated us so badly. Now it’s so simple, I can go whenever I want.”

It was a small beginning, but what Mr Kumaraswamy experienced were the first throes of a technological revolution that could transform the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians. Six decades after independence the Government is harnessing the forces of a “new India” – technology and private enterprise – to defeat the postcolonial oppressors: the babus. The office that Mr Kumaraswamy visited was one of 800 internet telecentres set up by Karnataka since October to provide public services online in villages.

For the first time 37 million villagers can now use telecentres – staffed by young computer science graduates – to obtain official documents like driving licences, birth and death certificates, and land records.

By the end of the year the private companies that run the telecentres plan to offer more services – such as banking and insurance – that they hope will drag villages into the new Indian economy. And by March the Government plans to open telecentres in 100,000 of India’s 600,000 villages – at a cost of more than £700 million – and to add services including education and healthcare. “These telecentres have brought Indian villages to a new level of thinking – you can see it when you visit them,” Rajiv Chawla, the IT secretary of Karnataka who designed the scheme, told The Times.

“I have demolished a system that has been in place for more than 200 years.” When India gained its independence on August 15, 1947, it inherited a bureaucratic system – staffed by about 400,000 people – that was first established by the East India Company in 1793.

It proved to be a blessing and a curse. Over the next 44 years, that bureaucracy expanded to more than four million people and accumulated enormous powers under the “Licence Raj” of Soviet-inspired central planning. Market reforms launched in 1991 have since unleashed the private sector, especially in IT, and created a middle class that McKinsey, the consultancy, estimates at 50 million people and predicts will rise tenfold by 2025.

India now has 36 dollar billionaires (12 more than Japan), an estimated 100,000 dollar millionaires, and homegrown companies that are gobbling up foreign competitors, including their British forebears. But the bureaucracy remains frozen in time, its greed and obsession with paperwork denying India the basic infrastructure, public services and foreign investment.

“The Civil Service in British days were people of great knowledge and sagacity,” said Arun Shourie, a former minister and World Bank official who wrote a book on governance. “After independence they held the country together, but today that’s not the case. The governance culture has become much worse.” Indians and foreigners alike blame the bureaucracy for tangling business in red tape and preventing the benefits of India’s economic boom from trickling down to the lowest levels of society.

A quarter of India’s 1.1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. One third are illiterate. Half of all children under 3 are malnourished. So with two years until the next general election, and the ruling Congress party reeling from local election defeats, the Government has set its sights on modernising the bureaucracy. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, attacked what he called the “Inspector Raj” in an unusually frank speech in April to mark Civil Service Day. “I already see the stress and strain in many areas of governance and wonder how much longer a creaking system can go on,” said Dr Singh, himself a former bureaucrat. “While economic reforms abolished the Licence Raj, complaints of Inspector Raj persist, in fact, they may be getting louder,” he said.

“This is what makes the interface of a common citizen with government a cumbersome and daunting affair. This is often the root cause of corruption as well.” Barely a week goes by now without another announcement trumpeting a national e-governance plan.

Last month the Supreme Court launched an e-court project to connect all courts via the internet that it says will relieve a backlog of 30 million cases. Under another e-governance scheme, 75 per cent of all income tax returns were filed online in July.

Sceptics say that e-governance is doomed to fail in a country where only 30 million people use the internet and half the population is not connected to the electricity grid. “Even in cities if you have a problem with your computer or your telephone, they send two people to fix it and only one understands what he’s doing,” said Pran Chopra, a political analyst.
“How will they find the expertise to run these things?” Assocham, India’s main industry association, said that India would achieve only half of its targeted 20 million domestic broadband connections by 2010. Last week all government websites crashed for eight hours after monsoon rains flooded the National Informatics Centre.

But Mr Chawla’s experiences in Karnataka – India’s eighth largest state with a population of 53 million – show how technology and private enterprise can succeed where Government alone has failed. In 1998 he started to computerise Karnataka’s land records – those crucial documents that prove ownership, delineate borders and determine access to bank loans and subsidies. Until then the records had been handled by 11,000 village officials, making pencil entries in the same sort of ledgers that were used back in 1793.

These babus – whose average age was 56 in Karnataka – would routinely accept bribes to tamper with the records, or to allow the wealthy to jump queues. Mr Chawla and his staff spent four years transferring all the data from the ledgers to a central database, then started selling copies of land records for 15 rupees each. The response was overwhelming.

The Government was soon issuing more than 20 million copies a year, more than enough to recoup the 200 million rupees spent on the project. With the extra revenues, Mr Chawla began opening the village telecentres last year and added 41 extra services.

As for the babus, they still verify information and sign documents, but they now do so with smart cards and handheld computers that make it hard to falsify data and impossible to queue-jump. With much of their work now automated, their numbers are dwindling.

The new face of Indian officialdom is Satish, a 25-year-old graduate in computer applications who runs the telecentre in Mr Kumaraswamy’s village. “To begin with, people didn’t understand how it worked,” Satish said. “But now word is spreading.” Satish’s main gripe is that the 2,000 village residents know where he lives and keep forcing him to open the telecentre outside normal office hours. “Sometimes I get jealous of those babus,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind a tea break.”

The story of India and me (http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/india/article2234673.ece)
From the high Himalayas to the Tamil south; our correspondent celebrates a 20-year love affair

Michael Wood
From The Times
August 11, 2007

A conversation with a stranger on a slow train – 36 hours through Ratlam and Indore up to Ajmer – started my love affair with India, one that has gone on for the past two decades.

During a midnight stop, while sitting on the steps enjoying the cool night air, I began chatting to a travelling salesman from a chemicals firm. The giant fortress of Chittorgarh stood ghostly pale in the darkness, and my companion regaled me with terrible tales of its past: of Rajputs and Moguls, sieges and battles, heroic deaths and mass suicides – all the epic drama and romance of Indian history.

“But if you really want to see something,” he said, “you should go south, to Madurai.”

So I made my way down the west coast and took the old steamer to Goa, and on to Cochin. A few days later I took the train that winds over the wooded hills of the Western Ghats. It was night before we reached Madurai, where I made my way through darkened streets past sleeping rickshawmen. Soon the huge temple gateways soared above me, disappearing into the night, their crowded storeys teeming with sculptures of gods and goddesses, garish as a Hindu Disneyland. Inside, I entered a dark labyrinth: giant corridors whose granite pillars were carved into monstrous snapping demons and dragons. The architecture was different from anything I had ever seen. With a flurry of drums and squeal of trumpets, white-clad priests scurried past with a golden palanquin. It was as if the ancient world was still alive.

I stayed a few days, watching the crowds pour in from dawn till dusk to celebrate the patron of the city, the fish-eyed goddess Meenakshi. Access to the inner shrine is restricted to Hindus. But the second night one of the priests came over and asked if I wanted to see the goddess.

That night I experienced the ancient rituals of the Tamil world for the first time: the statue of the goddess, the music of nadeswaram (reedy Tamil trumpet) and drums, the scent of ghee, jasmine and incense, the tinkling temple bells, the sacred flame gilding the faces of the devotees who went into the “womb chamber”, as the goddess shrine is called. Coming from industrial Manchester, I had never seen such things. Those smells and images have stayed with me and sum up my fascination with this wonderful country.

More than 20 years later, and after almost 30 visits, the magic has never failed. My wife, Rebecca, and I fell in love there, first travelled together there, were married there, and have taken our children back time and again to meet our friends. India has a special place in our hearts.
The country has changed considerably. The economy, which after independence 60 years ago was all about nonalignment and self-sufficiency, is now booming.

One of the great powers in history is returning – and not just in Delhi or Bombay, where shopping malls and condominiums are proliferating and property is more expensive than London. Even in smalltown Tamil Nadu, where we have stayed off the beaten track with our kids, you see the signs everywhere: the wide processional street around the temple has been surfaced, shiny retirement homes for devotees are going up, and there are new hotels with air-conditioning, satellite TV and internet. It’s a far cry from my early days travelling in the country, when we would have to make a booking at the telegraph office to phone home at Christmas.
The impact of tourism hasn’t always been good, however. The biggest shock was returning recently to Jaisalmer, which I had first visited at new year 1987. The golden city that I remember rising out of a scrubby desert behind a nomad encampment now is completely surrounded by hotels, shops and tourist offices selling Rajasthani camel tours. The interior of the city, one of the jewels of northern India, is almost entirely given over to travellers with hotels, cafés and boutiques. Some of the buildings may be beautiful, but to my mind the development has blighted the magical setting of the city.

Coming here recently to film The Story of India has made me appreciate the country even more. The wonderful variety of landscapes and cultures never fails to amaze me: the Buddhist sites of Leh and Ladakh, the Gonds of Orissa, near the magical lake at Chilika; Kerala, where you can rub shoulders with Syrian Christians, Indian Jews and Muslim boat-builders, who still ply the spice trade to the Gulf in their great wooden sailing boats.

On the east coast I love the old French town of Pondicherry, where the boulangerie sells fresh baguettes and the policemen still wear the képi. Up north, we have journeyed to the Himalayas, with magnificent treks around Amarnath, Gangotri, and Badrinath, up to the mountain passes into Tibet. Down in the plains, I still find Varanasi inexhaustibly fascinating.

Despite all the undoubted attractions of Rajasthan, Mogul Delhi and Agra, if I had to choose a favourite part of India, it would be the south: the world’s last classical civilisation. Here you can touch on India’s oldest living traditions in music, dance and literature. The giant temple cities take your breath away: Madurai, “Trichy” (Tiruchchirappalli), Thanjavur and Chidambaram. The Tamils are welcoming; they love their culture and live without the frenetic rush of the north; comfortable in the global age, yet still existing in sacred time.

We travelled here when our children were young, and they loved the life and colour, and the friendliness. India is a great place to travel with youngsters: our younger daughter has never forgotten how, aged 5, she fed bananas to the temple elephant at a festival in Chidambaram, and the mahout sat her on the animal and walked her around the courtyard to the delight of the pilgrims.

Many of my friends think you shouldn’t travel around India with kids, but my experience is that you just need to follow certain basic health rules.

Otherwise, the only problem can sometimes be the huge and rather sweet interest that foreign children generate. A few years ago, we took ours out of school and went with Indian friends to the Kumba Mela festival on the Ganges, where we stayed in a tent among millions of pilgrims. Wherever we went, people wanted to touch the girls and be photographed with them.

When I returned to Chidambaram a few months ago with the film crew, staff at the hotel Saradha Ram still enthusiastically asked after my daughters. The girls have stayed there three times, and as you can imagine, two blonde North London youngsters caused great excitement among the well-mannered Tamil boys who do the small jobs around the hotel.

There is so much to see in India that you would need several lifetimes – no wonder the Indians believe in rebirth. People tell me that I must be tired of the country after a dozen visits in the past 18 months, some of them long and gruelling journeys. But the opposite is true. I have come to love India and admire its people even more. To paraphrase Dr Johnson, if one is tired of India, one is tired of life.

India jobs scheme boosts village post offices
(http://www.union-network.org/uniflashes.nsf/0/DC934EE003DE620FC125733300615DED?OpenDocument)Labour news from UNI global union - for trade unions in a global services economy.
Union Network International, Switzerland

A new scheme to bring work to the rural unemployed in India is helping to give a new role to village post offices.

India has 150,000 rural post offices that deliver a daily postal service six days a week - 16,000 of them in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

India Post in Andhra Pradesh has signed up to deliver payments to villagers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which promises 100 days of work a year.

Villages have an input into what schemes will benefit their areas and, if they get government approval, they help put the scheme into practice.

About 93% of the Indian working population works in the informal economy (the unorganised sector as it is called in India) and agriculture is currently under severe income pressure with credit problems and large numbers of farmer suicides.

Village post offices are serviced by part time staff working three to five hours a day - manning tiny offices (often in someone’s house) and collecting the postal bag from the nearest sorting sub divisional post office.

As well as post and parcels, the bicycle army of rural letter carriers and village postmasters bring a savings bank and a rural insurance scheme to villagers who have no access to a bank. Remittances from family members elsewhere in India or from abroad can also reach the village through the postal system.

“The postmaster is a very important person in the village and this new scheme is giving them a new lease of life,” Hyderabad’s regional Postmaster General Usha Chandrashekar told a UNI Postal delegation.

India’s village postal system is the universal postal service in action and is cross-subsidised from India Post’s urban services. Six days a week it hand delivers letters to the door across this huge country. There are also plans to provide computers for the tiny village offices.

The UNI group - including UNI journalist Noel Howell, rural postal workers union veteran VV Ratneswara Rau and officials from affiliate NUPE-Group C - followed the mail from sorting at Patancheru to delivery in Sultanpur with letter carrier Ashok and his bicycle.

His first job was to hand over the postbag to postmaster Chekar. Then Ashok delivered a handful of letters to villagers before returning the bag to Patenchuro with the day’s post and completing his deliveries to an industrial address.

The Sultanpur village post office - run by postmaster Chekar - is open from 10 am to 1pm six days a week to provide a service for about 5,000 people.

“People rely on the post office because door-to-door delivery is there,” said VV Rau.

There are opportunities for rural postal workers to transfer to the full time staff through examinations but movement has been hit by a four year freeze on recruitment in India Post that has cut 38,000 jobs.

“India Post is to be congratulated on its commitment to financing and delivering a universal postal system,” said Noel Howell. “Governments in Europe should think again before wrecking their postal services through ill thought out de-regulation from Brussels.”

The rural postal workers union has around 50,000 members and NUPE-Group C 30,000 members. A rural letter carrier like Ashok is paid about 40 dollars a month.

Tectonic Economics (http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/07/17/elephant-dragon-meredith-oped-cz_rm_0718dragonone.html)
Robyn Meredith
FORBES, NY

Before our eyes, two giant nations--India and China--are simultaneously embracing both capitalism and globalization. The world economy is being transformed as a result, as Forbes Senior Editor Robyn Meredith explains in her new book, The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means to All of Us ($26, W.W. Norton, 2007) . Each weekday through July 27, Forbes.com will post a new excerpt from the book.

The Elephant and the Dragon is the story of how India and China are changing their destinies, and with that, changing the world's.

Both nations are growing so fast that they make the economies of the United States, Europe and Japan seem as if they are standing still. As a result, doing business in India and China has become the only hope for Western companies determined to quickly add new customers--the only way for Western executives to make stockholders happy. For business executives today, an understanding of India and China is now considered as essential as a grasp of accounting.

China began opening up its economy a generation ago, in 1978. Since then, foreign companies have poured $600 billion in foreign direct investment into China--more than the U.S. spent rebuilding Post-War Europe under the Marshall Plan.

In that time, China has transformed itself from a nation of peasants to an army of factory workers, plus a growing middle class. As a result, the vast majority of Chinese people have prospered, and the average Chinese now earns five times more than when economic reforms began. Streets are lined with shiny office buildings and new factories, and freshly poured highways stretch across the vast country. There are new airports and shopping malls and hundreds of millions of cellphones in a land where there were few telephones a decade ago. China is flying along, fast as a dragon. Nations around the world are in awe of China's lightening-fast rise.

That includes India. After decades of slow growth, India is finally following China's example and modernizing its economy, trying to drag its 1.1 billion people into the modern age. Finally, Indian incomes are rising, foreign investors have come calling, and India's economy is taking off. Slowly but steadily, like an elephant, India is trudging into the future.

Both India and China are moving from the ranks of developing-world countries toward superpower status. Their transformations are as stunning as any the world has seen since America itself emerged on the world stage. And the impact is felt on American shores, where prices have fallen at local Wal-Marts and risen at local gas stations. There are plenty of other contradictions. Middle-class American jobs are threatened even as mortgage payments are kept low thanks to China's powerful financial clout. In short, India and China have become a source of employees, co-workers, customers and competitors.

American companies can now connect with cheap workers half a world away at the click of a computer mouse, and the result for American, European and Japanese workers is the terrifying, dark side of globalization. More than a billion workers have just been thrown into the world's labor pool, and America must cope with the changes. Farmers were displaced by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Sweatshop workers lost their livelihoods to assembly lines in the 20th, and just a generation ago, American factories closed because blue-collar work began moving to Mexico. History is about to repeat itself, sending a spasm through the world's job markets.

Yet the rise of India and China is about much more than jobs moving overseas: It is about a major shift in post-Cold War geopolitics, about quenching a growing thirst for oil, about massive environmental change. This is tectonic economics: the rise of India and China has caused the economic and political landscape to shift before our eyes.

We must make sense of how our world is being shaped by the rise of India and China. Only then can we adjust to, and even thrive, in the age of the Elephant and the Dragon.

From The Spinning Wheel To Fiber Optics (http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/07/19/elephant-dragon-meredith-oped-cz_rm_0720dragonthree.html)
Robyn Meredith
FORBES, NY

Before our eyes, two giant nations--India and China--are simultaneously embracing both capitalism and globalization. The world economy is being transformed as a result, as Forbes Senior Editor Robyn Meredith explains in her new book, The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means to All of Us ($26, W.W. Norton, 2007) . Each weekday through July 31, Forbes.com will post a new excerpt from the book.

Desperation brought economic change to India as swiftly as it had come to China--but more than one decade later, and of an entirely different form. In 1991, India was flat broke. One hundred and ten million people had been thrown into poverty in just the previous two years. The government's finances had collapsed. India faced a crisis.

The nation's troubles weren't just economic, either. Rajiv Gandhi was running for prime minister. His family name has been as interwoven with 20th-century Indian politics--and just as star-crossed--as the Kennedy name has been in America.

With the nation's finances already in tatters, its politics hit bottom too: During a campaign stop on May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Out of the ashes of the ensuing nationwide emergency, India finally embarked on the economic reforms that would reconnect it so powerfully with the rest of the world. To understand today's India, one must look back.

While it was Communism that crippled China, it was the reaction to Colonialism that proved India's great handicap. India has been haunted by two lingering ghosts of the post-colonial period--Mahatma Gandhi's anti-industrialization tenets and Jawaharlal Nehru's socialism--which together caused India to withdraw from the world economy after winning its freedom from Britain 60 years ago.

Gandhi and Nehru intended to help India's poor by pushing the nation toward self-sufficiency, but their philosophies wound up keeping Indians poor instead of lifting them out of poverty.

To Narayana Murthy, the Bill Gates of India, the historic economic reforms begun in July 1991 meant that India had stopped walling itself off from the world. Murthy is the lead founder of tech powerhouse Infosys (nasdaq: INFY - news - people ), which at the time, had 176 employees. (Today, it has more than 70,000.)

Murthy watched in wonder as his government finally abolished the "license raj" responsible for delays and corruption, lowered import duties, made the currency partially convertible, changed the rules for issuing stock, opened state-owned industries to private investors and adopted many other economic reforms, abandoning India's isolationist approach.

The changes of 1991 led to an economic boom not just for Infosys, but for the nation. Yet the reform process that began with such a bang sputtered after only a few years. In the years that followed, Indian industrialist Ratan Tata and other members of India's global business elite watched China race ahead of India, growing more and more frustrated that India had halted its own economic rise, forcing much of its own population to remain poor while Chinese were climbing out of dire poverty.

"For a long while, there was denial, there were excuses. Suddenly, there was an awakening," Tata said. Finally, Indian politicians began to turn to China for inspiration.

China is still far ahead, but India is finally on its tail. Both are rushing headlong into the modern world as Chinese and Indians are increasingly making what Westerners buy, answering American customer service phone calls or themselves buying Western-branded goods. Globalization has clearly benefited both India and China greatly, lifting 200 million Indians and Chinese out of poverty during the 1990s and catapulting tens of millions more far ahead into middle class life.

Still, progress on India's development projects is on-again, off-again. "India will never be a tiger. It is an elephant that has begun to lumber and move ahead," says Times of India columnist Gurcharan Das. "It will never have speed, but it will always have stamina."

Murthy's partner, Infosys Chief Executive Nandan Nilekani, says, "Indian people will now feel disenchanted if growth rates fall below 6%." He declares that India's reforms are irreversible.

India's Cultural Revolution (http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/07/25/elephant-dragon-meredith-oped-cz_rm_0726dragonseven.html)
Robyn Meredith
FORBES, NY

Before our eyes, two giant nations--India and China--are simultaneously embracing both capitalism and globalization. The world economy is being transformed as a result, as Forbes Senior Editor Robyn Meredith explains in her new book, The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means to All of Us ($26, W.W. Norton, 2007). Each weekday through July 31, Forbes.com will post a new excerpt from the book.

When Stawan Kadepurkar entered college in 1991 in Pune, near Bombay, only 60% of the previous graduating class had found jobs. But by the time he graduated in 1995, India's economy had lurched into high gear and Kadepurkar and his graduating class found a far rosier future. Almost none worried about graduating into unemployment.

Kadepurkar landed a job as an electronics engineer at Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ) in Bombay and was paid $1,500 a year--a terrific salary at the time. For him, and for most Indian tech workers who graduated after 1991, the good times were just beginning.

Two years out of college, he joined Infosys (nasdaq: INFY - news - people ) in Bangalore and helped the Indian company's client, Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ), write code that allowed phone calls to be transmitted over the Internet. His salary rose to $5,000 a year--more than the combined earnings of his parents, both teachers. When Kadepurkar was all of 25, he bought a house. At 29, he bought his first car.

As India connects itself to the global economy, young Indians' clothing, food and even marriage rituals are starting to mirror what they see on their new color televisions. The people like Kadepurkar who are "taking away America's jobs" may be paid just a tenth of America's wages, but they have a fantastic standard of living in India, where the cost of living is much lower.

While the glut of shiny new cellphones and motorcycles may be symbolic of India's economic success, it also signals a radical shift in culture. Millions of young, well-educated Indians live in a different world than that of their parents, who struggled to make ends meet on far lower salaries. They are even different from their older sisters and brothers, whose ambitions and dreams were far more modest. For the young and educated, India has been reincarnated as a land of prosperity and boundless opportunity.

Many denizens of the New India work on behalf of American companies and can count on finding intellectually rewarding work while earning enough money to eat in restaurants, to buy homes and cars, to chat on cellphones with their friends, and to travel. Young, well-educated Indians finally have the things most American college graduates take for granted.

Yet even as the New India cohort thrives, much of the rest of India is making much slower gains or even being left behind, creating social and political tensions that cloud over India's impressive strides forward. Most Indians still earn less than $60 a month–just $2 a day. Bringing India's poor along on the ride to a New India would require vast job creation. That is only likely to come with the addition of thousands of factories, myriad construction projects or the nurturing of a big increase in agricultural exports–or all three. A lot depends on how soon India modernizes its infrastructure.

Because of demographic trends, India is at a precipice. If India fails to create jobs for its fast-growing population of workers, it risks being mired in poverty and hopelessness. Today, half of India's 1.1 billion people are under 25 years old, and 31% are under 16 years old–not yet working age. When India's young demographic bubble begins to reach working age, India will need far more jobs than currently exist to keep living standards from falling.

The Indian government must not squander an opportunity to promote the nation's economic growth. If India fails to fully unleash its economy while it has the attention of investors around the world, it will pay a heavy price in prosperity both today and when its young population becomes a working-age behemoth in need of jobs. India must move past the on-again, off-again reforms that slow its economic rise or risk missing a historic chance to propel hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The Internet's Spice Route (http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/07/20/elephant-dragon-meredith-oped-cz_rm_0724dragonfive.html?boxes=author)
Robyn Meredith
FORBES, NY

Before our eyes, two giant nations--India and China--are simultaneously embracing both capitalism and globalization. The world economy is being transformed as a result, as Forbes Senior Editor Robyn Meredith explains in her new book, The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means to All of Us ($26, W.W. Norton, 2007) . Each weekday through July 27, Forbes.com will post a new excerpt from the book.

Middle-class Americans and Britons are growing increasingly worried that their jobs will be moved from Boston to Bangalore, from Manchester to Mumbai, from Dallas to Delhi. The fears of these Western workers are justified. India has more than 100 million English speakers--about twice as many as the U.K itself--and that is helping India attract millions of new jobs, propelling its once-crumbling economy into the 21st century.

Hundreds of thousands of white-collar, service industry jobs have already moved to India, and more are on the way--as many as 300,000 American jobs each year will move overseas for the next 30 years--9 million jobs in all, estimates McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Co.'s economics think tank.

On behalf of foreign companies, Indians answer phone calls, write computer code and increasingly perform far more sophisticated tasks--from accounting to investment banking--that previously were performed strictly in corporate offices across America and Europe.

Just as China has famously become the factory to the world, India is becoming the world's back office. The birth of the remote back office has turbocharged the Indian economy, reorganized the way business is done in India and around the world, and spread India Fever among foreign companies.

Stunningly significant changes are coming. "I don't think most people appreciate the magnitude of the change in the world’s workforce; this is a tsunami coming our way," said Intel's (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) Chairman, Craig Barrett. "Over the next 10 years you are going to see major, major dislocation." Intel has already hired 2,900 Indian workers. Of the world’s 500 largest companies, 400 send middle class work to India, up from 150 in 2000.

The new practice of moving white-collar work overseas is called offshoring, and it put long-ignored India on the map as a market for foreign companies. In 2005, Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), Intel and Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ) each announced they would invest more than $1 billion in India. IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) said it would invest $4 billion.

"IBM is not going to miss this opportunity," said Samuel J. Palmisano, chief executive of IBM, which already has 43,000 employees in 14 Indian cities. IBM already runs information technology systems for 225 of its client companies entirely from India.

For Western workers, there are three big problems caused by offshoring--the movement of white-collar work overseas. First, certain industries, like computer programming, are being hit very hard by job losses. Second, for those industries where there is less job movement, wages can still be held down by the fact that the jobs could be moved overseas, even if they are not. Third, with the labor market globalized, workers should expect their jobs and careers will be less stable over decades as businesses continually evaluate where they can most efficiently have work done.

Not all the news is bad for American workers--some of the job movement will even create jobs in the U.S. at higher wages. But Americans in many fields will need to get used to changing jobs, or even careers, more often.

However worrying for Westerners, the success of the offshoring movement has been a catalyst for economic growth in India. Hearing that economic powerhouses like America are worrying about competing with India has instilled pride in business and government leaders as well as workers. The creation of just a few hundred thousand jobs for college graduates in a land with a billion people has had a disproportionate effect.

As we'll see in the next installment, the ability to connect cheap workers in India and China with the modern technology and infrastructure of the global economy is not just changing the lives of workers worldwide. It is not merely changing companies' fortunes. It is also changing the very way business is done--a revolution that has not been equaled since Henry Ford unleashed the assembly line.

America No. 1! Maybe, but here come China and India. (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/RVGQCR3OO81.DTL&type=books)
Reviewed by Noam Lupu
San Francisco Chronicle

The Elephant and the Dragon - The Rise of India and China, and What It Means for All of Us
By Robyn Meredith

The economist Joseph Schum-peter famously wrote that capitalism is characterized by a process he called "creative destruction." Radical innovations such as the assembly line or the Internet drive long-term economic growth, but they also displace established companies. Thus the computer replaced the typewriter and the CD replaced the cassette, which had replaced the LP. While computer manufacturers expanded their business and hired workers, typewriter companies went out of business and laid off workers. Overall, though, productivity boomed and the economy grew.

Today, we see a similar process taking place, but on an international scale. Manufacturers of consumer goods from sneakers to lightbulbs are expanding in China while factories in the United States close their doors. Back-office services from computer programming to customer service are booming in India as U.S. workers get laid off. We could call it creative destruction for a globalized world. China and India are the CD to our cassette -- their workers can perform the same jobs for a fraction of the cost of American workers.

But do we still stand to benefit from this globalized creative destruction? Yes, argues Forbes correspondent Robyn Meredith in her new book, "The Elephant and the Dragon." If we take the right measures, the rise of China and India -- together containing a third of the world population -- can "be a catalyst to reestablish America's competitiveness" rather than the doomsday predicted by so many pundits.

A comprehensive primer on the development of these Asian tigers, Meredith's book shows that the fear behind alarmist predictions is not entirely unwarranted. In 1996, China exported $20 billion worth of electronics. By 2004, those exports had grown to $180 billion. A stunning 75 percent of all new toys in 2005 were made in China. Its economy has grown an average of 9.6 percent a year since it began to embrace a market economy in 1978 (the United States grew roughly 3.5 percent last year). The same country that was issuing ration coupons in 1992 now features a Starbucks on the Great Wall and one in the Forbidden City. China's economy is expected to overtake the United States' by 2030.

India's emergence, though more recent, is no less impressive. The country has grown at an average annual rate of 6 percent since beginning its economic reforms in 1991. India had 300,000 cell phones in 1996, but Indians today buy nearly 7 million cell phones a month. Foreigners have invested in more than 1,000 Indian companies -- a record for any country outside the United States. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 400 send work to India. As Meredith puts it, China has become "factory to the world" and India "back office to the world."

Meredith is at her best describing these "tectonic economics," marshaling a clever mix of statistics and anecdotes. She is, unfortunately, less compelling regarding the big open questions: Will all this growth lead China to democratize, or will its authoritarianism give it an advantage over India's turbulent democracy? How are these countries likely to respond to growing inequality and the social upheaval that comes with rapid growth?

Meredith is more interested in the immediate impact on the United States. There are advantages for Americans, such as lower consumer prices: More than 70 percent of discount items sold at Wal-Mart are made with cheap Chinese labor. What's more, economists estimate that for every dollar spent by U.S. companies in India and China, the United States gains 13 cents. While companies move manufacturing and back-office jobs, they also create jobs in research and development, marketing and software engineering. Overall, these shifts are a gain for the U.S. economy and American consumers.

But Schumpeter was right to use the word "destruction." It's estimated that 9 million U.S. jobs will move overseas in the next 30 years. Even if new jobs are created, a laid-off factory worker or call-center operator will have a hard time landing a software engineering job. As wages rise in China and India, factory owners will start moving up the food chain to stay competitive, competing more directly with the more specialized manufacturing still done in the United States.

The best way to deal with these problems, Meredith rightly argues, is neither apathy nor aggression. "Forget protectionism. Forget letting the free market ride," she insists. "To meet the challenges, the United States must choose a third way: the nation must focus on creating jobs." For Meredith, that means improving education, increasing personal savings, balancing the federal budget, upgrading infrastructure, funding basic research and providing a safety net for displaced workers.

This is sound advice, and Meredith commendably highlights issues that have all but disappeared from the political agenda. The devil, as always, is in the details: Funding these necessary endeavors while maintaining a balanced budget means cutbacks elsewhere. Still, Meredith is optimistic: "Americans are flexible and creative, are risk-takers, are the world's optimists, and are at their best as underdogs." Even if she's right, we're in for a world of creative destruction.

India’s future – out of the back office and into the shop window (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/india/article2147857.ece)
In the last of our series, The Empire Strikes Back, looks to the next decade as corporate India takes its brands, and its skills, into the West

Ashling O’Connor
THE TIMES

Five years ago, anyone suggesting that The Times of India, the world’s largest circulation English-language newspaper, could buy the Financial Times, arguably the world’s most prestigious business paper, would have been laughed out of the room.

This month, despite the Indian media group’s insistence that it is focused solely on a booming domestic market, the rumour was taken very seriously in private equity circles.

“Confidence is an enormous thing,” said Toby Greenbury, co-head of the India practice at Mishcon de Reya and a director of the Indo-British Partnership. “Some businesses in India are growing very fast and they are using the money to become international companies.”

Above everything, they believe the global stage is their “rightful” place, according to Sonjoy Chatterjee, ICICI bank’s UK chief executive. “Corporate India is really thinking big,” he said. “It has seen what is available globally and is no longer nervous.”

Tata Motors, India’s largest car-maker, is believed to be lining up a bid for Land Rover, exemplifying the ambitions of corporate India. Inherently conservative after years of socialist containment, Indian companies are developing a propensity for risk. They are profitable, underleveraged and being offered access to debt by international banks, which are convinced of their long-term worth.

They are no longer content being commodity players; they want the premium end too. If the first step in globalisation was for cost-conscious Western brand owners to move their production east, the next stage appears to involve in-sourcing the outsourcer.

You don’t get more English than Wimbledon but this year there was a hidden Indian influence in SW19: the famous green and purple towels so treasured by men’s champion Roger Federer that he gives them to friends as Christmas presents.

Few outside the textiles industry noticed last year’s £15 million acquisition by Welspun, India’s largest exporter of terry towels, of Christy, the 150-year-old brand beloved of Queen Victoria and a former pillar of the Courtaulds Group.

But the deal underlined a growing confidence among Indian suppliers to put themselves in the global shop window after years of being the back-office boys.

Welspun is using Christy – the largest terry towel supplier to Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Bloomingdale’s and Debenhams – to gain access to new markets.

Christy, now an Indian subsidiary, is relocating its sole UK manufacturing facility from the North West of England to northwestern India. Welspun’s mill in Anjar, Gujarat, with capacity to make 5.6 million towels a year at a quarter of the cost of the developed world, will be fully operational by September.

With the death of Britain’s textiles industry long declared, it is an inevitable shift and is indicative of India’s new position in the world order.

“Many British people still think India’s a place for low-cost labour and call centres but the Indians own call centres in the UK now,” Peter Luff, the Tory MP for Mid-Worcestershire and chairman of the Trade and Industry Select Committee, said.

The next five to ten years will only see corporate India gaining in confidence. British companies will attract more interest from Indian groups hoping to apply their back-end scale and access to Asian markets to a world-famous brand with access to Western markets. “Indian companies already have the manufacturing facilities but they need the front and the visibility,” said Ramesh Ahuja, chief executive of SBI Capital Markets, the State Bank of India’s corporate finance arm in London. “That’s why Tata bought Tetley. Because they thought they could add value. And there’s no stopping this for the simple reason that there are a lot of synergies between Indian companies and UK companies.”

There are significant hurdles ahead, though, not least a danger that India could start believing its own hype.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services company, is still only 5 per cent of the size of IBM, the world leader. ICICI bank, India’s largest commercial bank with a market capitalisation of $25 billion (£12.1 billion), is only one tenth the size of Citibank. China has five banks in the top 50 global list while India has none.

“In almost all cases, Indian businesses have a long way to go to challenge the global majors,” said Alan Rosling, the Tata director responsible for the Indian group’s international strategy. “Western and Japanese companies enjoy advantages beyond scale, including superior brands, technologies and competences, and forward-thinking multinationals are turning to India to exploit the same cost and people advantages that underpin the competitive challenge of Indian companies.”

Turning Bombay into a global financial centre so it can interact properly with London and facilitate trade flows is another huge challenge. The pace of reform by India’s central bank is slow.

Meanwhile, Bombay is losing out to other emerging financial centres such as Dubai, and some Indian banks abroad continue to be focused solely on the $30 billion global remittance market, rather than becoming serious corporate financers.

“All the Indian banks have operations in London but [corporate financing] has been the preserve of foreign banks with the large balance sheets offshore. It is hard for players out of India,” said Naina Lal Kidwai, chief executive of HSBC India.

Immigration concerns in the wake of the failed UK terror attacks, for which three of the suspects include Indian nationals, may also slow India’s march on Britain. Students, in particular, may find it more difficult to get visas in the coming months. It will not, however, be a deal-breaker.

“The debate will die down because you will just not have enough skilled people [in the UK]. The estimate is that by 2020 the developed world will fall short of 40 million people of working age,” said Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of Hero Corporate Services, an arm of India’s $3.2 billion Hero Group.

Intellectual power of India takes hold in UK (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/india/article2120737.ece)
In the first of a week-long series on the new Anglo-Indian business relationship, our correspondent charts the passage from India of increasingly ambitious companies

Ashling O’Connor
The Times

In a drab 1960s office block on the unfashionable Pinner Road in Harrow, North London, a dozen or so lab technicians in white coats are poring over clinical research for Intas Pharmaceuticals.

The $150 million company was set up more than 35 years ago in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad by Hashmukh Chudgar, but it spread its wings into the British market five years ago at the behest of Nimish, Binish and Urmish, the founder’s sons.

Their office is unremarkable, hidden away in a grey world of semidetached mock-Tudor homes, a parade of shops and careworn commuters trooping on and off the Metropolitan Line.

But Intas is not only extraordinary in itself as the largest contract manufacturer by volume of generic drugs to the EU. The Chudgar family business in sprawling suburbia also represents a creeping counter-offensive that promises to transform the British economy: Indian insourcing.

The Anglo-Indian relationship is still so dominated by memories of Empire – the novels of E. M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling, television series such as The Jewel in the Crown, not to mention the cricket – that it is all too easy to see the ties between Britain and India through the prism of the past.

In the first wave of immigration, they came seeking a better life as shopkeepers, traders and restaurateurs. Today Indians are arriving as bankers, scientists, PhD students and software engineers.

Seventy miles from Harrow, to the west of the Fens, India’s biggest software services provider has taken over the old Pearl Assurance call centre on the edge of Peterborough, in an even larger concentration of Indian capital in unexpected quarters. From its “innovation lab”, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) provides software solutions for a host of blue-chip companies, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, National Grid, Welsh Water, United Biscuits, Norwich Union and AXA.

More than a thousand employees, a third of whom are Indian, work on high-end technology projects for clients, including a leading media company that is aiming to rival the dominant digital television provider.

The £5 million facility has 18 British companies in the pipeline and a potential order book value of about £120 million.

Mike Scott, the mathematician who heads the centre, has spent almost his entire career with British Telecom. He is an evangelical convert to the Indian way of doing business and, happily, his old employer is now TCS’s biggest customer. “There is a massive intellectual power in India,” he said. “It is amazing how bright and well trained they are. I saw nothing like it at BT.”

As India bids for superpower status, it is having a transforming effect on the British economy. The singular evidence of this was Tata Steel’s successful £6.7 billion bid for the remnants of British Steel completed this year in a deal that changed all foreign preconceptions of Indian enterprise.

This new view of India’s purchasing power was reinforced a few months later by the £600 million acquisition of Whyte & Mackay, the world’s fourth-largest whisky distiller, by Vijay Mallya’s UB Group.

But these deals tell only part of the story. Below the banner of big headlines, Indian businesses are making inroads in a cross section of industries from healthcare to auto components and software design to film production.

They already own some of the most British of institutions, from steel furnaces in Doncaster to the maker of the Queen’s favourite towels, and are casting their acquisitive eyes over genteel favourites such as Jaguar. Yet the process of Indian inward investment into the UK has only just begun because the Indian outward journey is still in its infancy.

India is the future workforce of the world: half the 1.1 billion population is under the age of 25, and its 14 million-strong pool of young professionals, replenished by 2.5 million graduates a year, is nearly twice the size of both China’s and America’s. By 2025 India will eclipse Germany as the world’s fifth-largest consumer, McKinsey, the consultancy firm, predicts.

India’s invisible hand has been at work in British business for some time, but because of a comfortable bilateral relationship, rooted in the shared – albeit uneven – experience of imperialism, it is only just coming to notice.

Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for the capital, says that India is the second-largest investor by projects after the US. Sixteen per cent of the £52 billion that flows into London each year comes from India, creating 634 jobs from 19 projects last year. These figures are impressive even before you consider that they do not include the Corus and Whyte & Mackay acquisitions. And they are symptomatic of a newly confident and capital-rich India, which has entered the global market seemingly from nowhere.

Before 2000, an Indian company had never made a significant overseas acquisition. However, according to McKinsey, Indian companies bought more than 100 foreign businesses during 2005 for $4.5 billion.

“Once they have taken the decision to move out of India, the world is their next market,” Kevin Gold, managing partner at the London law firm Mischon de Reya, said.

Indian entrepreneurs, freed from the capital constraints of their predecessors, are suddenly taking flight from their domestic markets. London is often their first stop and is increasingly a bridgehead to continental Europe.

“India is generating newfound wealth,” Sunil Dwivedi, head of India at Think London, said. “It wants a world platform and London is the natural choice because of historical and language connections. We have seen this coming for at least three years.”

This year India’s total outbound M&A investment may exceed the $30 billion target for inbound investment, according to Ernst & Young and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Investment by Indian companies into the UK has already eclipsed investment into India by British companies.

“There is an amazing reversal in the tides of capital flows,” Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC India chief executive and the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School, said. “You don’t see a Corus happening every day, but the trend continues. Indian companies see London as a gateway to Europe.” Small to medium-sized businesses represent the fastest-growing sector, particularly in private wealth management, retail banking and reinsurance. There are more than 10,000 Indian-owned businesses in London, employing 49,000 people. “If the Tatas can do it, smaller companies think they can do it, too,” said Anita Nandi, head of the City of London’s India office, which opened in Bombay in May to foster bilateral trade and investment.

“Five years ago, they wouldn’t even have thought of getting out of their rural markets,” she said. “Technology means you can be sitting in a village in Madhya Pradesh but still doing business in London.” In pockets around Britain, thousands of Indian companies are quietly thriving in an amenable corporate environment where language and law are all terribly familiar.

“The UK values people who come to live in Britain on the work they do and not their colour,” said Lord Paul, the Indian-born industrialist who is one of Britain’s richest men 40 years after he settled in London. “Any immigrant feels comfortable here, and Britain has gained because of its openness.”

Behind the complaints about white-collar jobs lost to sweat shops on the sub-continent, Indian companies are making a significant contribution to the Government’s coffers and advances in science and education.

TCS already generates about $800 million of its $4 billion global turnover from the UK, where it is reporting year-on-year revenue growth of 45 per cent. Employing 4,000 people in the UK, its economic impact is tangible. The idea that it is draining money from the British economy is outdated.

Much like the East India Company believed that it would have a civilising impact on India, Indian companies believe that they can import a superior technical knowledge to make Britain a more efficient place.

“In the narrow context, people see the offshoring. They do not see the full impact of our investment – the tax we pay, the academic institutions we support,” A. S. Lakshmi, TCS’s UK head, said. “But I think all the major political parties recognise we bring competitiveness to British companies. We help them become nimbler and open their eyes to new opportunities.”

The empire is striking back, but the process of reverse colonialism is just getting started in the remaking of corporate Britain.

Indian firms doing business in Britain

Tata (steel, IT, hotels, tea)
Wockhardt (healthcare)
UB Group (spirits)
ICICI (financial services)
Bharat Forge (auto components)
HCL (outsourcing)
Ranbaxy (pharmaceuticals)
Apeejay Surrendra (tea)
Monocon (refractories)
Cognizant (IT)
UTV (film)
Godrej (consumer goods)
Kotak Mahindra (broking)
Reliance (life sciences, telecoms)

Onwards, upwards

— India is the second-fastest-growing economy after China. GDP growth in first quarter was 9.1 per cent. Full-year growth is expected to be at its strongest in 20 years

— India has 36 dollar billionaires and 83,000 dollar millionaires. It also has more than 200 million people who survive on less than a dollar a day

— Bombay’s unofficial population is 20 million. It is forecast to eclipse Tokyo as the world’s most-populous city by 2020

— Per capita income in India will rise 26 per cent, from $831 to $1,021, this fiscal year, moving it into the category of lower- middle-income countries, as designated by the World Bank

— The UK is India’s fourth-largest trading partner behind the US, China and Belgium

— India represents 16 per cent of the flow of foreign direct investment into London

— There are 1.3 million people of Indian origin in Britain; 437,000 live in London. The capital is home to 173,000 Indian citizens

— There are 160 multinational Indian companies in London. More than 10,000 Indian-owned businesses in the capital generated a combined turnover of $14.4 billion, or 5 per cent of the city's economy. India is the second-largest foreign creator of jobs in the UK, after the US

Investment ideas: a taste for the subcontinent (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/11/cmindia11.xml)
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
Last Updated: 8:38pm BST 10/08/2007

India's booming economy is luring investors with an appetite for the rewards - and risks - of this emerging market, reports Melanie Wright

Sixty years ago, on August 15, India gained independence and, despite several decades of economic turmoil, is now enjoying strong growth and a soaring stock market.

India's annual growth is 8 per cent to 9 per cent , about three times higher than most Western economies, and its stock market has risen about 40 per cent in each of the last three years.

Fidelity Investments and Neptune have both launched India-focused funds to take advantage of investors' interest in capitalising on this growth, and several other funds offer exposure to India.

However, while there seems to be a general consensus that the Indian economy is set to continue its successful transformation over the next few years, investment in this region is not for the faint-hearted. Interest rates and inflation are running at much higher levels than at the beginning of 2006, and stock market jitters around the world have prompted fears of a global economic slowdown. Funds invested in emerging markets are usually quick to feel the impact of stock market volatility as investors rush to safer investments.

Ian Kernohan, economist at Royal London Asset Management, said: "While India's long-term economic prospects are favourable and the Reserve Bank of India is signalling that interest rates have peaked, prospects for Indian equities are clouded by valuations stretched relative to other markets.

"Having said that, valuation considerations often play second fiddle to liquidity in emerging markets and share prices could plough on regardless, as in China."

Maxine Cuffe, emerging markets fund manager at Threadneedle Investments, also thinks India's outlook remains broadly positive. She said: "In the year to date $5bn (£2.45bn) has flowed into the market from foreigners. Currency appreciation has helped moderate inflation and bond yields have declined from their peaks, lending support to the market."
There are only a few funds which invest in India alone. JP Morgan's Indian Investment Trust, established in 1994, is one of just two investment trusts to focus exclusively on India, but £1,000 invested in this fund five years ago would have grown to an impressive £6,483 after charges, with net income reinvested, compared to £2,599 generated from the average UK investment trust.

Martin Bamford, of independent financial advisers Informed Choice, said: "The JP Morgan investment trust has an annual management charge of 1.2 per cent but, with other expenses, a total expense ratio of 1.56 per cent . This is good value for such a specialist investment fund.

"However, investors should not consider investing more than 5 per cent or 10 per cent of their total portfolio in this region unless they have a big appetite for risk and accept the potential for substantial capital losses."
Justin Modray, director of discount brokers Bestinvest, said for country-specific exposure, he liked the Aberdeen Global India Opportunities fund and the First State Indian Subcontinent fund. He also suggested investors could access India through a general Asia Pacific or emerging markets fund, as this reduces the likelihood of big losses should the Indian stock market take a tumble.

He said: "Funds we like for general exposure include the Aberdeen Asia Pacific fund, which has 13 per cent invested in India; Invesco Perpetual Asia, with 6 per cent ; and Resolution Pacific Growth, with 7 per cent ."
Our table, supplied by Morningstar, shows how funds in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan sector, many of which offer exposure to India, have performed over one and five-year periods.

For investors who like the concept of investing in India, but prefer a little more diversification, then a BRIC fund could be of interest. BRIC funds not only invest in India, but also Brazil, Russia and China, and so can provide a slightly less concentrated approach.

Case study

Nigel Edwards, 60, from Newton Abbot in Devon, has invested in the Aberdeen Global Indian Opportunities since 1996.

Mr Edwards, who is retired, and lives with his wife, Lyn, 51, said: "I used to work for Aberdeen several years ago and remember being very excited about the Indian fund at its launch. China is another area that I am a great fan of, so I invested in both.

"I used to make regular £100 contributions into the Aberdeen Global Indian Opportunities fund, but stopped this around two or three years ago as I believe you can only make lump sum investments now. The fund has done very well for us, and we recently used some of the money held in it to help pay for our daughter's wedding in June.

"India has been a great story for investors and hopefully there is a long way to go. I am prepared to accept a high level of risk, as long as the fundamentals are sound and there are sensible reasons to invest, as is the case with both India and China."

The Aberdeen Global Indian Opportunities fund is an open ended investment company (OEIC) domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund aims to achieve long term capital appreciation by investing in the equity of companies which are incorporated in India, or which derive significant revenue or profit there.

The minimum lump sum investment is £1,000 and there is 4.25 per cent initial charge and 1.75 per cent annual management fee.

India comes of age, as it looks set to topple US (http://money.guardian.co.uk/investments/fundsbondstrusts/story/0,,2146205,00.html)
Patrick Collinson discovers rich pickings for canny fund investors as India's economic revolution continues
Saturday August 11, 2007
The Guardian, UK (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

As India celebrates 60 years of independence on Wednesday, what of the investors who tip-toed into the fast-developing country's stock market? India funds run by Fidelity F&C, Aberdeen and JP Morgan Fleming have, over the past three years, produced annualised returns of around 35%-50%, defying the sceptics who have long predicted a meltdown on the Mumbai market.

Despite a series of interest rate hikes to head off rising inflation, economic growth in India has remained robust. In the current financial year, the economy is expected to expand by a frenetic 9.4%, the second highest in the world after China.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for India's sustainable rate of economic growth from 5.7% to 8% a year - and said it is likely to continue at this pace to 2020.

By 2050 it says the US economy will have fallen to third place in the world pecking order - eclipsed first by China and then by India.

A country once known as a byword for poverty, malnutrition and stagnation has a new set of icons; Bangalore's software industry, Hyderabad's "Cyberabad", Mumbai's skyscrapers and Bollywood's stars.
In 2000 there were just 3m mobile phones in India. Today the country is adding 6m new subscribers every month - a rate of growth that beats even China.

But behind the gleaming shopping malls and the surging middle-class, there remains colossal deprivation. Around 300 million Indians survive on less than 50p a day and nearly three million children die every year from malnutrition.

Even the better-off can't insulate themselves from the country's growing pains; during 45°c heatwaves, the Indian capital Delhi can be hit by power cuts lasting up to 12 hours a day.

For fund manager Sam Mahtani, of F&C's Indian Investment Company, solving these problems is where his fund - minimum investment £2,500 - is going to make money in the future.

"There has been a marked change in government policy towards infrastructure spending. It says it is going to spend $300bn over the next five years, which compares with just $5bn-$6bn a year in the past few years." His favourite stock is Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), an engineering giant which has just won a 29bn rupee (£350m) contract to build three new power plants to supply the Delhi grid.

"Under the Rajiv Ghandi programme, the government is planning to connect all India's rural areas to the grid, and BHEL will be one of the key beneficiaries," he adds. Since March, the stock has soared from 970 rupees a share to 1,730 rupees this week.

Environmentalists may baulk, though, at the company's predominantly coal-fired power stations.

Mr Mahtani also likes Grasim, a cement maker which will help cover the country in concrete over the next few decades. Since March its shares have leapt from 1,927 rupees to 3,008.

No investor in India can ignore Reliance Industries, the conglomerate that is worth 15% of the entire Mumbai market. Mr Mahtani has 18% of his fund in Reliance, and is enthusiastic about its supermarket strategy in which it intends to become the Wal-Mart of India.

What he's less keen on is the banking sector; he thinks operators such as ICICI Bank will be hurt as the credit splurge of recent years unwinds and households adjust to the recent rise in mortgage rates from 7% to 12%.
Aberdeen Asset Management runs an Indian fund with the same sort of performance figures as F&C - but what's striking is how the manager of the Aberdeen fund, Adrian Lim, has views almost the polar opposite of Mr Mahtani's.

Mr Lim has nothing in Reliance, while his biggest holding is ICICI Bank. He also remains a fan of India's software stocks, when many other investors have taken profits and sold out.

"Reliance is not cheap, and although they've done well in petrochemicals, on the back of the commodity boom, they are now going into areas such as retailing and the Special Economic Zones where they don't have much experience."

He reckons that over five years, interest rates will peg back and help ICICI grow its earnings at 20%-30% a year. This week it was trading at 900 rupees against its 1,010 high in May, but Mr Lim reckons it's a good long-term play.

Among India's software stocks, he picks Satyam, which outsources for US and European companies. But forget call centres - they're yesterday's business, even in India. Its chief source of revenue is writing software code, which enjoys much higher margins.
One worry is that Indian stocks trade on high price/earnings multiples, typically 17 times profits. But Fidelity India Focus manager, Arun Mehra, says: "The market reflects the underlying trend of earnings. From a valuation perspective, the market is trading at a high p/e ratio, but this is supported by double-digit growth, which is expected to continue."

thanks for the effort ab041937..

i really enjoyed reading through this thread..

:)

Thanx Ferrari_Fan, it has been my priviledge that the articles in this thread interested some of the prominent posters like you. The purpose of this thread is simply to highlight our achievements from ringside observers.

The rebirth of a nation (http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,2146931,00.html)
Maria Misra's Vishnu's Crowded Temple is a timely history after 60 years of Indian independence
Sunday August 12, 2007
The Observer, UK

Vishnu's Crowded Temple
by Maria Misra
Allen Lane £25, pp536

Stereotypes about India not so much abound as keep multiplying. In popular imagination, India has gone, over time, from being the land of exoticism and mysticism to the back office of the world to - most recently - the rising economic superpower whose dizzying rate of growth is second only to China's and which will, along with China, redraw the geopolitical map of the world by the middle of the 21st century.

These are all misleadingly reductive summations of a country that, days away from the 60th anniversary of its independence from British rule, is simply too various and too complex to lend itself to such shorthands. It is, as Ramachandra Guha persuasively argues in his recent book India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (Macmillan, 2007), no small triumph that India, as well as its democracy, not merely exists at all but continues to thrive. 'India will go on,' Guha quotes novelist RK Narayan telling VS Naipaul in the Sixties, and exactly how it does and how it possibly will have become the subjects of a clutch of recent books, including Maria Misra's Vishnu's Crowded Temple.

Misra, who teaches modern history at Oxford, has undertaken an ambitious project. She attempts to telescope more than 150 years of India's history into this book and tries to show, as she tells us in its closing pages, 'how India has developed its peculiar form of modernity, the most striking feature of which is its highly atomised, fragmented and diverse citizenry'.

It seems clear that one of the things that underscores the idea of India as a nation is its tradition of pluralism and diversity. Misra is not the first to make a case for this. In his illuminating collection of essays, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity (Allen Lane, 2005), India's Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has eloquently described how the country's long tradition of argument, public debate and intellectual pluralism is central to the notion of India and Indianness.

This may not seem immediately obvious if one were to look at the long history of sectarian violence that has convulsed India. First, there was the bloodbath that accompanied the birth pangs of India or, more precisely, the birth pangs of the two nation states of India and Pakistan. At least 180,000 people died in what Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, called one of the 'greatest administrative operations in history'; train tracks were covered with corpses and whole trainloads of people butchered. Misra is good with the details of this chilling, pervasive violence and brings alive the scale of the carnage in those months.

More recently, there have been anti-Sikh riots in Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984; the communal riots in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993, which then triggered the serial bombings that killed 257 people in India's financial and entertainment nerve centre; Kashmir continues to be an unresolved battlefield; and right-wing Hindu nationalists presided over a pogrom in Gujarat in 2002.

India's colonial history (the British had often encouraged sectarian conflicts, playing one community off against the other) and postcolonial experience both show how the country's democracy has repeatedly come under assault, how its secular fabric has been threatened time and again to be ripped apart. In spite of that, Misra reveals how India has drawn most sustenance from its diversity and plurality.

At the heart of her book are the sections on the two men seen as central to the story of modern India: Mahatma Gandhi, the most prominent leader of the nationalist movement and known as the father of the nation, and his protege, Jawaharlal Nehru, who went on to become India's first Prime Minister. Misra is unfairly harsh on Gandhi, seeing him as idiosyncratic, traditionalist and with a gift for combining political shrewdness with a sense of self-promotion and opportunism.

She has unmixed admiration for Nehru, who she sees as the opposite of Gandhi in many ways: 'He differed from Gandhi in the most important question of the age: modernity. While Gandhi romanticised the Indian past, both real and imagined, Nehru was in love with the future. Gandhi decried the Raj as the harbinger of modernity, while for Nehru it was the detested heart of the ancien regime. Nehru was a technophile, a religious agnostic, cosmopolitan in his tastes and an instinctive internationalist; the Mahatma was the opposite.'

The template of pluralism that is the key to India's enduring democracy, Misra argues, was conceptualised and laid out by Nehru. And she sees that - and the foresight and vision that implies - as his biggest contribution. 'Nehru's goal was to make a virtue of India's variety by creating the world's first self-consciously multicultural modern nation state.'

Misra is weak on two aspects of India's cultural life that have glued together for decades people from utterly different social classes and with different cultures, mother tongues and cuisines: mainstream Hindi cinema, or Bollywood, and cricket. Bollywood is the world's largest film industry and its popularity and reach are unrivalled by anything else in India bar cricket. Cricket is the only team game at which India is any good and it infuses as much of a sense of national identity and pride in the urban middle-class professional as the farmer living beneath the poverty line.

These are the two things that the tiny metropolitan elite - the biggest beneficiary of India's economic boom - and the 70 per cent of the population that lives in grinding poverty in the country's rural hinterland have in common - they comprise their only shared language. The movies and cricket are strong, critical threads that make India the patchwork quilt that it is.

Ireland in race to host ‘Bollywood Oscars’ (http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=25819-qqqx=1.asp)
Nicola Cooke
Sunday Business Post, Ireland
12 August 2007

Ireland has emerged as a frontrunner to host the next ‘Bollywood Oscars’, which attracts a televised audience of 500 million and could inject funds into the flagging Irish film industry.

A delegation from the Indian International Film Academy Awards (IIFA), which oversees the awards ceremony, has twice visited Ireland and met government and tourism representatives.

The event was held in Yorkshire last month. Some 30,000 people visited the area for the four-day event, which generated €20 million for the local economy. Two Bollywood films will be shot in the region next year.

China and Switzerland are competing with Ireland for the event and the deadline for bids to the IIFA is next month.

IIFA directors have suggested a large marquee tent, with a capacity for 12,000 people, be flown over from England and erected in a space such as the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Public and private funding will be required to host the event, which stars such as Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Kylie Minogue have previously attended. The next Bollywood Oscars will be held in May next year.

In addition to the awards ceremony, a global business forum is held. The Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and the chief executives of India’s top 100 companies also travel over for the Oscars for trade talks with leading companies from the host country.

Amsterdam, Dubai and Singapore have previously hosted the glitzy event. Business development consultant Bernice Paolozzi, who is coordinating the Irish bid, said the awards had been held outside India for years, and that they presented a huge business and tourism opportunity for Ireland.

‘‘The Indian economy is powering ahead at the moment, and it is an economy Irish companies should want a slice of,” Paolozzi said.

‘‘There are one billion people living in India – 300 million of whom are now middle class with a good disposable income.

‘‘This global event would showcase Ireland to the world, and boost tourism.”

Wizcraft events management company has staged the awards for several years, and its British spokesman PK Sharma said Ireland could enjoy massive benefits from hosting the event.

At the heart of her book are the sections on the two men seen as central to the story of modern India: Mahatma Gandhi, the most prominent leader of the nationalist movement and known as the father of the nation, and his protege, Jawaharlal Nehru, who went on to become India's first Prime Minister. Misra is unfairly harsh on Gandhi, seeing him as idiosyncratic, traditionalist and with a gift for combining political shrewdness with a sense of self-promotion and opportunism.

She has unmixed admiration for Nehru, who she sees as the opposite of Gandhi in many ways: 'He differed from Gandhi in the most important question of the age: modernity. While Gandhi romanticised the Indian past, both real and imagined, Nehru was in love with the future. Gandhi decried the Raj as the harbinger of modernity, while for Nehru it was the detested heart of the ancien regime. Nehru was a technophile, a religious agnostic, cosmopolitan in his tastes and an instinctive internationalist; the Mahatma was the opposite.'


What a load of crap.

Honestly, I'm no Gandhi devotee, but the man was damned good at one thing: achieving independence for India peaceably. His idea's for India after independence (i.e. every should go back to their ancestral village and live in some sort of menial labor commune) were weird, but completely irrelevant since he was never an administrator.

Nehru was just a shithead. He was like India's Manchurian candidate: brainwashed during his time in the West to implement completely dumbass Socialist policies that no one else really took seriously. His policies were an unmitigated disaster for the country. Whatever did go right during his reign was due to other folks in his administration, and many, many things went wrong, for which we continue to pay the price today. :bash:

India is much more than the Bollywood, metropolitan cities and those of you who have internet access. The real India is the 60 odd percentage who still live like they did years ago and are not impacted by the boom or are sitting in dirty clothes besides open drainages smoking a bidi staring at people travelling around in their new cars talking into a mobile phone. How is that good? One can argue that India has to make a start somewhere but if the divide grows any further then there will be massive unrest and that is not a mark of a prosperous country.

Thanx Curry4ever, but I somehow find this notion totally absurd that whenever we speak of emerging India we be reminded of 60% of the population that is under the radar. We all do feel for them but in no way it means that we shouldn't chart our success or speak about it. There is also another class in India that is working tremendously hard to ensure our success. These are the people that have actually made realize certain dreams for us that were considered impossible just a decade back. Their determination to succeed is what is making India successful and they are just as much Indian as the rest 60%. We have been making an effort for past 60 years for improving the lives of our poor & we shall keep making these efforts for several decade to come. But, there is no harm to catch a breathe and look back to see what we have achieved.

India at 60: a remarkable success story (http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1341938.php/India_at_60_a_remarkable_success_story%0A_India_at_60_)
Monsters and Critics.com, UK
Aug 12, 2007, 2:45 GMT

A sepia-coloured newspaper picture underlines, in retrospect, a central feature of India's success as a nation. It shows groups of men sitting in front of rickety wooden tables, counting tiny slips of paper obviously taken out of a steel box. The occasion was India's first general election in 1952 and the slips were the ballot papers cast for 18,000 candidates by an electorate of 176 million people. The mammoth exercise marked the first step in India's remarkable journey to become the world's largest and, in its pluralistic ethos, the most successful democracy.

Sixty years after India attained independence on Aug 15, 1947, it has all become routine - elections which resemble a carnival, boisterous parliamentary politics, an independent judiciary before which no one is too high, a thriving economy knitting together a nationwide market, an uninhibited public sphere where activists agitate for various causes, a vibrant media with its 24-hour news channels and sting operations with hidden cameras probing all aspects of life.

The world now expects India to be a major power of the 21st century. But no one knew at the time of independence in 1947 how it would all pan out. Would Winston Churchill's fear, reflecting an imperialist mindset, that the British were handing over power to 'men of straw' prove true? Would the dire prognosis by Neville Maxwell in the The Times of London that the 1967 general election would be India's fourth and last be fulfilled?

While the communists in India and elsewhere were expecting a proletarian revolution to start any time, sceptics in the West didn't believe that fledgling Asian democracies had a future. And they were right, at least in relation to countries in India's neighbourhood.

If it is different in India, the reason is the commonplace scene in that old black-and-white photograph of men from ordinary backgrounds counting ballot papers. It is the successful functioning of autonomous institutions such as the Election Commission, which ensured, first, the survival and then the blossoming of Indian democracy. While autocratic regimes elsewhere routinely subverted such institutions, favouring rigged polls and turning the legal system into one of kangaroo courts, the Indian political class had the wisdom to ensure that the scaffolding of the democratic structure was not disturbed.

Perhaps the most important consideration before the founding fathers of the republic - who drafted the constitution - and their contemporaries and successors who ran the government was to ensure that the country's multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual heritage was carefully preserved. Evidently, the long years of freedom struggle had instilled the value of this pluralist heritage in the men and women who were involved in the anti-colonial battle under Mahatma Gandhi.

The currency note in India describes its value in as many as 17 languages. Although English and Hindi are the first two, the presence of 15 other languages is an acknowledgment of the country's multi-lingual status.

India had leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, a disciple of the Mahatma who announced in the wake of anti-Hindi agitations in the south that English would continue to be an official language as long as the non-Hindi speaking people wanted it.

It is the same broadminded attitude, which ruled out theocratic concepts like having an official religion. Drawing inspiration from the Mahatma's precept of having passages from all religious texts - the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran, the Bible, the Guru Granth Sahib and others - read out at his prayer meetings, India, although a predominantly Hindu country, embarked on the path of consolidating its multi-religious heritage, which can be traced to Mauryan emperor Asoka in the pre-Christian era and to Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century AD.

There is little doubt that the good fortune of having leaders of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru ensured that India could avoid the perilous path of sectarianism, which has been the bane of other countries. But there was more good luck, for not only did India reject a narrow outlook on religion and language, it also ensured that its nascent democracy was not challenged by any adventurer - military or civilian.

Before 1947, the Indian independence movement was an inspiration for all the people living under colonial rule in Asia and Africa. Unfortunately, the history of most of the countries in these continents after their liberation has been one of betrayal of the ideals of freedom that initially guided their leaders. Only India has been an exception along with South Africa, although the latter's is a different case in that it was not under colonial rule but was under a white supremacist regime.

Six decades after independence, India is still an inspiration because of its success as a multi-cultural democracy, which made well-known musician Yehudi Menuhin compare India with the 'fabled and symbolic Garden of Eden'.

Jawaharlal Nehru and the modernisation of India (http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_sunday_features?id=56526628)
By David A Granger
Sunday, August 12th 2007
Stabroek News, Guyana

India became an independent state sixty years ago on August 15, 1947. The first seventeen years of India's statehood were dominated by the policy and personality of its Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964).

For the first few months after independence, Nehru still stood in the shadow of Mohandas K Gandhi (1869-1948) - the Mahatma - regarded as the father of India's independence. When Gandhi was killed on January 30, 1948, there was no longer a father-figure to whom Nehru could turn for advice and guidance. For the next two years, Nehru shared the spotlight of power with Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950), his deputy Prime Minister. Familiarly known as Sardar, Patel has also been justifiably called the father of Indian unification. But the Sardar, already seventy-two years old at the time of independence, died in December 1950.

Transition period 1947-1950

For the next fourteen years, Nehru was the single most important figure in India, both in the government and the Indian Congress Party. There was no major rival to his power up to his death on May 27, 1964 at the age of seventy-five years. For the greater part of the immediate post-independence period, therefore, it was Nehru who bore the burden of initiating and implementing measures for the modernisation of India. It is he who, consequently, must take the credit, or bear the blame, for its successes or failures.

Post-war situation

At the close of the colonial era, India was not yet a modern, developed country; this did not mean, however, that it was entirely backward or primitive. India had a long history of manufacture and commerce and the bulk of the people were peasants engaged in agriculture. During World Wars I and II, the British had permitted Indian industrialists to increase production and allowed the growth of indigenous capital. In fact, by that time, India was already among the ten biggest countries of the world in terms of population, industrial production, extent of railways, mineral resources and skilled engineers.

The post-war situation in India, however, was one of social distress and economic depression and not a little bit of political disorder. There were shortages of raw materials and spare parts; inefficient use of industrial plant; chronic unemployment and under-employment, especially in the villages; a reluctance on the part of private entrepreneurs to invest; a decline in production and the decay of crafts; spiralling inflation; the spread of black marketing, profiteering and corruption; a shortage of skilled personnel; the uncontrolled increase of population; strikes and political protest and unrest.

Partition

Bad became worse when partition rent the sub-continent asunder, splitting agrarian and industrial resources and the civil and security services, and spawning communal and sectarian strife. Nearly ten million, mainly Hindu, refugees poured into northern India from the west and east wings of the new Islamic state of Pakistan.

The division of the civil service, army and police between the two states weakened the government's capacity to quell communal violence which erupted and spread, and hobbled its ability to provide food for millions of destitute refugees. The threat to peace was aggravated by incipient conflict with Pakistan over the accession of Jammu and Kashmir and the centrifugal forces of separatism inherent in the Indian polity, which at that time was divided into more than 550 states ruled by semi-autonomous princes.

At the time of its independence, therefore, India faced pressing problems with which Prime Minister Nehru, Deputy Prime Minister Patel, and the unappointed 'guide' Gandhi, had to deal with right away. The first steps in statehood were therefore to safeguard the security, unity and stability of India itself.

Pacification

The suppression of violence and the settlement of refugees was top priority. Communal disorder precipitated by partition involved hundreds of thousands of victims - murdered, injured or raped - and millions dispossessed and dislocated, in addition to widespread damage and destruction of property. Nehru's refusal to use the British troops provided by Lord Mountbatten (the last Viceroy and first Governor-General) as a boundary force, did not help matters.

It was only the last fast by Gandhi, followed by his assassination in 1948, which restored some semblance of calm. The shock of this tragedy gave the new administration the leverage of popular indignation to repress the reactionary forces of Hindu communalism which had taken control of Delhi and some other large cities. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Self Service Society) - a militant arm of the Hindu Maha Sabha - was outlawed and, paradoxically, as peace was restored, it seemed that the martyrdom of Gandhi had to some degree, served to facilitate Hindu-Moslem reconciliation.

Consolidation

The second step was that of the consolidation of the union. At the end of the colonial era, India was not a unified polity. The sub-continent comprised several provinces which were part of British India under central government rule and nearly 550 principalities under the supposedly semi-autonomous rule of traditional princes. Largely under the direction of Patel, and with the able assistance of VP Mennon, the campaign for the unification of India was successfully completed.

The campaign could be divided into three stages - accession, democratisation and integration. First, by a combination of Patel's coercion and persuasion on the one hand, and the princes' weakness and timidity on the other hand, all but three rulers agreed to accede to the Indian Union. They surrendered their rights and powers, such as they were, in return for the privilege of keeping their palaces, privy-purses, prestige and personal status as princes.

Surgical military action had to be applied to incorporate the remaining three states - Junagadh (November 7, 1947), Hyderabad (September 13, 1948) and, most difficult of all, Jammu and Kashmir (October 26, 1947). In the case of Jammu and Kashmir where the population was largely Muslim and the ruler was Hindu, Pakistani-supported 'volunteers' launched an attack on October 22, 1947, probably with the purpose of seizing that territory from India. As a result, a virtual Indo-Pakistan war broke out between the two new states and lasted until a ceasefire was arranged from January 1,1949. This dispute has never been settled.

Nevertheless, with this one exception, India had been able to achieve a sufficient degree of internal stability, and territorial solidarity for orderly national development to take place within its early years. Nehru's role in this exercise was, comparatively speaking, a negligible one; it was to a greater degree, Patel's achievement, more than anyone else's.

Constitution

The third important step was the promulgation of a new constitution and the creation of a sovereign democratic republic on January 26, 1950. The drafters of the constitution apparently sought their inspiration and ideas for a democratic and federal state, more from among the Anglo-Saxon states of the western world such as Australia, Britain., Canada and the United States of America, than from traditional Indian sources.

The constitution provided for a federal and parliamentary system; universal adult suffrage; a bicameral legislature made up of the Lok Sabha (Council of the People) and the Rajya Sabha (Council of the States); a head of state who was the President of the Republic elected jointly by the central and state legislatures; an executive headed by the Prime Minister and responsible to the Lok Sabha; state governments headed by Chief Ministers; and a central government which controlled the functions of defence, foreign affairs, railways, posts and currency, among other things.

Certain other significant features of the constitution included the legal abolition of untouchability and the de-recognition of caste distinctions. Although they safeguarded the civil rights of a significant section of India's population, they were decidedly muted and were not rigorously enforced during the early years of the republic.

After these three steps - the pacification of the disturbances, the consolidation of the state, and the promulgation of the constitution - India could be said to have possessed all the pre-conditions for taking its place as a full member of the international community of nations. Nehru now had the opportunity to continue his programme of modernisation into the second half of the 20th century, a period of construction and change.

Construction period 1951-1960

Nehru's general objective seemed to be to bring the country materially on to a level with the western world by radically raising the standard of living and by guaranteeing the personal and civil rights of the people. His policies in the fields of economic development, social reform, political affairs and foreign relations all testify to his intention to modernise India quickly, perhaps too quickly.

First of all, Nehru turned his attention to the state of the economy. At the middle of the last century, the outstanding features of the Indian economy were a low standard of living, a high rate of population growth, a stagnant agricultural sector, insufficient heavy industries and a scarcity of capital. Nehru's strategy was to defeat underdevelopment by industrialisation. By this means, he expected both to provide more goods and to create more jobs.

Central planning

A National Planning Commission was established in 1950 and this was followed by a National Development Council under his personal charge. Nehru's aim was to develop a mixed economy made up of a public and a private sector. In the main, the public sector engaged in the steel, petroleum, electrical, machine, aircraft and shipbuilding industries. The private sector engaged in the textile, cement and engineering industries, in addition to traditional small-scale manufacturing.

There followed a series of five-year plans which were meant to harness the energies of the whole state and people towards achieving the targets of the plans and objectives of the policies. These plans, however, were at variance with the realities of the Indian economy itself in that they did not immediately establish a link with the existing financial, agrarian and rural structures and systems. To some degree, therefore, Nehru's industrial modernisation programme, impressive though these massive projects must have appeared in the rural landscape, were partially an irrelevant activity to the bulk of the peasants at that time.

The bulk of the population was still immobilised in the countryside. More than 70 per cent of India's working population in the Nehru era still earned their livelihood from agriculture and seven out of eight villages were still wholly or partially dependent on agriculture. But there were few modern tractors or harvesters; planting and reaping were still done extensively by hand; in the dry season in many areas, water still had to be fetched by human or animal power onto the fields. The inescapable result was that at the end of the plans, India still could not feed itself and had to import grain.

Domestic policy

Nehru's policies for the social modernisation of India were rooted in good intentions. The most noteworthy effort was in the field of education. During this period, there was a proliferation of universities, technical institutes and research centres concerned with every branch of science, from agricultural food grains to atomic energy. The aim might have been to provide the technically-trained manpower for the new industries; it did this and more, even supplying a surplus of graduates who could not readily find employment. On the other hand, elementary education, especially in the countryside, continued to lag. At the time of independence, the literacy rate of the country was estimated at about 15 per cent, but by the end of the Nehru era, nearly seventeen years later, it had not gone beyond 25 to 30 per cent.

The most critical aspect of rural life, however, that of agrarian reform, was not an unmitigated success. Nehru's earlier promises to provide 'land to the tiller,' to revoke debts, and to replace money-lenders by formal state credit institutions did not materialise. It is true that rents were regulated and certain extra-economic powers exercised by unscrupulous landlords, such as the arbitrary eviction of tenants, were drastically curtailed and the parasitical zamindari (tax-farming) system was abolished in 1956. Despite these changes, the basic structure of land ownership was not placed in the hands of the peasantry. The rural rich who dominated the Congress Party apparatus, especially at the regional level, resisted reform. They were able to keep the peasantry in place amidst primitive techniques and practices, fixed at the bottom of the economic ladder and bound to the land.

Nehru's policy for political modernisation faced two challenges. The first came from the ethno-religious communalism and the second from the forces of factionalism inside the party. Before independence, the Congress Party had pandered to particularistic pride and ethnic interests in order to win support against the British. Once in power, however, Nehru became lukewarm, if not hostile, to the demands of the polyglot groups of India's pluralistic society. As time went by, demands grew more insistent, especially as regional politicians exploited those grievances to build their own power bases and protect their interests against intrusion by the central government. After Andhra was created in 1953, it was impossible to quell the clamour from other groups making similar requests for special and separate treatment.

Nehru's policy fell to pieces and a States Reorganization Commission had to be established to study the whole question and to forestall secession by allowing some degree of cultural autonomy among India's diverse peoples. Side by side with the call for separate states came a profusion of ideological, regional, political parties. In the course of time, disaffected and disillusioned members and factions from the Congress Party, separated and set up new parties to represent their own special interests, and to oppose Nehru as a person, or Congress policy as a whole.

Foreign policy

India's foreign policy held Nehru's personal interest throughout his tenure of office. Nehru probably had a deep appreciation of the geopolitical and strategic importance of India with its large land-mass located at the head of the Indian Ocean. India's awareness of its own economic and strategic vulnerability was, perhaps, a powerful inducement to avoid hostile entanglements with super powers, to keep the doors open to foreign aid, to preserve peace on its borders and to suppress conflicts in the region. In the bitter global politics that characterised the Cold War which followed World War II, Nehru realised that Asia was becoming, once again, an arena of conflict.

Nehru opposed the attempts by France and the Netherlands to repossess their Asian empires in Indochina and Indonesia, respectively. The establishing of the South East Asia Treaty Organization (1954) and the Central Treaty Organization also shut India out of the network of western alliances being woven in the region. The rapid rise of the communist People's Republic of China, indicated that India's claim to leadership in the Asian community would not go unchallenged. Fourthly, the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953), which was fought by the Asian surrogates of the two super-powers - the USSR and the USA - threatened to envelop East Asia in a wider war; and, finally, the development of the hydrogen bomb, exploded first at the Bikini atoll in 1956, raised the awesome spectre of the destructive power of modern thermo-nuclear warfare.

These factors all influenced Nehru's world view. He conceived the Indian Ocean as a 'zone of peace,' free from super-power rivalry and free from the ravages of war. In this idealistic scenario, he saw India as a key, if not a leading, player in a group of states which would form a third force in world politics, joining neither the eastern nor western blocs but holding the balance of power between both. Nehru went further by trying to apply his policies to countries on India's borders, or at close reach in Asia. Nehru sought to influence the internal affairs of Burma, Ceylon and Nepal earning the dubious credit, in the last, of having encouraged the overthrow of the Rama regime (1951) and engineered the rise of the Nepali Congress Party. Hence, a wide gap started to develop between his noble principles and his actual practices and, as a result, some of his actions backfired.

He successfully negotiated with France the surrender of the French enclaves at Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagore and Karikal on the sub-continent. When a similar diplomatic démarche failed to get Portugal to relinguish its enclaves at Goa, Daman and Diu, Nehru had no compunction about resorting to military force. In contravention of the inconvenient but undeniable precepts of international law, the Indian army forcibly evicted the Portuguese in 1961. The following year, perhaps in pursuit of inaccurate advice or of misguided objectives, Nehru allowed himself to be persuaded to order an advance of the Indian army on the 'McMahon Line' which was used as the colonial boundary demarcation with the People's Republic of China. The Chinese responded with force. There followed a brief Sino-Indian war which started with a massive Chinese attack on October 20, and ended abruptly a month later on November 21, 1962. During this short time, China's People's Liberation Army advanced at will, occupied over 36,260 km2 of India's territory, decisively defeated the Indian army and had withdrawn again. Nehru was humiliated by these strategic reverses.

Nehru embarked on an active policy to advance India's role as a leader among the emergent states of Africa and Asia. At a conference in Bandung (Indonesia) in 1955, he was able to win acceptance of his doctrine of the panch shila. The concept of non-alignment was also advanced by Nehru at that conference and, thereafter, it was spread to other emergent states. Nehru's notion was that a third force, made up of politically weaker, but numerically stronger developing countries, standing somewhere between the two super-powers and their satellites but allied with neither should be non-aligned, maintaining relations with both the eastern and western blocs, but avoiding the entanglement of military alliances which would lead to international conflict.

By 1956, however, Nehru's foreign policies were already under attack. His caustic criticism of Anglo-French aggression in Egypt (1956) in the Suez Crisis was compared unfavourably to his rather mild scolding of Soviet aggression in Hungary in the same year. This was regarded as bias by many western powers. China's rise as an Asian rival also had eclipsed India's position in the regional spotlight. India's humiliating defeat by China exposed its military weakness and undermined its claim to big power status.

In foreign affairs, Nehru did have outstanding successes which helped to give India the responsibility and the respect of a modern state. It may be argued, however, that Nehru's moral positions and noble principles had little practical effect on world peace. But, by adhering to them, India was able to define its position in the world community and develop itself politically as a modern state.

Climacteric period 1961-1964

After ten years in office as Prime Minister, cracks had started to appear in the modern state which Nehru had been trying to construct. Serious criticisms were made of his handling of both domestic and foreign affairs; his programme for India's industrialisation and modernisation and his reputation declined.

Internal affairs

In the domestic sphere during this period, political opposition built up on all sides. The socialistic pattern of development drove conservative and capitalist elements into the conservative Jan Sangh and Swatantra parties. On the other hand, Nehru's policies were considered too mild to alleviate the poverty of the masses and did not go far enough to satisfy the socialists and communists represented by the Kisan Mazdon Praja (Peasants, Workers and People's Party) and the Communist Party of India.

At state level, Congress Party administrations were riddled with revelations of corruption, factionalism and defection (crossing-the-floor in the legislature). These resulted in the steadily declining support for Congress and were reflected in the reduced number of electoral votes from 47.78 per cent (1957) to 44.72 per cent (1962). The enormous growth in governmental power as a result of the enlargement of the public sector and of the passage of laws designed to curb excesses, permitted the government to regulate private industries. But they had the effect of placing enormous discretionary authority in the hands of poor public servants who, more often than not, were unable to resist the bribes and inducements offered by businessmen seeking favours and advantages. As a result, graft and corruption soared to astronomical levels.

India's economy appeared to grow, at least in statistical terms. Gross national income, however, increased at a decreasing rate, and per capita income stood still. Large amounts of grain had to be imported, spare parts for machinery were difficult to acquire and there was a significant fall in foreign exchange reserves due to the starvation of capital from foreign countries and institutions.

Several other factors helped to destabilise the economy and to hobble Nehru's drive towards modernisation. These included most of all unchecked population growth; the Sino-Indian frontier war; the escalation of military expenditure; the suspension of some foreign financial assistance; and the effect of famines caused by droughts, bad harvests and natural disasters.

Nehru was seen as being personally responsible for most of these failures. He was considered an inept administrator who did not effectively delegate authority to his subordinates. He attempted to make all important administrative decisions himself and, as a result, when he was out of the country as he frequently was, little of importance was achieved by his ministerial colleagues. Even when he was present, he insisted on dealing with important matters personally, and the bureaucracy could move only as fast as Nehru was able to make decisions.

External affairs

Nehru's foreign policy, which aimed at catapulting India onto the world stage, also fell short of the mark. He wanted to make India the moral leader of the new Asian and African states but he was criticised for this increasingly, both inside and outside of India. Rapid changes were taking place year by year in world affairs and Nehru's policies which seemed to be progressive and forward-looking in the 1950s, started to appear effete and irrelevant by the 1960s.

Nehru's death on May 27, 1964 at the age of 75 years seemed to coincide with the decline of his influence, the collapse of his plans for India's rapid modernisation and the eclipse of his idealised conception of foreign relations.

In the final analysis, Jawaharlal Nehru's attempts at India's modernisation left an impression of only partial accomplishment. They set in motion, nevertheless, diverse domestic and foreign forces which contributed to India's long-term economic, social, political and strategic transformation.

60 years on: new India revels in superpower dreams (http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/8/12/60-years-on-new-india-revels-in-superpower-dreams/)
Antara, Indonesia
08/12/07 13:57

New Delhi (ANTARA News) - When India comes to celebrate a century of independence it will be as a superpower, a trading giant straddling the world, just next to China -- according to conventional wisdom.

That may be 40 years away yet, but such predictions from major banks, which put India ahead of Japan by 2025 and the United States in 2050, delight many here.

The nation of 1.1 billion people -- marking 60 years since the subcontinent was partitioned on August 14-15, 1947 -- proudly sees itself well on the road to economic, political and social greatness.

It is a far cry from the harrowing end of British rule, when the colonial flag was lowered for the last time.

Partition of the sub-continent into mainly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan -- out of which Bangladesh was eventually born -- triggered a huge population shift and widespread violence.

Now, however, the optimism is almost palpable in the mega cities of Delhi and Mumbai with growth topping nine percent and the full backing of Washington to break out of nuclear isolation and take a prime role on the global stage.

Government feeds the frenzy. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath likes to brush aside speculation about India's future, boasting: "The future is India".

In a booming economy, the media massages Indian egos via blanket coverage of India's emergence as a force to be reckoned with.

The buyouts of prestige western companies, planned moonshots, new billionaires, ethnic fashion, literary or sporting heroes are all splashed over the front-pages as proof of India empowered.

Just key "India" and "superpower" into a Google Internet search and more than 1.6 million answers pop up.

The Times of India ran a huge promotional campaign headlined "India Poised" and The Hindustan Times dubbed its annual showcase summit "India: The next global superpower."

Such euphoria moved Congress Party supremo Sonia Gandhi to outline her vision of India's future, not as a traditional military superpower but "a global power for peace, prosperity and progress."

Oxford history don and India specialist Maria Misra takes umbrage at the idea of India as a stereotype superpower flexing muscle around the world.

In "Vishnu's Crowded Temple", to be published here in mid-August, she sees India becoming "a great, not super power" wielding global influence rather than sheer might.

"India isn't going to become a society like America, it's too diverse ... neither is it going to be like China," Misra told AFP by telephone.

"India is likely to fulfill its leaders' ambitions to win it a place among the Great Powers," she said. "But it will remain a unique hybrid of history -- the product of a curious conjuncture between an ancient culture, colonialism and modernity."

It has fallen on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a technocrat less given to rhetoric, to point out the pitfalls ahead.

He warned starkly this month that agriculture -- which provides a livelihood for two-thirds of the population and about a fifth of economic output -- was in deep crisis.

The worst flooding in 30 years across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam states has left some 1,600 dead and compounded the crisis.

The dividends of growth have yet to trickle down to the rural poor, Singh admitted, despite his multi-billion dollar aid schemes and pro-poor platform.

"We cannot be complacent till the growth becomes inclusive and socio-economic development benefits more than half the population," said the economist who in 1991 led reforms that ended decades of socialist insulation.

The government provides statistics to dampen any dream of superpowerdom: 46 percent of all children under three are malnourished, 86 percent of the 457 million working Indians earn less than 20 rupees or half a dollar a day, more than 78 percent of families lack toilets.

Baffling paradox

Sonia Gandhi speaks eloquently of the "dazzling prosperity" alongside "dehumanising poverty".

Historian Misra analyses the "baffling paradox" that makes India, "strikingly different from all other global colossi".

"The achievements of India's democracy and its awesome creativity are undeniable, so too are the violence, criminality and murderous religious passions of its turbulent politics," said Misra.

India's dark side poses a real threat to ideas of a glorious 21st century.

Misra noted the sprawling shanty towns, crumbling infrastructure, the countless millions who do not attend school and the broader threat of Islamic terror.

The prime minister admits roads, railways, ports, airports and the power sector all require massive expansion and quality upgrades.

Add to that rampant corruption, knee-deep red tape, uncertainty over how many millions are infected by HIV-AIDS, the risk of natural disasters and disease and the picture soon blackens.

While India nonethless froths in anticipation, the two other states that emerged from partition -- Pakistan and Bangladesh -- face daunting challenges.

The jury is still out on whether India's rise will also lift up her neighbours or if they will drag India down again, possibly in a worst-case firestorm of Islamic extremism.

Few in Islamabad and Dhaka venture to look beyond the coming months, despite the strengthening economies of the former west and east Pakistan, carved out of Britain's imperial jewel.

Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January and Pakistan today teeters on the brink.

"Talibanisation is on the rise and extremism is there," said Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood.

"My impression is that things can improve once the military regime has gone and democracy is restored fully. The problem is that the army does not want to de-link from politics and agents of change are missing.

"Terrorism is brewing amid a sense of isolation among the people," Masood said. "Unless we change the basic structure, the country cannot make progress."

For Sirajul Islam, Bangladesh's leading historian, "Our journey as a respected nation in the world has just begun in the last one decade after a series of false starts."

The military-backed authorities in Dhaka are seeking a fresh start and tackling the corruption which corroded all sides of life.

"We are busy mending the wounds of past and cleaning up the mess that our leaders have created," said Islam.

Pakistan's next elections are due by early 2008. Bangladesh has set polls for December the same year.

IT classes raise the status of Untouchables (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2246476.ece)
Jeremy Page in Bangalore
The Times
August 13, 2007

It took only six and a half months to dismantle the social conditioning of 3,000 years. Last October, Professor S. Sadagopan took 89 students from India’s lowest castes – those once known as the Untouchables – and began an experiment designed to catapult them into the business elite.
He enrolled them on a special training course at his technical college in Bangalore, India’s IT capital, to prepare them for careers at some of the world’s top companies. They were each given laptops and internet access. They learnt communication, leadership and team-building skills. They were even taught table manners.

Twenty-six weeks later the results spoke for themselves: of the 89 students, 80 were hired by companies including Infosys, Wipro, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. “We wanted to give them something they couldn’t get otherwise – to get them out of their shells and make them confident,” said Professor Sadagopan, director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bangalore. “We taught them fishing, instead of giving them fish.”

The experiment is India’s latest attempt to tackle the Hindu caste system, which was abolished after the country won independence 60 years ago on Wednesday, but still dominates many aspects of Indian life.

The project’s apparent success demonstrates how India’s new economy can break down social barriers where the Government has largely failed. But it also illustrates the complexity of the caste system and the political sensitivities surrounding schemes designed to correct the injustices of the past.

The project is the brainchild of Infosys, the Bangalore-based software company that is the flagship of new India. “There is a layer of 200 million people who have benefited from the last 60 years in India,” said Mohandas Pai, Infosys’s human resources chief. “We need to demonstrate our commitment to help the others.”

India already has the world’s largest affirmative action scheme, which reserves 27 per cent of government jobs and university places for lower castes and disadvantaged groups. Now the Government is considering extending that scheme to the private sector.

Business leaders, however, fear that the move will simply replicate problems in the state sector, where quotas are filled with little regard for talent and cause deep resentment among other employees. So Infosys came up with its experiment as an alternative model that it hopes can be replicated throughout the private sector.

The results, so far, look impressive. Ramesh, one of the 89 in the experiment, was born into a poor family in the agricultural region of Balla.
A member of the Banajar caste, one of the lowest, his father owns no land and earns 600 rupees (£7) a month working for local farmers or on the nearby tea estates. Thanks to the quota system Ramesh received an education and graduated from a local college last year with a degree in computer science. But like many lower-caste graduates, without the connections or social skills, he struggled to find a job in the IT sector.

Then he answered an advertisement for Professor Sadagopan’s experiment. Today Ramesh works for Bally Technologies, a Las-Vegas based gaming company in Bangalore. He earns 20,000 rupees a month – 33 times his father’s salary – and says that colleagues treat him as an equal. “My family is so happy,” he said. “Finally we have reached some destination.” But there is a flaw.

While all the trainees were from lower castes, many were from relatively well-off families, who had already broken into the middle class thanks to the education quotas. Pushpa, for example, is the daughter of a retired banker from Hubli, Karnataka’s second biggest city, who was the first in his family to get an education.

Before joining the course she earned 8,000 rupees as a lecturer. Now she earns 18,000 at Wipro. Although she is lower caste, most of her friends are from higher ones.

“I’m not from a poor background,” she said. “This course has boosted my confidence, but it has nothing to do with caste.” She and other trainees said that caste still dominated village life, but was less relevant in cities, where status depends more on money.

Some critics accuse Infosys of making token gestures to try and escape caste quotas, which could cost it millions. Professor Sadagopan’s students propose a simple solution: means-test the next batch of trainees. “This course should be expanded but it should only help poor people,” said Ramesh. “Otherwise the well-off will always be going up and the poor will always be going down.”

Caste system

— There are four main castes: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders) and Shudras (farmers and artisans)

— There are at least 3,000 other castes and about 25,000 sub-castes

— The lowest are known as untouchables or “Dalits” and were traditionally forced to do the most menial jobs

— There are about 165 million Dalits in India, 15 per cent of population

— In 2003 the Government said that 676,000 of them were still clearing human faeces for a living

— A 2005 government report states that a crime was committed against a Dalit every 20 minutes

Why I put my money on the elephant over the dragon (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2246159.ece)
India may yet win the struggle for economic supremacy in the East

Maria Misra
From The Times
August 13, 2007

With the sixtieth anniversary of independence, enthusiasm for India in the West is at an all-time high. And though the Hindu nationalist slogan “India Shining” was decisively and derisively dismissed as overoptimistic in India itself at the 2004 general election, among Western commentators the sub-continent’s sparkle remains untarnished. India seems to be the nation of the future – a vibrant, democratic, multicultural and increasingly free-market alternative to the grimly uniform authoritarianism of China. India seems finally to have fulfilled the dream of its chief architect, Nehru, who predicted that, once freed from the British Raj, the new nation would become a free, democratic and developed state – the global embodiment of “the spirit of the age”.

And yet journalistic optimism has not been reflected in the decisions of hardheaded Western businessmen, who continue to prefer India’s nominally communist neighbour, China. Despite a recent upturn in foreign investment, India still receives only a fraction of China’s share. Business has good reason to be cautious. For while the rise of India’s high-tech and software industries strikes fear among the West’s white-collar workers, in reality a bare 3 per cent of the population speak good English and 30 per cent are illiterate. India’s electricity consumption is but one third of the world average; and only 2 per cent of its roads are four-lane highways.

Western businessmen are not the only ones making unfavourable comparisons. Indians themselves are haunted by success of their Chinese neighbour. In the 1960s they fretted about not being as good at socialism, now they fear they aren’t as good at capitalism either. Indian commentators are rather divided on how to respond – unsure whether to beat them or join them. The ranks of Indian pop-economists urging the tiger to roar at the dragon, or the tortoise to sprint past the hare, are matched by those dreaming of a new global entity – Chindia. The partnership of China’s awesome manufacturing power with India’s enviable IT and services sector would make Chindia the factory and back-office of the world. The problem with this scenario is that China is beating India in the services sector, too.

For India’s more sober policymakers, emulation rather than partnership or head-on competition is the preferred response. In Nehru’s time, teams of bureaucrats crossed the border to study collectivisation. Now it is a phalanx of CEOs who descend to analyse management style and productivity gains. The Government, too, is keen to copy the Chinese. But efforts to promote foreign investment are being obstructed by an unlikely coalition of Maoist peasants, neo-Gandhian middle-class eco-warriors and a finance minister fretful at the loss in tax revenues. So, despite the frothy headlines, India’s economy, in comparison with that of its dragon of a neighbour, remains a lumbering, if frisky, elephant.

What lies behind India’s relatively disappointing performance? Some blame Gandhi and his Luddite ruralism; others castigate Nehru for the lost decades of planning, and everyone cites pervasive corruption. But none of these is convincing. Gandhi is the patron saint of India, not its chief economist; the legacy of Nehru was not all bad; and if corruption inhibited growth then China would still be in the Dark Ages. The truth is that India’s problems are not so much economic as political.

This is not, as was once fashionably asserted, because India is a democracy, while China is authoritarian. Democracy is not necessarily an obstacle to rapid economic development, as the reconstruction of Japan and Germany testify. The problem is not democracy, but how it is practised. And here the British must take a bow. For along with railways and the English language, the British also left behind a legacy of profoundly politicised identity politics. And India’s multiple caste, linguistic and religious communities continue to see themselves as bitter competitors for the largesse of the State, not as collaborators.

Sadly India’s politicians have often found themselves unable, and sometimes unwilling, to tackle this fractiousness. Caste divisions can become electoral constituencies and in consequence, Indian governments have found it difficult to establish any sense of common national purpose – and with it the willingness to pay the taxes necessary for education and infrastructural spending.

Indeed, the corrupt and often violent recent history of Indian democracy, with its far-right Hindu nationalists, panoply of caste and regional parties and unstable coalitions, springs from the same source as its sluggish economic reform: deeply entrenched social and political fragmentation.

But will India always remain the tortoise-elephant to China's dragon-hare? If India could transcend its fractious politics (and there are signs in recent elections that it might), then it certainly has the potential to excel economically. It has a demographic advantage over China – it will have a larger working-age population by 2050. Its diversity is also a source of creativity – something its dour northern neighbour fears it may lack. And while China’s rulers have managed economic liberalisation masterfully, it remains to be seen whether they can achieve the same miracle in the political sphere. China has enjoyed the short-term bonus of authoritarianism – the power to impose restructuring regardless of popular opinion – but authoritarianism also brings a lack of transparency. Many commentators believe this has shrouded serious overinvestment, bad debts and potential asset bubbles.

Moreover, China – unlike India – has not been effective at managing its gross regional inequalities. Few doubt that China’s economic triumph will eventually bring political turmoil in its wake.

India, unlike China, has had 60 years of experience in managing political turmoil. Though there are pockets of extreme radicalism, Maoist factions and Islamist extremism, mass revolutionary violence is highly unlikely; people accept the mediation of political conflict through elections. And so, paradoxically, though India's political life is chaotic, it is also curiously stable. India’s elephantine advantages may yet win out.

Maria Misra is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and author of Vishnu's Crowded Temple: India Since the Great Rebellion

Thanks for the great articles ab - I have seen many like them, but never before collected in one place :)

India at 60

From Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/05/india-independence-anniversary-oped-cx_daa_0813india_land.html?partner=links

India’s charging elephant tramples our stereotypes (http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.1615291.0.0.php)
DOUGLAS FRASER, Scottish Political Editor
The Herald, UK
August 14 2007

One flag, one president, one currency, its constitution the world's most complex, and one of the world's biggest market-places smothered in red tape. A babble of 22 official languages, racial and religious tensions, and the perpetual strains of regional exceptionalism. And all this resolved - messily and miraculously - by the common bond of a peaceful, democratic ideal.

It could be the Eurosceptic's nightmare, 50 years after the European ideal was set out. Instead, it is the Indian reality, 60 years tomorrow since Jawaharlal Nehru declared his country had made "a tryst with destiny", and was waking "to life and freedom".

Since then, some such anniversaries have focused on how much the British colonial legacy remains intact; railways, bureaucracy, the English language. More recently, a review of India's progress has been a head-scratching "isn't it doomed to fall apart?"

This time, the anniversary provides a space to consider India's new status as fast-growing economic giant. That means it deserves a more complex and sophisticated understanding, requiring a long look back at a neglected history to see the way ahead.

A BBC documentary series, starting later this month, sets out to explain the country as a cradle of civilisation, older perhaps than language itself, and one in which its distant past and spirituality lives noisily alongside the cutting edge of software design.

It provides the perspective of 400 years ago, when India represented one-third of the world's economy. The great Mughal emperors are reckoned to have ruled over the country with the highest income level in their world. In 1770, it was the second biggest economy. By 1970, it hit a low point, with 3% of the world's economy.

Exasperating, astonishing, a cacophony of contradiction and utterly fascinating, India's billion people offer more diversity than Europe. More live in abject poverty than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa combined. Yet India has had nuclear weapons for 34 years, a space programme and is now defining the frontiers of the globalised economy.

Its challenges remain awesome: poverty, inequality, corruption and dismal governance. State education fails woefully. Its infrastructure is shocking: bone-jarring roads, slowing access to market, and poor irrigation to handle the monsoon.

Yet it has weathered so many challenges and internal tensions that it is hard to see what could pull it apart now, except, perhaps, the strain of inequality. Television newly offers the poor a window into the prosperity they lack, while the richer cities may prefer a future divorced from their backward country cousins.

Those with opportunity have it abundantly. Some 2.5 million Indians graduate from university annually, many in science and technology. A social revolution is putting young women into the workplace for the first time. The diaspora travels and settles round the world, using exceptional entrepreneurial drive and its own networks, while remaining plugged into Mother India.

Goldman Sachs is often quoted in India for projecting its economy past the US one, taking second place only to China within a generation. Income could have risen four-fold by 2020, with demand for cars up five times and four times more oil consumed.

And those comparisons with the emerging Chinese dragon are obviously inviting. They are lazily lumped together in the globalised world's mind, as two vast nations already shaping everyone's lives and doing so more in future.

What is less noted is that they are economic competitors - India doing well on services and China on manufacturing - as well as strategic rivals. They have fought one war, in 1962, over a disputed part of the Himalayas, and while China flexes its economic muscle by upgrading its military hardware, India provides a geopolitical counterweight to the south. To its north-west, Pakistan - also marking its 60th birthday, but with much less to celebrate, teeters on the edge. President Musharraf has supported western interests against radical Islamism on its Afghan and Iranian borders. If he falters, India is seen as the next best bastion. It is used to trouble on that border, having fought three wars with Pakistan.

The United States was suspicious of India through the Cold War, while it sought to be nonaligned, talked socialist values and bought arms from the Soviet Union. That has changed. Washington has agreed to share nuclear know-how with India - signalling that the dominant superpower can see the importance of having a big friend in a dangerous part of the world.

That is just one partner that is re-thinking its Indian stereotypes. The same is true of each of us whose on-screen jobs could be more efficiently done in Mumbai or Bangalore, reaching far beyond call centres. While the Indian economic elephant has been slow to get going, it carries a powerful momentum. It also remembers its proud past, and will shape its global friendships on its own terms.

Thanx Sun, Thats a whole encyclopedia from Forbes.

Thanx Vastu.. watch out for this space for more.

Indian prosperity set to continue - F&C (http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/public/showPage.html?page=462228)
By Hysni Kaso
ifaonline.co.uk, UK
Monday 13th August 2007: 16:00

While the talk coming out of Asia mainly centres on the booming Chinese market, the region’s forgotten little brother India has slowly but surely developed into one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

India recorded a 7% average annual economic growth rate over the past five years (9.4% in the 2006/07 fiscal year) and its stockmarket climbed 431% in that time.

By comparison, China experienced a 172% stock price rise, while the USA and UK moved up about 60%.

Speaking on the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, Sam Mahtani, F&C’s Indian Investment Company manager, says the country’s growing prosperity will continue.

“In the decades following independence, growth remained at around 5%,” he says.

“But the government’s decision in the 1990’s to proactively target growth by aggressively cutting interest rates coupled with the introduction of several key reforms – including the privatisation of major industries such as telecoms and utilities, cutting red tape and improving the mechanisms for foreign direct investment - have improved efficiency in the economy and injected a large dose of liquidity into the Indian financial market.”
Mahtani says although earnings are likely to slow to about 15% by the end of the year, the long term outlook is positive.

“Although company valuations are quite high at 18 times forward earnings, the government’s commitment to infrastructure spending and an increase in foreign direct investment should continue to support the economy and the markets,” he says.

“Equally, GDP growth remains healthy although the recent rises in interest rates should see economic growth moderate to 7-8% per annum over the next few years,” he said.

In the UK, Think London, the capital’s foreign direct investment (FDI) agency, says India is second largest contributor of FDI projects to the city.

Think London estimates 14% of all FDI projects into London during 2006/2007 came from India, up from 6% in 2000/2001.

Think London says it helped 19 Indian companies set up operations over the past year and the Economist Intelligence Unit predicts FDI outflows from India will reach $5bn by 2010.

“London’s position as a global business city offers Indian companies looking to expand their operations, the right connections and environment to achieve success,” Think London chief executive Michael Charlton says.

Behind the Miracle: India's Mighty Movers (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2007/gb20070810_860607_page_2.htm)
This elite group of business, political, and cultural leaders is helping transform India into a 21st century economic power in Asia and beyond

by Nandini Lakshman
BusinessWeek

As India approaches its 60th year of independence on Aug. 15, the world marvels at the country's rapid economic ascendancy. The emergence of India's globally ambitious business outsourcing companies such as Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) and high-profile cross-border mergers such as Tata Steel's $11.3 billion deal to buy British steelmaker Corus continue to make the country a fascinating business story.

India is also evolving from foreign direct investment backwater to money magnet for global multinationals. Foreign executives across a swathe of industries, from autos to consumer goods, see a huge consumer economy emerging as years of high-speed growth in the 8% range enlarge India's middle class.

By 2025, India is expected to emerge as the world's fifth-biggest consumer market as incomes and living standards improve, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute. Nearly 300 million Indians are expected to escape poverty, and the middle class will leapfrog by a factor of 10—from 50 million today to roughly 583 million 18 years from now.

The Country's Top 50
Often less noticed are the individual figures—the politicians, business leaders, and cultural pathfinders—instrumental in India's remarkable rise on the world stage. Without the initiative, enlightened leadership, business smarts, and style of scores of notable Indian leaders, there would be no economic miracle.

So who are the movers and shakers refashioning contemporary India? That's what a team of BusinessWeek editors sought to discover by compiling a list of the country's 50 most powerful leading lights in politics, the economy, and society. To take a look at the names we came up with in this by-no-means exhaustive list, check out the slide show we have assembled.

Some of our choices aren't controversial. They include Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, whose conglomerate is in the midst of a dramatic expansion and is interested in the Jaguar luxury car business now controlled by Ford (F). (Tata is up against private equity player Ripplewood Holdings in that bidding contest.)

A Sporting Chance
In the political sphere, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, once considered a less-than-impressive member of the Congress Party, has emerged as one of the country's most reform-minded politicians. He has put in place a new patent act, deregulated the retail industry, and has been a fierce advocate for the developing world in the current contentious Doha round of global trade talks.

Indian sporting and cultural figures are also inspiring Indians at home and gaining followings abroad. Sachin Tendulkar is still the star master batsman of the Indian cricket team, but he's getting competition from younger lads from the farthest corners of India. And tennis star Sania Mirza has wowed Indian sports fans in a country where cricket rules.

Indian fashion designers are mixing traditional local fashion motifs with a contemporary feel, and some, such as Ritu Kumar and Tarun Tahiliani, are making their presence felt internationally. Celebrities and creative talent from the Bollywood film industry—still wildly popular from Jakarta to Jeddah, with its musical routines and family fare—are also well-represented on the list.

Widening the Circle
Of course, when it comes to India's robust economy, many heroes are to be found in the corporate world. With the IT industry no longer the sole face of a global India, this list draws special attention to rising industrialists such as B Muthuraman at Tata Steel and Kumar Mangalam at diversified Aditya Birla Group.

That's not to say that Infosys' N R Narayana Murthy, Wipro's Azim Premji, and Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) S Ramadorai are not interesting executives, but there's more to India than just outsourcing. Similarly, you won't find Arcelor Mittal's (MT) Lakshmi Mittal on the list, despite his fame in the global steel industry. He's a British citizen and has only recently started looking at investing in India.

Make no mistake: India has plenty of challenges ahead. Its vibrant outsourcing sector faces the twin challenges of rising wages and stiffer competition at home from the likes of IBM (IBM) and Accenture (ACN). For every enlightened politician, there are others who stand in the way of economic progress.

Yet the odds are good that India's economic and social dynamism (it is home to the youngest population in the world) will be worth watching closely in the years ahead. And the individuals that make up BusinessWeek's India's 50 Most Powerful People roster will be playing leading roles in this drama.

Sunset, sunrise: The dramatic birth of modern India (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p13s02-bogn.html)
At the cusp of Britain's exit and the rise of Indian independence there was unlikely leadership and untimely love
By Yvonne Zipp
Christian Science Monitor, MA
from the August 14, 2007 edition

Today, India is the world's most populous democracy, with a fast-growing economy that stamps Mohandas Gandhi's face on every 10 rupee note. Sixty years ago, it was unclear if the democracy would survive its first year.

After the partition of India in 1947 to create Pakistan and what became Bangladesh, riots erupted as Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims began slaughtering one another. The atrocities lasted for weeks, and while no one knows how many people died, the most commonly cited number is 1 million. The people who had fought for decades to win India's independence from Britain never really got a chance to celebrate the victory achieved on Aug. 15: They were too busy trying to stop the bloodshed.

Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, Alex von Tunzelmann's first book, is a sweeping narrative history about the five historic figures at the heart of independence: Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister; Gandhi, the country's spiritual leader; Mohammed Jinnah, founder of the Muslim state of Pakistan; and Louis "Dickie" and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been sent to extricate Britain from its empire.

Complicating matters, the widowed Nehru and Edwina were conducting an affair, von Tunzelmann writes. Had it become widely known, the scandal could have been disastrous for the three countries.

Despite the book's subtitle, it's unclear what's "secret" about this history. Von Tunzelmann is witty, erudite, and thoughtful about her subject, but "Indian Summer" doesn't contain any revelatory discoveries.

As for the dishier topics, while the book jacket goes on breathlessly about the romance between Edwina and Nehru, well, this isn't "The Jewel in the Crown." Von Tunzelmann is too serious a historian to make the affair a central focus of her book, and Edwina and Nehru themselves vowed their work would take precedence over their relationship. With the country ravaged by mobs that targeted women and children, they had other things on their minds than their next tryst.

Von Tunzelmann is an opinionated and sardonic writer, and is perfectly willing to take on both saints and heroes. Neither Winston Churchill nor Gandhi fares well under her treatment, although they supply her with ample ammunition. When asked to send food during the Bengal famine of 1943 (after Britain had hoovered up the area's grain supplies to support the war), Churchill not only refused but sent a telegram asking, if millions of people were starving, "why Gandhi hadn't died yet." He is also quoted as saying, "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."

Gandhi, meanwhile, is portrayed as a terrible father and a supporter of Adolf Hitler. Von Tunzelmann also argues that, had it not been for Gandhi's dithering, India could have been independent as early as the 1920s. "Gandhi's need for spotless moral perfection hamstrung his party's progress. His principal object was to make the Indian people worthy of freedom in the eyes of God. The object of actually achieving freedom ... was secondary."

Nehru comes out of "Indian Summer" as the true hero. Von Tunzelmann's attitude toward the two leaders can best be summed up in the following statement: "Nehru saw social and economic hardship as a cause of suffering, and therefore wanted to end it. Gandhi saw hardship as noble and righteous, and therefore wanted to spread the blessings of poverty and humility to all people."

Von Tunzelmann also seems rather fond of Edwina, who transformed herself from a promiscuous socialite in the 1920s to a tireless humanitarian during World War II and the unrest in India. The Mountbattens had an unusually fraught marriage: Dickie was devoted to Edwina, but it quickly became clear she would never be faithful to him. Pragmatically, he quietly supported her affairs with a series of men, including Nehru. (He also had a mistress of his own.) For her part, Edwina was ferociously jealous of Dickie's relationships with other women, including their own daughters.

But von Tunzelmann argues that Nehru and Edwina were the great loves of each other's lives, and that in India Edwina found greater fulfillment than at any other time in her life. "The heiress to millions had never been happier than when she was working in the hot, rough, and filthy refugee camps that had been set up across the riot-scarred Punjab."

India also seemed to bring out the best in her husband. Certainly, nothing in his earlier career would have indicated that he would have been a liberal champion of Asian self-rule or, frankly, anything but a feckless bumbler.

During World War II, Mountbatten thoroughly earned his nickname as "master of disaster." He was prone to ramming his ship into other British vessels and his hare-brained schemes included an aircraft carrier molded from an iceberg. Von Tunzelmann makes the most of this rich material, which would be funny if so many young men weren't being killed. But she defends Mountbatten against charges that he deserved a court martial for the speed with which he conducted Britain's exit strategy from the subcontinent.

"There is no reason to think that the slow-boiling of communal tempers under martial law for an extra nine months would have reconciled everybody to live happily ever after," she writes. And as for the charge that he should have beefed up British troop presence to stem the violence, well, "he could not magic soldiers out of thin air."

Observers of modern international politics will see some obvious parallels to Iraq of today. Von Tunzelmann herself does not make this explicit.

While the chapters on the partition of India and the subsequent riots are some of the strongest in the book, the narrative of "Indian Summer" does have a few hiccups. The beginning, as von Tunzelmann jumps between her characters in India and Britain, can seem a little disjointed. Nehru's early years are especially frustrating, since a reader doesn't get to see his rise to power or his first meetings with Gandhi, whom Nehru revered as a second father despite their differences about religion.

But once World War II arrives, the book hits its stride in much the same way that the war helped Edwina discover a purpose for her abundant energy.

India's poor graduate as IT pros (http://www.contractoruk.com/news/003396.html)
Contractor UK, UK

Take 89 students from India’s lowest caste and give them seven months’ training in IT-businesses, and 80 will get jobs at Infosys, WiPro, IBM and Hewlett Packard.

IT academic Prof S. Sadagopan has proved that being social excluded in the world’s leading offshore location for IT services is not a barrier to joining the business elite.

Last October, he opened the doors of his technical college in Bangalore to 89 disadvantaged youngsters, and offered them skills in leadership, communication and team-building.

As part of the 26-week course to work at a leading IT company, students got their own laptops to access the internet, and were even taught table manners to smooth interaction.

Graduates of the course, at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, now work in IT jobs that pay them 33 times more than what their parents earn, The Times reported yesterday.

“We taught them fishing, instead of giving them fish,” Prof Sadagopan told the paper.

He added that the course was aimed at boosting their confidence and giving the youngsters, most of whom would normally work in menial jobs, “something they couldn’t get otherwise.”

Conceived by Infosys, the initial success of the IT-business programme has been seized upon as evidence that the new economy in India can break down the nation’s social barriers.

One student, Ramesh, who already had a computer science degree but couldn’t find an IT job, now works at Bally Technologies, a Las Vegas-based gaming company in Bangalore.

He is reported to earn 20,000 rupees a month, while his father, who owns no land and works for local farmers on tea estates, earns a monthly wage of 600 rupees – about £7.

“This course should be expanded but it should only help poor people,” Ramesh reportedly said. “Otherwise the well-off will always be going up and the poor will be always going down.”

India has changed the world (http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070814/71519809.html)
Dmitry Kosyrev
RIA Novosti, Russia
20:19 | 14/ 08/ 2007

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - On August 15, India will celebrate 60 years of independence. Today, we are looking at this event with different eyes. In retrospect, we can see that it has first changed Britain and then the rest of the world. This process is still going on.

On August 15, 1947 when Lord Mountbatten was hauling down the British flag in Delhi, many understood the significance of what was happening with a country, which some still considered the only superpower, even if it wasn't quite up to the mark in World War II. It is unclear when exactly America became the world's number one power. Was it after the Hiroshima bombing or after the white-green-saffron flag was raised over Delhi's Red Fort? At any rate, hardly anyone realized at that time that the British Empire was not simply undergoing change but was quickly melting into a regular European country.

In was clear in the early 1930s that the empire's rule over India was coming to an end. The year 1947 did not come as a complete surprise. But nobody expected India to help British society to start a change from within and largely cure it of the syndrome of complacent racist supremacy over many nations that are far more ancient and civilized than the Brits themselves. Credit for this goes to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, who was probably the greatest figure of the 20th century.

Gandhi was admired; all intellectuals (among them many British colonial administrators) were seeking an opportunity to meet this pivotal figure. He proved that subjugated nations were not second-rate, that they might be above the Europeans morally and culturally, primarily because they could reach their goals without resorting to violence. His lessons have not been learnt up to now because the return of ancient civilizations to the world's key positions is not yet over. But the British were the first to realize that this course of event was inevitable, or at least possible.

The fact that India's independence engineered a change in Soviet foreign policy, among other things, may be a peripheral issue but the world's arrangement largely depended on it for half a century.

In 1947, Stalin and his entourage could not fully grasp what was going on. India was one of the first countries to restore its independence. Many followed suit in the 1950s-1960s. China still had two years to go before the triumph of the revolution, and the Soviet bloc was not yet set up in Europe. The Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with the new India four months before it became free. But Moscow, on which it was starting to dawn that "foreign" was not necessarily a synonym for "hostile", primarily perceived India's freedom as an irritant for Britain. The big nation's potential road to socialism came second. Gandhi viewed the Stalinist regime as yet another revolutionary but a very bizarre one and totally alien.

Changes took place almost a decade later and were associated with Nikita Khrushchev and Dmitry Shepilov (his second foreign minister after Vyacheslav Molotov). Being related to the late Shepilov, your correspondent learnt many details of how Moscow's mentality was changing in the post-Stalinist era. Conflicting reports and memos by Soviet diplomats were the main instrument of a change.

It was under Shepilov that the Soviet leaders adopted the idea that the newly independent countries were natural allies, even if they were not going to enter the Soviet block and build socialism. This concept first emerged in the other fragments of the British Empire - Egypt and Syria - where Shepilov was using trial-and-error approach in a bid to find the right tone in talking with the new partners. Later on, India, Indonesia and many other countries became Soviet friends by the same token. Shepilov recalled that India had proved to Moscow that the newly-independent countries could be very big and potentially extremely powerful, that they could absolutely reject a client's dependency while being overtly friendly. Last but not the least, India made it obvious that in the future they would be of major importance for Soviet vital interests.

Under Andrei Gromyko, who replaced Shepilov as foreign minister, Moscow's relations with the "developing nations" became an ideologically streamlined system but their gist was the same as in the middle 1950s. Soviet policy towards them remained intact for almost 40 years and contributed to Moscow's geopolitical might no less than its strategic arsenal. This applies, in particular, to the economic gains yielded by what was commonly called "assistance" to foreign countries. This "assistance" made Soviet export-oriented industries competitive.

Will the Russian political class be able to exploit the success of its predecessors now that almost every sixth person in the world is an Indian, and that India is bound to be the world's second economy after China? This question is being decided these days.

India's rise in medical tourism (http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/india/article2257994.ece)
India is cashing in on its reputation for quality care with surgery available for rock-bottom prices

Simon Crompton
From The Times
August 14, 2007

There was a time when doing a search for “India” and “surgery” on the internet simply came up with reports about knee operations on cricketers from the sub-continent. No longer. Now dozens of agencies and hospitals offering top-quality surgery at rock-bottom prices top the listings.

In just five years health tourism to India has exploded, with hospitals currently estimated to treat 150,000 foreigners a year. A Confederation of Indian Industry report predicts that medical tourism will be worth $1 billion to the economy by 2012.

Agencies that specialise in putting prospective patients in touch with Indian hospitals claim that the industry is growing at the rate of 30 per cent a year. That projection may not be as optimistic as it sounds, given that the Government is unashamedly encouraging foreigners to come to India for treatment ranging from heart surgery to breast enlargements, dental checkups and Ayurvedic medicine.

Official figures indicate that visitors from 55 countries come to India for treatment but the biggest growth in business is from the UK and America.

Four years ago the first trickle of British patients, frustrated by long NHS waiting lists and the high cost of private surgery, began to organise operations abroad. James Campbell, from Aberdeenshire, flew to Ahmedabad in 2003 for a double knee replacement at less than half the cost of private treatment in the UK, after organising the trip and treatment himself.

Now an agency such as the Taj Medical Group receives 200 inquiries a day from around the world and arranges packages for 20-40 Britons a month to have operations in India. Taj also offers follow-up appointments with a consultant in the UK.

“Generally people don’t see any difference in the care they receive in India from private care in the UK,” says Dipa Jethwa, of the Taj group.

Why is India so popular? Cost is the driving factor. Patients wanting prompt private treatment usually pay 20-50 per cent of the UK cost for surgery. A single knee replacement in the UK costs about £9,000 but a Madras clinic quotes the operation at £2,150. The agency Surgery Abroad International offers breast enlargement operations in India for £1,000, compared with about £3,500.

The quality of medical facilities and staff in India is increasingly rated internationally. About £50 million has been invested by private healthcare companies in India in the past decade.

In addition, about 75 per cent of healthcare services in India are now in the private sector and new private hospitals with state of the art equipment have been built in many of the big cities. The Indian Tourist Board lists dozens of recommended hospitals for cardiology, orthopaedics, keyhole surgery, oncology, cosmetic surgery and holistic healthcare on its website (www.incredibleindia.org). There is also a good supply of well-qualified doctors and experienced surgeons.

With more Indian hospitals admitting foreign patients, it is easier for tourists to arrange their own surgery there but packages offered by agencies make organisation simpler.

The Department of Health advises anybody considering surgery abroad to consider every angle first. “Think about the standard of the facility, the qualifications and experience of the doctor and what you can do if something goes wrong,” a spokesman says.

David Hancock, author of The Complete Medical Tourist (John Blake Publishing, £9.99) advises prospective patients to consider the cost of taking a companion and to check post-operative support offered by the hospital.

“Ask for testimonials of patients who have undergone procedures at the medical facility,” he says. “Contact the people personally to make sure there were no later complications.”

The making of a miracle (http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2148267,00.html)
In 1947 it was a provincial outpost. Today it's the most globalised city in India. Ian Jack reports from the boom town of Bangalore

Ian Jack
The Guardian, UK
Tuesday August 14, 2007

One early morning in Bangalore - at about six, before the traffic thickened and made the timing of any cross-town journey the subject of doubting speculation - an enterprising young man called Arun Pai took me in his car to the edge of the Karnataka Golf Association course, where he asked his driver to stop. On one side, greens and bunkers. On the other, big new buildings coated in glass and occupied by IBM, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs. "I always take my foreign clients here," Pai said, "and ask them to tell me which famous author stood almost in the same position."

Many people have no difficulty. The answer is Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist and author of The World is Flat, and this is the setting of his book's first sentence, when Friedman is about to swing from the first tee and his partner tells him: "Aim at either Microsoft or IBM." As a first sentence it hardly ranks with "The past is a foreign country ...", but Friedman's book, the world's most popular gospel of globalisation, has sold 3m copies. It takes its several heroes from the IT business; one of them is Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of the Indian software company Infosys, who gets the credit for inspiring the title by insisting to Friedman in 2004: "Tom, the playing field is being levelled." But you might say that its real hero is Bangalore, or Bangalore as Friedman sees it: the leading example of how a city populated by clever, ambitious, English-speaking technicians in what is still known as the developing world can use the tools of the new information age to abolish geography - to undercut European and American costs so much, with no (or better) effect on quality, that it destroys the historic advantages of adjacency, when the counting house was best placed next to the warehouse and the warehouse next to the factory.
The 600 pages of Friedman's book radiate a gung-ho optimism, and perhaps for that reason it is more widely read in India, a country that for most of the 20th century suffered the pessimistic prognoses of the outside world, than in Britain. To look for a British equivalent you might have to go back to Samuel Smiles and his Victorian testaments to hard work and self-help and his glorification of the great engineers. As I went around Bangalore this month I often thought of Smiles and the first industrial revolution - of its ruthlessness and chaos, its model factories and choked sewers, its slums and philanthropists, yet running through its new kind of people, freshly urbanised and adapting to the factory clock, the thread of a belief that they were at the centre of a new kind of world.

Arun Pai, my guide that morning, is an example of this new kind of person, or new at least in India. Inspired by the walking tours of London, he created a small company, bangalorewalks.com, and every Sunday he leads groups of people through the history of the city as manifested in its monuments, churches, parks and barracks. At this, he is quite brilliant; from plain and obscure objects he can draw stories that take you to Napoleon and the conquest of Everest. To listen to him, Bangalore has been affecting the course of global history ever since Lord Cornwallis took it from Tipu Sultan in 1791.

But walking tours aren't how Pai makes his real money. That comes when a software company, usually American, asks him to introduce one of its newly arrived executives to India: the bewildering totality of it. Pai has a one-day course. He takes them in his car to the famous Friedman site, to the ancient Hindu temple behind the new Marks & Spencer's, to the new suburbs and shopping malls. He may recall a few recent cultural references, such as the American passive verb, to be "Bangalored", meaning to lose one's job to cheaper competition overseas. He can do Hinduism in five minutes. Most of the questions are about cows, but beggars and caste are also popular topics. He has persuasive answers for the innocent from Kansas, and to demonstrate and sharpen his skills he asked me to ask him any question at all about noticeable aspects of India. I asked why it was that Indian advertising never depicted any human being with a skin shade darker than olive, when so many of the population, especially in the south, were by no means so light. Pai said that it was just a local edition of a universal fact: the enduring appeal of whiteness. But he agreed that this answer might not satisfy an American executive who happened to be black, or indeed anyone from a society that has adjusted to multiculturalism in way that India, for all its divisions of religion, language and caste, has not.

Later that Sunday morning, Pai took a group of us along the city's main thoroughfare, MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road, in search of bungalows. The Victorian bungalow and its shady garden were once the trademarks of Bangalore - "India's garden city". Only a few survive. Land is too valuable and its price increases every week. "Take pictures, take pictures," Pai said when we stood in front of one. "It may not be here when you next come." In 10 years, people say (and perhaps hope), the city will look like Dubai or Singapore. Some of it already does.

Go back 60 years. Does the story of Bangalore's rise symbolise the larger history of independent India? Yes and no. In 1947, Bangalore contained about 500,000 people and has about six million now; the fifth largest city in India. In the same period, India's population, now 1.12 billion, has multiplied by a factor of three rather than Bangalore's 12, but urban growth rates that are much higher than the national average aren't unusual. When I first came to Bangalore in 1976, I didn't feel I'd left India behind. The same restrictions on consumption, the same brakes to aspiration, applied as much here as anywhere else in the country. Under the regime of Indira Gandhi (and of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, before her), the Indian middle class grew to a kind of noble austerity in the cause of national self-reliance. On the other hand, even then, Bangalore was clearly exceptional. It was tidier, neater, greener, English was more readily spoken, a striking number of church towers poked above the trees in a country where, outside the far south, Christianity had made very little impact. Above all, there was (and is) the climate. Bangalore is 3,000ft above sea level, protected by its height from the enervating heat; the British called it a "no-fan station". When I asked Nandan Nilekani of Infosys how he explained the IT industry's attraction to Bangalore he made all these points - "It's the most middle-class, Anglicised, cosmopolitan city in India, with a better quality of life" - and added another: that a scientific and technical tradition already existed in the city, thanks to the aircraft and electrical instruments businesses that the government of India located there in the 1950s and 60s, militarily strategic factories that were as far away as possible from the borders of Pakistan and China, India's potential enemies. During the 1980s, even before economic liberalisation, it became known as the fastest-growing city in Asia.

It is also, as the historian Ramachandra Guha says, a mongrel kind of town: the only place in India where you can watch films in six Indian languages. Partly, this is British doing. After Cornwallis dethroned Tipu Sultan and restored the kingdom of Mysore to its former Hindu rulers, the British built an army cantonment on the high ground outside the gates of Bengaluru, which in the local language, Kannada, was the name of the town they had captured. The cantonment grew in size to become a "civil and military station" which drew thousands of Tamil craftsmen, tradesmen and servants, as well as Persian horse traders and British civil servants and brewers. A large Anglo-Indian population became established. Missionaries opened schools, a great park was laid out, exotic trees imported, courts and administrative offices built. The lingua franca of this new town, Bangalore, was English; just down the road in the narrow lanes of Bengaluru they continued to speak in Kannada.

The two towns became one municipality in 1949, but the differences between them persist. In Bangalore, I met men in their early middle-age, raised in the old city, who said that until their late teens they had never travelled the mile to the cantonment; and who had been warned by their parents that, when they did, they had better avoid the temptations of bars and hotels.

Bangalore became the capital of the new state of Mysore (since 1973, Karnataka) when the Indian state boundaries were redrawn in 1956. The official language of Karnataka is Kannada. But thanks to the successive flows of migrants from other Indian states, only about 30% of Bangalore's inhabitants claim it as their first language. That means the city has no dominant majority, a welcoming absence as far as new migrants and businesses are concerned but a fretful one for the native Kannada speaker, who, if he lacks English, may feel excluded from the new consumer culture of his own capital city.

Consequently, in what some Bangaloreans consider a political sop to the natives, Bangalore will be renamed Bengaluru within the next year or two. When it appears in airline timetables and on departure boards, a stranger might imagine that the new, more Indian name reflects a new, more Indian reality on the ground. But the opposite will be the case.

A good way to understand what has happened to Bangalore is to look at a street map. In the old city, the Kannada names, many centuries old, come from castes and occupations and bazaars. In the cantonment, the source of the names is obvious enough: Brigade Road, Infantry Road, Church Street. Then, to judge from the parentheses, a burst of patriotic renaming took place - Sir Mirza Ismail Nagar (Richmond Town), Field Marshall Cariappa Road (Residency Road) - though to no effect on how people think and speak of these places. In the suburban spread of the 1960s and 70s, the streets renounce any claim to history or romance, as though Stalin was in charge of the naming department. In Indiranagar, named after Indira Gandhi, the main street is One Hundred Feet Road: that is its width. Many streets are simply numbered, as are localities: a visitor can spend many hours in an auto-rickshaw looking for 597, 15th Cross Road, JPNagar Phase Two. But now that anonymity, these plain square houses in their numbered streets, no longer satisfies new money. The names and architecture of the most recent settlements, high-rises and gated communities could be described as postmodern or pre-post-colonial: Buckingham Court, Windsor Residency, Palm Meadows, 10 Downing Street. Some quite small houses have castellated battlements. The word "Residency", the title the British gave to the homes of senior imperial administrators, is very popular.

"People here speak of 'get-up'," an architect told me as we had dinner in a hotel. "They say to each other, 'What kind of get-up is your new house going to have? Mediterranean? English Castle?' They think they can do anything - anything! - and they want to shove it in your face." In the hotel bar, young Bangalorean men were braying and drinking - the sound carried across the hotel gardens. They weren't poor; this was an expensive hotel. A phrase that the former Sunday Telegraph editor Peregrine Worsthorne coined in the red-braces 1980s came to me: bourgeois triumphalism.

I came to Bangalore a few times in the 1980s and stayed in the homes of my then father-in-law, first in Indiranagar and then in the old Anglo-Indian colony of Whitefield. The sights and sounds I associate with these places were, and in most places still are, common to all India. You would go to sleep to the sound of the chowkidar, the night watchman, tapping his stick and blowing his pea whistle. In the morning there would be the cawing of crows and the cries of an early street pedlar, selling vegetables from a stall on wheels. Sometimes an occasional car would honk. The Whitefield house is now a restaurant, the Eurochine, and in Indiranagar they are tearing down 30-year-old houses all the way down the Hundred Feet Road to make way for the stores of the global brands: Benetton, Nike, Levis. Cars queue impatiently down every street and turning.

It does no good to be wistful. A bright young science graduate can expect a starting salary of at least 270,000 rupees (about £3,400) a year as a software engineer, and within a year or two will be earning far more than the professor who taught him. Between 200,000 and 300,000 people work in Bangalore's IT industry and not all of them will be so prosperous; call-centres, now referred to dismissively as IT's "low-hanging fruit", pay far less. The great majority, however, will earn far more than their parents. Rent and property are expensive - at the top end, a Bangalore flat can cost £1m - but credit is cheap. This new middle class has cars and takes holidays abroad (eight days in Singapore for £150). The very rich have servants and a manager to manage them. A servant - a driver, a cook - can double his salary by learning English. If the new recruit joins Infosys, which has become India's most applauded company, he or she will travel each day to a "campus" at Electronic City, which has a putting green, an orchard, a swimming pool, free bikes to get around, and a canteen that serves 14 different cuisines (one of them Jain, which omits garlic and onions). In recent years, more foreign chief executives and heads of state have visited this campus than the Taj Mahal, or so it is said, and "the Infosys tour" has become a cliche of books and TV documentaries. And of course, after getting out of your golf buggy and ascending one of the taller buildings, you can look out through the plate glass and see the slums beyond the fence, where a small boy is defecating next to a stray dog and the ditch runs black. India: land of contrasts. But supposing this replica of Silicon Valley were to disappear? The slum, the stray dog, the black ditch, the defecating child - all these would still be there.

Philanthropy is popular. Infosys has a foundation devoted to good works. Quite separately, Nandan Nilekani's wife, Rohini, estimates she has spent about $40m (£20m) of their money on children's educational and water projects, mainly in village India, over the past few years. This is a lot. Then again, her husband is one of Infosys's seven founders. When the company went public in 1993, 100 shares cost 9,500 rupees. The same shares today would be worth 24,440,000 rupees, 3,000 times their flotation value. (Many more people have benefited than the founders; stock options were once given to all employees, who now number about 80,000.) "It's just no use being an island of prosperity in this country, it isn't going to work," Rohini Nilekani said when I went to see her in her charity's office, and in that statement hover two large black clouds.

The first is inadequate, sometimes collapsing, infrastructure: roads, railways, sewers, drinking water, schools, electricity. The second is the growing divide between urban and rural India. Despite increasing urbanisation, about 70% of the population still live in agricultural villages. The reverse side of the economic liberalisation that made India's software industry possible is the crisis of Indian agriculture. Poor crop prices, exhausted soil, expensive fertiliser, falling water tables, and land that needs to sustain too many livelihoods: so far this year 1,000 Karnataka farmers are said to have killed themselves. And yet the odd thing, the thing that a more curious American executive might ask their guide, Arun Pai, is: given that the price (80 rupees, about £1) of a six-minute local call from my grand hotel surpasses the daily wage of the sugar-cane cutter in a field a few miles away, how come there is so little anger and unrest in Bangalore? The best answer to this question came from another software entrepreneur, Subroto Bagchi, who runs MindTree Consulting (its clients include Avis and Royal Mail). I went to see him at his house. He offered tea and when I said yes, went away to make it and brought it on a tray himself - striking behaviour; never before, in 30 years' experience of India, have I ever seen any Indian man of above average wealth do anything so humbly domestic.

Bagchi, like many other Indian IT success stories, likes to stress his middle-class origins, a term that has a more egalitarian implication in India than in Britain. Indian businesses in the past tended to be run by caste-based dynasties, with money and trading (as well as political) know-how inherited by succeeding generations. Bagchi's father, on the other hand, worked as a government officer in a remote, un-electrified district of Orissa State; Nilekani's father managed a textile mill; village postmen, teachers and railway ticket-collectors appear proudly in the biographies of others. According to Bagchi, it demonstrates the truth of the saying that the Indian IT business succeeded "not because who we knew but because what we knew" and having to compete in a global market without political protection.

I asked about the prospects of discontent, given the disparities of wealth in Bangalore. Bagchi said: "Tell me, where is the angst, where is the senseless killing? They're not even restless. They're not just content, they're quite grateful. Most people, labourers, maidservants, are making a better living. It doesn't occur to my driver that he has every right to be as well-dressed as I am. Just doesn't occur to him. You have to understand, we don't have a sense of urgency, our civilisation is 3,600 years old. For most Indians, it's been an upgrade from coach to business class. They're grateful to be where they are".

· Ian Jack began writing about India as a foreign correspondent in 1977 and lived for a time in Delhi and Calcutta. He edited the Independent on Sunday and then Granta magazine and now writes a Saturday column for the Guardian.

How did India do it? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2148322,00.html)
The rise of a new global force

Aditya Chakrabortty
The Guardian, UK
Tuesday August 14, 2007

Outsiders see India as a new power on the rise; Indians, on the other hand, talk about a revival, a restoration of fortunes. They point out that in the 18th century, India had the biggest economy in the world, larger than all of western Europe and the Americas put together. Even after independent India came to be stereotyped as a land of urban slums and rural poverty, there was a feeling that inside this poor country, there was a rich one struggling to get out. In the past two decades, it has finally emerged, thanks to growing industries (most notably IT) and government policies to cut regulation.

Much of this success can be traced back to Jawaharlal Nehru. As prime minister of India from its birth in 1947 until his death in 1964, he wanted it to be not only free of foreign rule, but self-sufficient economically. His answer? Heavy industry, state-directed investment, and five-year economic plans.
Historians have not been kind to Nehru. He cuts an unfashionable figure with quaint enthusiasms (Steel smelting! Hydro-electric dams!). Yet the inconvenient truth for today's free-market-loving India is that the foundations for its success were laid by Nehru's socialist economics.

Those booming subcontinental IT firms, and even the US's Silicon Valley (which recruits so many of the subcontinent's software engineers), prosper thanks to Nehru's creation of elite technological and business schools. Neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh made such far-sighted investment and that, along with political instability, largely accounts for their failure to take off.

All this state intervention had a downside: red tape that grew like bindweed. A carmaker wanting to make more vehicles in its own factory needed permission from a bureaucrat, which meant forms, permits and pleading. The Licence Raj, as it was known, nearly stifled the life out of India's private sector.

But in 1991 a cash-strapped Indian government was forced to ask other countries for a loan. Donors insisted that it open up its economy - both to its own private sector and to foreign competition. The Licence Raj was out: from now on the government would intervene less, regulate less - generally do less.

And India started to change. Take that staple of commercial life: the phone call. "In the old days," says Deepak Lalwani, an Indian-born stockbroker now based in London, "if a Bombay businessman wanted to phone Delhi he had to book a line and wait a few hours." The call would then be upgraded to urgent. A couple more hours would pass. Then, says Lalwani, "The booking would at last be given 'lightning' status." Another hour and at last the conversation could begin, having by now accrued all the ceremony of a state summit. Today, an exec making a call would not only not need to book; he or she would probably use a mobile instead. In 2000, Indians bought 3m mobiles; this June alone they bought 7.3m. That does still leave alomst 80% of Indians with no phone at all, however. In villages, where the vast majority of the population lives, there are barely any cellular networks.

This sums up what is right and wrong with India's embrace of freer markets. It has been a boon for the educated, middle class, largely city-dwelling minority able to take advantage of it - and of little help to anyone else. The economy is growing at nearly double its historic rate, but this has been a jobless boom, creating better jobs, but not new jobs, and concentrated in services (all those software firms, back offices and call centres). By contrast, China, often put in the same bracket, has focused on employment-creating manufacturing and developing infrastructure. And while Delhi politicians see their job as merely getting out of the private sector's way, Beijing remains heavily involved in economic decisions.

How big is the boom in India's economy? About as big as the US. That's the size of India's new middle class, the main beneficiaries of the new regime. By 2010, there will be 300m of them: equal to the US in population size - and perhaps in taste. If you want evidence, drive an hour out of Delhi to Gurgaon, a town sometimes called the centre of the new India. The main drag is called Mall Road. A bit further along is a housing estate called Malibu Town. It has its own security guards, a golf club and roads with names such as Pine Drive. It is pleasant enough, but it bears little resemblance to the rest of the country. How to narrow that difference is India's new problem.

'I've witnessed the arrival of a golden age' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2148317,00.html)
Randeep Ramesh, the Guardian's Delhi correspondent, spent his childhood apologising for having any connection with India. But how times change ...

The Guardian, UK
Tuesday August 14, 2007

A few years ago, I visited an Indian software millionaire at his headquarters in Bangalore for a story about the country's effervescent computer industry. Software is modern India's spice, a precious commodity craved by the rest of the world. The businessman took great pleasure in showing me around.

I marvelled at rows of programmers working in Japanese; I gawped at the basketball courts and pizza eateries imported to give the company an authentic Silicon Valley feel. After an hour or two, the conversation got personal. In the unselfconscious, no-nonsense manner of many educated Indians, the entrepreneur quizzed me on which university I had gone to (Cambridge) and the subject I had studied (physics), before triumphantly declaring that I had been "born in the wrong country". When I protested, he raised his palm.

"The British system has come to this - taking scientists and making them journalists," he said with a smile. "What a waste. Just imagine the opportunities you missed by not being born here."

In my youth I would have laughed that comment away as misplaced optimism in a country that could not even get its trains to run on time. I had grown up shuttling between my birthplace, London, and India, my parents' homeland.

My earliest memories revolved around the open sewers and the endless slumlands of my father's Mumbai, or Bombay as it was then known, and the tropical sloth of my mother's home in Kerala. It is fair to say that nothing worked in the India of yesterday. There were phones, but the lines were mostly dead. Frequent blackouts meant the inside of the fridge was invariably hotter than the air outside it. India appeared to be a place that, like my grandfather's battered Fiat, went faster backwards than forwards.

I spent my childhood apologising for having any connections with India, a country that in my lofty opinion needed major surgery. But a decade ago, while the rest of the world was looking the other way, India reached some kind of tipping point, and change began to happen - fast.

The signs were easy to spot. By the mid-90s, the Marks & Spencer underwear and ovenproof CorningWare dishes my parents had always brought as gifts for relatives were politely returned, or left unopened. "We can buy this here," sniffed my auntie in Bangalore.

My Indian cousins, who had diligently studied science subjects, began to leave India for jobs with management consultants and computer companies in places such as Singapore and California. Friends in Britain started to climb the social ladder by having arranged marriages with Indian women who were often smarter, more sophisticated and better-looking than they perhaps deserved.

Since I pitched up in 2003 to live and work in Delhi, I have witnessed firsthand the arrival of a golden age. The making and spending of money has become respected in a country where poverty was once revered. Middle-income westerners now feel poor in the upmarket postcodes of India's big cities.

Yet it would be wrong to think that India has become just like everywhere else. Yes, an economic miracle is under way. Yes, there is now an elite as capable as any in the west. The paradox is that this is a modernising nation, but one still steeped in myth and legend. Indians tend to ascribe the country's rise to its unique, ancient civilisation and in the process tend to be rather dismissive of anywhere else.

This does tend to blind Indians to the real problems faced by the country. Venality abounds, and the widespread acceptance of corruption tarnishes the pride that Indians take in their most tangible achievement - democracy - and saps the energy with which they express it.

The abuse of public office for private profit reaches comical proportions in India. Family connections, privileges of caste and a pathological willingness to break the law characterise many social relations. In the dirt-poor state of Bihar, I once visited a local politician, in jail awaiting trial for numerous murders; he was campaigning from behind bars for re-election. Mobile phones and lime juice were brought by the guards as we spoke; they bowed in deference to my thuggish interviewee.

Hanging in the air, too, is desperate poverty. To the naked eye, India appears not just an underdeveloped society, but an extremely unjust one. There are 260 million poor people in the country, and more than 1,000 children die of diarrhoea every day. The capital's streets are lined with ragged children and beggars waving handless stumps. Every day 22 farmers in India commit suicide.

Official poverty numbers are going down, but not fast enough for anyone to notice. Yet the flow of good news keeps on coming. A top news story here last week was about a Punjabi businessman spending 1.55m rupees (£20,000) on a bespoke mobile phone number.

Living in India sometimes feels like living in the midst of a cult, with hundreds of millions of souls convinced of the country's inevitable rise to global, nuclear-armed power. The nation's privileged classes and castes have been gripped by a psychology of ascendancy, anticipating the greatness that imperialism and the cold war denied them.

In fact, development for most Indians is a state of mind. Many simply sweep aside doubts by asserting the supremacy of the country's customs and traditions. I have heard my own family here in India discuss people with contempt just because of their background - be it class, caste, race or religion. When I protest, they simply tell me that I am not an Indian, so how could I understand?

During my time here, I have come to realise that Indians have little interest in the British now, or in a British Asian like me who has returned to his parents' land. My affinities with the country, too, have their limits. I have come to realise that despite a common heritage there is little I share in experience or beliefs with the millions here.

America, the first British colony to break free, is the model now. Long gone is the view that Britain is a country to be admired or emulated. Like the American people, Indians have become more confident and assertive, citing stories of those who triumph against the odds to balance their nation's shortcomings.

They see glasses half-full, not half-empty, here. India wakes up with a smile on its face each morning, because its people know that the past may have been yours, but the future belongs to them.

Success of the Indian tiger still leaves much to do (http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/41032840/)
By Hugh Young
Financial Times, UK
Published: 14/8/2007 | Last Updated: 14/8/2007 16:50 London Time

This week marks 60 years since India gained independence after two centuries of British colonial rule. Having developed into a global economic powerhouse, the country has much to celebrate, but after five years of stock market expansion long-term equity performance depends on much more than just global risk appetites.

With the MSCI India up 543 per cent in dollar terms over the five years to the end of July, Indian stocks are among the most expensive in Asia. That said, prices are currently well anchored, backed by good past and potential earnings growth, a positive underlying economy and a stable political landscape.

Certainly, foreign investors have grown their share of local stock markets and, as a consequence, markets continue to take much of their direction from global cues. With external risks such as the rebound in oil prices and the uncertainty surrounding the health of the US economy still unresolved, one big question is how much the staying power of foreign investors could be tested if present global volatility were to lead to a fundamental change in risk appetite. That could cause a wobble for Indian stocks in the short term.

But it is internal factors that are vital to longer-term market performance. India is home to numerous quality world-class companies that are well managed, financially sound and run for shareholders. Thanks mainly to its large, educated, English-speaking talent pool, the country's status as the world's outsourcing centre has expanded, raising its profile as a corporate base.

At the same time, the increasingly predatory behaviour of some companies on the international stage has further underlined the country's corporate muscle. However, it is interesting to speculate about how much more Indian companies could achieve, given a better business environment.

Companies already benefit from a virtuous circle of rising demand driving rising investment, as low household debts and increasing wages spur consumption in core urban areas. However, long-term policy measures to develop infrastructure, deregulate public-sector operations and cut red tape must continue, or a huge proportion of potential productivity and consumer demand will stay woefully untapped.

Major investment is still required to upgrade power supplies, airports, ports, highways and the rail network and unwieldy public-sector operations must continue to be privatised – the deregulation of the domestic airline network provides optimism that, with sufficient political will, this can happen.

Another stumbling block is India's powerful unions and huge bureaucracy. These vested interests have often exploited coalition politics to thwart legislation that would breathe more competition into protected areas of the economy. At the moment, businesses face restrictive labour regulations that reduce their scope to hire and fire, limiting efficient allocation of resources and driving up costs.

Consequently the manufacturing sector remains shrunken and the majority of the working population is still employed in agriculture. Some 35 per cent of Indians are living on less than $1 a day compared to just over 16 per cent of Chinese *. Or put another way, behind India's boom lies mass poverty.

Meanwhile, the economic challenges are not inconsiderable. The Singh administration must tackle the budget deficit, control inflation and keep the rupee's appreciation in check. The fiscal deficit is also a concern. For now, the aim is to have it completely removed by financial year 2008-09 but this can be a moving target.

Today India is the 12th largest economy in the world and is experiencing its fastest rate of growth for 18 years. For the year to March 2007, India's GDP grew by 9.4 per cent. By the middle of the century, India is likely to have grown to be one of the biggest economies in the world.

However, the country's government must balance short-term economic strategies against the long-term need to develop if it is to lift millions out of poverty and into the middle class, and fulfil its true potential as a self-sustaining, successful world-class economy.

The writer is managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia

India at 60 gets all the bouquets.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_at_60_gets_all_the_bouquets/articleshow/2281682.cms

Pak forced into shadow as India at 60 gets all the bouquets.

LONDON: Pakistan was forced into the forlorn shadows even as it marked its 60th birthday, as British and European news coverage focused on Indian Independence day and "the arrival of a golden (Indian) age".

In an unusually thoughtful, if nuanced, nod to India's rise to prominence on the world stage, the former Raj marked the eve of Indian Independence Day with a paean to India, almost ignoring the fact that it was the 60th year of Pakistan's existence.

Mainstream British newspapers have been running 'India at 60' series, while The Times , London produced a special India supplement and The Guardian devoted its entire features pull-out to "The New India". The Guardian's India special's theme was expressed by its cover headline: "This is the best place in the world to be born right now".

Tuesday's India specials are the culmination of a fortnight-long focus on India by the British press. They include The Independent 's attempt to answer the question, "60 years after Partition, why is India doing so much better than Pakistan?"

The paper said, "Now, at the age of 60, India's image is that of a resurgent, confident regional power racing to compete with China and the West. Meanwhile, Pakistan's image - at least in the West - is as a broken, backward country that provides a safe haven for extremists."
But in an acid corrective, it said these perceptions may not be entirely accurate. It pointed out that while India's "economy is currently growing at about nine per cent a year. Pakistan's is also growing.

One government minister said recently it was the third fastest-growing economy is Asia. Over the next four years it is expected to grow at about six per cent. The UN Human Development Index - which measures a series of economic and lifestyle indicators - ranks Pakistan 134th out of 177 and India 126th. In India and Pakistan, life expectancy is 63.6 and 63.4 years respectively, the adult literacy rates are 61 per cent and 49 per cent and the GDP figures are $3,139 and $2,225."

The Daily Telegraph , meanwhile, headlined the third part of its 'India at 60' series, "Independence has failed to reduce poverty". The piece quotes 60-ear-old Nanu Singh, "an almost toothless villager" on "what six decades of freedom and 20 years of economic growth had brought him... kuch-nahi ...I was a poor boy then, and I am still a poor man now."

The paper points out that "Without education or good health - 49 per cent of Indian children under six are malnourished, as can be seen from their stick-thin limbs and vacant stares - it is impossible to break the poverty trap."
The sobering assessment of India's astounding failures and equally eye-catching successes is seen to be typical of Britain and much of Europe's cautious optimism about 21st century India.

South Asia-watchers here point out that every Western article about India's remarkable rise is balanced by eye-watering accounts of its poverty, casteism, corruption, poor governance and the growing divide between rich and poor. But this, they say, is not necessarily a negative thing.
"There is no such thing as bad publicity," said one British academic, pointing to Pakistan's unmissable half-life as the country less chronicled than its bigger, more vibrant blood brother.

India's growth causing staff shortage in GCC (http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=497798)
by Dylan Bowman
Arabian Business, United Arab Emirates
Tuesday, 14 August 2007

Economic growth in India is making it much harder for companies in the GCC to source skilled labour from the subcontinent, the chairman of Dubai-based healthcare colgomerate Dr Moopen's Group said on Tuesday.

Speaking on the eve of of India's independence celebrations, Azad Moopen warned that the problem would only get worse in the future as India's economy contines to expand.

"We are finding it difficult to get people from India," Moopen told ArabianBusiness.com. "In the long-term this is only going to get harder."

He said Dr Moopen's Group was finding it especially difficult recruiting staff because there is such a heavy reliance on highly workers in the healthcare industry.

"’I've found it extremely difficult. We require highly skilled people, and because the salaries here are now comparable to what you could get in India [it is becoming a problem]," he said.

The GCC is facing a potentially serious problem in recruiting skills workers from India because of the plummeting value of the dollar against the rupee and India's bbooming ecomony.

There are approximately six million Indians living in the GCC and they account for as much as 50% of the expatriate workforce in some Gulf countries.

The growing value of the rupee against the dollar, which most countries in the GCC have their currencies pegged to, is making the Gulf a less attractive destination for Indians to work.

India's booming economy means there are many more jobs available that previously, which is also detering Indian's from working in the region.

Last month an senior official at Bahrain's Labour Fund revealed that it had seen a marked rise in the number of Indians leaving the kingdom to return home.

Bahrain is currently struggling with a shortage of accountants and the government is also assessing the severity of skills shortages in other sectors such as information technology.

Indian identity is forged in diversity. Every one of us is in a minority (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2148957,00.html)
The nation born 60 years ago today is built on a bold idea of difference - and an agreement that it's healthy to disagree

Shashi Tharoor
The Guardian, UK
Wednesday August 15, 2007

When India celebrated the 49th anniversary of its independence from British rule in 1996, its then prime minister, HD Deve Gowda, stood at the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort and delivered the traditional independence day address to the nation. Eight other prime ministers had done exactly the same thing 48 times before him, but what was unusual this time was that Deve Gowda, a southerner from the state of Karnataka, spoke to the country in a language of which he did not know a word. Tradition and politics required a speech in Hindi, so he gave one - the words having been written out for him in his native Kannada script, in which they made no sense.

Such an episode is almost inconceivable elsewhere, but it was a startling affirmation of Indian pluralism. For the simple fact is that we are all minorities in India. There has never been an archetypal Indian to stand alongside the archetypal German or Frenchman. A Hindi-speaking Hindu male from Uttar Pradesh may cherish the illusion he represents the "majority community". But he does not. As a Hindu, he belongs to the faith adhered to by four-fifths of the population. But a majority of the country does not speak Hindi. And, if he were visiting, say, my home state of Kerala, he may be surprised to realise that a majority there is not even male.

Worse, this stock Hindu male has only to mingle with the polyglot, multicoloured crowds - and I am referring not to the colours of their clothes but to the colours of their skins - thronging any of India's major railway stations to realise how much of a minority he really is. Even his Hinduism is no guarantee of his majorityhood, because caste divisions automatically put him in a minority. (If he is a Brahmin, for instance, 90% of his fellow Indians are not.)

If caste and language complicate the notion of Indian identity, ethnicity makes it worse. Most of the time, an Indian's name immediately reveals where he is from or what her mother-tongue is: when we introduce ourselves, we are advertising our origins. Despite some intermarriage at the elite levels in our cities, Indians are still largely endogamous, and a Bengali is easily distinguished from a Punjabi. The difference this reflects is often more apparent than the elements of commonality. A Karnataka Brahmin shares his Hindu faith with a Bihari Kurmi, but they share little identity with each other in respect of their dress, customs, appearance, taste, language or even, these days, their political objectives. At the same time, a Tamil Hindu would feel he has much more in common with a Tamil Christian or a Tamil Muslim than with, say, a Jat from the state of Haryana with whom he formally shares the Hindu religion.

What makes India, then, a nation? As the country celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence today, we may well ask: What is an Indian's identity?

When an Italian nation was created in the second half of the 19th century out of a mosaic of principalities and statelets, one Italian nationalist wrote: "We have created Italy. Now all we need to do is to create Italians." It is striking that, a few decades later, no Indian nationalist succumbed to the temptation to express a similar thought. The prime exponent of modern Indian nationalism, Jawaharlal Nehru, would never have spoken of "creating Indians", because he believed that India and Indians had existed for millennia before he articulated their political aspirations in the 20th century.

None the less, the India that was born in 1947 was in a very real sense a new creation: a state that made fellow citizens of the Ladakhi and the Laccadivian, divided Punjabi from Punjabi and asked a Keralite peasant to feel allegiance to a Kashmiri Pandit ruling in Delhi, all for the first time.

So under Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Nehru, Indian nationalism was not based on any of the conventional indices of national identity. Not language, since India's constitution now recognises 22 official languages, and as many as 35 languages spoken by more than a million people each. Not ethnicity, since the "Indian" accommodates a diversity of racial types in which many Indians (Punjabis and Bengalis, in particular) have more ethnically in common with foreigners than with their other compatriots. Not religion, since India is a secular pluralist state that is home to every religion known to mankind, with the possible exception of Shintoism. Not geography, since the natural geography of the subcontinent - framed by the mountains and the sea - was hacked by the partition of 1947. And not even territory, since, by law, anyone with one grandparent born in pre-partition India - outside the territorial boundaries of today's state - is eligible for citizenship. Indian nationalism has therefore always been the nationalism of an idea.

It is the idea of an ever-ever land - emerging from an ancient civilisation, united by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy. India's democracy imposes no narrow conformities on its citizens. The whole point of Indian pluralism is you can be many things and one thing: you can be a good Muslim, a good Keralite and a good Indian all at once. The Indian idea is the opposite of what Freudians call "the narcissism of minor differences"; in India we celebrate the commonality of major differences. If America is a melting-pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.

So the idea of India is of one land embracing many. It is the idea that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, colour, conviction, culture, cuisine, costume and custom, and still rally around a consensus. And that consensus is around the simple idea that in a democracy you don't really need to agree - except on the ground rules of how you will disagree.

Geography helps, because it accustoms Indians to the idea of difference. India's national identity has long been built on the slogan "unity in diversity". The "Indian" comes in such varieties that a woman who is fair-skinned, sari-wearing and Italian-speaking, as Sonia Gandhi is, is not more foreign to my grandmother in Kerala than one who is "wheatish-complexioned", wears a salwar kameez and speaks Urdu. Our nation absorbs both these types of people; both are equally "foreign" to some of us, equally Indian to us all.

For now, the sectarian Hindu chauvinists have lost the battle over India's identity. The sight in May 2004 of a Roman Catholic political leader (Sonia Gandhi) making way for a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) to be sworn in as prime minister by a Muslim (President Abdul Kalam) - in a country 81% Hindu - caught the world's imagination. India's founding fathers wrote a constitution for their dreams; we have given passports to their ideals. That one simple moment of political change put to rest many of the arguments over Indian identity. India was never truer to itself than when celebrating its own diversity.

· Shashi Tharoor is the author of Nehru: The Invention of India, and former under secretary general of the United Nations

The price of success (http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2148712,00.html)
Leader
The Guardian, UK
Wednesday August 15, 2007

"A new star rises ... a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialises." In his speech celebrating India's creation, Jawaharlal Nehru was occasionally guilty of improving on reality. Just before independence arrived at midnight in India, he declared that freedom was dawning "when the world sleeps", amusing residents of London and New York, who at the time were in daylight. Yet his main point was right: the giant born 60 years ago today had formidable ideals to carry. Nationalism has at times been little more than a branch of identity politics, but big countries of disparate population cannot afford to define themselves so narrowly: they need the nourishment of big ideas. America has its Dream, and China Middle Kingdom communism. And India? JBS Haldane, the legendary, eccentric biologist who left Macmillan's fusty Britain to live in Nehru's India, described his new home as "a better model for a possible world organisation. It may of course break up, but it is a wonderful experiment."

What was this experiment in aid of? India's founding ideals are given lapidary form in the preamble to its constitution. It is "solemnly resolved" that this new nation will be "a sovereign, democratic republic". The words "socialist" and "secular" were added later, but they too were from the outset central to the vision of the founding fathers. Freed from the yoke of empire, India was to plot an utterly independent course. In foreign policy it would not follow any new master but would be "non-aligned" to either America or the Soviet Union. Because Indians had only ever experienced capitalism as a tool of the colonialists, even businessmen were sympathetic to progressive alternatives. Democracy and secularism were a response to imperial disfranchisement and the horror of partition. There were other values too, as might be expected from a people who had had decades to figure out how to gain independence, and what it might look like. This, then, was a nation with a much-refined sense of itself. Far from being confined to consitutional parchment, these ideals were very much alive; until recently, politicians would claim to be "Gandhian", and civil servants happily described themselves as "Nehruvian".
Sixty years on, how has the "wonderful experiment" fared? Despite Haldane's fears, it survives intact. Democracy in a country of a billion people was indeed at first widely seen as an experiment; then it was termed by pessimists as an exception; the hope still is that one day it will be an exemplar. If anything India has become more democratic, as the lower castes have taken greater electoral power. Secularism too remains intact, despite some nasty religious riots and the worrying rise of Hindu fundamentalism. Other aspects of the Indian record, however, while celebrated by the rest of the world, represent a sharp divergence from its founding ideals. This can be seen most clearly in its newly pro-American foreign policy and market-orientated economic management.

India is on the verge of becoming a great power, but at what cost? The people who won independence by nonviolence and styled themselves as a "moral superpower" chucked those lofty ideals overboard in 1998 when India became a nuclear superpower. A country that prized itself on independence is increasingly chummy with America, cutting deals on nuclear policy and trade. Urban India is enjoying an economic boom. Since 1991 Delhi has begun opening up markets and cutting red tape. This has been a boon for the 300m-strong educated middle class, who are able to get swanky new jobs in the service sector, but it is no help for the 700m in India's villages, who have been shut out of the new golden age. In a bid for success and superpower status, India has thrown away some noble ideals without yet finding a replacement. That leaves it sufficient to be a powerful nation; but still not quite the great one Gandhi and Nehru had hoped for.

India: New voyage of enterprise and creativity (http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/08/15/fea01.asp)
Ceylon Daily News, Sri Lanka

India marks her 60th anniversary of Independence today. Here we reproduce excerpts from a speech by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at the India Economic Summit in November 2005.

India has come a long way since 1985, when Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated the First India Economic Summit. These past two decades have been a period of great change in India, in my opinion, a change for the better.

When Rajiv spoke here two decades ago he put forth a bold vision of a new India, a modern India, ready to burst into the world stage, full of energy, enterprise and dynamism. In many ways, Rajiv Gandhi was ahead of his times.

His vision of a new wave of modernization captured the imagination of a new generation of entrepreneurs and professionals in all parts of our vast country. To be sure, it was not smooth sailing.

He had to reckon with vested interests; he had to contend with old mindsets; he had to convince many sceptics. He did so valiantly, with his combination of gentleness and impatience.

He in many ways, symbolized the hopes and aspirations of a new generation, a generation which is now leading India’s march into an exciting future, full of immense possibilities for our billion people.

In 1991, when we were given the opportunity to carry forward the programme of change, there were many sceptics in our midst, and in the audience here. What was regarded as path breaking then, is now regarded as the norm.

The Indian economy has become more open, more globally integrated and more competitive. The seekers of protection then line up now seeking greater openness. Truly, times have changed; mindsets have changed; attitudes have changed; aspirations have changed; and our hopes for the future have also changed.

Our industry and enterprise are far more confident, competitive and ambitious about their future and they feel that they are second to none. This is very satisfying for all of us. Yet, we still have the sceptics, the worriers and the critics. Some have genuine concerns about change, others continue to be prisoners of the past. Today, when I look back,

I am even more convinced that I was correct to observe in my first budget speech in 1991 that the idea of the emergence of India as a front ranking economic powerhouse of the world economy was an idea whose time had indeed come.

I believe that there are no external constraints now to India’s growth and whatever constraints are there, are internal; constraints imposed by our polity, our social structures, our regional imbalances, our ability to handle inequity, and our ability to take hard, but essential decisions. The last two decades have seen many ups and downs.

In our pursuit of economic growth, we have made mistakes, learnt from them, refined our approaches and corrected ourselves. We have realised that growth must translate into prosperity for all. It must provide hope and opportunity for all sections of society - hope for a better future; and an opportunity to participate and benefit from processes of growth. The durability of the policies introduced in the early ‘90s is no longer in doubt.

There have been many changes in government, but policies have remained stable, moving inexorably in a particular direction, only making marginal course corrections. We have today, a broad-based national consensus that the process of economic development and growth must enhance both - equity and efficiency.

Our government too, believes that processes of wealth creation are essential for us to meet our commitment to eradicating poverty. We are committed to creating an environment conducive to creativity and enterprise, an environment, which rewards risk-taking and innovation.

It is only through this can we eradicate poverty and create jobs for millions of our youth. We need growth with equity and social justice. This is a political as well as a social imperative. Policies relating to investment, taxation, external trade, banking & finance, Foreign Direct Investment, capital markets and small scale industries have all evolved towards making our industry and enterprises more efficient, more globally competitive and as free from restrictions as possible.

We have been fiscally prudent and macroeconomic stability has been maintained without sacrificing essential expenditures on social and physical infrastructure. We have a vision of an India, which we are determined to fashion - a vision of an inclusive, prosperous, democratic, equitable India - and we are making steady progress in that direction.

The direction is clearly visible and I assure you that we will not falter in this regard. We are on the right track.

In fact, we should be targeting a 10% growth rate in 2-3 years’ time. In my view, this is eminently feasible, if we have the expected increase in our savings rate and arising out of a young population, if we manage to make a quantum leap in the growth rate of our agriculture, if investment in infrastructure provides a fresh impetus to industry and if services continue with their impressive performance.

The problem areas are known and we are determined to make concrete efforts to move forward on all these fronts. On the external front, we have become actively engaged with the world economy.

I am certain that in the next few years, we may see the rise of a major free trade area in Asia covering all major Asian economies, including China, Japan and South Korea and possibly extending to Australia and New Zealand.

This Pan-Asian Free Trade Area could be the third pole of the world economy after the European Union and North Atlantic Free Trade Area and will, I am certain, open up new growth avenues for our own economy.

Internally, we are trying to systematically address the problem areas where we still need to eliminate bottlenecks and unlock their true potential. Take agriculture - this is a sector, which has been under-performing, in the recent past. Agriculture is the lifeblood of our country.

The livelihood and economic well-being of the majority of our people depend on this sector. The key to their prosperity - and the prosperity of the entire nation depends critically on transforming and rejuvenating our agriculture.

To my mind, given this centrality of agriculture to our economy and society, the key breakthroughs that we have to make in our country to spread the benefits of economic reform, lie in the area of agriculture.

Closely linked to the fortunes of agriculture is the condition of our rural areas. It is essential that our rural areas have not only basic amenities, but also infrastructure, which can support more intensive economic activity.

Rural infrastructure must become a facilitator for integrating our rural hinterland into our fast growing economy. We have announced a comprehensive programme for rural infrastructure development under the umbrella of “Bharat Nirman”.

Through this time-bound programme, we will achieve a quantum jump in housing, road connectivity, water supply, electrification and telecom connectivity in our rural areas.

We will bring in an additional 1 crore, 10 million hectares under irrigation. We also recognise that urban areas are focal centres for economic activity and their needs must be attended to on a priority basis. Urban areas are the nodes from which enterprise, creativity and prosperity radiate in all directions.

They are the engines of sustained growth that can absorb the millions of people who need to be gainfully employed outside agriculture. They need infrastructure, which is world class, infrastructure, which can cater to the needs of a rising population, infrastructure that can propel industrial and economic growth.

I am certain that we are now at the take-off point in infrastructure. All the elements of an essential institutional framework are now falling in place. If the private sector seizes the initiative, the sky is the limit to what we can achieve in this vital area of national endeavour.

The telecom sector has anyway done us all proud and has revealed our intrinsic entrepreneurial strengths. The power sector continues to be plagued with complex problems, but we are determined that we will set many things right in the coming months.

I have often heard complaints from many corners that we have not made progress in our FDI policy. In fact, my own assessment is that today, we have one of the most liberal FDI regimes in the world. We have unshackled FDI policies in telecom, publishing, real estate and in asset reconstruction firms in the last couple of months.

We have to create close to ten million jobs every year for the next few years to meet the demand for jobs that new generations of the workforce will seek. Most of these jobs will be sought by unskilled labour. We have to therefore, create employment opportunities for them in infrastructure, in manufacturing, in trade and transport.

When I read the debate in the media on our policies, I notice an incomplete appreciation of the steps being taken by our government to ensure that economic growth is firmly rooted in an equitable, just society. This is essential if growth is to be sustained and if society has to grow and prosper and exist in harmony.

We have ambitions of being an economic superpower. This cannot be on a base where half our people are literate; where people do not have access to basic health facilities; where people do not have incomes in times of distress. In the long run, we must carry everyone along on this road to national prosperity.

This is our vision for India. This must be your vision for India too. The new India that was stirred in the 1980s showed that it was ready to be different, once again. Indian enterprise has proved to the world that it is capable of taking on competition when it sets out to do so.

In 1985, when your first Summit met, no one had even heard of Infosys or Wipro, no one had imagined that an Indian would become the Steel Czar of the world, no one had imagined that a Telco car would compete with Japanese cars.

We now have a track record of success in some vital areas to feel confident that we can replicate these success stories in other sectors. Why should we then be gripped by diffidence? Why should we still live in fear of globalisation? The experience of the past two decades should give us ample confidence, it should give us courage, it should make us bolder, it should make us think big.

That sense of confidence must reflect itself in bolder initiatives. It must encourage us to be more open and less controlled. It must give us confidence to pursue change in areas where we have shied away from change. Be it in urban governance, be it in rural marketing, be it about labour laws.

We need growth, we need jobs, we need incomes, we need security. The India we dream of will provide for this. Our government is determined to fashion such an India. I am sure all of you will join in this new voyage of enterprise and creativity. If not, history will judge us harshly for not making bold to make it.”

Philippines can grow like India, says ABN Amro (http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=82407)
By Doris Dumlao
INQ7.net, Philippines
Last updated 07:06am (Mla time) 08/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Can the Philippines replicate India’s phenomenal growth? It’s possible, says Dutch banking giant ABN Amro.

Irene Cheung, head for Asia local markets of ABN Amro, said in a recent research presentation that the Philippines was benefiting from a current account surplus and a positive balance of payments surplus due mainly to strong remittances from overseas Filipinos.

The Philippines hit a record surplus of $5 billion in the balance of payments as of July, as more foreign exchange came in than went out in the first seven months.

She said the favorable BoP position was reminiscent of India’s surplus primarily due to software service exports.

The current account, a major component of the BOP, includes the inflow from the export of goods and services.

Cheung also noted the Philippines’ improving capital account, fueled by foreign direct investments and portfolio inflow -- which were seen as analogous to India’s capital inflow.

Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo of the central bank, who had meetings with ABN Amro, said the Dutch bank had pledged to bring in more foreign investments.

“India is a big, promising, emerging market. They see the Philippines in the same light,” Guinigundo said.

Even on the business process outsourcing market, Guinigundo said the country was not far behind India.

“In terms of volume, they are bigger, but on a person-to-person basis, we’re comparable,” he said.

But ABN Amro said the strong BoP inflows to the region were a big challenge to Asian central banks.

The bank noted that foreign exchange intervention was not being “fully sterilized” in some countries, including China, India, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Sterilization refers to a central bank’s mopping up of excess funds pumped into the economy.

Politics Is the New Star of India’s Classrooms (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/world/asia/15india.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin)
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
New York Times, United States
Published: August 15, 2007

NEW DELHI, Aug. 14 — Quietly, a great upheaval is taking place inside Indian high schools.

A chapter on the Iraq invasion. Rote learning is giving way to critical thinking.
For the first time, the messy brawl that is modern Indian politics, including some of its ugliest and most controversial episodes, is being taught in political science class. It is part of a broader revision of the school curriculum, with potentially long-lasting implications for how Indian children grasp the workings of their nation and its place in the world.

Using cartoons, newspaper clippings and questions that invite classroom debate on thorny contemporary issues, the new curriculum comes at a time when democracy has firmly rooted itself in Indian soil and is indeed one of the nation’s principal selling points as it tries to assert itself in the world. India marks the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain on Wednesday.

“Sixty years after independence, it’s a statement of maturity of Indian democracy,” said Yogendra Yadav, one of the two chief advisers to the political science textbook committee. “This couldn’t have been written 30 years after independence. This probably couldn’t have been written 15 years ago.”

Shikha Chhabra, 16, offered an example from her new 12th-grade textbook, “Contemporary World Politics.”

She said she had always been taught that the nonaligned movement, in which India played a leading role during the cold war years and countries carved out at least a rhetorical policy of independence from both the Soviet Union and the United States, was “a wonderful thing.” The new textbook, she noticed, treats it differently. “Now they raise the question — does the nonaligned movement really apply in the world today? Was it just fence-sitting?”

She decided that it no longer applied, joining a contemporary hue and cry among politicians and political observers in this country about the merits of India’s new friendship with the United States. The class had a rich debate about the pros and cons of aligning with the Americans. It came during a chapter called “U.S. Hegemony in World Politics.”

“You do question what India’s strategy should be,” Ms. Chhabra said.

Her teacher, Abha Malik, head of the political science department at the Sanskriti School here, pounded on the textbook, which the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government agency, rolled out four months ago for both public and private schools. “You can’t have a regular, regular class with this,” she said, beaming. “This book won’t let you sit still.”

In a country where rote learning has prevailed even at the most elite schools, the new emphasis on critical thinking signals a major shift in pedagogy. More striking is the substance of the new curriculum. Before, the emphasis in political science was on political theory. “This is realpolitik,” Ms. Malik said.

The Indian politics textbook, for instance, mentions several highly controversial political events of the recent past, from emergency rule under former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s to the attacks on Muslims in Gujarat just five years ago.

Chapter Four asks students to “identify two aspects of India’s foreign policy that you would like to retain and two you would like to change,” with supporting reasons.

The last chapter asks the class to trace the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., which is the country’s principal opposition party today, since the emergency era.

“Basically political science taught you everything except politics; it was considered too risky,” Mr. Yadav said. “I thought my task is to get students to think critically, to begin to question everything, to develop a healthy respect for democracy, not by worshiping it but looking at it squarely.”

In contemporary India, revising school curriculums is a political ritual in which ideologies of left and right compete. The closest analogy may be the debate over creationism in American education. Governments of the day, whether left or right, have sought to change them to suit their beliefs. The B.J.P., which led a coalition government until 2004, sought to revise Indian history texts to remove what it called leftist bias. It drew howls of protest from critics. Not surprisingly, its successor, led by the Congress Party, initiated its own changes.

Its new textbooks have drawn remarkably little protest since they were introduced into classrooms, probably because Delhi’s most influential political players have not yet read them. But the very notion of teaching contemporary politics makes some uncomfortable. Recent events are simply too “surcharged” to be taught dispassionately, said Swapan Dasgupta, a conservative columnist and the father of an 11th grader. That is especially true, he argued, considering that post-1947 history was, until recently, rarely broached in class.

“Out of the blue you teach not only something that happened 50 years ago but you teach something that happened five years ago,” Mr. Dasgupta said, adding, “It is going to be politicized.”

The architects of the new textbook insist that this is not a politicized curriculum. For the first time in a politics textbook, they point out, there is mention of emergency rule, the handiwork of Mrs. Gandhi, then prime minister and Congress Party leader. Her party is in power today; her daughter-in-law is the party chief.

Kanti Bajpai, an adviser to the world politics text, described the new curriculum as “forcing” students “to look at what’s going on and why.” Mr. Bajpai, the headmaster of an exclusive boarding school in northern Dehradun town, said, “If you’re serious about active citizenship, you’ve got to do that.”

In Ms. Malik’s classroom on Tuesday, the topic was India’s security strategy. A student presented a brief history of the wars between India and Pakistan. There was discussion of Kashmir, the disputed territory that has led to two wars between the countries.

She quizzed the class on what military capacity India needed with hostile neighbors on its flank. “Nuclear capability,” the class offered. The nonaligned movement came up again. Harkeerat Singh Randhawa, 17, who prefers to be called Harry and aspires to be a diplomat, argued that it was more vital than ever before, with the United States in one corner and China in the other. “You have a new bipolar world,” he told his teacher.

Ms. Malik said she could glean what she called “a new thrust” in education. “This book announces India’s arrival,” she said. “I feel good teaching it.”

Queen congratulates India on 60 years of independence (http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/15/2005420.htm)
ABC Online, Australia
Posted August 15, 2007 09:37:00

Queen Elizabeth II and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have congratulated India on the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain.

In a statement released by the British Foreign Ministry, the Queen told Indian President Prathiba Devisingh Patil that she had "much pleasure in sending you and the people of the Republic of India my very best wishes on the occasion of your 60th anniversary of independence".

"I celebrate the strength of the UK-India relationship. Our history, values and hopes are - and will remain - permanently intertwined," Mr Brown told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Foreign Ministry described improving cultural ties between the two countries, evidenced by the fact that one million people travelled between Britain and India last year.

India at 60: special report
(http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2851536.ece)Since it cast off colonial rule in August 1947, India has become one of the most powerful nations on earth. But what has it sacrificed along the way? Andrew Buncombe goes in search of the Subcontinent's soul
Published: 10 August 2007
Also with this article:
'An example to the world' | Voices of India | India: the timeline

Ten miles south of Delhi, where the dusty scrub has been cleared and replaced by an ocean of quick-setting concrete, India is road-testing a new vision of its future. Gurgaon is a satellite city with endless shopping malls, high-rise apartment blocks and more than one million people. It is also the laboratory for an experiment with global implications.

Sixty years after gaining independence from Britain, the world's largest democracy is at a crossroads. A crucial struggle is taking place over which direction this economically resurgent nation should be taking. It may not be obvious to an outsider, but spend an hour or so in the consumer's dream that is Gurgaon and it becomes abundantly clear where the powerful and aspirational segment of the population has its collective eyes fixed as India stands poised to make the transformation from an impoverished, backward country into a superpower. And it is not on its former colonial master.

Just come away from the heat and the noise of this vast building site and step into the air-conditioned Sahara Mall. By no means the grandest of the shopping emporiums on the chaotic, fume-filled highway known as MG Road, it is already an established magnet to India's newly wealthy middle class. There are fashion shops, department stores, jewellers, sports stores selling Nike, there is a cinema on the top level showing Bollywood and Hollywood hits. Most interesting is a fast-food restaurant that offers cleaned-up versions of Indian street food, with staff dressed in baseball caps and bowling shirts; an idealised Indian interpretation of an idealised American vision of itself.

Whatever modern Britons may think of India, and despite our celebration of the fact that "curry" has become a national dish, it appears India no longer feels the same way about us. Its people are respectful, yes; polite, certainly. But whatever cultural lodestone Britain may once have represented to wealthy Indians, with their love of cricket and regard for English-style public schools, times have changed. Today, they buy into the American Dream instead.

On the top floor, Sandeep Seth and a friend are sipping smoothies. Mr Seth is 28 and works in IT. He is wearing a college-style T-shirt of brushed yellow cotton. Though his job is in another satellite city, Noida, he lives in Gurgaon and makes the 90-mile daily commute. For all his Western looks and habits, Mr Seth appears to resent the suggestion that India is becoming Americanised. Yet asked about what is happening here on MG Road and what it represents for India, he says: "It's the culture changing. There is a change in the mindset. If people go to the US they will bring things back to India. Society cannot be stagnant."

THE FORMAL return of Indian sovereignty took place at midnight on 15 August, 1947, precisely 24 hours after Pakistan, too, had become an independent nation. Two months previously, on 3 June, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, had announced the partition of the Indian Empire, under pressure not just to grant independence but to create both Muslim and Hindu nations.

Hours before independence was returned to India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the man who would serve as the country's first Prime Minister, spoke to the country's Constituent Assembly about what he famously framed as India's " tryst with destiny". "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," he said. "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."

In the years following Partition, when countless thousands on either side of the religious divide were killed and when millions were forced from their homes and made to relocate to the other side of a line that for them existed only on a map, India's politics were dominated by Nehru and his quasi-socialist beliefs. In its foreign policy, India sought to remain neutral from the machinations of the Cold War and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

In economic terms India, in the post-independence period, operated under the so-called "licence raj", a complex system of regulations and bureaucracy established as part of the centrally planned economy. But, confronted with economic crisis at the beginning of the 1990s and the need to attract more foreign investment, the government of Pamulaparthi Rao liberalised the economy by removing many of the restrictions and opening up the country to foreign capital. It was those reforms – initiated in 1991 and which did everything from opening the financial markets to reducing tariffs – which are today credited as the catalyst for India's economic growth.

Not surprisingly, it has been America that has made the most of this liberalisation and become India's dominant trading partner, creating an influence it was not able to lever politically in the previous decades. In both exports and imports, the US is now India's number-one trading partner. While Britain stands in third place, its total trade with India is considerably less than that of the US. Indeed, Britain's largest export to India is scrap metal.

It is not just in terms of trade that the US is proving the dominant influence. In the field of higher education, America long ago eclipsed Britain as the most sought-after destination for undergraduates. Last year US colleges took in 88,000 students and academics, while Britain only managed to secure 20,000. Even Oxford and Cambridge are being forced to compete to attract India's best brains.

At a book launch one recent sweltering evening at the British Council's offices south of Connaught Place, a documentary film-maker who had studied in Britain was bemoaning the fact that her daughter had no interest in following the same path. "She's only interested in going to America," she said. "I'd hoped that she'd want to do the same as me."

The implications of such a shift in the ambitions of smart, young Indians go beyond simply losing the battle to attract the best students to Britain. Students travelling to the US to study, perhaps spending several years there, are inculcated with American culture while they are there. They absorb its politics, its fashions, its tastes, its clothes and music and, of course, its aspirations. They watch its news broadcasts, they listen to Fox News and to CNN. They go shopping at Wal-Mart, or spend time in shopping malls. When they leave they are likely to retain very strong bonds with the country.

"In a nutshell, it's a loss with very long-term consequences," said Frances Cairncross, the rector of Exeter College, Oxford. " Students may stay for a while and contribute their skills and intelligence to our economy [and] when they go home, their cultural and economic links are with the country that educated them. So we will feel the repercussions for a generation to come."

THERE is a new-found vigour about India that sometimes borders on the brash. You can positively sense the optimism and confidence that exists within the middle classes and political élite, a feeling that after all these years of waiting – and with the shackles of colonialism having been thrown off – India's time has finally arrived.

You can detect this in numerous ways. You can see it in the world of publishing and television, in the expansion of India as a retail destination. You even sense it when the shop assistants laugh at you when you opt for a cheap mobile phone rather than the $400 model they had selected for you. "That's what the rickshawallahs have," they say.

It is apparent in the swagger of politicians such as Kamal Nath, the country's Minister of Commerce and Industry, who declared earlier this year: "We no longer discuss the future of India. We say: 'The future is India.'" One can detect it in the sense of entitlement that imbued the reporting of the recent "123" nuclear technology deal between India and the US.

One of the most powerful indicators of India's transformation is in the world of sport. Recently India learnt that it had been chosen as the latest Asian host for Formula One racing and as a site for the European Golf Tour. In India the move was welcomed as another indication of the country's emergence on to the world stage. "It's a matter of pride for the nation and a big step towards placing India as a true sporting destination," declared Suresh Kalmadi, head of the Indian Olympic Association.

The same was true of the golf tournament. While there was some grumbling from rival organisations, most people involved in the sport were enthusiastic about hosting this event. One afternoon at the prestigious New Delhi Golf Club, where groups of women were preparing to tee off, in (American-style) golf visors, one woman official revealed that female membership had grown from 66 to 220 in two years. "Golf is more than crazy popular here," said Hanisha Daryani. "It's part of the economic boom, it's called the 'India Story'."

All the while India is busily preparing to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, frantically building new facilities and giving Delhi a facelift that has even extended to new hygiene laws for street vendors out of a fear that the country's international sporting visitors will fall foul of "Delhi belly ". When Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, suggested that India's bid to host the Asian games of 2014 would do little to help the country's ordinary citizens, there was outcry. When India lost out to the South Korean city of Incheon, Aiyar was branded a traitor. " There is a segment of Indian society which is extremely rich and which wishes to see itself in the international league," Aiyar later told me. " I wish to see all the people of India benefit rather than just a segment of our people."

Many Westerners, especially those whose view of India has been hazily shaped by holidays that have left an overwhelming impression of India's " spirituality", may be surprised by the readiness of large swathes of the public to adopt this new incarnation so readily.

And yet Indians see no problem. In his seminal book Being Indian, The writer Pavan Varma devotes a chapter to the "myth of otherworldliness". " Indians have deliberately promoted an otherwordly image," he writes. " They've always had a down-to-earth relish for the materialistic world. Far from being disdainful of the temptations of money and wealth, they have consistently given value to these goals."

It is an important lesson. Varma explains there is nothing in Hinduism that ideologically leads a follower to reject the material world for the spiritual. "Contrary to the notion that Indians are 'spiritual', they are really 'material-minded'," he adds. "They are materialists, believing in substance. There is a continuity, a constant flow of substance from context to context, from non-self to self – in eating, breathing, sex, sensation, perception, thought, art or religious experience."

AND YET for all the swagger one encounters and for all the rapacious consumerism on display, the talk of India having transformed itself into a superpower is, at least for the time being, somewhat overdone.

No one should doubt that the gains made by India's economy, currently growing at around 9 per cent a year, are not genuine and that they will not have an impact that changes the world order. Already India's place in the list of world economies is shifting. Two years ago its economy joined the world's top 10 and earlier this year a report by the investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted that within a decade it will surpass that of Italy, France and the UK to become the fifth largest. The report said that if current trends continue, the Indian economy will by mid-century have overtaken that of the US as well, leaving it second only to China.

But alongside these achievements, India is facing considerable problems as it seeks to emulate the US or even eclipse its superpower status. From a purely logistical perspective, the most serious of these is a shortfall in the infrastructure required to support its vision for the future.

This shortfall is apparent in many frustrating ways: in the water shortages and electrical power-cuts that befall even the biggest cities during the summer months, in the roads so clogged with traffic that it takes for ever to travel even a few miles and which become all but impassable during heavy rains. An investigation published by Business Week magazine included an assessment from Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal planning commission, who has estimated that losses from congestion and poor roads cost India $6bn a year.

All the international companies that have come to India have realised the only way to ensure they can operate is to establish private campuses in cities such as Bangalore and Gurgaon, away from the local infrastructure, and with their own power and water supplies.

Others use planes to provide parts and materials to their factories or assembly plants, saying it is economically unviable to rely on the country's road haulage system. The same is said of the ports. And despite these provisions and despite the country's resource of a well-educated, English-speaking workforce, India's logistical capacity is so inadequate that many companies are opting for alternative countries in which to locate their plants. "We believe in manufacturing in India, but we don't believe in logistics in India – yet," said Wim Elfrink, Cisco Systems' chief globalisation officer.

Anyone taking to the skies in India receives as powerful an insight that exists into the inability of India's infrastructure to keep up with the demands of its middle class. In recent years a flood of new, cheap airlines such as Kingfisher, Sahara and Jet have started flying, based on the low-frills operations that revolutionised air travel in Europe. Journeys that once took several days by train can now be made in a couple of hours and the operation of the airlines themselves is sleek and efficient.

But recently flying has become increasingly less pleasant. Insufficient runway space, air-traffic controllers and more, mean that planes are often late taking off and are routinely required to circle before landing, wasting countless gallons of fuel and disrupting schedules.

THERE is another side to all of this. Not everyone agrees upon the future India should be taking, with the consumerist-driven project taking place in Gurgaon, with its malls and the pastel-coloured apartment complexes that come with names such as Beverley Park and an unspoken promise to satisfy every resident's aspirational dreams.

Many point out that while India's new middle-class may total two or three hundred million people, it is still only a portion of the country's population. Only a tiny percentage is employed by the much-celebrated technology sector. Most powerfully, while the statistics are hotly debated, there are clear indications that the gap between the new middle-class and the poor is getting bigger and that inequality has grown. The vigorous new India is only for some. Indeed, the reality is that hundreds of millions of Indians live in grindingly desperate poverty.

In a nation of 1.1 billion people, at least 300 million live below the official poverty line of $2 a day. Many millions more live close to this line. The adult literacy rate is around 61 per cent. Life expectancy stands at 64, while the under-five child-mortality rate is 57 per 1,000, though in rural areas the figure is closer to 62 per thousand. There is a widespread problem of child labour.

The Hindustan Times recently ran a series of articles which claimed that one in six Indians lived in an area of armed insurgency. Many of these struggles are decades old, but is it possible that some recruits to the cause are driven there as a result of the growing disparity within Indian society?

"I think these are signs of a lack of inclusion, that people do not feel involved with what is happening," said M J Akbar, a veteran journalist and editor-in-chief of The Asian Age newspaper.

Others have pointed out the environmental costs of the economic transformation. In many cities the roads, already desperately over-crowded, are becoming ludicrously clogged with new, affordable cars. In Delhi alone, the number of new vehicles being registered grows by 16 per cent every year. The implications in terms of C02 emissions and the battle for global resources are vast as India and its 1.1 billion people seek to emulate the lifestyle of the West – a lifestyle that on average consumes 26 times more energy.

In a 2005 interview with Reuters, the writer and activist Arundhati Roy said while thousands of farmers were committing suicide because they couldn't feed their families, people were too distracted by the pursuit of economic growth to think about the impact of growing cash crops such as soya beans, peanuts and sugar cane which use up scarce water resources.

"Even if you know what is going on, you can't help thinking India is this cool place now, Bollywood is 'in' and all of us have mobile phones," she said. "There is no understanding whatsoever of what price is being paid by the rivers and mountains and irrigation and ground water, there is no questioning of that because we are on a roll."

She continued: "The idea of turning one billion people into consumers is a terrifying one. Are you going to starve to death dreaming of a mobile phone or are you going to have control of the resources that are available to you and have been for generations, but have been taken away so that someone else can have a mobile phone?"

In the run-up to next Wednesday's anniversary, I sought out the wisdom of experience. Sir Mark Tully was the BBC's bureau chief in India for 22 years and has been honoured by the Indian state. Tully Sahib, as he is generally referred to, lives in a flat close to the site of a magnificent Mughal tomb that glowed in the early evening light. Though he resigned as a BBC correspondent a decade ago, he continues to work as a presenter for Radio 4 and is the author of many books about India, the country of his birth.

In his most recent book, India's Unending Journey, Tully talks a lot about the issue of "growth". He concludes that while growth is important to help the poorest emerge from poverty, growth by itself is not enough. Furthermore, he argues the growth must be suited to India's needs and requirements rather than the pressures of the globalised economy.

Tully, dressed in a long, mauve kurta, said that despite the creation of a consumer-orientated middle class, he was not persuaded that Indians had been entirely transformed. "Scratch below the surface and you will still find there is still [a lot] of spirituality – even among those going to the shopping malls," he said.

Asked about India's future, Tully chose to recall a conversation – included in his latest book – with Ravi Venkatesan, the chairman of Microsoft India. Over lunch at the company's Gurgaon offices, Venkatesan showed Tully a computerised diagram that the industrialist believed represented India's options.

The diagram showed a crossroads with arrows leading to three different elephants. The arrow leading to one elephant rose and then fell dramatically; this was the future if India continued on its current path of rapid growth that only helped a minority of people. Another arrow pointed downwards, with an elephant slipping in free fall; this was India's future if the entire global economy came to a halt.

The third elephant – its tail up in sprightly fashion – was balancing the globe on its trunk; it represented "India First" . Tully was told that this could be the outcome if everyone put the nation first, " determined that the entire country should benefit from its development".

'AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD'

By Simon Usborne

"There can be no question of coercing any large areas in which one community has a majority to live against their will under a government in which another community has a majority. And the only alternative to coercion is Partition."

Delivered on 3 June 1947, those were the words of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, as he announced the end of 163 years of British rule, and the cleaving of the subcontinent into two.

A month later, Britain announced that Partition would take place at midnight on 14-15 August. By that time, trouble was already brewing along the arbitrary line designed to protect India's minority Muslim population by creating the northern dominion of Pakistan. Hurriedly drawn up by Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had little knowledge of India and using out-of-date maps and census materials, the line divided communities and left tens of millions of Hindus and Muslims in the "wrong" country. The states of Punjab and Bengal would be cut in half.

On 13 August, just over 24 hours before Partition, the Associated Press reported from Punjab's capital Lahore on the state's "bloodiest orgy of violence in five months of communal rioting". On that day alone, one Lahore hospital reported the deaths of 99 Sikhs and Hindus in knife attacks and six Muslims killed by military and police.

In Karachi the following morning, as Mountbatten and the new governor general of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, addressed the newly formed Pakistani Constituent Assembly in the first of two independence ceremonies, the mood was one of jubilation. Watched by millions on newsreels and thousands lining the streets outside Government House, Mountbatten read a message from King George VI: "I send you my greeting and warmest wishes on this great occasion... In thus achieving your independence by agreement, you have set an example to the freedom-loving peoples throughout the world." In reply, Jinnah assured the world that he would work to preserve peace.

Immediately after the ceremony, Lord and Lady Mountbatten flew to Delhi, where the next day, 15 August, hundreds of thousands of Hindus thronged the streets awaiting their own hour of liberation. The ceremony began at 11pm in the State Council building, where the new Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, said: "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will wake up to life and freedom."

As the dignitaries left the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage, carefully laid plans for celebrations were dashed as delirious crowds broke through police cordons in a near-riot. Elsewhere, thousands rejoiced as they filed out of radio shops, where they had listened to Nehru's independence speech.

But, as many cheered, reports from other areas told of growing unrest. Learning of Partition just weeks earlier, many Indians were still on the move as some 10 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fled their homes to cross the newly drawn border. Moving in caravans sometimes 70 miles long, entire columns of refugees were attacked and sometimes slaughtered, while trainloads of migrants were killed, their bodies sometimes horribly disfigured. The number of people killed in the exodus is still unknown, but many historians put it at about one million.

Lord Mountbatten, who immediately became governor-general of the new Dominion of India, was rewarded with an earldom on his return to London for his part in "expertly managing" Britain's retreat from India.

VOICES OF INDIA

Interviews by Peter Popham

Patwant Singh, Sikh historian, based in Delhi:

I was 22 at the time of Partition. Our dreams were of a proud, free, republican India with a democracy, and the ghosts and demons left behind. But, 60 years on, the demons have taken the place of our dreams – religious bigotry, corruption, increasing polarisation in society. We say we are going to be a global power: it is now 6.20pm, and the electricity went off in the whole of Delhi at 4.10pm. We talk about a trip to the Moon, together with the Americans, but a poor man can't even afford to take a bicycle rickshaw to the hospital.

My new book, just published, is called The Second Partition, which is the polarisation between the 200 million with money and the 800 million below that. And the people at the bottom don't have a thing. That is the Second Partition. The Maoist-inspired Naxalite movement began as a movement of protest 40 years ago in West Bengal, but it has resurfaced and is now present in 14 out of 28 Indian states – desperation is driving people to violence, even in states that were highly prosperous, like Punjab, where more and more desperate farmers are committing suicide. Out of 12.5 million people in Delhi, five million are homeless: this is the reality on the ground.

Urvashi Butalia, author and publisher, founder of Kali for Women publishing house:

India and Pakistan have continued to rehearse the rhetoric of enmity for so long, we are still in the shadow of Partition. Until 10 or 15 years ago there was a tremendous reluctance to talk about the subject, and about people's personal histories of Partition. We tried to pretend they weren't there, because it was the dark side of Independence. But in the past 10 years people have begun to talk about it, and the same thing has happened across the border. It is helping us to deal with the hurt and move on. Because it forces us to recognise that there weren't bad guys and victims, that all of us were complicit in what happened.

I didn't realise until recently but my book, The Other Side of Silence , more than 70 interviews with survivors of Partition, acted as a catalyst for change and continues to do so. Both sides have convinced themselves that the violence came from the other side, but it's not so. It is most difficult to accept that it really came from you. You have to confront that so you can move on. It's easy for Hindus to say those Muslims killed our women but it's not that simple.

My family was from Lahore, now in Pakistan. Some of us had already moved before Partition but my mother's brother, who was aged 20, decided to stay behind and he kept my grandmother back. We all left but we didn't get compensation because we still had the house in Lahore. My uncle converted to Islam – he was not religious so to him it didn't matter, but he also forced my grandmother to convert and she was a very strong Hindu. She eventually died in 1956 and none of us ever heard from her after Partition. There was no family contact of any kind for 40 years.

Then in 1984 during the massacre of Sikhs that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi I realised what Partition must have been like – I had known Delhi all my life but suddenly it became a different city and I was horrified. I took down the testimony of people who were applying for compensation and so many people said, 'It's like Partition,' and that was what made me want to find out more.

So in 1987 I crossed the border into Pakistan and went to my uncle's house. He was very warm and welcoming. He said he had never been able to talk to anyone about what had happened. And being a convert and living in the same place he was marginalised. But things have improved a lot in the past few years; slowly we are putting it behind us.

Ranbir Vohra, Indian historian:

I was working for All-India Radio just before Independence, based in Lahore. Most of the Hindu staff had already shifted to Delhi but the Muslim staff had yet to arrive, and for several days I and one or two others were running the station alone, getting it ready to prepare for Pakistan Day – the independence of Pakistan. One of our jobs was to go out and get some poems written, patriotically celebrating Pakistan Day – there were plenty of patriotic Indian poems but no Pakistan ones so we had to commission them, then they had to be set to music and sung for the radio. But all the Hindu and Sikh singers had already gone to Delhi so we had to go and find the professional singers, who were regarded more or less as courtesans to sing these new songs.

That was my contribution to Pakistani independence. But there was such confusion, nobody knew what was going on. I went from my home to the radio station passing dead bodies on the street, burning houses, by the time I finally left, a couple of days before independence, much of old Lahore was on fire. But you had to carry on.

INDIA: THE TIMELINE

1600: The British East India Company is granted a royal charter by Elizabeth I, giving it a trade monopoly.

1639: The British East India Company gains permission from local rulers to create a trading post in Madras.

1658: Aurangzeb becomes the ruler of the Mughal Empire. In his 49-year reign, he will conquer India as well as parts of what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

1661: The group of islands known as Bombay is handed over to British rule as part of a dowry for Charles II's wife.

1668: Bombay is leased to the British East India Company for £10 per annum.

1751: The capture and subsequent defence of Arcot in the Vellore district by Robert Clive and 500 men marks the turning point for the British Empire in its battle for control of India with the French.

1756: The Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, of Bengal, captures Calcutta and imprisons the surviving British in a prison that became known as the "Black Hole of Calcutta".

1757: The British East India Company defeat the French-supported Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey, giving the British control of the region.

1773: The British Parliament passes an Act that stresses its ultimate control over the British East India Company.

1803: Britain captures Delhi.

1806: In what some see as the first example of a mutiny against the British, Indian sepoys attack the British East India Company's garrison in Vellore.

1818: The British East India Company defeats the Maratha Empire.

1853: The first passenger railway in India opens between Bombay and Thane.

1858: The running of India is taken over by the British government after the failed Indian mutiny. It marks the end of the British East India Company's rule.

1869: Mahatma Gandhi is born.

1885: The Indian National Congress is created with the aim of gaining a larger role for Indians in the running of India.

1911: New Delhi is founded by the British and chosen to replace Calcutta as India's capital city.

1919: The Massacre of Amritsar occurs when British troops fire on unarmed Indian protesters.

1920: As a result of the massacre, Gandhi launches the peaceful Non-Cooperation Movement by calling for Indians to stop supporting British rule without resorting to violence.

1922: Gandhi is imprisoned by the British after he ends the Non-Cooperation Movement as it descends into violence.

1942: The Indian National Congress launches the Quit India Movement, which threatens the British government with civil disobedience unless they grant India independence.

1947: India gains independence as Britain withdraws and creates Pakistan as a separate state.

1947: War breaks out between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

1948: Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.

1952: India's first general elections are comprehensively won by the Congress Party of India.

1962: Conflict between India and China over boundary disputes.

1965: Kashmir is again the cause of conflict between India and Pakistan before the UN intervenes.

1971: India and Pakistan go to war over the independence of Bangladesh.

1971: India signs a pact with the Soviet Union.

1974: India conducts its first nuclear test.

1975: The Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, is found guilty of electoral corruption but refuses to resign.

1984: The Gold Temple in Amritsar, being used as a refuge by Sikh separatists, is raided by the Indian army.

1984: Indira Gandhi, in her second spell as prime minister, is assassinated in New Delhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

1987: Indian troops are sent to Sri Lanka on a peacekeeping mission.

1988: Millions of Indians are displaced by floods.

1990: The Indian army withdraws from Sri Lanka.

1998: The international community condemns India after it conducts nuclear tests without warning.

2000: India's census commission announces that the population has reached one billion.

2001: More than 20,000 people are killed by an earthquake in the Indian province of Gujarat.

2001: America lifts sanctions on India and Pakistan put in place after nuclear testing.

2002: War between India and Pakistan looms as Pakistan responds to India's testing of nuclear-capable missiles with tests of its own.

2003: India and Pakistan agree a ceasefire in Kashmir.

2004: The Asian tsunami kills thousands in coastal areas.

2006: A bomb in Mumbai kills 187 train passengers; police blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan.

2007: A train from New Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan is bombed, killing 68; many were Pakistanis.

Knowledge @Wharton
Will Growth Slow Corruption In India? (http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/2007/08/15/wipro-tata-corruption-ent-law-cx_kw_0814whartonindia.html)
Knowledge@Wharton 08.15.07, 10:18 AM ET

Now that India is playing an ever larger role in the world economy, the issue of corruption, in both the private and public sectors, is coming into sharper focus. Two scenarios are possible: As India's multinational corporations develop both economic and political muscle, they may act as a broom, sweeping corruption from the economic sphere.

On the other hand, entrenched practices may prove the stronger force, and corruption could end up being a significant brake on India's economic rise.

The License Raj and the Spoils System

One strand in the knot of corruption is the legacy of the License Raj, which ended in the early 1990s. The system created bureaucracies that were all but self-perpetuating. In a context where government workers were routinely underpaid, graft became an industry all its own. Civil servants were, and remain, anything but disinterested administrators.
Wharton management professor Jitendra Singh and Ravi Ramamurti, professor of international business at Northeastern University, have been studying the emergence of multinational corporations in emerging economies such as India. In late June, they organized a conference on this topic in Boston; the conference's papers will form the core of an edited volume which is planned for publication in 2008.

"In the bad old days," Singh said in an interview, "particularly pre-1991, when the License Raj held sway, and by design, all kinds of free market mechanisms were hobbled or stymied, and corruption emerged almost as an illegitimate price mechanism, a shadowy quasi-market, such that scarce resources could still be allocated within the economy, and decisions could get made.

"Of course, this does not in any way condone the occurrence of such corruption. The shameful part of all this was that while value was captured by some people at the expense of others, it did not go to those who created the value, as it should in a fair and equitable system."

The real failing, he said, "was a distortion of incentives within the economy, such that people began expending efforts toward fundamentally unproductive behaviors because they saw that such behaviors could lead to short-term gains. Thus, cultivating those in positions of power who could bestow favors became more important than coming up with an innovative product design. The latter was not as important, anyway, because most markets were closed to foreign competition--automobiles, for example--and if you had a product, no matter how uncompetitive compared to global peers', it would sell.

"These were largely distortions created by the politico-economic regime. While a sea change has occurred in the years following 1991, some of the distorted cultural norms that took hold during the earlier period are slowly being repaired by the sheer forces of competition. The process will be long and slow, however. It will not change overnight."

The costs of corruption are manifest in various parts of the economy. Inadequate infrastructure, of course, is widely recognized as a serious impediment to India's advancement. Producing valuable goods is of limited utility if they cannot be transported in a timely fashion, for example. Transparency International estimates that Indian truckers pay something in the neighborhood of $5 billion annually in bribes to keep freight flowing. "Corruption is a large tax on Indian growth," Ramamurti said in an interview after the conference. "It delays execution, raises costs and destroys the moral fiber."

Corruption also cripples the effort to ameliorate poverty in India and to improve the country's stock of "human capital." The rate at which this happens varies tremendously from region to region. Edward Luce, for example, author of In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, notes that "Rates of theft vary widely from state to state in India, with the better states, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, getting more than 80% of subsidized government food to their poor. Meanwhile, in the northern state of Bihar, India's second poorest with a population of 75 million, more than 80% of the food is stolen."

Indian MNC's as Change Agents

"A few Indian companies," Ramamurti said, "such as the Tata group or Wipro, have taken the high road, but most firms find it impossible to get anything done without greasing palms." Wipro, headed by Azim Premji, is India's third-biggest global tech services provider (behind Tata Consultancy Services (other-otc: TACSF (http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=TACSF) - news (http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=TACSF)- people (http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=TACSF)) and Infosys).

In Bangalore Tiger: How Indian Tech Upstart Wipro Is Rewriting the Rules of Global Competition, business journalist Steve Hamm writes that "Wipro is not just a company, it's a quest." That quest, according to some observers, is as much about moral rectitude as it is about business success. For example, according to Hamm, the company pays no bribes and has a zero tolerance policy for corruption.

"The paradox," Ramamurti said, "is that even though India's faster growth in recent years is the result of fewer government controls, most Indian managers would tell you that corruption has increased, not decreased, in tandem.

"How could this be? The explanation is that faster growth has created new choke points at which politicians and bureaucrats can extract payments, such as land regulation, spectrum allocation or college admissions--all of which have become much more valuable in [this century]. Faster growth has also raised the economic cost to firms of delays in public approvals, giving officials that much more 'hold-up' leverage over private investors."

The Benefits of an Open Society

One of the inevitable comparisons in any story on rapidly developing economies is that between India and China. China has endured a spate of bad news in recent months regarding the impact of corruption and shoddy oversight on the quality of exported products--from cold medication that killed dozens of people in Latin America to toxic toothpaste to children's toys coated in lead-based paint.

If China's initial response was to attempt to characterize much of this as a Western conspiracy against Chinese products and businesses, officials were rather quickly goaded into taking serious action. In July, the government executed Zheng Xiaoyu, who headed China's State Food and Drug Administration from 1997 to 2006.

"The good news in India, compared with China," said Ramamurti, "may be that at least the most egregious forms of corruption are exposed by social activists or the media." A more open society, by definition, provides more avenues for oversight, more empowered constituencies to ferret out and disseminate the truth when things go wrong.

"One big difference," Singh added, "comes in the form of the legal system. In India, a firm can sue the government and win, which may not be as easy in China. Also, the public at large is much more vocal and active in India. Any group can file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against a firm, which will frequently get heard in court.

"Also, it is the case that corporate governance is stronger in India, on average, due to better disclosure and Securities and Exchange Board of India regulatory guidelines. This [is true] even though there are some fine Chinese firms, and some quite poorly governed Indian firms."

Singh ticked off a quick list of additional cultural factors that are to India's advantage: "A fierce--arguably sometimes to the point of being irresponsible--media, both the press and TV; a legal system descended from British Common Law like the U.S. which, while hardly perfect, does work reasonably well; [the existence of] certain rights ... such as freedom of speech; strong links with the global economy through, though not solely due to, the non-resident Indian (NRI) community which provides global exposure; and a facility with English which makes for easier integration into the global economy."

As in other countries, however, there is the nagging problem of money corrupting the electoral process and thereby short circuiting, or at least slowing, reform. "The business community and the public at large would welcome a reduction in corruption," Ramamurti said, "but neither believes this will come to pass. Corruption is endemic in daily life, from things minor to major, and it has become the primary means of funding election campaigns."

"The really serious problem here," Singh stated, "is that the prevalence of corruption in the Indian economy may well have distorted cultural norms within the society. Yet I am also aware of countervailing forces, so I do not want to overstate the case.

"But to the extent that change in cultural norms will be needed to root out corruption, it will take a persistent, long, drawn-out effort. While economic change is easier to achieve, cultural change is much slower and more difficult. This is compounded by the rearguard actions of those who are beneficiaries of the status quo."

Some Improvement; Some Distance Yet to Go

Transparency International monitors corruption globally and puts out an annual report which it refers to as the Global Corruption Barometer. The most recent figures from 2006 provide an interesting perspective on how Indians see progress in the area of corruption.

"Indians report a substantial reduction in the perceived level of corruption in a number of sectors," according to the most recent report. "Improvements encompass education, the legal system/judiciary, media, parliament/legislature and utilities.

"It should be noted, however, that Indian respondents still indicate that the majority of sectors highlighted are significantly affected by corruption. These improvements should therefore be understood as a positive sign of progress, but not an indication that the problem of corruption has been solved."

How much is left to be done? Some three out of four Indian respondents, on the question of the degree to which their government is fighting corruption, answered that the government was either "not effective," "does not fight at all" or "actually encourages" corruption.

Where does business fit into this? Asked to rate the impact of corruption on various spheres of their lives--on a scale of one to four, from "not at all" to "to a large extent"--Indians identified "political life" as the sphere most significantly impacted (2.9), and personal and family life as the least impacted (2.3).They put the business environment squarely in the middle (2.6).

What institutions are respected? Rating the impact of corruption on different sectors and institutions (on a scale of one to five, from "not at all corrupt" to "extremely corrupt"), Indians identified "political parties" (4.2) and "police" (4.3) as the most corrupt institutions, with business again near the middle (3.2). The least corrupt institution? The military, at 1.9.

Always with us (http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9643312)
The Economist, UK
Aug 15th 2007

The intractability of South Asian poverty

AS IT marks the 60th anniversary of its independence this week India has much to celebrate: a booming economy, unprecedented international attention and respect, and a mood of national self-confidence bordering on euphoria. But loud is the jarring note struck by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). It says in a new report that 863m Indians—just over three-quarters of the population—live on less than 20 rupees a day, the equivalent of about 50 American cents.

NCEUS’s chairman, Arjun Sengupta, an admired economist with clout in the ruling Congress party, freely admits there is nothing new in the figures. They do not contradict government claims that poverty has fallen sharply: but the government sets the poverty line lower still, at an income of around 12 rupees a day. Some 260m people are poor even by that measure, though their number has dropped by 79m since 1977.

The report is a startling reminder of how far India has to go in eradicating poverty. One-quarter of the world’s malnourished live there, and they include more than 40% of all Indian children under five. Some 92% of workers toil in what is euphemistically called the “unorganised” or “informal” sector—as agricultural labourers, in unregulated factories or in hand-to-mouth services such as road-side stalls, with few legal rights.

NCEUS represents their interests, and its stark way of presenting the data is designed to strengthen its plea for the introduction of a rudimentary social-security system. With India's economy roaring ahead at an average rate of more than 8.5% for the past four years, national savings rising and the government’s budget deficit shrinking, now is a timely moment to put the case.

To his credit, Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, has never allowed pride in India’s economic gains to distract him from the needs of the poor. In virtually every important speech—including his latest national day oration from the Red Fort in Delhi—he has drawn attention to the plight of the India that feels left behind.

And at least India as a whole is moving in the right direction. Surprisingly, that seems less true of Pakistan and Bangladesh. According to the Asian Development Bank’s “key indicators”, these are the only countries in Asia where the poorest one-fifth of the population is worse off than it was a decade ago.

Bangladesh, for all its troubles, is seen as a country that does well by its poorest. It is often compared favourably in this regard with many parts of India. In Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, the president, has many critics for his failure to allow democratic competition. But he is praised for allowing his prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, a former international banker, to get on with running the economy sensibly.

Pakistan has had some advantages: a textiles industry that invested heavily for the ending of the international quota regime at the beginning of 2005, and has done well since; a surge in remittances from expatriate Pakistanis after counter-terrorism measures led to the drying up of the unofficial channels by which they used to send money home; above all, billions of dollars in American aid in return for Pakistan’s pledges to help fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The stockmarket has boomed, the economy has grown rapidly. Yet, according to the ADB, not only are the poorest worse off than a decade ago, but Pakistan, alone in Asia, has seen a slight rise over that same period in the number living on less than a dollar a day. The implied misery and rising inequality is another big source of pressure on General Musharraf. Pakistan's official birthday precedes India by one day. It had a big show in Islamabad. But it had much less to celebrate.

Prime Minister Says India Will Not Be Totally Independent Until Poverty Eliminated (http://voanews.com/english/2007-08-15-voa6.cfm)
By Steve Herman
Voice of America
15 August 2007

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for the 1.1 billion Indians of all castes and religions to unite to fulfill the goals of those who led India to independence in 1947. VOA's Steve Herman reports from New Delhi on India's independence anniversary.

In a ceremony inside the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, India marked the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain.

A chorus of schoolchildren leads a crowd of political leaders, government officials and diplomats in singing the national anthem.

In front of the crowd stood Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, wearing his trademark powder-blue turban.

In a 40-minute address, Mr. Singh lamented that not all the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi and others who won the struggle to end colonialism have been realized.

Mr. Singh says independence for India will not be complete until poverty is eradicated in the country.

He called for India to eliminate malnutrition in five years and vowed a revolution in education with greater access to new universities and vocational schools.

Mr. Singh announced there would be a massive increase in public spending on education, health care, agriculture and rural development.

He added that industrialization would be the most effective means to expand employment.

Despite a booming economy and a growing middle class, one of every four Indians lives below the poverty line, 40 percent are illiterate and most do not have adequate health care.

Celebrations in the capital took place under extremely tight security, with roads virtually deserted on the national holiday. Officials say there have been fresh threats against New Delhi from the al-Qaida terrorist network and indigenous separatist groups.

The prime minister did not directly mention India's rival Pakistan, although Mr. Singh said that the prosperity and well-being of its neighbors is key to India's security and progress.

When India became independent in August 1947, a separate predominately Muslim state was carved out of the sub-continent. The division prompted a violent migration of millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

Pakistan celebrated its independence on Tuesday.

Mr. Singh on Tuesday received a telephone call from President Bush to extend best wishes for the independence anniversary.

The government says the two leaders discussed a variety of topics, including civil nuclear cooperation, under a recent agreement that would allow India to use American nuclear fuel for civilian facilities.

India: 60 and getting sexier (http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/402810.htm)
Elizabeth Roche
iAfrica, South Africa
Wed, 15 Aug 2007

India celebrated on Wednesday six decades as an independent nation, but the prime minister warned against over-confidence from the booming economy and laid out tough challenges ahead.

In a speech from the ramparts of the capital's 17th-century Red Fort, Singh lauded India's democracy as its greatest achievement.

"The success of a secular democracy in a nation of a billion people with such diversity is viewed with admiration," he said from behind a bulletproof shield and a tight security cordon.

Brink of becoming a superpower

"The best is yet to come," Singh predicted, riding a wave of optimism that India is on the threshold of becoming a superpower.

"However, we must not be over-confident," he said. "We have a long a march ahead."

Despite the economy growing at nine percent, the prime minister pointed to poverty, the "national shame" of malnutrition, unemployment, agrarian strife, civil unrest and sectarian divide.

"We need at least a decade of hard work and of sustained growth to realise our dreams. We have to bridge the many divides in our society and work with a unity of purpose," Singh said.

To bolster the ailing agriculture sector, he confirmed $6-billion would be invested in agriculture.

India's rain-dependent agriculture sector is growing at less than a quarter the pace of the overall economy. It contributes a fifth of economic output and provides a livelihood for two-thirds of the population.

Education revolution needed

Singh also called for a revolution in education and pledged to set up a pension scheme and improve healthcare. Some 6000 new schools would be set up, he said.

"Poverty eradication is now a feasible goal," Singh said, adding that rapid industrialisation was the most effective means to create new jobs.

Young urban Indians in an opinion poll echoed some of his views for The Hindustan Times.

Some 52 percent of the 1247 respondents between the ages of 16-25 said they were proud of India's democracy.

"Young and rocking — this is the popular image of India as it begins celebrating its 60th birthday as a free nation," the daily said in an editorial.

Sixty and sexy

The Times of India splashed on its front page that India was "60 and getting sexier."

"There's plenty to look forward to. The next 60 years hopefully will be better than the last," the daily said.

The anniversary was marked by tight security with aircraft, combat troops and tens of thousands of security forces deployed after threats by al-Qaeda and separatist rebels.

In the capital, some 70 000 police and paramilitary troops were on duty.

With insurgencies raging from Kashmir to Assam, Singh promised stern action against "hatred and extremism."

He urged Indians to unite against "these anti-democratic, anti-social and anti-national forces."

In restive Kashmir, a strike called by the state's separatist alliance cleared the streets of the summer capital Srinagar and shut all shops and businesses.

Kashmiri militants mark independence as a "black day". Britain's withdrawal from the sub-continent led to the partition of India, the birth of Pakistan and the division of Kashmir between them.

Police said troops on Tuesday shot dead two militants in northern Kashmir's Bandipora town, a day after a grenade killed three people and wounded 19 in the market there.

Police also defused a bomb attached to an Indian flag in southern Banihal town.

Four explosions rocked northeastern Assam state on Wednesday, police said, but no one was reported hurt.

A wave of separatist attacks in Assam has left 36 people dead in the past week.

Indian PM: we have a decade to beat poverty (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2263277.ece)
Jeremy Page, Delhi
From Times Online
August 15, 2007

Manmohan Singh, India’s Prime Minister, led celebrations of the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain today with a vow to free hundreds of millions of Indians from poverty over the next decade.

Standing behind a bullet-proof screen, Mr Singh addressed a crowd of several thousand from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the vast 17th Century palace that was the seat of the Mughal Emperors who ruled India before the British.

He paid tribute to the leaders of India’s independence movement and to the country’s achievements since 1947, especially its recent spurt of economic growth and its vibrant democratic system.

But the focus of his half-hour speech was on the estimated 800 million Indians - mostly living in the countryside - who have been left behind by the last four years of blistering economic growth.

“Sixty years ago the people of India began a new journey as a free nation, inspired by the message and vision of Mahatma Gandhi,” he told the crowd of dignitaries and schoolchildren, many draped in tricolour national flags.

“But Gandhi-ji’s dream of a free India will only be fully realized when we banish poverty from our midst,” he said. “We need at least a decade of hard work and of sustained growth to realize our dreams.”

His speech reflected the mounting pressure on the ruling Congress Party, in power since 2004, to extend the benefits of India’s economic boom beyond the urban middle class ahead of the next general election in 2009.

Market reforms launched by Mr Singh, as Finance Minister, in 1991 have freed India’s private sector from socialist central planning and created a middle class estimated at least 50 million people.

However, corruption and poor governance have prevented the boom from filtering down to the lowest levels of society, where 836 million people live on less than a dollar a day and one in three are illiterate.

Mr Singh paid particular attention to the issue of malnutrition, which a recent government survey showed affects 47 per cent of Indian children between one and three – a higher rate than in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

"The problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame," he said. "I appeal to the nation to resolve and work hard to eradicate malnutrition within five years."

He pledged three billion pounds of investment into agriculture, which supports three quarters of India’s population of 1.1 billion, but is now in crisis, growing at less than a quarter the pace of the overall economy.

Thousands of debt-ridden have committed suicide because of crop failures.

“India cannot become a nation with islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development,” he said.

The government has tried to spark an industrial revolution in the countryside by opening dozens of Chinese-style Special Economic Zones, offering tax perks and modern infrastructure to foreign investors.

But those plans have been put on hold following fierce, and often violent, protests from farmers who say they are not being adequately compensated for their land and lost livelihoods.

Mr Singh said his government was finalising details of a national plan to ensure that displaced farmers were given a fair deal.

He also promised to pour money into education, setting up 6,000 new schools and 33 new universities as well as thousands more polytechnics and vocational schools to train India’s vast population of under-30s.

Some economists predict that India will benefit from a “demographic dividend” as these youngsters enter the labour force, but others worry that many of them will be illiterate and unskilled.

Analysts said Mr Singh’s speech was aimed at Leftist partners in his ruling coalition, who are becoming increasingly vocal in their criticism of India’s unbalanced development.

In another sign of tension with these communist parties, there was also a conspicuous omission from his speech.

Mr Singh carefully avoided mentioning a historic nuclear deal with the United States – even though he has previously declared it one of his government’s greatest achievements.

The "123" agreement aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years, and is the centrepiece of a new strategic relationship with Washington.

The Leftists have rejected the deal, saying it makes too many compromises, but Mr Singh is refusing to back down and has dared them to pull out of his government.

The great divide

India’s economy has grown 7 per cent in the last decade, but this has been fuelled by a few urban sectors such as services; 25 per cent of the population still lives below the poverty line

The 10 per cent of Indian families with the highest income earn 33.5 per cent of the nation's wages. The poorest 10 per cent receive just 3.5 per cent

The divide between urban and rural is also stark. Two thirds of the population live in rural areas and 170 million of them, almost three times the UK’s population, live in poverty

India’s caste and tribal divisions make it harder for some to escape poverty; 40 per cent of the members of the lowest caste and 50 per cent of the lowest tribes are amongst the very poor

34 out of every 1,000 people born in India die during childhood. India’s infant mortality rate is ranked 74 amongst 221 countries

India at 60: great potential, many problems (http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_6626979?nclick_check=1)
By David J. Karl
San Jose Mercury News, USA
Article Launched: 08/15/2007 01:35:29 AM PDT


India is 60 years old today and there are strong grounds for celebrating its success. Not too long ago, the country was regarded as the epitome of what Third World meant: decrepit, destitute and pitiable. Now it is embarked on an amazing project of national transformation and ranks among the top 10 of the world's largest economies.

And its future appears exceedingly bright to many observers. According to a new Goldman Sachs report, India will continue to sustain its breakneck growth for the foreseeable future, enabling it to become the world's second largest economic power by 2050. Another report by PricewaterhouseCoopers contains a similarly bullish outlook.

There can be no denying the tremendous economic strides India has made in recent years, which have had the effect of lifting 100 million people out of poverty. Yet, the growing plaudits obscure some stark realities that could significantly limit the country's power prospects.

In aggregate terms, India remains a very poor country. With hundreds of millions of people still mired in grinding poverty, it has the world's largest concentration of economic misery. According to a recent report quietly released by the Indian government, nearly half of the country's small children are malnourished. The per-capita income rate, literacy level and other key human development indicators also lag behind many other developing nations, including those in sub-Saharan Africa.

India's economic boom has been powered disproportionately by a world-class technology sector that requires only a comparatively small number of highly skilled workers. Even as the economy soars, overall job creation has not kept pace with the growth of the working-age population, which is projected to expand by 70 million people over the next five years.

Notwithstanding the impressive high-tech centers in Bangalore and Hyderabad, 60 percent of the labor force (totaling 300 million people) continues to reside in poor rural areas, toiling in the inefficient agricultural sector. Shifting rural workers to more productive jobs will be the greatest challenge to India's continued economic ascent.

Two huge problems stand in the way of progress. The first is a chronic under-investment in the country's human capital. Because India's rural poor, many of whom are young and illiterate, lack adequate access to educational and health care services, they do not possess the skills necessary to compete in the global economy.

The second problem is a persistent lack of investment in physical infrastructure, particularly in the vital energy and transportation sectors. Power shortages and blackouts are common throughout the country and are an important drag on economic activity. The deteriorating condition of road and rail networks, as well as port facilities, further undermines the potential for continuing rapid growth. A shockingly high percentage of each year's agricultural crop rots for the lack of efficient transportation. A leading business group in India recently estimated that more than $330 billion needs to be spent on infrastructure over the next five years in order to boost the country's competitiveness. This amount, however, is beyond the budgetary resources of the Indian state.

Managing India's transition to the future will largely be a task for the Indians themselves. But other countries that have an interest in seeing India succeed can play an important supportive role. As a recent Pacific Council report suggests, the United States should increase loans and grants to India with the aim of addressing the under-served needs of the rural population, particularly the building of more schools and primary health care facilities. Financial assistance can be stepped up for the construction of new infrastructure to ease India's chronic power shortages and connect the country's vast interior with domestic and world markets. India should also be encouraged to allow the private sector to have a greater role in addressing its infrastructure needs.

India is a work in progress and its economic performance in recent years gives some reason for optimism that it can overcome the significant challenges it faces. But its ascent to national greatness will be neither automatic nor painless. It will depend in large measure upon a combination of farsighted policy choices and a stern discipline to push through necessary reforms. And there is room for some help from India's friends.

DAVID J. KARL is director of studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

Reliance superstore opens door to "retail revolution" (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=6b5a85ba-2f1c-4361-8dae-6ce0a05a8019&k=64688)
Penny MacRae, Agence-France Presse
Canada.com, Canada
Published: Wednesday, August 15, 2007

NEW DELHI - Indian giant Reliance Industries was due to open the nation's biggest superstore Wednesday in what it called another step in its drive to unleash a "retail revolution."

The giant store in the western city of Ahmedabad -- India's biggest outlet under a single roof -- is the latest format to be rolled out by Reliance which launched its US six-billion-dollar foray into the retail trade last November.
The opening on the 60th anniversary of the country's independence "marks the achievement of another milestone in our effort to unleash a retail revolution in India," said Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani.

But the new store, which will carry more than 95,000 products and is one of 500 planned by 2010, comes amid growing unease about the impact of big retail operations on India's largely unorganised "mom and pop" shopping landscape.

On Tuesday, the Confederation of All India Traders demanded a parliamentary committee "look into all issues arising out of the entry of corporate retailers into retail trade and serious objections raised by traders."

"From what we've seen in other countries, these big retailers have totally destabilised local retailers," said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of the organisation made up of 5,000 retail trade bodies.

"They're adopting predatory pricing with the sole aim of hijacking the vast potential retail trade" estimated at around US$300-billion, he told AFP.

Reliance's smaller format grocery stores called Reliance Fresh have already sparked protests by small vendors who say the nationwide retail venture which promises "unmatched affordability" threatens their livelihoods.

Reliance's new three-storey hypermarket covers 165,000 square feet (50,000 square metres) which store officials said was about a third larger than any rival outlet.

A senior store official said prices of the RelianceMart chain would undercut rivals by as much as 60%. "They will have to add a lot of value on price and quality to compete," said the official who asked to remain unnamed.

Reliance is a corporate behemoth that has straddled India's economy for decades with activities in petrochemicals, oil and gas, refining and power.

The opening comes a week after Indian telecom firm Bharti Enterprises and US-based retail giant Wal-Mart announced a 50:50 joint venture for a new chain of wholesale stores in India to serve small retail shops.

The Bharti-Walmart stores are not open to retail shoppers but will serve small shops, fruit and vegetable sellers, restaurants and other businesses.

"Organised retail has the potential to trigger socio-economic transformation on an unprecedented scale in our country and will bring about enormous spin-off benefits to the Indian economy and its various constituents," Ambani said.

The remarks were an apparent response to critics who say Reliance Retail and other large retail outfits will drive smaller retailers out of business.

Reliance officials insist the market is big enough for all players.

Ambani has said he wants to create a "virtuous circle of prosperity by bringing farmers, small shopkeepers and consumers into a win-win partnership."

Reliance says its goal is to overhaul in one swoop retailing and farming, linking them through a "state of the art" distribution system with proper cold storage and transport that will give consumers fresher food at lower prices and farmers bigger incomes.

It has set an annual sales target of US$25-billion by 2011 and has said it aims to give an "international shopping experience" to consumers more used to shopping at dilapidated corner stores or at in open air markets.

Reliance's retail move comes as domestic and global firms seek to tap India's increasingly affluent middle class, estimated at $300-million, in what commentators have dubbed the "great Indian retail gold rush."

India’s rural poor his news beat of choice (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=82617)
By Yvonne T. Chua
Inquirer, Philippines
Last updated 02:21am (Mla time) 08/15/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- India’s rural poor -- this has been the beat of choice for journalist Palagummi Sainath since 1993.

Unlike the legions of journalists dazzled by the economic reforms begun in this South Asian giant in the early 1990s, Sainath suspected a dark side to “development, Indian style” and set out to prove it.

This meant giving up a comfortable job at Blitz, a widely circulated Mumbai-based weekly where he was then deputy editor and a popular columnist, in exchange for a fellowship with the Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/).

For the next two years, Sainath traveled the breadth and depth of India’s 10 poorest districts and reported firsthand on the hunger and poverty gripping rural India since its independence in 1947 -- the consequence of disastrous development policies.

There was no turning back for Sainath. His reportage on rural India would subsequently set off reforms in policies and programs affecting the poor -- farmers, tribal people, women and dalits or untouchables, among others.
His bestseller, “Everybody Loves a Good Drought,” an anthology of 68 of the 84 reports he had filed as a Times of India fellow from 1993 to 1995, has become a journalism classic and required reading in universities in India, North America and Europe, along with his many other stories on poverty and development.

President’s grandson

The recipient of scores of national and international awards, including New York’s Harry Chapin Media Award, Amnesty International’s Global Human Rights Journalism Prize and the European Commission’s Lorenzo Natali Prize, Sainath has been chosen as this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awardee for journalism, literature and creative communications arts.

“His passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India’s consciousness, moving the nation to action” has caught the attention of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (http://www.rmaf.org.ph/), which gives out annually Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize (http://nobelprize.org/).
Born in Chennai (formerly Madras) in 1957, the Jesuit-trained grandson of former Indian President Varahagiri Venkata Giri chose the life of a journalist after finishing a master’s degree in history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“I would rather be a journalist in India than anywhere else in the world,” he once said in an interview.

Dissident journalism

The rich legacy of Indian journalism explains Sainath’s mind-set. After all, Gandhi and other leaders in the struggle for India’s independence had doubled as journalists and contributed to the “liberation of the human being.”
As Sainath puts it, “The Indian press is a child of the freedom struggle.”
“Dissident journalism,” not only in India but also in the United States, greatly influenced Sainath’s philosophy of journalism. He firmly believes that “the best journalism has always come from dissidents.”

In Sainath’s book, Thomas Paine, the 18th-century pamphleteer who advocated independence for the American colonies and the rights of man, was the greatest dissident journalist.

“He practiced the only journalism worth practicing: Journalism based on a commitment to ordinary people, to very high democratic ideals and to bettering the living conditions of people around him,” Sainath said.
Alas, by the time Sainath ventured into newspapering, Indian journalism prevailing in the early 20th century and Paine’s brand of journalism had vanished.

He discovered that the Indian media in the late 20th century was no longer “journalism for people journalism for stakeholders.”

[B]Disconnect: Media and reality

Media ownership had shifted from family-owned businesses with a “sense of purpose” to conglomerates, even trusts, run by corporate CEOs who placed premium on revenue. It was no longer people-driven journalism.

The reportorial beats reflected the bias. There were political, ministry, business, fashion, entertainment, glamour, design and even “eating out” correspondents, but no single, full-time correspondent assigned to agriculture, housing, primary education, labor or the social sector. A poverty or rural affairs beat was unthinkable.

At a time when hunger-related mass migrations and deaths, including suicides among peasants, were on the rise, journalists were churning out “feel-good” stories catering to the growing middle class. Stories on weight-loss clinics, latest car models and beauty queens were crowding out serious journalism.
Sainath wasn’t -- and isn’t -- one to hold back from saying what he deemed as the sorry state of Indian journalism. “The fundamental characteristic of our media is the growing disconnect between mass media and mass reality,” he has repeatedly said.

The 68 accounts in “Everybody Loves a Good Drought,” nearly all told in about 800 words, supply anecdotal evidence that the crisis in India’s agriculture was more the making of bad, even absurd policies, aggravated by endemic corruption, rather than of drought and other natural calamities. The stories range from the tragicomic and heartrending to the against-all-odds and uplifting.

Just some of the stories: Government castrates all local bulls in a village so they would not mate with cows that were to be cross-bred to produce the “miracle cow.” The experiment fails and the local bull becomes extinct in the village.

Villagers beyond medical care rely on the Biswas brothers, a pair of quack doctors who administer the cure-all saline drip or tetracycline injection for all diseases. Needless deaths are inevitable.

Members of a tribe lose their benefits after two state agencies misspell their tribe’s name. A new tribe is created in the process, with nary a member.

Survival strategies

Sainath’s book also offers stories of hope and courage by zeroing in on survival strategies of the poor. About 4,000 women in Tamil Nadu acquire leases to stone quarries through an antipoverty program and contribute to their village economy. Thousands of women in the same district learn to cycle, in the process acquiring independence, freedom and mobility that help them boost family incomes.

It is not only through words but also through photographs that Sainath has captured the tales of India’s rural folk, especially the women. “Visible Work, Invisible Women,” his 70-piece black-and-white photo exhibition, has been mounted across India and overseas to trumpet the unrecognized contributions of poor women to the economy.

He does the photography for his stories. “I could never find a photographer to accompany me to some of the places where I go,” he said.

And travel a lot he continues to do to this day, spending between 270 and 300 days a year in India’s rural interior to document what he calls “basic failures” in Indian society -- land reform, social issues, caste, gender, regional development.

If there is one thing Sainath is equally firm about, it is his refusal to take corporate or government funds to finance his reporting. He would rather dip into his own pocket. Sainath recently told the online publication India Together (http://www.indiatogether.org/) that he intends to use the prize money that will come with the Magsaysay award to pursue two dream projects: An archive of rural India and a series on the last remaining freedom fighters of India.

Change for the better

It is likewise Sainath’s dream to see more Indian journalists engage in the pro-people journalism he loves, and has initiated the process.

The royalties from “Everybody Loves a Good Drought” have funded the Countermedia Prize of Excellence in Journalism that recognizes outstanding work in rural reporting.

He has also taught journalism at universities in India and overseas, as well as run journalism workshops directly in the villages where he hopes to inspire writers to become agents of change.

Will Indian journalism change for the better?

Sainath is optimistic it will. In an interview after winning the Ramon Magsaysay Award, he said: “We’ve got history on our side -- 180 years of it in this country. Twenty years of trivialization is a minor period in that larger history. We’re blessed with good, young journalists, and there’s also a new phenomenon -- of people from non-journalistic backgrounds coming into media and bringing a completely different lens.”

India 'due for sustained property boom' (http://news.realestatetv.tv/India_due_for_sustained_property_boom_18246945.html)
Realestate TV, UK

India is about to make a "triumphant return to the centre of the global economic stage" according to Assetz.

As the country celebrates 60 years of independence from British rule, the investor group has launched investment opportunities through a series of real estate funds and individual properties.

Nick Booker, Assetz India managing director, commented: "Property investment and property prices in India are booming."

Mr Booker noted that the Indian economy is currently growing annually at nine to ten per cent. Consequently, an increasing number of property investors are looking to plough money into the country. Fast growing IT and retail sectors are set to drive up the demand for housing in a number of India’s cities.

According to Assetz, investment in Indian property is currently only available to non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin. It is launching real estate funds in September that are accessible to all investors.

According to web directory PakAvenue, British rule in India ended in 1947.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME (http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/08/15/john-o-sullivan-the-best-is-yet-to-come.aspx)
John O'Sullivan
National Post, Canada

Sixty years ago today, India was born, like too many Indians, amid blood and death. Its birth was like that of a Siamese twin that has to be separated by the surgeon's knife from its fellow immediately after birth. For Pakistan was born on the same midnight. As Muslims and Hindus rushed to get to their right side of these new borders, hundreds of thousands of both were murdered in communal massacres.

Nothing in their 200 years of rule in India -- not the Amritsar Massacre, not the suppression of the Indian Mutiny -- was as disgraceful as the way the British left. Sticking to a foolishly short timetable, packing up quietly, heading for the troopships and weaving through the country to avoid the riots, they allowed order to disintegrate and massacres to erupt. The shame of this is brilliantly caught in Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, where armed British officers allow a Muslim mob to take a young Hindu notable off a train to be killed.

In a scene of great irony, he is the only person present who behaves like an English gentleman, saying "I rather think it's me they want," and going off voluntarily with his murderers to avoid imperilling the others.

This scuttle -- which is today cited in the American debate on Iraq as the kind of bloody retreat to avoid -- was almost certainly unnecessary and mistaken. Earlier in the decade, more than two million Indians had volunteered to fight for King and Empire in the Second World War. Gandhi's "Quit India" disobedience campaign had been suppressed without difficulty. The British Raj still possessed sufficient reserves of authority to retreat over a longer timetable and to leave with less chaos and bloodshed in its wake.

But the scuttle was a crime of anti-colonialism rather than colonialism. It reflected the postwar socialist view that the Western imperialists had little or nothing to teach their former subjects. The best thing they could do was to depart as quickly as possible. And despite the negative consequences of this view upon implementation at independence, India was to be governed by this new progressive orthodoxy for almost 50 of its first 60 years.

Gandhi, with his eccentric economic ideas about peasant production, might have been an obstacle to this new progressive India. But he was killed before he could really influence its development. His assassination left the way open for more-or-less permanent rule by the socialists of the Congress Party -- and also for the foundation of the world's first socialist dynasty under Jawaharlal Nehru who, in addition to being a high-caste Brahmin, was also a left-wing British aristocrat.

Nehru and Congress introduced the two main themes that were to dominate Indian political life until the late 1980s: socialist state planning (or what modern Indian liberals call "the regulation Raj") and non-alignment in foreign policy. These policies were seen as complementary and, taken together, were held to justify foreign aid from the West both as compensation for colonialism and as fostering a more advanced model of development than capitalist trade and investment. And their domestic political base seemed unshakable.

India quickly emerged as a leader of what became known as the "nonaligned" countries, later the Third World. Nehru personally emerged as its most significant figure at the founding Bandung conference in 1955. He had a better claim to non-alignment in the Cold War than China's communist leaders. He was a master of the rhetoric of moral leadership, which, in the absence of military power, was the coin of non-aligned diplomacy. And he had strong admirers in the West, notably in Britain's Labour party.

There were elements of illusion in all this. The Third World was really "non-aligned" only in regards to the West. Nehru cultivated a close relationship with the Soviet Union that lasted until the Cold War ended. India's refusal of a plebiscite in Muslim-majority Kashmir was hard to reconcile with its anti-colonial principles. The planned economy misdirected investment to large showcase industrial projects and away from smaller but profitable enterprises. And so on.

In the high noon of anti-colonialism, however, Nehru cut a dashing world figure. On issues such as the Suez crisis, he was a powerful ally for whatever Third World leader was under threat. By 1960, India and Nehru had merged into being the nearest thing to the conscience of the world.

Between 1962 and 1989, however, this Potemkin facade of India's unique moral power gradually collapsed.

The first tile fell in 1962 when China settled a border dispute with India by brutally invading and seizing a patch of disputed Himalayan territory. Nehru had seemingly believed that no socialist power would commit aggression upon another. His miscalculation invited a massive blow to Indian pride. It also brought about the downfall of his close ally, defence minister Krishna Menon. Nehru himself never really recovered from this revelation of the limits of moral influence. He died in 1964.

The second tile was a successful war -- the Indo-Pak war of 1971. India and Pakistan had already fought two inconclusive wars over Kashmir by 1971, when East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) attempted to secede from the latter.

Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, was by then prime minister. With great ruthlessness, she exploited the civil war to intervene militarily and to divide Pakistan. She also displayed great diplomatic skill in strengthening India's links with both the Soviet Union and Western Europe to offset U.S. support for Pakistan.

In a few weeks, Mrs. Gandhi made India the unquestionably dominant power on the sub-continent. But she did so by traditional power politics and military victory rather than by an exercise of moral influence.

The third falling tile was Mrs. Gandhi's semi-constitutional seizure of power in 1975-77, during which a state of emergency was declared. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then working for Gerald Ford, broke this news with the words: "Congratulations, Mr. President, you are now president of the largest democracy in the world."

Mrs. Gandhi's emergency rule lasted less than two years, but in that time she ruled by decree, imposed a birth-control program that included compulsory vasectomies and jailed her critics -- who included old prison companions of her father jailed by the British. It was the end of India's democratic innocence -- and of the dominance of the old Congress party.

To be fair, Mrs. Gandhi also held an election, accepted her (unexpected) defeat and handed over power in 1977. She was back in power by 1980, however, with a Congress party that was now almost a family business.

That led to a tile that did not fall but crash.

In 1984, still prime minister, Mrs. Gandhi was shot by her own bodyguards in retaliation for 494 Sikh civilians killed in an army attack she had ordered to remove Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Her body was riddled with 31 bullets. It was an echo of the communal violence that had marked independence 37 years before.

It also marked the end of the illusory India imagined by Nehru and his Indian and foreign admirers. India is a great country but, like all other countries, it is shaped by historical realities, not by lofty but unanchored ideals -- still less by economic errors.

Having helped invent the Third World in the 1950s, India is now refashioning itself in line with its full history and present opportunities. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of terrorism, the country has moved from anti-Americanism to an Indo-U.S. strategic partnership. With the myth of the planned economy exploded, India has embarked on extensive market reforms.

India is the largest English-speaking country in the world, a mature two-party democracy, a rising economic power and potential superpower. Its information sector services Western companies. Indian graduates work in Silicon Valley. Indian diasporas are dotted across the Anglosphere. These advantages were recognized by the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in a speech to Oxford University, last year:

"Our notions of the rule of law, of a constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research laboratories have all been fashioned in the crucible where an age-old civilization met the dominant empire of the day. These are all elements which we still value and cherish." So should Canada and the world.

-John O'Sullivan is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Gulf jobs lose their charm for Indians (http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=167130&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56)
By Arvind Nair
Gulf Times, Qatar
Published: Thursday, 16 August, 2007,

INDIA’S economic boom is making it hard for employers to hire people from India, enquiries reveal.

Speaking on the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence, employers and recruiters said that though they were extremely happy for India, the economic expansion did pose a problem in getting skilled workers from the country.

“It is extremely difficult to get the staff we want from India at the price we are offering,” said U Achu, general manager of Dyarco International, who employs scores of people.

He went to India recently to recruit financial professionals like auditors and CAs but had to come back disappointed.

He said there had been cases of people accepting a job and signing the contract but backtracking later.

The same thoughts were echoed by Ravi Narayan, financial controller of Mannai Group. “When they learn about the cost of living and rental levels here, they have second thoughts,” he said.

Tareq Abdullatif Taha, general manager of Regency Travel and Tours, said Indians were now “very choosy” about taking jobs in the Gulf. “Why should they come when they can earn almost the same amount of money and be with their entire family?”

“Gone are the days when you could take a flight to India to recruit staff with specialised skills at the pay scales that were on offer in this country,” said Ravi.

It was probably the case until a few years ago when the salary scales in Qatar were at least a couple of times more than the pay offered in India. Not any more.

The economic boom in India and the generous pay packages offered by companies there have changed the scenario completely. Today, even Indian companies like Reliance are paying more money to skilled staff than companies in the Gulf, according to Ravi.

Achu said professionals like auditors and engineers from India were now asking salaries 25% to 30% more than what the company had offered a year ago.

“Many simply decline the offer because they feel India is the happening place and that they have better career prospects in India.”

Yet another reason for the disinterest to come to the Gulf is the decline in the value of rupee. That has wiped away 8% to 10% of one’s salary in rupee terms, another company manager pointed out.

Some people might still argue that an Indian might be earning more money in Qatar in absolute terms than in their own country. This may be partly true but does not reflect the comparative cost of living.

For instance, a fresh engineer in India might earn Rs25,000 (QR2,300) whereas he might be offered QR5,000 or more in Qatar. But such comparison is simplistic, observers point out.

For instance, a kilo of vegetables might be bought in India for QR1.50/QR2. The same can put a consumer back by QR6 to QR10 in Qatar. Similar or more glaring differences are evident in other sectors — be it accommodation, transport, entertainment or lifestyle.

For a financial manager, one company has been offering QR16,000 a year ago. Today, one might agree to consider the offer only if the salary on offer is at least QR20,000, Achu said.

Inflation in Qatar has gone into double digits. So, what is the point in coming, recruiters ask.

But, higher cost of living in Qatar is probably one of the lesser reasons for the disinclination. Better opportunities for employment and career growth in the liberalised economic environment in India have made staffing more difficult for companies in the Middle East, according to Ravi. This was earlier felt only in the IT industry but is now across the spectrum.

The local authorities need to do away with the restrictive sponsorship laws to attract better talent required by this fast growing economy, he suggested.

Tareq Taha, who visits India often, is amazed by the growth in that country.
India is doing extremely well and employees there have better prospects.

The growing value of the rupee against the dollar, which the riyal is pegged to, is adversely affecting the existing Indian employees here, Achu pointed out. It was more in the case of labourers whose income has eroded by up to 10%, which might be their entire saving. People who had come for QR800 or QR1,000 would soon ask for more, he said.

If Qatar wanted a “fully dedicated” Indian pool of employees contributing to the frenetic pace of development here, employers should increase salary levels and career growth prospects of their staff, recruiters said.

Coming Soon: The $2,500 Car (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653432,00.html)
By SIMON ROBINSON/NEW DELHI
TIME
Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007

If you want to get a sense of the potential of India's car industry, count the country's motorbikes. Buzzing along Mumbai's crowded highways, standing outside modest homes in rural villages or packed into the parking lots of Bangalore software firms, motorbikes and scooters currently outsell passenger cars by more than six to one. As the country's booming economy pulls millions of people into the middle class, the first vehicle most people buy has two wheels, not four.

That may be about to change. Around the middle of next year, Indian automobile manufacturer Tata Motors intends to launch a new model that will be so inexpensive, the company hopes it will trigger a revolution in car ownership, not just in India but throughout the developing world. The planned vehicle is called the "one-lakh car" because, Tata says, the rear-engine, 600-cc, four-door sedan will cost a lakh, or 100,000 rupees. At current exchange rates, the sticker price would be the equivalent of about $2,500. That's $3,000 less than India's current cheapest new car, and on par with the costliest motorbikes.

When Tata first suggested an ultra-cheap car a few years ago, other manufacturers initially scoffed, saying the project was a pipe dream. But if Tata lures away even 10% of the 6.5 million Indians who buy motorbikes every year, not only will it have a hit on its hands, it will have expanded India's car market by more than half. Competitors aren't willing to cede that kind of market share without a fight. Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault-Nissan, recently announced that his company was looking at building a $3,000 car in India. Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Maruti Udyog (the Indian division of Japanese manufacturer Suzuki), Toyota and Volkswagen are also working on low-cost cars, though none of them have promised anything quite as cheap as $3,000.

Carmakers aren't just targeting India. Tata Motors has plans to export its econobox to Southeast Asia and Africa as well. Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Motors' parent company, Tata Group, believes they can eventually sell as many as a million cheap cars a year worldwide. That may be a realistic assessment. Globally, up to 3.7 million of such vehicles could be sold annually within the next few years, mostly in fast-growing markets like Brazil, China, India and Russia, says Abdul Majeed, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chennai (formerly Madras). "It's all about affordability and fuel efficiency," says Majeed. "The very cheap car is a trend big manufacturers can't miss out on."

This trend is spreading to some surprising places. When French carmaker Renault introduced the midsize Logan in 2004, it expected to sell the vast bulk of the basic sedans in Eastern Europe. But the Logan, which Renault builds in Romania and Russia and which costs as little as $7,200 — about 40% less than rival sedans — quickly took off in wealthier Western Europe as well. The car now sells in more than 50 countries and Renault is struggling to meet demand. "Our aim is to produce the most affordable car in its segment, and because we're doing that well, we're starting to see more affluent buyers and families buying Logans as their second and third cars," says Sylvain Bilaine, managing director of Renault India, where the model launched earlier this year.

Building ultra-cheap cars is possible largely because of low manufacturing costs in developing countries. Tata and other Indian automakers estimate that their engineering costs alone are about half what they would be in Europe or the U.S. At the same time Tata has tapped the skills of Italy's Fiat, with which it has a joint venture in India, and engine designers in Britain's West Midlands region, some of whom were jobless after closures in Britain's auto industry over the past few years. Indian producers are relentless cost-cutters. Many, including Tata, now buy parts through Internet auctions to get the best price. Industry analysts speculate that the one-lakh car may revolutionize assembly, with some parts glued together rather than welded or bolted. Even so, Tata officials acknowledge profit margins will be slim; the company is counting on high sales volume to generate meaningful earnings and to create brand loyalty among customers, who will trade up to more profitable models in the future.

The company has yet to release a name for the car or even a sketch of what it might look like. But, "We should remove this perception of something that's going to be a dinky car," says Ravi Kant, managing director of Tata Motors. "It's a regular, wholesome car that will be a joy to drive and of course it will have very good fuel efficiency." Will that be enough to convince India's aspiring classes? Tata at the outset expects to sell 20,000 of its cheap cars a month in India, partly because consumers will see them as safer than motorbikes on India's chaotic roads. Ved Pal, 38, who works at a New Delhi finance company and who currently rides a bike, says he is tempted. "I have five people in my family," he says. "Only two people can sit on a bike. [A car] will be much better. On Sunday when we're on a day out it's more convenient and more secure."

There may be a high environmental price to pay as poor nations convert from two wheels to four. John Rogers, a consultant for the Asian Development Bank, estimates the number of cars in India will increase from 6.2 million in 2005 to 41.6 million by 2025. Putting millions of new vehicles on roads will increase pollution and put further strain on overtaxed transportation networks. "We cannot afford this type of congestion," says Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director of the New Delhi-based nongovernmental group Center for Science and Environment. "It's defeating the reason people buy cars: for mobility." Roychowdhury and other environmentalists argue that developing countries should avoid the mistakes made by Europe and the U.S. by concentrating on building public transportation networks rather than new roads. "We don't have to go that full circle," she says. "We know we have alternatives."

Still, car ownership is likely to continue to rise in countries such as India for the same reasons that Western cities with great mass transit are bumper-to-bumper anyway: people buy cars for convenience and status. Kant of Tata Motors says he's sick of going to parties in India and in the West and listening to "these rich people ask about congestion and pollution and global warming. I ask them, 'Sir, will you stop using your car and start taking the bus?' People should be thanking us our cars are small. Let all those SUVs in America be replaced by the one-lakh car if people are so worried." Today, India. Tomorrow, the world?

— with reporting by Maithili Chakravarthy/New Delhi, Bruce Crumley/Paris, Austin Ramzy/Beijing and Bryan Walsh/Tokyo

Building a Dream. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653654,00.html)
By SIMON ROBINSON / NEW DELHI
TIME
Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007

From the window of his ninth-floor office, Kushal Pal Singh looks down over New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, an elaborate astronomical observatory built by a far-sighted 18th century Hindu ruler. The stone curves and pillars of the observatory worked in conjunction with its massive sundial to measure time, forecast eclipses and determine the positions of stars and planets. The Jantar Mantar "gave me inspiration," says Singh, chairman of DLF, India's largest real estate company. "If this guy who conceived and made the Jantar Mantar centuries ago could be a forward-looking man, why is it that we can't be forward-looking in our development and start to do something ahead of the time?"

DLF is doing just that. Barely known outside its northern-India base a few years ago, the company is building houses, apartments, office towers and shopping malls across India's booming cities. It has plans for airports, hotels and cinemas. Singh, 75, wants to be a prime mover in the country's drive to erect modern cities where India's new middle class can live, work, shop and play. To do all that, though, DLF needs a lot more money, which is why on July 5 the company held an initial public offering for just over 10% of the company, bringing in some $2.24 billion. DLF's shares rose 14% by early August, giving it a market capitalization of $25.5 billion--roughly $5 billion more than General Motors. The IPO netted Singh and several family members, who together hold 87% of DLF, nearly $20 billion--enough to make them one of the richest clans in the world. "Frankly, that is embarrassing to me," Singh says. "That is not the yardstick by which I want to be known."

Whether he likes it or not, that fortune is bound to attract attention. DLF is, after all, the hottest property developer in one of the hottest markets in the world. India's economy has grown more than 8% a year for the past four years, boosting demand for houses, offices, megamalls and hotels. Land prices in some areas have tripled in value since 2004, while office rents in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and New Delhi are now more expensive than those in Paris, Hong Kong or midtown Manhattan. Yet the boom may still have room. Merrill Lynch forecasts India's property industry will grow to $90 billion by 2015, up from $12 billion in 2005. "You will need 100 DLFs," Singh says.

DLF, though, has a big head start on the rest of the industry, thanks largely to Singh. The amiable tycoon, known by his initials K.P., was dressed during a recent interview in a white suit with a polka-dot pocket square. He recalled how prescient strategy--and a stroke of luck--turned DLF into a property powerhouse. Founded by Singh's father-in-law Chaudhury Raghuvendra Singh, DLF (originally Delhi Land & Finance) got started in 1946, a year before India won its freedom from Britain. Raghuvendra bet that hundreds of thousands of refugees who were expected to settle in India's capital when partition split the subcontinent into India and Pakistan would need places to live. He persuaded farmers around New Delhi to hand over their land on the promise of future payment, borrowed money to develop residential neighborhoods and then sold at considerable profit to the influx of newcomers.

But the good times ended in 1957 when New Delhi's socialist government granted itself sole development rights for the city, forcing private firms out of the business. By then, Singh had married into the family. The son of landlords as well, he had studied aeronautical engineering in Britain before returning home as an officer in the Indian army. By the time he joined his father-in-law's business in 1960, real estate development work had dried up completely. Instead the company tied up with two U.S. firms to manufacture electric motors and automotive batteries. The joint ventures eventually foundered, but by 1980, Singh had hit upon a new scheme. "I was hungry," he says. "And the best things in life are done when you are hungry for more business."

Singh's plan centered on Gurgaon, a dry, scrubby plain in the state of Haryana, near New Delhi. If he could buy enough land and then convince authorities to change their regulations preventing companies from acquiring farmland for commercial use, perhaps he could outdo his father-in-law's success. By 1981, though, the company had acquired just 40 acres and failed to change the law. Frustrated and despondent, he sat beside a well one scorching summer day. What the heck can you do in this place? he recalls wondering.

That was when the driver of an overheating four-wheel drive stopped to request some water. The supplicant was Rajiv Gandhi, son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and soon to be India's leader himself. "Rajiv Gandhi was like a ray of hope for India," says Singh. "We found that we were on the same wavelength very quickly." He was later repaid for his water when Gandhi pushed the Haryana government to ease the commercial-development restrictions. Their two-hour conversation that day, says Singh, was "the birth of the entire urban-development policy of India today."

Over the next two decades, as economic regulations were slowly liberalized, DLF amassed 3,500 acres in Gurgaon and built some of India's first modern commercial structures, including offices for General Electric, Swedish cell-phone maker Ericsson and Swiss food giant Nestlé. The company also built luxury apartments and houses, including a residential estate incorporating an 18-hole golf course designed by golfing legend Arnold Palmer. Land that cost Singh as little as $65 an acre now sells for about $4 million an acre. In the run-up to its IPO, DLF has been on another buying spree and now has holdings in 31 cities.

Over the past few years, Singh has handed over much of the day-to-day running of DLF to his son Rajiv, 48, who studied engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Daughter Pia, 36, a Wharton economics graduate, runs the retail business. Older sister Renuka handles some international business. Singh says he plans to slowly step away from DLF to concentrate on his golf (handicap: 14), collect more art (DLF owns one of the biggest private collections in the country) and travel (he is the honorary consul general of Monaco and vacations in London).

DLF, obviously a family-run operation, must execute its ambitious agenda amid growing scrutiny, a by-product of going public. Critics say DLF, like the Indian property market itself, isn't transparent enough. There are questions surrounding the true value of DLF's recent land acquisitions, in part because 35% of the land on its books is not owned but under "agreement to purchase," according to IPO documents. Sydney-based Macquarie Research criticized the fact that more than half of DLF's land is in New Delhi, Gurgaon or Mumbai--where, some analysts believe, growth will lag smaller cities'.

The biggest threat, though, is a crash in the property or stock market. When U.S. property and media tycoon Sam Zell visited India in April, he told local real estate executives that they were "on the brink of excess" and that the boom could end in a bust. Real estate stocks plunged as much as 50% in a general market sell-off last spring, while property prices have fallen 20% or so in some areas in the past six months. Both the government and the Reserve Bank of India are trying to cool the real estate sector without crashing it. The RBI has raised interest rates six times in the past 18 months to try to rein in inflation, which peaked in March at an annual rate of 7%. The Securities and Exchange Board, meanwhile, has tightened up regulations on foreigners investing in real estate firms ahead of public listings. All that has made it harder and more expensive for Indian builders to raise money.

Considering the challenges, it's hard to see how DLF's spectacular growth rate can be sustained for long. In its fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, DLF reported that its profit grew more than 1,000%, to $470 million, while sales tripled, to just under $1 billion. After a stupendous two-year run, DLF's stock is unlikely to move much further, says Mukesh Agarwal, a manager at Indian financial-services firm HDFC Securities. "The upside may be limited."

Singh doesn't see it that way. "Urban development in India ... will be the biggest sunrise industry that any country has seen in any part of the world," he says. The trend is being driven by macro forces. As the country becomes richer and more urban (the number of people living in cities will rise to 461 million by 2025, from 286 million today, according to the Asian Development Bank), demand for housing should go right on booming.

As its economy grows, India will need millions more square feet of offices as well. Industry analysts estimate that India has less modern urban office space than a single large American city. "It's not a bubble," says Arjun Divecha, the California-based manager of investment firm GMO's $15 billion emerging-markets fund. "The reason prices have risen so rapidly is that there has been so little increase in supply. If you look at the experience of other emerging markets, the real wealth escalator has been real estate, and I expect the same in India."

So does Singh, who laments that in its first 60 years, India's philosophy was to "think small, make small buildings and never to think that we could make bigger things, better things." He pauses, looking old when he stops, but animated and younger as soon as he begins talking again. "I ask you, Why can't we be excellent?"

The Message in India's Rupee Rise (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1643855,00.html?xid=rss-world&iid=sphere-inline-sidebar)
By SIMON ROBINSON/NEW DELHI
TIME
Monday, Jul. 16, 2007

As U.S. politicians line up to bash Beijing for its weak currency and gigantic trade surplus, one message they might want to offer their constituents is, buy Indian. Unlike China, Asia's other emerging giant has allowed its currency to appreciate almost 9% against the greenback since January. You might not have heard much about that in the U.S. — where total imports from India last year amounted to $22 billion, compared with $288 billion from China — but in India the rupee's appreciation is one of this year's biggest business stories, as exporters and labor groups scream that the strong currency will mean lower profits and fewer jobs.

So, what's going on? The rupee exchange rate is neither completely free-floating nor fixed, but is "managed" by the Reserve Bank of India through buying and selling other currencies. Up until April, the Reserve Bank was buying lots of U.S. dollars — perhaps as much as $24 billion in the previous six months — to keep the rupee at around 44 to the dollar. But with investor sentiment so hot on India and money pouring in from abroad — international investors have bought more than $7.5 billion worth of Indian stocks so far this year, compared to $8 billion in all of 2006 — the Reserve Bank found itself having to spend more and more on foreign currencies just to keep the rupee stable. When inflation shot up to over 6% in April, Bank officials appeared to decide — they never comment explicitly on such matters — to stop buying dollars. The result was, over the next couple of months, a strengthening of the rupee to close to 40 to $1.

The stronger rupee hurts exporters because it makes their products more expensive overseas. Infosys Technologies, India's number-two software exporter, cut its full-year earnings forecast last week, blaming the rupee's sharp rise, which it said was hurting the company's operating margins. Analysts expect other big software and outsourcing firms, many of whom earn lots of their profits in U.S. dollars, to issue similar warnings when they announce their quarterly earnings this week. Indian news reports have also quoted an unnamed government official warning that the country would be lucky to match last year's total export figure — about $125 billion; way down from the $160 billion the government had forecast just three months ago — and also that up to 275,000 jobs might be lost as a result of exporters feeling the pinch.

The stronger rupee may have helped push inflation down, "but at what cost?" asks Paresh Nayar, head of currency and bond trading at India's Development Credit Bank. "Exports are slowing, imports are ballooning. Perhaps we should be more like China. Other countries might complain, but the Chinese still watch their exports boom and say 'Let the whole world cry.' "

But Armeane Choksi, chairman and managing partner of Hudson Fairfax Group, a U.S.-based investment fund focused on India, argues that the Reserve Bank is correct in maintaining its primary focus on suppressing inflation. If inflation spikes again, he says, poorer Indians will suffer most because food and housing will cost more. "The Reserve Bank is not an export promotion agency," says Choksi. "It's doing the right thing." A stronger rupee, he says, will also force Indian companies to become even more efficient, which will make them more competitive in the global market, especially as China's currency slowly appreciates over the next couple of years.

The strengthening rupee may also send an even more important signal: India is not China. It helps of course that India's trade surplus with the U.S. last year was just $11.7 billion compared to China's whopping $232.5 billion. But by allowing the rupee to strengthen over the past few months, India is showing it's prepared to play much more fairly in the global market. "India is seen as a more or less unambiguous ally [to the U.S.]," says Choksi. "China? Is it a threat? Is it a competitor? Is it a partner? We're still not sure."

Of course, the Reserve Bank could still intervene to push India's rupee lower again. There is some evidence that it did just that in a very small way last week. But both the anonymous government official warning of rupee-related job losses and investor Choksi see the rupee continuing to rise in the coming months. If that happens expect to hear a lot more bleating from India's exporters — and not a word of complaint from India's trading partners around the world.

60 Years Young...India's 'Brave New World' (http://my.telegraph.co.uk/nick_hyde/august_2007/60_years_young_india_s_brave_new_world_.htm)
By Nick Hyde
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
16 Aug 2007

Sixty years for many is a long time, especially for those of us who do not even remember a Labour government before the days of Blair and Brown. Many Indians now shaping their own 'Brave New World', were not around 60 years ago, and as such don’t have direct experience of the struggle for Independence, just as I don’t have experience of the 2nd World War. But the history of civilisations, 60 years is no time at all, Queen Victoria reigned for 64 years!

Many in the UK seem apathetic to nation, and in some cases almost embarrassed to be British. The term multi cultural does not really sit comfortably in the UK does it? However, what is different in India is almost intangible...feelings, enthusiasm, pride in a collective identity, despite many differences in culture and ethnicity. Yes, India has major problems, especially with the North Eastern states, the ongoing issues in Kashmir; not to mention the huge levels of poverty. The rich are getting richer at an alarming rate, but the rural poor still support democracy and all that Independence has to offer. I am unsure how the poor see the wealthy, but they seem to maintain faith in the system, perhaps that is deep rooted in the Hindi nature.

Early globalisation - Lord Curzon's Victoria Memorial, Kolkata

Sixty years on, society has perhaps polarised, was this part of the Nationalists movements dreamt? I look to India's roads to illustrate this. Imported cars represent globalisation; the powerful Indian 4x4s illustrate the Indian corporations, like Tata. In the slow lane, the hand cart and rickshaw represent the majority who live in poverty. In the middle lane the Ambassador, the swanky new ones to the fast lane, the battered elderly ones to the slow lane, with no real social welfare to mend it and keep it chugging along.

So what of the future? Continued growth in the economy, fuelled by low costs and high demand, Tata and Mittal buying UK and European firms. An increasing threat from militant and extreme organisations, both internally and externally, all powered by the negative forces of globalisation. One thing is certain that the pace of change in India is rapid, and I suspect the next ten years will change India even more than Independence did. A Brave New World indeed....

The jewel in the market-economy crown (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070818.BKREAD18/TPStory/Business/columnists)
India has at last declared its independence from red tape, Marcus Gee says, 60 years after the end of the Raj

MARCUS GEE
Globe and Mail, Canada
August 18, 2007

Close your eyes and think of India. What do you see? Elephants and swamis? Half-clothed worshippers bathing in the Ganges? Swaying lovers in a Bollywood dance number?

The image of the world's second-most-populous country has changed little since Mark Twain rhapsodized about "the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty - of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps."

But India is changing. With its economy growing at a gallop, with its new caste of homegrown billionaires snapping up companies around the world, with its thrusting middle class buying 10 million new cars a year, India is dashing into the future in a frenzy of unleashed materialism and naked ambition.

How are we to understand this revolution? How can we reconcile the old India of Western imagination - exotic, spiritual, eternal - with the fast-changing, worldly, money-mad India of today?

Simple, says Pavan K. Varma in Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India's (Penguin, 2004). Just understand that there is no contradiction. "The image is a myth."

Indians, he writes, have never been otherworldly. They lust for material things as much as any other people, maybe more. They admire the wealthy. They are sharp traders and resourceful entrepreneurs. In the United States, they form the most successful community of recent immigrants.

Hinduism, India's dominant religion, isn't sniffy in the least about making money. Hindus unashamedly worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. "Indeed, Hinduism must be the only religion that expressly includes the fulfilment of physical desires, and the pursuit of prosperity, among the supreme aims of life," writes Varma, an Indian diplomat. Instead of living like Gandhi, most Indians would rather get rich.

The trouble is that, for decades, their masters wouldn't let them. No, not their British masters; their Indian ones. After independence in 1947, 60 years ago this month, prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru embraced the socialism that was the intellectual fashion of the day, putting much of industry in government hands and regulating the rest almost to death in a mass of red tape that came to be known as the "Licence Raj."

Only after that Raj was finally overthrown in 1991, when a cash-strapped government opened up the economy in a fit of desperation, could Indians give full rein to their natural inclinations. The socialist era, Varma says, was "antithetical to the genius of the Indian people." They took to the new market economy "like ducks to water."

The foremost chronicler of that great plunge is Gurcharan Das, another smart, eloquent, courtly Indian. Educated at Harvard, he became a leading international executive for Procter & Gamble before retiring to write novels, plays and newspaper columns. I met him in Delhi this spring, and we chatted about his book India Unbound (Viking, 2000) as he walked his dog in the historic Lodhi Garden.

Like every Indian businessman of his generation, he spent countless hours cooling his heels in the waiting rooms of the petty tyrants who ruled (and, in many places, still rule) India's bureaucracy, pleading for the right to sell this product or import that one. He is still angry about it - not for himself, a privileged executive, but for the Indian masses who were left in squalid poverty while their cousins in other parts of Asia climbed the ladder to prosperity.

"By suppressing economic liberty for 40 years, we destroyed growth and the futures of two generations," he writes. "For the average citizen, it was a great betrayal."

When I met him, though, he was filled with hope. Unbound, India is doing even better than he predicted seven years ago. Its economy is growing at 9 per cent a year, nearly as fast as miraculous China's. Its software and outsourcing firms are world- famous. It has more billionaires (36) than any other Asian country. Its middle class is predicted to grow to half a billion people by 2025. More than 100 million people have risen out of poverty in the space of a single generation.

Mira Kamdar is equally upbeat in her Planet India: How the Fastest-Growing Democracy is Transforming America and the World (Scribner, 2007). An American born of an Indian father, and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, Kamdar travels up and down the subcontinent to witness "the churning of Indian's incredible metamorphosis." She visits tycoons and software whiz kids, slum dwellers and cotton farmers. Everywhere she goes, she is awed "by the pride, the bullishness, the sense that this moment belongs to India."

Of course there are problems, immense problems. Nearly half of Indian children under 3 are undernourished. HIV/AIDS is spreading. A third of Indians still cannot read or write.

Yet all three writers are optimistic - as are Indians themselves. Varma says that "the real Indian rope trick is the persistence of hope in the most hopeless of circumstances."

Kamdar goes even further. She argues that India can give the world a lesson. If India - a multiethnic state of many religions and languages, a functioning parliamentary democracy - can rise to riches, it will put the lie to the argument made by other regimes (hello, Beijing) that you can't have freedom if you want economic growth.

For all India's problems, it's hard not to be moved by the sight of one-sixth of humanity moving together into the future. In his famous speech to the nation at India's birth on Aug. 14, 1947, Nehru said, "The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity?"

After decades of stagnation and frustration, Indians are at last saying, "Yes."

Marcus Gee is The Globe and Mail's Asia-Pacific reporter.

Capitalizing on the India-Caribbean Connection (http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/070818-sanders-columnsindia.html)
By Sir Ronald Sanders
Special to Huntington News Network
Aug. 18, 2007

As India celebrated its 60th anniversary of independence from Britain on August 15th, the global investment bank, Lehman Brothers lowered the country’s 2007 gross domestic product forecast to 9.1 per cent from 9.6 per cent.

If that’s bad news, it is bad news that every country in the world should welcome receiving about itself.

In any event, Lehman went on to say that this drop in the growth forecast was a mere blip since “the country’s structural economic drivers are still intact” and it should “bounce back” to 10 per cent growth next year (see, report titled 'Asia Ex-Japan Weekly Economic Monitor').

Incidentally, the 9.1 per cent growth now forecast for 2007 comes on the back of three years of average growth of 8.5%. No wonder all the projections indicate that by 2010, the size of India’s new middle class will be 300 million, almost equal to the entire population of the United States.

Of course, it was not always so. For decades after its independence in 1947, India was regarded as a backwater country, stricken by overwhelming poverty and paralysed by the sheer size of its one billion people.

In 1964, with more than a degree of ruefulness, the Trinidadian Author V S Naipaul (now Sir Vidya Naipaul and a Nobel Prize winner for literature) described it in a famous book of the same name as, “An Area of Darkness”. Today, the edges of that darkness are being pushed back, revealing a vibrant, versatile economy that has taken advantage of modern Information Technology and the large investment made in education since independence.

For sure, poverty still exists in India. Seventy per cent of the population still live in agricultural villages, and severe hardship continues. But, India seems no longer content to live in a mire of hopelessness; it sees in its future the fortunes of its past.

As one writer recently pointed out, “In the 18th century, India had the biggest economy in the world, larger than all of Western Europe and the Americas put together”. India’s economy is on course for revival and rejuvenation.

According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report (April 2007), “India’s consumption/GDP ratio – nearly two-thirds – is one of the highest in Asia, perhaps reflecting a high share of disposable income”. The report also states that investment is buoyant from corporate profits, exports are growing apace, and real per capita income should double in 13 years.

India is aware of its progress and, increasingly, of its economic strength. In the current trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India has emerged as a powerhouse that cannot be ignored in the bargaining that has taken place amongst the globe’s biggest players.

The G8 nations – the world’s richest states – are also keenly aware of India’s new economic strength. They have considered India important enough to invite its Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to their summit meetings, and to take account of the government of India’s views.

All this is a far cry from the period between 1838 and 1920, when desperate conditions in India caused tens of thousands of Indians to travel to the Caribbean in the aftermath of the brutal system of African slavery to work in harrowing circumstances as indentured labourers, causing one British administrator to observe: “Indentured labour really stinks in my nostrils as a form of slavery that we ought really to be ashamed of”.

But that period, when Indians travelled to, and settled in, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Jamaica, Trinidad. Grenada, Guyana and Surinam established a viable link between India and the Caribbean. Certainly, India has since benefited from exports to Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam which have sizeable Indian communities.

Both the Indian government and Indian businesses have now begun to take advantage of the opportunities provided by liberalization of markets.

The Indian government has relaxed its intervention in, and regulation of the economy, giving a freer rein to both local and foreign investors. The private sector is thriving, and while India has been the beneficiary of foreign investment, the investment of Indian companies abroad has been much larger. Indian companies have acquired significant companies in Europe and the US as well as invested in new ones including in the tourism industry.

Of course, India is not perfect. As Mark Tully, a long time BBC correspondent in India, has argued “imagine how fast it would grow if the constraints (of poor governance, as distinct from government) were lifted”.

India’s achievement is all the more remarkable because in its 60 years of independence it has maintained democracy; it has held free elections; it has managed virulent dissent; it has coped with poverty; and it has accommodated religious groups. Few countries, other than those ruled by force, could make such a boast.

As the Indian Prime Minister said, “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come (quoting Victor Hugo) and the emergence of India is one such idea. We have come far and this idea is now an accepted axiom”.

This new vibrant India, which is arising from the backwater of underdevelopment and which is showing new courage in owning in those countries which once owned it, provides an opportunity for the Caribbean.

The links that were established by that other system of slavery called indentured labour are a basis for Caribbean countries to encourage greater official and private investment from India in a range of sectors including tourism, financial services, information technology and alternative energy sources such as ethanol.

Both Caribbean governments and the private sector should seriously look to India for the structured development of trade, aid and investment relations that could benefit both areas.

Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean Ambassador to the World Trade Organization who publishes widely on Small States in the global community.

Six decades later, still definitely a work in progress (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20070817T230000-0500_126419_OBS_SIX_DECADES_LATER__STILL_DEFINITELY_A_WORK_IN_PROGRESS.asp)
Keeble McFarlane
Jamaica Observer, Jamaica
Saturday, August 18, 2007

If you are lamenting the dismal side of life in Jamaica after 45 years of independence, take heart - it's been 60 years since the British walked out of India, setting off one of the biggest bloodbaths of the 20th century and launching two nations on to perilous paths.

In that time, India bounced around in largely self-inflicted doldrums, then as the century drew to a close awoke from its stupor and set itself on a path of determined development which has made it one of the world's economic bright spots. As in this island's case, there is much to complain about, and to try to set right, but there's also a lot to celebrate.

When Jamaica approached independence, the template had become firmly established and the moves to disengage the colony and the colonial power were well choreographed. As we discussed here last week, India didn't have that luxury and the mistakes made by all the concerned parties unleashed untold dislocation, brutality, misery and distress at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. People of differing faiths who had lived together with minimum friction all of a sudden turned on each other with unprecedented savagery.

The legacy remains to this day. Muslims in India have to scrounge around at the bottom of the social heap to eke out a living. They swap recognisably Islamic names for Hindu ones in order to get jobs or to operate small businesses.

In spite of enlightened legislation introduced from the start by far-sighted leaders, many Hindus stoutly cling to their caste prejudice. Among the first laws of an independent India were ones aimed at wiping out discrimination against Dalits, or Untouchables (as they were once known), yet millions of these folks are mired at the bottom. They do the real dirty jobs - such as cleaning sewers and handling garbage, and even though many have acquired higher education and other tools of social mobility, they are stuck.

The British fought long to frustrate the wishes of many people, such as three English-trained lawyers, Mohandas K Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru and their numerous followers for an independent, united state in which people of all religions, beliefs, ethnic groups and traditions could co-exist. In the end, the casual amateurism of the dilettante the British named as their last Viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, the bungling of his administrators, the escalating demands by all the various groups for the end of the British Raj, exacerbated by the dynamics which developed in such electrically charged environments, led to the Pandora's Box we have witnessed.
And yet . and yet.

India is by far the world's largest democracy, and considering the enormous logistical challenges posed by its vast population (just over a billion people!) and widely varying landscape occupying a huge territory, is an extremely successful one. In spite of the lingering caste prejudice and anti-Muslim sentiments, India manages to make power-sharing work in an atmosphere of federalism and secularism. Hindus make up 80 per cent of the population, yet Muslims, Sikhs and people from other religious groups have at various times led the government, the army and the state itself.

The sub-continental giant has good relations with many countries, notably with China and the United States. Under Nehru, India was one of the founders of the non-aligned movement, but appeared to be less non-aligned to the Soviet bloc than with the US. An early foreign minister, VK Krishna Menon, was noted for his caustic attitude towards Washington. Recently there have been overtures to its neighbour, Pakistan, with the concurrent lessening of tensions, although they still remain wary of each other.
Its economy, which crept along for many years under the crushing weight of impractical policies and stultifying bureaucracy implementing narrow-minded India-centric initiatives, has turned into one of the most dynamic in the world. Its purchasing power is the fourth largest in the world, growing at between six and eight per cent each year.

In the next 15 years or so, economists say it will probably account for some 12 per cent of the world's economic growth. It could soon outstrip China, whose growth is fuelled largely on investment by outsiders, mostly the consuming countries of the industrial west.

Most of India's growth has been self-generated, with the money and brains coming from within.
Ironically, among the keys to India's success are relics of the British connection.

Cricket - a significant social glue - was once described as an Indian sport discovered by the English. The Indian railway system, also founded by the British, is the world's largest employer and with its 65,000 kilometres of track, is a vital unifier of the myriad groups which make up the country.
Above all, perhaps the greatest (not-so-secret) weapon is the English language itself. Between 300 and 400 million Indians speak it, and that, along with the inherited university system, has produced a vast pool of well-educated and easily trainable workers. High-tech firms have sprung up like bamboo plants all over the Indian silicon belt - places like Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad, with big firms from the US and Europe plugging in.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was educated at Oxford University, remarked two years ago as his alma mater awarded him an honorary doctorate: "It used to be said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. I am afraid we were partly responsible for sending that adage out of fashion. But if there is one phenomenon on which the sun cannot set, it is the world of English-speaking people, in which the people of Indian origin are the single largest component."

While marking the anniversary on Wednesday, Singh noted that there is still much work to be done: "India cannot become a nation of islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue to only a few. We have moved forward in the many battles against poverty, ignorance and disease. But can we say we have won the war?" As he spoke at New Delhi's historic Red Fort, the signs of today's reality were all too evident. Singh was shielded by bulletproof glass and sharpshooters were stationed on neighbouring buildings.

India's commercial capital badly in need of a makeover (http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Banking_and_Finance/10147352.html)
Financial Times, UK
Published: August 18, 2007, 00:05

To assess how far Mumbai has come as a financial centre, you need only speak to Amritlal J. Shah at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Shah, who has retired but still keeps an office at the BSE, started working at Asia's oldest exchange as the assistant secretary immediately after the Second World War.

The exchange was then housed in a stone building deep in Mumbai's historic Fort business district that was later replaced by the highrise office tower in which Shah sits today.

It had a staff of 10 who handled everything from administration to arbitrating disputes. Typewriters were virtually non-existent, as was mechanisation of any kind. In the BSE's archives, boasts Shah, "you'll find hundreds of documents that have been handwritten by me".

Deals were conducted by "jobbers" who used one hand to hold on to leather straps fixed to parapets above the trading floor and the other to flash the rapid hand signals that were then the lingua franca of commerce. Average daily turnover was a fraction of today's Rs55.5 billion ($1.4 billion).

Mumbai now faces a defining challenge. If India is to become one of the world's great economic powers, it needs a financial capital with global heft.

That means turning Mumbai, where 60 per cent of the population lives in slums and the ride in from the airport makes even the most adventurous of business travellers wince, into an international financial centre.

To sustain "its trajectory as an emerging, globally significant continental economy", India needs to become an important operator in financial services, declared a special committee commissioned to study Mumbai's future by the finance ministry this year.

As the economy has grown and become more global since the 1991 beginning of reforms, India's lack of a large domestic financial services industry has meant that it has effectively been paying others to manage international flows of capital.

Moving up

According to the expert committee's report, between 1992 and 2005 two-way cross-border flows, as measured by the combined current and capital accounts, rose from $105 billion to $658 billion, generating an estimated $13 billion in fees paid for international financial services in 2005 alone.

Moreover, as Indian companies such as Tata Steel, which bought Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus for $11 billion this year, increasingly venture overseas they are generating fees offshore that are helping to "fuel the growth" of other global financial centres, the committee lamented.

And that is not small change. Based on "conservative assumptions", the fees paid by Indian households and companies for international financial services are expected to rise to $48 billion by 2015, according to the report.

The problem for Mumbai is that the difficulties it has to overcome are fundamental. Mentioned most often is the straining infrastructure.

Its roads are clogged, its airport is antiquated and the same power shortages that have plagued most of India for years have now begun to be felt in the city.

Addressing the infrastructure issue is just the beginning. India's financial sector and its regulation have a long way to go to match more developed markets. The securities regulator and its banking counterpart are widely seen as competent if conservative watchdogs.

But they are held back by outdated, sometimes protectionist, legislation. Until recently the issuance of financial products, such as derivatives, was governed by India's gambling laws.

Some 70 per cent of India's banking sector remains in public hands with foreign investors unable to buy even minority stakes in state banks.

There are now 40,000 commercial bank branches in India but foreign banks collectively are allotted just 20 branch licences each year. India's securities industry also remains a collection of small forces rather than champions with the potential to compete globally.

"Financial regime governance in India must now be transformed in the same way that governance of the 'real' economy was transformed through the 1990s to make Indian manufacturing firms more efficient and globally competitive," the expert committee wrote.

"Without such a transformation the emergence of a credible [international financial centre] in Mumbai could not be contemplated."

A sparkling day (http://torontosun.com/News/World/2007/08/16/4422075-sun.html)
India's PM tells crowds marking 60 years without British rule 'the best is yet to come'
Toronto Sun, Canada

NEW DELHI -- India celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence from British rule yesterday in a triumphant mood, with many here feeling the country is finally taking its rightful place as a major global player.

"I assure you that for each one of you, and for our country, the best is yet to come," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the nation in his traditional Independence Day speech.

But with many of India's 1.1 billion people being left behind by the country's lightning economic growth, Singh warned: "We must not be overconfident."
Yesterday's celebration came a day after neighbouring Pakistan marked its independence from Britain with colourful displays of national pride. Tens of thousands rallied throughout the world's second most populous Muslim nation, waving Pakistan's olive-green flag, with a white crescent.

Britain's 1947 partition of the subcontinent brought one of modern history's biggest mass migrations as 10 million people crossed the newly created frontier, and one of its bloodiest chapters as sectarian and religious fighting killed hundreds of thousands.

Pakistan's independence came a day earlier than India's so the last British viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, could attend both ceremonies.

Lingering disputes -- especially over Kashmir -- led to three wars between the South Asian neighbours, and tensions persist.

Yesterday, the fault lines that have so long divided India also were apparent with security tight across the country. In Kashmir, mobile phone service was shut down in a bid to prevent the usual Independence Day violence.

Singh, however, focused on the challenges faced by a country where children are more likely to be malnourished than in Africa and that is home to about a third of the people in the world living on less than $1 a day.

"India cannot become a nation with islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue only to a few," he told a crowd of thousands of dignitaries and schoolchildren dressed in the orange, white and green of the Indian flag.

Singh spoke from behind a bulletproof screen atop the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, the 17th-century sandstone structure built by the Mogul emperors who ruled much of India before the British arrived.

His speech touched on many domestic issues -- from plans to invest $6.25 billion in agriculture, which provides a livelihood for two-thirds of Indians, to improving schools in the country where a third of the people are illiterate.

"Gandhi's dream of a free India will only be fully realized when we banish poverty from our midst," Singh said, referring to Mahatma Gandhi.

He pledged to press ahead with industrialization and build "first-rate infrastructure" -- moves that in the past year have led to clashes between police and farmers who don't want their land plowed under to make way for factories.

India deserves credit for hitting 60-year milestone (http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18710908&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475590&rfi=6)
Midland Reporter-Telegram
MyWestTexas.com, TX
08/16/2007

We don't think of India as a young democratic nation, but the country with over a billion people is celebrating its 60th year as an independent nation this week.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to India for its worthy trek through the idea of democracy.

India is a nation of contrasts. It is an emerging power with a booming economy. Yet, it is a nation littered with a poor class that lives in poverty every day. It is a burgeoning nuclear power with massive social problems, yet it is a nation with unbelievable potential.

No one recognizes those factors more than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who said, "Democracy is India's greatest achievement but we have tough challenges ahead for our country.

"The success of a secular democracy in a nation of a billion people with such diversity is viewed with admiration. The best is yet to come," Singh predicted. "However, we must not be over-confident. We have a long a march ahead."

India's economy has been growing steadily over the past decade, recording average gains of around 9 percent per year. However, poverty still is recognized by Singh and the world as a whole as India's "national shame."

Malnutrition and high unemployment run rampant, but there are also agrarian strife, civil unrest and sectarian divide. Singh says it will take a decade of hard work and sustained growth to fully realize the dreams of a nation.

If past history is followed, as it has been by many democratic nations before it, the economy may continue to improve, but the poverty will remain after 10 years. Countries that aspire to achieve true democracy often never develop the love for the individual and that is what places America on the right road in its walk with democratic reform.

We hope and yearn for nations like India to get it right. Certainly, they have mastered the tools of freedom in the economic sector, but they need to do better in spreading the wealth.

Much can be said of India's neighbor and rival Pakistan. You barely can separate the two in any political discussion since they were born out of the same circumstances. Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947 at the end of British colonial rule. That means Pakistan, too, is celebrating its own 60 years of independence.

We wish the two nations could embrace democracy and rid themselves of the militant factors that abound. Then, and only then, will India and Pakistan begin to discover the real treasures that lie ahead on the road to democracy.

Plastic car will be world’s cheapest (http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1628076.0.0.php)
Tata Motors unveils plan for 100,000 rupee vehicle
From Raymond Thibodeaux in Kochi
Sunday Herald, UK

THE NARROW, pot-holed roads of this boomtown on India's southwestern coast are a sea of humanity on wheels. Here, as in most of India, right of way is accorded by a vehicle's size - motorcycles stop for cars, cars stop for trucks, trucks stop for buses, and buses stop for cows.

So, in a country where size does matter, an Indian car maker is set to roll out the world's cheapest car next year, enabling those at the bottom of the traffic pecking order to move up a notch.

And it will put the Indian dream of owning a new car - a symbol of status in a status-obsessed culture - within reach of tens of millions of people.

The car maker Tata Motors has not divulged many details about the car other than its shockingly low sticker price of 100,000 rupees, or 1 lakh in Indian currency. That's just over £1200, less than half the price of the lowest-priced cars on India's market today.

"It's going to be a revolution," said Naveen Khunna, 36, who plans to buy eight of these cars for his New Delhi-based pharmaceutical supply company. "Most people use motorcycles and mopeds, but not because they want to - they prefer cars but can't afford them. That is definitely going to change."

The car's rollout comes as India's economy expands at a faster-than-expected rate of 8% a year, second only to China. In this country of 1.1 billion people, sales of small cars are expected to double to two million in the next three years, as the country's emerging middle class expands from 50 million people today to an estimated half billion by 2025.

Supposedly, the 1 Lakh Car - Tata has yet to release its official name - will be a 4-door as big as a Volkswagen Rabbit, much of it will be plastic, and it will have a rear-mounted 30-horsepower engine. By comparison, a Rabbit has about 150 horsepower.

Tata is counting on it being a mega hit. It better be, analysts say. A huge volume of sales is necessary to make up for the car's tiny profit margin of less than 3%.

But its success could spell trouble for India's urban planners and environmentalists who say a drastic increase in car ownership could overwhelm the country's already crowded roadways and worsen its air quality.

The need for more affordable cars is sometimes glaringly obvious. In India, it is not uncommon to see entire families of four or five, precariously balanced on a motorcycle, weaving through traffic.

Sudheer Mahanan, a government forest warden, often carries two passengers on his moped, his 11-year-old son, Harikrishna, and his five-year-old daughter, Harichandana, who is small enough to fit on a flat space between the seat and the handlebars.

He is among those Tata is targeting for its 1 Lakh Car, largely by offering lucrative trade-in deals for motorcycles and mopeds. But even at 1 lakh, the car is out of his price range, as it is likely to be for the two-thirds of India's population who live on £1 a day.

"I've already taken out a bank loan to buy this moped," said Mahanan, 42, after being waved out of the traffic for an interview. "For me to buy a car, it would need to be about 50,000 rupees," he said. That's about £630. Fat chance.

As it is, only eight in every 1000 Indians own a car, compared to roughly 500 Europeans and 770 Americans per 1000.

Environmental groups have already expressed "great concern" about India's air quality, especially in most of the country's largest cities, where they say the air quality is already at "critical levels."

"Can you imagine if even 1% of Indians had a car? Our roads can hardly handle the number of cars out there right now," said Mahesh Mehta, an environmental attorney based in New Delhi.

"We should not be following the Western model of car ownership. That would be disastrous in India. We need better public transportation, better railways and subways," he said.

India's parliament is expected to plow about £152m into the country's outgrown infrastructure, including building and widening highways across the country, according to Indian commerce secretary, GK Pillai.

If the 1 Lakh Car is as successful as its makers hope, it is expected to boost sales in spin-off industries such as petrol stations, car parts stores, auto repair shops, and driving schools.

The cheap cars are expected to energise an already booming car market in Kerala, especially in places such as Kochi and Trivandrum that have fast-growing trades in tourism and technology.

In Kerala, India's only communist-run state, the occasional roadside posters of Che Guevara and red flags with gold hammer and sickle increasingly share space with huge billboards touting Western-style bling, including new car ads that say: "Welcome to civilisation."

Azad Pathan owns a Tata dealership on Trivandrum's "Motor Mile," which has about a dozen dealerships with polished showrooms for new cars and trucks.

"It is definitely going to be big. But then, Ratan Tata chairman of Tata Motors is a man with a big vision," Pathan said.

Will the car's wafer-thin profit margin leave little room for the very Indian sport of bargaining?

"This is India," Pathan said. "I'm sure we are going to get customers coming in here wanting us to throw in free floor mats and mud flaps."

Lehman cuts India 2007 GDP forecast to 9.1 pct, sees cyclical slowdown (http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/08/14/afx4016221.html)
FORBES, NY
08.14.07, 4:35 AM ET

MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Lehman Brothers has lowered India's 2007 gross domestic product forecast to 9.1 pct from 9.6 pct as tighter monetary conditions, led by sharp rupee appreciation and firming policy rates, hurt the country's economy.

The global investment bank, citing Reserve Bank of India's industrial outlook survey, also noted that India's business confidence indices have fallen as firms have reported less favourable conditions in production, order books, exports and profit margins.

According to RBI's industrial outlook survey, the business expectations index declined by 5.8 pct quarter-on-quarter in Q2 and by a further 3.0 pct in Q3.

India's economy appears to be entering a cyclical slowdown but the country's structural economic drivers are still intact which should help the economy to bounce back from this soft patch with 10 pct growth in 2008, Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) said in a report titled 'Asia Ex-Japan Weekly Economic Monitor'.

'We are not too concerned about this soft patch, because even at 9.1 pct in 2007, GDP growth would still be well above the average of 8.5 pct over the past three years,' the report said.

The structural economic drivers include a rapidly opening economy to foreign trade and investment, a deepening financial sector and prudent macro policies, it said.

Lehman Brothers report said it does not expect Reserve Bank of India to hike interest rates further in 2007, due to the cyclical soft patch in the economy but expects foreign capital inflows to remain strong as GDP accelerates.

'We expect the RBI to take a middle-of-the-road approach, allowing some rupee appreciation but managing the pace, working hard to mop up liquidity and liberalising capital outflows further,' Lehman Brothers said adding that it expects a 50 basis points hike in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) in the fourth quarter and two more 50 bps hikes in 2008.

India's economy has the potential to sustain 9-10 pct growth and the key to it is more supply-side reforms without politics getting in the way, the report added.

Indians splurge on children's birthdays (http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/08/19/indians_splurge_on_childrens_birthdays/)
By Emily Wax,
Washington Post
August 19, 2007

NEW DELHI -- Inside the chandeliered party hall of an upscale hotel, with its canopies of balloons and sparkly lights, three video cameramen and two photographers jostled like paparazzi to get a glimpse of the guest of honor.

Waiters in black tie waded through the crowd, serving endless silver trays of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled shrimp, and samosas. Several deejays spun fast-tempo Punjabi pop that pulsated from refrigerator-size speakers. There were cocktails for the adults and cotton candy for the children.

This was, after all, a birthday party for a 2-year-old -- curly-haired Taisa Arora. On a recent Saturday night, she wore her Strawberry Shortcake Mary Janes and a princess-like sequined outfit, and yawned as her grandmother cradled her amid the excitement of 125 guests.

In India, weddings have long been extravagant celebrations of a lifetime. But with prosperity growing in urban India, more parents are spending exorbitant amounts on children's birthday parties.

"The birthday party is the new wedding in India, and the sky is the limit," said Rakesh Gupta, a party planner who has seen his business double in the past few years. "It's a serious industry now, and people want to spend lavishly and outdo each other. People in India don't like to save. They want to enjoy life and live for today after so many years of poverty and struggle."

For India's wealthier classes, birthday parties are a chance to network with business colleagues and to reunite relatives. Perhaps most important, the parties are a source of pride for Indians looking to demonstrate their new wealth, as parents try to impress one another with opulent soirees.

The Indian economy has experienced record growth rates of 8 percent to 9 percent during the past three years, in part because the once-socialist country has opened its markets globally Although India has the largest number of poor people struggling to survive on $1 a day, its middle class has more than tripled in the past two decades, according to the World Bank.

In cities, swanky stores hawk shiny bathroom fixtures and $2,000 Jacuzzis, and television ads show smiling housewives buying washing machines.

When it comes to birthday parties, the change has been striking. Gone is the quiet birthday visit to a Hindu temple and a simple box of Indian sweets. Now there's the frazzled party planner to hire, invitations with calligraphy to buy, and elephant and camel rides to plan. Indian banks, which have long offered low-interest loans for weddings, now offer similar deals for birthday parties. The parties are often more for the parents than for the children, a way for them to show their generosity. They are also a way they can afford to treat friends, relatives, and business partners to a lavish night out.

At Taisa's bash, her father, a real estate mogul, shook hands and slapped the backs of relatives and business associates while a moon bounce was set up next to a merry-go-round. "We're proud parents. We want to celebrate in a big way," said Gagan Arora, 27. His wife, Shivali Arora, 24, said, "Some families in India have this kind of money now, so why not celebrate?"

Indeed, India is a place of confounding contrasts. According to the United Nations, 42 percent of India's children are malnourished, a higher rate than in most African countries. Children are a fixture on bustling city streets, their hands outstretched for rupees.

Not far from the Arora birthday party, barefoot girls performed cartwheels and twisted themselves into pretzel-like shapes as they begged for rupees. "Hungry," they cried.

India’s under-20 vision (http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/854230.html)
Globalist
ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada

WHILE INDIA’S economy is growing rapidly, big challenges remain — chief among them reducing illiteracy and giving today’s youth a better education.

But the sheer number of students makes that quite a task. We wonder: As a group, Indians under the age of 20 are about as large as the entire population of which of the following countries or regions?

Which is the correct answer?

A. All but 10 countries in the world

B. The United States

C. The European Union

D. The 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

A. All but 10 countries in the world is not correct.

Just the number of Indians under age five amounts to nearly 127 million people (as of 2005). Those infants and toddlers by themselves thus comprise a group larger than the population of all but 10 countries in the world.

Interestingly, Indians under the age of five also outnumber all Indians aged 55 and above — who total just 120 million.

B. The United States is not correct.

At 374 million, the number of people in India under the age of 15 is 25 per cent larger than the entire U.S. population of 301 million. Currently, one in every three Indians is under the age of 15 — and only one in three is 35 or older.

In contrast, nearly half of the people in China and the United States are 35 or older — compared to roughly 60 per cent in Europe.

C. The European Union is correct.

The 27 member states of the European Union have a combined population of 490 million. That number is roughly equivalent to the 488 million Indians who have yet to celebrate their 20th birthday, according to the United Nations Population Division.

D. The 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is not correct.

The total population of the 30 wealthy, mostly European and North American member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is 1.17 billion. That is greater than the total number of people living in India, 1.13 billion (as of 2007).

Of its total population, India’s working-age population — which includes people age 15 to 64 — is currently estimated at 734 million. That represents about 17 per cent of the world’s total working-age population.

Canberra pushes hard for fresh deal with India (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22272441-2,00.html)
By Greg Sheridan
NEWS.com.au, Australia
August 20, 2007 02:00am

AUSTRALIA will attempt to negotiate a free trade agreement with India as part of a historic shift in relations with the emerging economic powerhouse of South Asia.

The new strategic approach towards India has been endorsed by Cabinet and is considered as important as the embrace of China in the 1980s and '90s and Australia's earlier engagement with Japan.

The submission by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer went to the full Cabinet, unlike the decision to allow the sale of uranium to India, which was considered by the national security committee.

Analysts believe an FTA would be a substantial challenge, but no more so than pursuing an agreement with China or Japan, which Australia is doing.

Trade pacts with India, China, Japan and the US would give Australia almost a complete hand of interlocking treaties with its most important partners, and the world's most dynamic economies.

These agreements also provide an important defensive barrier for Australia against any rise in international protectionism, and they are an important advance in trading opportunities for Australian companies in the absence of a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations.

Government figures have been surprised at how rapidly the Indian economy has grown, although the country is experiencing political problems. The Indian Government lurched towards crisis over the weekend as left-wing parties threatened to walk away from the ruling coalition unless the country's civilian nuclear deal with Washington was scrapped.

Apart from the obvious synergy in energy trade, the familiar common-law system in India, and its dazzling success in IT, mean that an FTA should also provide enormous opportunities for Australian companies in the services sector.

This could be worth billions of dollars to Australia.

The submission regarding India contains a raft of specific initiatives, and is designed to elevate the India relationship to a core element in Australia's international orientation, along with the US, Japan, China and Indonesia.

As well as attempting to negotiate an FTA with India, Canberra will continue its fully fledged engagement in the quadrilateral talks involving the US, Japan and India, despite Chinese opposition.

The Cabinet submission recognises India's growing importance to Australia, given its growing economic and strategic power. It also notes India's increased engagement with East Asia and the Pacific and Australia's rapidly growing trade ties.

The submission contains a series of specific proposals to enhance relations. Apart from allowing the export of uranium - approval for which was announced last week by John Howard - these include formal and active diplomatic support for India's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

This is a move that indicates Canberra's elevation of India to core relationship status. Australia has been a long supporter of Japan becoming a permanent member of the Security Council and the Howard Government in the past has also suggested Indonesia should acquire such status. The other two core relationships are with countries that are already permanent members - the US and China.

Much of the submission is devoted to the sale of energy to India. Given India's rapid economic growth, energy security is becoming as important to India as it is to China and Japan. The submission envisages elevating the joint working group on minerals and energy to ministerial level, as a key tool in managing the energy relationship.

The submission contains a wide range of proposals for enhanced security co-operation. Chief among these are joint naval exercises, as well as intensified co-operation in counter-terrorism, peacekeeping, all aspects of maritime security and greater engagement on border and transport security.

A permanent presence in New Delhi by the Australian Federal Police is also being sought. All these recommendations were accepted by cabinet.

Australia is also looking at establishing an Indian studies centre that would parallel the American Studies Centre, which is being set up at Sydney University.

Similarly, it is giving consideration to the establishment of an Australia-India forum for government, business and other leaders to promote bilateral co-operation. This would follow the example of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.

The Government will move to provide more legal co-operation mechanisms. It wants to strengthen the education, training and science relationship, including the provision of more scholarships for Indian students to study in Australia.

Federal Cabinet does not yet believe Australians fully recognise the dimensions of Indian economic growth, nor their vast implications for Australia.

According to Cabinet figures, India will this year become Australia's fourth-largest export market, and Australian exports to India have been growing at more than 30 per cent a year throughout this decade. India is Australia's fastest growing export market, growing faster even than China.

India is also Australia's second largest source of overseas students and long-stay business visitors.

The Government has identified mining, agriculture, services and investment as sectors for potential large-scale expansion in Australian trade with India.

Similarly, the Cabinet submission recognises that India is increasingly central to global issues such as climate change.

The raft of actions to which Cabinet has committed has the potential to transform the Australia-India relationship.

We can't afford to miss New Delhi express (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22273347-5013404,00.html)
Greg Sheridan
The Australian, Australia
August 20, 2007

AUSTRALIA'S turn towards India is as important and nationally defining as were the pioneering of a trade relationship with Japan in the 1950s and the opening towards China in the 1980s.

It is the new frontier of Australia in Asia, and its potential is vast. Unlike Japan, India is not a former enemy. Unlike China, India is a parliamentary democracy. Then there's cricket.

India lies at the heart of all the great issues of our time -- globalisation, the fight against entrenched poverty, global warming, the fight against Islamist extremism, nuclear weapons proliferation, democracy in Asia, democracy in poor countries.

Geographically, India's surging economy, military strength and huge population -- it will in a few short years overtake China as the world's most populous nation and its age profile is substantially younger than China's -- makes it a strategic player in South and Central Asia. It is increasingly engaged in the Middle East and, of course, in East Asia.

If India, already a global leader in IT, pulls off its peaceful nuclear co-operation deal with the US, it will leap ahead even further in technology transfer.
India has undergone a domestic and foreign policy revolution every bit as profound as that which China has undertaken since 1979.

But there is less intellectual glamour in studying the open, accessible, necessarily untidy processes of Indian democracy than there are in apparently unlocking the gnostic secrets of Sinology, so the Australian foreign policy commentariat is way behind the curve on India and its growing economic and strategic importance.

This is why one of the federal cabinet's most promising decisions is to fund a full-scale Indian studies centre at an Australian university.

There are already some good university resources devoted to studying India but they need a massive infusion of resources if Australia is to have the intellectual firepower to match its national needs.
Similarly, the Government has decided to increase consular resources in the southern Indian city of Chennai, and to increase diplomatic resources to India generally. This should be followed by an immediate decision to make Hindi a priority language in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

All of this presents a serious dilemma for Labor. The most important part of our new engagement with India will be selling India uranium for its peaceful nuclear industry.

Labor's anachronistic opposition to this, on the mistaken basis that it will weaken nuclear non-proliferation even though India has never engaged in any nuclear proliferation to a foreign nation, puts it against a fundamental interest of Australia in Asia.

It is as though Labor has reversed what it believes are the historic positions of itself and the Coalition. Now Labor is standing against a fundamental new engagement in Asia which the Coalition is championing.

This partly results from Labor being so long in Opposition, which breeds a reliance on ideology rather than being fully in touch with the world as it really is. It also tends towards opposition to any change to the status quo.

But the Indian express is leaving the station. The only good place for us is on board.

Call centre on track to create 1,000 jobs in North Ireland (http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=228965684&p=zz896639x&n=228966444)
Evening Echo, Ireland
20/08/2007 - 12:00:21 PM

An Indian-owned call centre company set up in the North a year ago is well ahead of schedule in creating 1,000 jobs, it announced today.

Firstsource set up its first base in Belfast last August and another in Derry in December promising to deliver the jobs total in 2008.

“We are well ahead of schedule with 950 jobs created so far,” said Sean Canning, Firstsource’s UK operations director as the company celebrated its first anniversary in Belfast.

He said it was a tremendous achievement and paid testimony to the hard work of the staff and the availability of talented people.

“We are delighted to be here at a time when the economy is expanding and to be making a valuable contribution to that economy as a whole and in Belfast and Derry in particular.”

Firstsource is one of India’s leading business process outsourcing [BPO] service providers and employs over 15,000 people worldwide – with operations in India, the US, UK, Argentina and Philippines.

Mr Canning said: “It’s significant that in the recent quarterly results announced by Firstsource globally, the Northern Ireland operation was stated as having made a significant contribution.

“So it’s good news for Northern Ireland, our staff , our shareholders and, of source, our customers.”

Firstsource was the first India-based BPO to directly invest in the North and it said many of its management positions had been filled by internal local promotions.

“We are committed to excellence, investing in our staff, offering strong careers and rewarding endeavour, and that is reflected in our ability to recruit ahead of schedule.

“The opportunity to move up the career ladder is an important consideration for many people when they choose to work here,” said Mr Canning.

The company progress in such as short time was very encouraging for the future, he said. “Northern Ireland is certainly living up to our expectations of a highly talented and skilled workforce and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the region.”

The Belfast centre, he revealed, had recently been shortlisted for two national customer awards and both it and Derry have achieved certification for information security.

The company specialises in servicing customers in banking and finance, telecom and media, travel and transportation and healthcare.

Progress in sight for a greener India (http://www.gasworld.com/news.php?a=1927)
Rob Cockerill
gasworld.com
20 Aug 2007

After it had seemed that the future of a hydrogen vehicle economy in India was stalling, as recently reported in Gasworld, it appears that Indian vehicle manufacturers are teaming up with international firms and investing in research into commercially viable greener transport technologies.

Joining the global race to make less-polluting, greener vehicles, India is encouraging the use of bio-fuels made from renewable sources for greater energy security and emission reduction.

Conventional petrol and diesel engines are used overwhelmingly in passenger and commercial vehicles in the country, yet cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are gaining in popularity, though curtailed by limited availability.

A decade since Toyota Motor Corp launched the hybrid Prius, Indian firms from Tata Motors Ltd to Reva are testing options from bio-diesel to hybrids and are encouraged to do so by the rising demand. The region's top utility vehicle maker, Mahindra & Mahindra, has a concept 3-wheeler that uses compressed gaseous hydrogen and is studying the feasibility of hydrogen internal combustion engines and fuel cells with Shell.

Reva Electric Car Co. recently received $20m in venture capital funding and is doubling output this year to 6,000 units, of which half will be exported. Deputy chairman Chetan Maini said, "Our growth is a combination of greater consumer interest and stricter government regulations overseas."

Progress of this type in the country may be delayed slightly by legislation and a lack of government policy and incentives, though analysts are thought to expect vehicle manufacturers not to be deterred.

V G Ramakrishnan, director of Frost & Sullivan's automotive practice, supported this as he commented, "These firms have global ambitions, and are able to invest big and are willing to partner firms for technology."

The big, fat Indian arranged wedding (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/96059.html)
Earthtimes.org
Posted : Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:15:07 GMT

New Delhi - Post-liberalization money and online meeting grounds are empowering couples in big cities in India to arrange, assist or guide their marriage, while some parents complain about Westernization and the emotional independence of Indian youth. "Young people are unstoppable these days. They want a dating allowance and bring their boyfriends and girlfriends home," says Renu Puri, a Mumbai-based mother of two married sons.

"And when it comes to settling down, they are so sure about the partner they want. Nowadays they fall in love, inform us of their intentions, and parents scurry around getting the two families together and arranging their wedding," adds Puri.

In India, all roads lead to marriage. Upbringing, education, career, starting a family early, settling down, children - all point to a wedding - mostly an arranged one.

"Men and women in big cities are generally earning quite well, often date and are better informed. They are changing the equations of a typical arranged marriage. Children have as much leeway as their family," says Vijiya Ramaswamy, 48, a university professor of sociology.

"They put their profiles on matrimonial sites, surf on chat sites and even take out advertisements in newspapers. Many are not interested in the intricacies of cast, location, family antecedents or matching horoscopes. They no longer want to depend on their family to find the right partner," adds Ramaswamy.

"I found my life partner after surfing matrimonial websites. I met a few women and once I arrived at the right one, we went for a courtship period of six months," says Pawan Singal, whose mother's marriage was decided by her father. He sounded out the local barber and grocer (an age-old custom in the 60's and before) for the right match.

Online matrimonial sites replicate traditional Indian techniques. Family members, friends of those seeking alliance, and even office colleagues are making profiles and search on the basis of dietary habits to green-card status (for US citizenship).

The top two Indian matrimony sites, Bharatmatrimony.com and Shaadi.com, no doubt eyeing the 10-billion-dollars annual wedding pie, have 12.5 million paying members combined - with many more as non-paying members.

"In an arranged marriage, marital partners are chosen by others based on considerations other than the pre-existing mutual attraction of the partners," says Venkat Gopinath, an advocate who helps people in a court marriage and divorce cases.

"Today people are earning more, travel abroad and are not afraid of angering their family by going on the hunt on their own. So there are fresh considerations like compatibility of sensibilities, occupation,and sexual synergy. From family the emphasis is shifting to the individual," adds Gopinath.

With Indian society turning more capitalist than feudal-socialist, joint families, once the norm, are breaking up into nuclear ones and are are affecting arranged marriages.

"Arranged or love, marriages in cities are no longer sedate affairs. Market economy has taken over. There's almost a Elizabethan-like display of power and wealth. Double incomes, career pressure, and the decision to live in a joint or a nuclear family is changing the dynamics of choosing a partner," says Ramaswamy.

Some parents are concerned that customs associated with an arranged marriage are getting eroded.

"Things have changed a lot since the last 10 years. Women are earning so much now and are more emotionally independent. They are getting Westernized and forgetting our culture," says Kapil Berry, a father of a two daughters, who are unmarried and in high-flying careers.

"The traditional Hindu marriage ceremony involves chanting of sanskrit hymns in front of fire for 3-4 hours; the bride and bridegroom are not allowed to meet a few days preceeding marriage, and marrying outside one's caste is not allowed. People are giving all this a miss. This can affect a marriage," says Berry.

While Krishan Kaura, a grandfather, finds the increasing trend of living together, which one of his children is into, incomprehensible, and beneath Indian culture.

"Sure there are dangers in living together. I am financially independent and I want to make sure I know my partner well, be it interests or sexual compatibility, before taking the final plunge. A courtship period in an arranged set-up is not enough," says Garima, Kaura's daughter.

Skilled Indian workers shunning Bahrain jobs (http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=191206&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=30154)
By MARK SUMMERS
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

MANAMA: India's booming economy could have severe consequences for Bahraini firms as skilled Indian workers stay home for better wages, experts have told GDN.The former president of the Bahrain-based Kerala Engineers Forum and consultant at a top engineering firm T M Haridasan has already revealed shortages of engineers are leading many firms to increase their prices to customers in order to offer better salaries - a practice he said is becoming necessary in a number of fields including IT and healthcare.

"We are facing a lot of problems nowadays - not on the unskilled side where the payment is less but on the skilled side.

"I currently have a requirement for about 12 engineers in Bahrain in various fields. Also in the IT field, the payment is good back in India.

"Many Indians are simply not willing to come to the Gulf now - we went there and offered them (jobs) but the payment structure here is not attractive and expenses are rising very sharply. If companies are ready to pay more then they may opt for that," he explained.

Mr Haridasan said Bahrain's policy of pegging the dinar to the US dollar was not helping matters.

"The present situation is the dollar has devalued a lot but the Bahrain currency is still pegged with the dollar and that also affects us and means I am losing around 15 to 20pc of my income.

"In India it was 47 rupees for a dollar and now it is less than 40 - but here it is still pegged with the dollar and I don't get to take advantage of that benefit. Only Kuwait has been bold enough to come out and revalue their currency against the dollar - and the expatriates there are getting the benefit of that," he said.

He also revealed as the numbers of Indian workers coming to the region starts to dwindle shortages of skilled workers is forcing those currently in the Gulf to shuttle between locations as and when their expertise is needed.

"Those are in the Gulf are shuttling between. They are switching from Dubai to Bahrain and Bahrain back to Dubai. But new entrants in the Gulf are very limited in the promotional and technical fields because India is fast developing in these areas - even in the construction field people are getting good offers as well as other benefits and they have the advantage of working in their own country," he said.

Such shortages are starting to impact on the bottom line of many firms in Bahrain, he said.

"There is a knock on effect as workers raise wages to try and tempt workers - in our industry we have a situation we have an escalation in our tenders of 20pc compared to two years back," he said.

Labour Ministry assistant undersecretary for training Ahmed Al Banna also acknowledged attracting skilled Indian workers was proving more difficult - but said this situation would offer more opportunities for Bahrainis.

"We have difficulties in technical areas - accountants, IT technicians, engineering, quantity surveyors, and in the ministry we have a lot of problems providing civil engineers for companies," he admitted.

"In the coming period there are a couple of issues going to take place in the job market which are going to provide opportunities for Bahrainis.

"In India, they are trying to upgrade salaries and this could lead to a scarcity of Indian nationals in the fields of IT, healthcare, engineering, and accountancy.

"What is happening with regard to the work permits in Bahrain, with the new LMRA taking over will start a new trend. The Labour Fund is working hard in investing more money in the development of Bahrainis. All these issues plus the demand with the continued growth of the economy will make some of these jobs really attractive to Bahrainis and there will be more opportunities for Bahrainis to take over from Indian workers," he said.

However, he acknowledged that among some Bahrainis there was little understanding of the rewards that some technical disciplines could offer.

"If you look at the unemployed, if you break them down, there are not many university graduates and if there are they are in the humanities fields not engineers and accountants and so on.

Bahrainis have to be very aware - normally when we tell them about the technical programmes they just see the job of a technician. But if you start as a technician you might be a GM one day," he said.

Bollywood nights (http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=11424)
A generation of South Asians melds a new cultural mix
Detroit Metro Times, MI

No vivid splashes of pink. No monsoon-drenched damsels. No lab coats, no spicy curry, no "Thank you, come again!"

It's a crowd of popped collars and kohl-rimmed eyes tonight, of diamond nose studs and hair gel en masse. Timid onlookers smoke cigarettes and drink in the scene; a few couples grind in corners, eyes locked, hips matching the up-tempo. But most are dancing Bhangra, their palms flexed, their arms outstretched, their shoulders bouncing up and down.

The bartender's brown, the bouncer's brown, the party-goers, brown — this scene reflects the growing South Asian population in the greater Detroit area.

A DJ spins a favorite — "Dhoom machaale, dhoom machaale, dhoom!" ("Cause an uproar!") And the crowd in the Farmington Hills club echoes, whistling and clapping to a — well, hip hop-tinged Bollywood beat.

The stereotypes

The general perception of South Asians — those with origins in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka — has been imbued with stereotype for years. (The stereotypes are everywhere — try, "Dr. Science purchased his pre-arranged wife for the low price of two buffalos. They danced in the rain and lived happily ever after, but only after seven or eight show-stopping tunes.") But in the past decade or so, a noticeable shift has occurred in this country. East has met West, and a lovechild is well on the way — because South Asian pop culture (stereotypes and all) is getting romanced, accepted, by the American mainstream, and vice versa.

We begin, after all, at Bollywood Night in Farmington Hills' Bombay Grille — a typical desi, or South Asian, party. Staid upscale Indian restaurant by day, the place is transformed at night into a venue for DJs to play Punjabi Bhangra music and songs from Bollywood hits. Parties such as this one have been going on for more than two decades in metro Detroit's thriving South Asian community.

Bollywood is the multibillion-dollar movie industry of India, producing hundreds of films annually (Lagaan, Dilwale Dulhenia Le Jayenge) — and with the recent trends of globalization, anyone in the world can have direct access to desi culture. The fashion, the music, even the movies themselves, have influenced designers, musicians and artists in the Western world.

It's a burgeoning phenomenon that's still in its infancy — we still don't see any South Asian Madonnas sweeping the nation — but it reflects an interesting paradox among second- and third-generation American desis today. Because though South Asian-Americans are maintaining a strong connection to "the motherland" and try to adhere to certain values and traditions ("Study hard, marry soon, believe in God"), life here, much like the Farmington Hills party, can't be all "Bollywood": The music isn't only desi. The crowd isn't always monochromatic. And the love scenes — well, they aren't always chaste.

"In one sense, South Asians have this homogenized identity in America," says Ram Mahalingam, a professor of psychology and women's studies at the University of Michigan who studies South Asian immigrant populations. "It's superimposed — we're only seen as doctors, as engineers, as convenience store and motel owners — and often, only interpret ourselves as such.

"But the mainstream perception is clearly changing, as are trends of assimilation, which is why this 'Bollywood phenomenon' is so fascinating."

I got love for Punjab but I'm from the D

"You're Indian?" the boy asks. "Always thought you was Arabic or somethin'."

Rapper Kidd Skilly smiles indulgently, leaning back on a maroon leather couch in a Corktown recording studio, and turns to his producer Helluva's son. The boy's not far off — Skilly's face is framed by a 'do rag, baseball cap and bling, and with his immaculately trimmed facial hair and lightly tanned skin, he indeed looks like he could easily be mistaken for another race.

"What, you think they call me Indian Jay for nothin'?"

Kidd Skilly's a Detroit example of a stereotype-shattering American desi: Half-Mexican, half-Indian. He's been rapping for about a decade.

The 26-year-old Skilly grew up on the southwest side of Detroit. The youngest of three siblings, his parents divorced when he was 5, and he was raised primarily by his Punjabi father. His father taught him the Hindi and Punjabi languages, as well as respect for Indian music and culture — which influenced his decision to meld hip hop and desi music. Skilly injects Punjabi and Hindi phrases into many of his lyrics, plays the guitar, and uses flute and harmonium melodies often set to the beat of tabla or dhol drums.

His latest music video, "Bhangra Chick," is a tightly produced, over-the-top blend of genres. The video incorporates a booty-shakin' belly dancer, an ebullient Michigan Bhangra dance team, a dhol-and-harmonium-jammin' Sikh, and of course, a thugged-out "Bhangra Chick."

With the ethnic dancers and the scantily clad beauties, just about every desi stereotype is featured. It's clear Skilly's working the commercial angles here, to attract a wider audience and keep the one he has.

But outside of the garishly catchy pop gimmick seen in "Bhangra Chick," Skilly waxes philosophical about his influences and the issues that "matter."

He performs spoken word weekly at Detroit's Beans and Bytes coffee shop to improve his lyricism, and draws influence as much from African-American poet Maya Angelou as he does from Shiv Kumar Batalvi, a Punjabi poet.

"There is something about great personalities with poetic souls that fascinates me," he says. "The people who influence me most seem to transcend through age groups, religions, ethnicity and race — they make people feel a certain level of comfort."

His favorite song that he's written, "Let's Talk About Something," is an attempt to air his personal beliefs. Though it hasn't been completed yet, he "talks about" self-identity and South Asians breaking stereotypes. He goes on to contemplate the lack of content in mainstream hip hop — even delving into the flaws of his own music. Finally, he raps about "stuff that really matters" — ranging from the evils of tobacco moguls to the war in Iraq.

But Skilly admits it's a delicate interplay between rapping about things that matter to him and what appeals to an audience.

"You've got to brand yourself, play the commercial game," he says like some music-biz-hardened emcee. "I used to be more of a conscious rapper, but being in the music industry — especially when you're atypical, like me, a South Asian — you need to make strategic moves to get noticed."

Skilly has strategic aims to break into the mainstream American audience. He says that he is collaborating with such artists as Akon and Snoop Dogg, and he hopes to create a broader appeal for his music.

In that vein, he worked on a music video with Indian-American porn star Sunny Leone. Leone, a former Penthouse Pet is a true defier of stereotype if there ever was one — desi parents, in particular, value the sanctity of the loins. But Skilly canned the project in post-production.

"I didn't want to be one of those people who had to use someone like Sunny Leone to sell my video," Skilly says. "No disrespect to her — she's cool — but I didn't feel comfortable with it.

"I mean, I feel responsible for the stuff I put out there — I get 11- and 12-year-olds listening to me. What would I telling them if I couldn't sell my video on my own merit?"

And he's gaining a loyal fan base, across the globe, packing venues when performing for the desi crowd. The comments on his MySpace site say much:

"heyyy thnx for tha add your musiq is tha shizz =D xo" writes a 16-year-old girl from Melbourne, Australia.

"eyyyy i like ur music!!!! u have a great voice n i rly like the song nachna!!!!" writes another girl, also 16, from California.

"The majority of my fans are South Asian, they very well might always be South Asian," he says. "But with my latest projects, especially the song 'Ni Sohniye' with Akon, I think we might get a chance some mainstream airplay.

"There's a gap in the music scene right now — and I think that the time's right to introduce a new type of hip hop."

Evolution

A January 2007 report by investment bank Goldman Sachs indicated that within a decade, the Indian economy could surpass France, Italy and the United Kingdom — making it the fifth strongest in the world. By 2050, it's hypothesized that India could overtake even the United States, falling second only to China.

This is making the country, for the lack of a better word, sexy.

Fancier cars congest the already-packed streets, shopping malls boast upgrades to the latest luxury — basically, life is becoming increasingly lavish as the standard of living in India skyrockets. And so, in turn, prospers the already-flourishing Indian film industry.

Keep in mind that the allure of Bollywood has never escaped starry-eyed American desis: Bollywood rock concerts have toured the country for years, showcasing lip-synching Hindi superstars, such as actor Shah Rukh Khan and actress Madhuri Dixit during spectacular stage shows. There are flashy song-and-dance numbers, Technicolor pyrotechnics and staged downpours for buxom actresses to fulfill the ultimate Bollywood promise — that is, true to stereotype, a frolic in the rain.

So by combining newly acquired Indian wealth with the unquenchable Western desi demand, the film industry has capitalized. For instance, according to an Aug. 14 Forbes story, the Indian production company UTV Motion Pictures "now sees close to 20 percent of its revenues from overseas markets and plans to increase that to 50 percent over the next two years." Bollywood films like Dil Chahta Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Asoka line the shelves in suburban Blockbuster video stores; such celebrities as former Miss Universe Aishwarya Rai are accepting roles in Western-made films like Bride and Prejudice.

To an extent, the media are opening up to South Asians. But somehow, beyond the heritage-denying Freddie Mercury (his birth name? Farrokh Bulsara) and Ravi Shankar's nominally Indian daughter Norah Jones, few desi musicians have truly made it to the American mainstream.

"I'm a Desi Who Isn't Planning On Being ...

... a Doctor or an Engineer or Running a Dunkin' Donuts."

That's the name of a forum for Indians on the social networking site Facebook, and the bookish stereotype holds true: According to a 2005 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 2.9 million desis, around 100,000 of them living in Michigan. And nearly 50,000 are South Asian physicians, which is a fairly significant number, considering that few South Asians were permitted to enter the country until the late '60s.

A brief history: The first influx of South Asian immigrants arrived in America during the first decade of the 20th century. About 10,000 Sikhs from Punjab, mostly male, worked as laborers on California farmland. In 1917 the Barred Zone Act was passed, which banned all Asians from entering this country. According to the American Immigration Law foundation, "by 1940 half of the Asian Indian population had left the country, leaving only 2,405."

However, influenced by the civil rights movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, which allowed immigrants — professionals, in particular — to obtain visas to enter the country.

"There was actually a shortage of medical professionals by the '50s and '60s," Mahalingam says. "So immigration quotas were finally eliminated to attract foreign doctors and engineers."

So a large percentage of South Asian parents passed their expectations of accomplishment onto their children. Because, by and large, the desis who were able to immigrate to this country did so with great pains — often, they came from less-privileged backgrounds. India hasn't always housed the Silicon Valley of the East, and lifestyles have never been as luxurious as they are these days — so in order to secure a visa, it was paramount a couple of decades ago for South Asians to demonstrate either brilliant scholarship or unerring hard work.

And they, in turn, spawned a further generation of overachievers.

"From the typical Indian parents' point of view, if their children don't become engineers or doctors, they'll never get a job, and they'll starve," Mahalingam says. "That's how it is in India, so parents will often dissuade their children from pursuing 'soft' interests — including art."

Mahalingam studies the repercussions felt by immigrant families, in what's dubbed the "Model Minority Myth." He says the social competition among South Asians in America is much more intense, thanks, in part, to the ever-elusive "American Dream" — leading to elevated depression, anxiety, even rising suicide rates.

"It's very interesting — the Asian students in my Immigration Studies class — will almost always have a double major," Mahalingam says. "One highly technical major, like pre-medicine or computer science — and another enjoyable major, such as fine art or sociology, for themselves. I've heard of many bitter disputes that have been caused by this."

It's this quiet rebellion that has equipped later generations to better pursue alternate career paths — in writing, in politics, in music.

"These second-generation South Asians — the children of immigrants who came over in the '70s and '80s, have been incredibly active," Mahalingam continues. "These people, in their 20s and 30s, have formed a new identity entirely."

Pressure drop

Kidd Skilly's manager, Amit Dharmani, might be considered the product of such pressure. He's a University of Michigan grad, with a double major in computer science and biology. But at 26 years old, he laughs when he admits his dearest ambition: To be the next Russell Simmons, who became enormously wealthy by helping to take what was considered strictly black music — rap and hip hop — into suburbia, into the heads of millions of white kids.

Dharmani started DJing when he was 13, becoming slowly acquainted with the ins and outs of music production. Because by the '90s, this was already an established scene; in Michigan, the primary outlets for Indian music were niche gatherings — themed festivals, private concerts, weddings. And the entertainment was always provided by DJs.

One such DJ was Jack Sandhu, who's now an entrepreneur in the Detroit area and one of the organizers of the Festival of India in Hart Plaza. "I started DJing at desi weddings in the '80s," he says. "Back then, not too many people were doing it. But I'd play Bollywood hits, and all the aunties and uncles would dance. It was all very self-contained at first — but we got popular, fast."

Dharmani did the same. He progressed to party promotion, and after deferring acceptance to medical school twice, he decided to pursue a career as a music producer. Dharmani now holds a "day job" as a computer scientist in Florida, with which he helps back Skilly's projects, and the two have plans to diversify.

Dharmani talks of the rise in hip hop's popularity among South Asians: "I'd say that people over the age of 22 are pretty skeptical of the hip-hop world — particularly the South Asian hip-hop world," Dharmani says. "But then, you look at the younger generations — the kids that are 13 to 21 — and they've grown up with hip hop around them. They're more accepting of it.

"If you look at it this way — 10 years ago, every Indian guy, myself included, wanted to be a DJ," he continues. "That was accepted, because 10 years before that, in the '80s, the first Indian DJs began spinning. It's pretty much a linear progression."

Dharmani and Skilly want to reach out to more diverse audiences. One way is by finding more accessible venues, with better acoustics and capacity, to line up performances. And they want to organize cross-country tours with other like-minded performers — like British-Indian R&B performer Jay Sean and Indian-Canadian pop artist Raghav.

"My goal is basically to take the South Asian scene, which is leading in almost all aspects in the U.S. — in engineering, medicine, management — and reintroduce them to music," Dharmani says. "It's strange that South Asians in the U.S. shy away from it, even though we have such a rich history in both music and entertainment."

Full disclosure

This writer is an Indian. Born, though not brought up — friends call me a "coconut." Brown on the outside, white on the inside.

Don't get me wrong, I've paid dues; I've worked hard to accept and understand the Indian culture. I've danced Bhangra, albeit poorly. I've eaten with my hands, and dribbled. I've seen a lakh of Indian movies — with subtitles — and I've definitely felt the pressures of the Model Minority Myth. (In my case, to the chagrin of my parents, it certainly is a myth.)

My parents, both psychiatrists, came to this country entirely on merit. They struggled through impossible situations to secure a comfortable life in the United States. And I, like a typical American, took things for granted.

But it's been daunting, living in the shadow of geniuses, if you will. The pressures of living up to the Model Minority standard have eaten at me, as they have many of my peers. It's easy to succumb to the "Be a doctor or suffer hellish consequences" — even if they aren't explicitly imposed upon you. I was initially on the pre-med track, but floundered, flopped, then found my footing again — in the writing biz. Surely, I'll starve.

But I witness these changes among South Asians of my generation, and I'm proud. I'm proud that my best friend from childhood, Anisha Nagarajan, was the lead in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bollywood Dreams. I'm proud that the stories of our childhoods can win Pulitzer Prizes, and I'm proud that we have musicians like Skilly representin' both Punjab and the D.

In short, it seems to me that South Asians across the country are maturing. Not just in the literal sense — elder generations are, indeed, battling a scourge of bloating waistlines and Type 2 diabetes. But you're seeing more Anishas. More Skillys. Our aptly labeled generation of "American-born Confused Desis" is coming into its own. We're expanding the scope of our dreams. And as the song goes, "Dhoom machaale, dhoom machaale, dhoom" — we're gonna make some noise.

Date: Wednesday , August 22, 2007

Washington: India may have provided more in intellectual capital to the US just over the last decade than all of the financial aid the US has given to India over the last 60 years, says an Indian American entrepreneur researcher who has done a study on the immigration issue.

"So one may ask - who's helping who, here," said Delhi born Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur currently working as Wertheim Fellow at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University on the release of the study Wednesday by Kauffman Foundation.

But for the first time in its history the US faces the prospect of a reverse brain drain because of its flawed immigration policies, says the study, the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants' contributions to the competitiveness of the US economy.

The US should bring in highly skilled immigrants not as temporary workers but to stay if it does not want to lose them to countries like India and China, the study suggests.

The study is co-authored by Guillermina Jasso, professor of sociology at New York University, Ben Rissing and Gary Gereffi research scholars at Duke University and Richard Freeman, Herbert Asherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University.

Noting that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the US, it says this imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from America to the skilled workers' home countries.

The study estimated "there are more than one million individuals waiting in line for legal permanent resident status. The wait time for visas for countries with the largest populations, like India and China, ranged to four years in June - not counting visa processing time - and may be even higher when visas are again available in October.

This backlog is likely to increase substantially, given the limited number of visas available, it said. Evidence from the "New Immigrant Survey" indicates that approximately one in five new legal immigrants and about one in three employment principals either plan to leave the US or are uncertain about remaining.

Moreover, media reports suggest that increasing numbers of skilled workers have begun to return home to countries like India and China where the economies are booming, the study noted.

"So far, the US has the benefit of attracting the worlds best and brightest. They have typically come here for the freedom and economic opportunities that America offers," said Wadhwa.

"Now, because of our flawed immigration policies, we have not set the stage for the departure of hundreds of thousands of highly skilled professionals - who we have trained in our technology, techniques and markets and made even more valuable.

"This is lose-lose for the US. Our corporations lose key talent that is contributing to innovation and competitiveness, and we end up creating potential competitors," he said.

Wadhwa said he was by no means advocating an expansion of the numbers of H-1B visas for skilled workers. "In fact, part of this problem has been created by our expanding the numbers of temporary workers we admit and not increasing the numbers of permanent resident visas."

Noting that the focus of the immigration debate in US has been on the plight of the unskilled workers who have entered the country illegally, he said If Washington waited five years to reform the immigration system, the illegal and unskilled will still be here as these poor people have few options.

"But the highly educated and skilled - who are fuelling economic growth and contributing significantly to US global competitiveness will be long gone. They are in even more demand in countries like India and China than they are in the US. Our loss will be the gain of their home countries," Wadhwa said.

Key findings:

* Foreign nationals residing in the US were named as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006, up from 7.6 percent in 1998.

* In 2006, 16.8 percent of international patent applications from the United States had an inventor or co-inventor with a Chinese-heritage name, representing an increase from 11.2 percent in 1998.

* The contribution of inventors with Indian-heritage names increased to 13.7 percent from 9.5 percent in the same period.

* While Chinese inventors tended to reside in California, New Jersey, and New York, Indian inventors chose California, New Jersey, and Texas.

* Both Indian and Chinese inventors tended to file most patents in the fields of sanitation/medical preparations, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and electronics, according to the study.

* Foreign nationals and foreign residents contributed to more than half of the international patents filed by a number of large, multi-national companies

* These included: Qualcomm (72 percent), Merck & Co. (65 percent), General Electric (64 percent), Siemens (63 percent), and Cisco (60 percent).

* Foreign nationals contributed to relatively smaller numbers of international patent applications at other firms, such as Microsoft (3 percent) and General Motors (6 percent).

* Forty-one percent of the patents filed by the US government had foreign nationals or foreign residents as inventors or co-inventors.

* Foreign nationals' contribution was the highest in California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Indian drug market to reach $20B (http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/22/news/companies/india_pharma/?postversion=2007082211)
India's fast-growing economy, expansion in health care insurance and infrastructure, to grow national drug sales to triple by 2015.
By Aaron Smith
CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 22 2007: 11:59 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Indian drug market is expected to triple in size by 2015, to $20 billion in annual sales, according to a report released Wednesday by international consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

The report said India will undergo a "significant transformation" to become one of the top 10 pharmaceutical markets in the next decade.

The country's fast-growing economy, with an enviable GDP growth of 8 percent, is expected to be a key factor in driving the pharma market. The report said that 40 percent of the projected growth can be attributed to the doubling of disposable incomes and the expansion of the Indian middle class.

In addition, improvements in medical infrastructure - like rural hospitals and clinics - would contribute to 20 percent of the projected growth, while the strengthening of health insurance within the country would contribute to 15 percent of the growth, the report said.

India is already home to of the world's most prominent makers of generic drugs - Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up $0.31 to $15.53, Charts) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (down $0.32 to $8.57, Charts) - which compete with U.S.-based makers of name-brand drugs like Merck & Co., Inc. (up $0.56 to $50.33, Charts, Fortune 500) and Pfizer Inc. (up $0.29 to $24.53, Charts, Fortune 500)

But to fuel more growth in the Indian pharma market, the national government should lend a helping hand, said study co-author and McKinsey director Gautam Kumra.

Kumra said the Indian government needs to create an infrastructure to expand healthcare throughout the country, to rural hospitals and clinics. He said the government should also do more to support R&D and health insurance coverage.

Kumra said that 90 percent of the Indian population is uninsured and must pay out-of-pocket for pharmaceuticals and healthcare services. Helping to accelerate the growth of private insurers in India would drive up drug sales, he said.

But Kumra added that there are formidable challenges to expanding health insurance in the country, because many Indian workers are in the hard-to-reach "unorganized sector," which includes subsistence farming and cottage industries.

Back office to the world (http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/21/10147936.html)
Financial Times, UK
Published: August 20, 2007, 23:37

This year, a rumour swept through the global stock markets that the information technology services outsourcing industry was about to witness the deal of the century.

According to the speculation, Infosys Technologies, India's number two outsourcing group, was contemplating buying France's Capgemini, a deal that would for the first time combine the back office strengths of India with the front-end firepower of a western IT consulting giant.

The rumours turned out apparently to be just that, baseless speculation. But the fact they were taken seriously at all is itself testament to the amazing achievements of India's IT services outsourcing industry.

From virtually zero little more than a decade ago, India has emerged as the global hub of the outsourcing industry. The sector has become in the process the most important driver of the country's economic emergence.

"There may be some people who claim they foresaw this happening," says Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman of Cognizant, the IT outsourcing company, and chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the sectoral industry body.

"But even when we started Cognizant, in 1994, we never thought that in 10 years we'd become a billion dollar company."

India's IT outsourcing sector has its roots in the liberalisation of the telecom market in the early 1990s, which ushered in a new era of connectivity.

Indian companies began to realise the potential of using the country's large pool of highly educated English language speakers as a back office for the outside world.

But it was not until 1997-1998, when the world began relying on India to prepare its computer systems for the millennium bug, that the industry came into its own.

Deal-making

This coincided with the frenzied deal-making of the technology bubble era, when Indian entrepreneurs began to emerge on the global stage, such as Sabeer Bhatia, who together with his partner Jack Smith sold hotmail.com to Microsoft in 1997.

Today the industry employs 1.6 million people and handles everything from the IT functions of retailers such as J Sainsbury in the UK to the computer systems of chip manufacturers such as AMD.

Indian companies now also take care of the back office paperwork of almost any type of foreign business or government department imaginable.

But as the industry has matured, so have the challenges, among them the supply of talent. Nasscom calculates the country is facing a shortfall of about 500,000 "skilled knowledge workers" by 2010 unless "remedial action" is taken.

The shortage has led to wage inflation of between 10 and 15 per cent and higher for more experienced and specialised professionals.

India emerges as the second largest market for Nokia (http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=45745)
WebWire, GA
8/23/2007 7:39:58 AM

New Delhi, India - Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications, today announced that India has become the second largest market for Nokia in terms of sales, going past the United States in the quarter ended June 2007. Over the last three years, India has been gaining significant ground Year on Year moving from No 4 position in 2005 to No 3 position in 2006 and is today poised right behind China.

In another milestone, the company also announced that it has started exporting to 58 countries from its Sriperumbudur, Chennai manufacturing plant. This is a remarkable feat for Nokia’s manufacturing plant in India and demonstrates the operational efficiencies of the factory and conducive business environment provided by the state and central government. Today, the factory has reached production volumes of 60 million handsets (August 2007) and is exporting half of its production to 58 countries across Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

"India is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy buoyed by impressive economic growth, skilled manpower and tremendous business opportunity. As the market leader in devices and infrastructure, Nokia is committed to build the telecom ecosystem in the country and foster the creation of a favorable environment for collaboration and economic development," said Mr. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation.

The factory currently employs 4700 people, 70 percent of which are women. The Nokia Telecom Park has received an investment of USD 500 million with seven global component manufacturers likely to generate in excess of 30,000 jobs when fully functional.

"Today, India hosts a comprehensive Nokia R&D, Manufacturing and Design presence. Moreover, we are also the country’s leading provider of wireless infrastructure through Nokia Siemens Network, the newly merged entity. This not only reiterates our commitment and belief in the market but also underscores India’s emergence as a strategic resource hub for Nokia globally," said Mr. Kallasvuo.

Nokia Siemens Networks has recently announced its plans to invest USD 100 million in India over the next three years as a part of its commitment to develop a strong telecommunications environment in India. This is to better address and drive the growth of Indian mobile industry and to better serve its customers. This investment will include setting up a proposed telecommunication equipment manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu for wireless network equipment, new offices across various cities, additional development of an existing R&D centre, and expanding the Global Networks Solution Centre.

Nokia Corporation has recently introduced a new organizational structure under which Nokia’s current business group and horizontal group structure in the device business will be replaced by three main units. The new organizational structure will be effective from January 1, 2008. Devices, responsible for creating the best device portfolio for the marketplace; Services & Software, reflecting Nokia’s strategic emphasis on growing its offering of consumer internet services and enterprise solutions and software; and Markets, responsible for management of Nokia’s supply chains, sales channels and marketing activities. The move is driven by Nokia’s strategy to create an organization that would allow it leverage opportunities that convergence and the internet industries present in the future.

Confident India bulks up military (http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/08/23/4439924-sun.html)
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Edmonton Sun, Canada

India and Pakistan just celebrated their 60th birthdays this week. For fast-rising India, it was a justifiably joyous event.

In sharp contrast, military-ruled Pakistan, which faces growing internal tensions or even civil war, had very little to celebrate.

More than a billion Indians feted their nation's zesty economy, cutting edge information technology, growing influence, and pride in being the world's most populous democracy.

Indians are bursting with confidence, but it often borders on hubris. India's economy is still only two thirds that of Canada's. But once totally self-absorbed and self-isolated, India has opened its markets and mind to the outside world.

India, however, remains a giant with feet of clay. A majority of Indians subsist on 50 cents daily. Urban India with 200 million westernized citizens is booming. By contrast, rural India remains desperately poor, with public health as bad as in black Africa.

India's understandable, but overly eager, quest for respect and great power status has led Delhi to lavish billions on nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers, and an arsenal of modern weapons for its 1.3 million-man armed forces -- while tens of millions of its citizens still sleep in the streets and lack toilets.

India has every right to develop powerful conventional and strategic forces. Over the past 60 years, India fought three wars against Pakistan, and one against China, both of whom are hostile and nuclear-armed.

STRATEGIC WEAPONS

But why is India, still among the world's poorest nations, building a range of hugely expensive strategic weapons it clearly does not really need?

More important, why is the Bush administration about to supply India with nuclear fuel and technology, and has blessed Delhi's hitherto "rogue" nuclear weapons program, when India is developing long-ranged missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads to North America?

India has been covertly developing a 12,000 km-ranged intercontinental ballistic missile, Surya-2, under cover of its civilian space program's heavy space launchers, PSLV and GSLV. According to India's space agency, "Surya's targets will be Europe and the U.S."

India's existing Prithvi and Agni-III missiles cover almost all of Pakistan and China. India has no earthly reason to fire nuclear weapons at Europe or Japan. India's 12,000-km Surya ICBM has only two logical targets, the United States or Australia.

Why is Delhi spending a maharaja's ransom on these strategic systems? Great power prestige? Possible war with the U.S. to control oil from the Gulf, Central Asia and Indonesia? It's hard to fathom Delhi's strategic thinking.

India is deploying aircraft carriers and surface combatants to project power throughout the Indian Ocean, a vast body of water Delhi considers "mare nostrum." India's fast-growing navy will operate from the coast of East Africa and the Mozambique Channel to Australia's west coast. Its primary operating zone straddles main oil tanker routes from the Gulf.

U.S. NAVY

China's modest navy cannot operate in the Indian Ocean because it lacks air cover. The only non-Indian navy operating in the Indian Ocean is the U.S. navy.

The U.S. has been so eager to draw India into a nuclear pact in order to exert political leverage over Delhi and enlist it as an ally against China and Iran that it has totally ignored the potential threat to American security posed by India's growing nuclear arsenal.

Finishing schools for the new India (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/24/asia/finish.php)
By Anand Giridharadas
International Herald Tribune, France
August 24, 2007

MUMBAI: They don't teach the waltz at this finishing school. But with its $62 tuition, this is not your typical finishing school.

Perched on the top floor of a dank building in the heart of India's commercial capital, the school is too busy teaching other lessons: Wear suits, not T-shirts, to interviews. Shake hands firmly and wipe them beforehand to avoid clamminess. Don't slouch. Banish your parents' accent from your speech. Never roll the letter "R."

These lessons may stray from the curricula of the famous Swiss finishing schools, which have taught generations of the international upper crust to bow and curtsy. But this is not Switzerland, and these students are not upper crust. This is a new kind of finishing school with a starkly different mission: to groom Indians to take part in the global economy.

With India's economy thriving, software firms, hotels and call centers are desperate for skilled, well-groomed workers. But an arthritic education system is churning out too few. And so hundreds of savvy entrepreneurs are stepping into the breach, opening street-corner finishing schools to satiate a spreading hunger to learn quickly the habits and mores necessary to get a job in India's booming services industry.

"The people of this country are sending a message that they're losing hope with the public education system," said T.V. Mohandas Pai, the director of human resources at Infosys Technologies, an Indian outsourcing company that hired more than 20,000 people last year.

India's skilled-labor shortage thwarts its great-power ambitions. And because few believe the problem can be fixed quickly, the fate of the Indian economy, and of the global corporations that outsource here, may depend to a growing extent on how well the finishing schools teach.

Pai, who recruits from universities like Harvard and Oxford, said India's hole-in-the-wall finishing schools were improbably good and noted that Infosys hires many of their graduates - not to write software, but for tasks like data entry. "It is a very good phenomenon," he said, "because it is meeting a gap in the marketplace."

The finishing schools are redrawing the cityscapes of Bangalore, Mumbai and other metropolises, popping up by the day in neighborhood markets and residential buildings. Some, like the $62 academy in Mumbai, target aspiring call-center workers, promising to neutralize accents. Others hedge their bets, peddling any skill that could possibly raise your income: Just down the road, a one-room school run by the St. Thomas Charitable and Education Trust advertises diplomas in fashion, shipping, medical transcription and Arabic.

Most schools charge between $50 and $500 for a few weeks or months of part-time instruction. Many start with vocational skills, then use that platform to polish the rough edges of their students.

The schools reflect a surging movement among India's poor to raise themselves up through education. In the cities, for example, you find ever more chauffeurs and servants who live penny to penny but send their children to private, English-language boarding schools. According to data from Google, Indians, on a per capita basis, search for "finishing school," "communication skills" and "English training" more than any other citizenry.

Some finishing schools are better than others. But interviews with students and employers suggest that even middling institutions can double or triple a student's earning potential.

Most students said that, without attending finishing school, they could expect to earn about $1,800 a year as a salesperson. The schools help their students find jobs, and those who make it to call centers and technology firms can earn $3,600 to $6,000 a year to start, with hefty raises thereafter.

Such incomes make most students richer than their parents; many become the first in their families to join India's 50 million-strong middle class. Economists typically define middle class here as $5,000 of annual household income, the threshold at which ownership of cars and air conditioners skyrockets.

In Mumbai, the midtown neighborhood of Dadar has became a center for finishing schools. A recent stroll found buildings full of them, teaching English, German, software, retailing, jewelry, animation, business, hotel management and childhood care.

English training is especially brisk business. Across India, intelligent and well-educated graduates struggle to find work simply because they were raised speaking Indian languages.

The $62 finishing school, Let's Talk, focuses on such students. It starts with spoken English, but gradually the lessons broaden, involving the very art of being middle class. In addition to subjects like grammar, the syllabus lists "personality enhancement," "attitude management" and "dress code."

On a recent afternoon, Stephen Rozario, Let's Talk's avuncular teacher, was effervescing with advice, paternal wisdom, aphorisms and anything else that might help students live the middle-class lives they seek. The students took out notebooks - many from the plastic bags they use as briefcases - and faithfully jotted down each flicker of wisdom.

"You may look very good," the teacher thundered, "but if you have bad table manners, it all goes kaput!"

"A person who does not have a sense of humor - there is something lacking," he declared.

And then a warning: "I have come across a lot of guys and dolls, beautiful dolls and handsome guys. But when they start talking, you have to run miles away."

Rozario's task is unenviable. Many students could barely speak when called upon. Most came of age in schools that stifled self-expression, and returned home each night to parents who lacked the polish they now hope to acquire.

"I wouldn't term them as socially handicapped," Rozario said, "but they do lack social skills."

The methods at the finishing schools can be unconventional. At Let's Talk, teachers prescribe jaw exercises to help students overcome what the school quaintly calls the "MTI" - the "mother tongue influence." At Veta, a school in the same building, the principal once told a student to fix a stammer by speaking with a toffee under his tongue.

By and large, said Pai, the Infosys executive, the schools are better than their folksy methods suggest. But with thousands entering loosely regulated schools, more than a few could be swindled.

At Sheetal Academy, a few floors below Let's Talk, the curriculum is English. But if the brochure is a guide, students are taught another language altogether.

"Gmrammar is the mother of any language," the brochure proclaims. "We are in 21st century. In this era educations is must. Today criteria of education is English Speaking."

The brochure promises to teach students the very Indianisms that such courses normally attack: "In ordinary English people say 'Where do you live?' In modern English we say, 'Where do you put up?' " It adds: "We want our students to speak such hi-fi English too."

To the outsider, such schools may seem quaint and their teachings trivial. But in students' eyes, the schools are revolutionary. For them, these skills are the difference between taking the swarming train or owning a car; between marrying their father's choice of a husband or earning enough to choose their own; between mustering the confidence to order at a nice restaurant or feeling too cowed even to enter.

Sachin Khanre, 24, the elegantly coiffed son of a railway mechanic, was struggling that afternoon at Let's Talk. He had rarely, if ever, addressed a group. When asked to do so, he stood, puffed out his chest and flung back his arms, like a soldier reporting to his general. But words struggled to escape him.

In an interview, he was asked about his dreams. "To be a big man," he replied. Then he froze, with fear and helplessness in his watery eyes. He could not think of what else to say.

It was only his first day. There were three weeks to go. And for those taking the leap of faith into India's finishing schools, three weeks will, with luck, be long enough.

India's robust economy, fundamentals keeps US subprime jitters away (http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/08/24/afx4052003.html)
FORBES, NY
08.24.07, 12:14 PM ET

MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - India's economic growth and its companies' sound fundamentals will shield it from the rumblings in the US subprime market with investor confidence unlikely to be dented in the long run.

'India's growth story will still have a considerable amount of momentum regardless of what happens in the US. Here, the fundamentals are strong. Investors will, over a time, realize that,' James McCormack, head of Asia sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings told Thomson Financial News.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated this week that the Indian economy is in a position to sustain GDP growth rates that are close to 9 pct, adding that the country has a very favourable demographic profile and a strong educational system to support rapid industrialization.

High domestic savings and investments at 36 pct of GDP, local consumption at 60 pct of GDP, high forex reserves and low leverage are the country's strong points, Sachidanand Shukla, economist at Enam Securities said.

The fundamentals of the economy have been affirmed by the strong earnings of most Indian companies in the recently-concluded quarter and the growth drivers - consumption and infrastructure spending - remaining firm.

'India is a relative safe haven and this should inspire confidence of everyone concerned,' including foreign insititutional investors (FIIs), Shukla added.

July's monthly inflows were the highest-ever in the country, which had also led to a substantial rise in the stock markets.

Foreign funds have invested net of 8.00 bln usd so far this year in Indian equities, of which a major portion -- 5.85 bln usd -- was parked in July alone, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

However, McCormack said the US subprime woes could impact Indian markets in a moderate way, adding that the rating agency is still reviewing the situation.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-share Sensex ended at 14,424.87 today fell 9.10 pct in a series of volatile trade sessions, from its all-time high of 15,868.85, witnessed on July 24, on jitters from the US mortgage crisis and countrys brewing political uncertainty.

Moreover, India faces a risk of lower foreign inflows as FIIs bear the brunt of US subprime woes, thereby contracting liquidity.

So far in August, FIIs have offloaded a net of 2.20 bln usd of Indian equities, according to SEBI.

The subprime crisis is expected to trim revenues of Indian software companies in the long term, and a negative impact is anticipated on the business and knowledge outsourcing firms as they are largely dependent on US clients.

For the banking sector however, the problems caused by the US mortgage market are a non-issue, as India banks' have neglible or no exposure to that market, pointed out Ambreesh Srivastava, Fitch's senior director of Financial Institutions in Asia.

The direct impact of the crisis in terms of reducing availability of foreign currency debt funding would also be muted by the recent additional restrictions imposed by the Indian government on access to such funding for onshore usage, Chetan Modi, representative director, Moody's (nyse: MCO - news - people ) India said.

However, Harendra Kumar, research head at ICICI Direct.com of ICICI Securities said: 'We are not unduly worried about subprime as we are optimistic that over the long term India would continue to be attractive and inflows will follow.'

DoT sees growth in India outbound tourist market (http://www.bayanihan.org/html/article.php/20070824120939691)
Bayanihan.org, Philippines
Friday, August 24 2007 @ 12:09 PM BST

The Department of Tourism on Friday said it is making headway in gaining a share in the growing Indian travel market with the arrival of a 125-strong executive group from a private firm for a dealer incentive tour from September 2-6.

“This is one of the biggest group arrivals from India so far; showing that the strategic and complementary marketing efforts of the department and our partners in the industry are reaping tangible results,” Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said.

Durano said the contingent will comprise of Kodak India’s management executives and representatives from its top dealers from the major Indian cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkatta.

The department and its partner tour operators Mercury Travels in Mumbai, India and Select Global Travels, Manila have planned airport courtesies, including a lei reception and rondalla performance to welcome the group upon their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

A gala dinner has also been organized, with the Illustrado-based dance troupe Terpsichore One to showcase a colorful and imaginative sampling of Filipino artistry.

DoT Team India is also preparing a special 'pasalubong' or welcome basket of various Philippine crafts and treats.

The itinerary includes a tour of Manila’s historic and cultural attractions, shopping at the city’s big malls and sight-seeing around Cebu’s urban district and beaches. The group will be billeted at the Manila Pavilion and the Waterfront Hotel, Cebu.

“We are making sure that their experience in the Philippines will be unique and memorable –from the attractions they will visit to the warmth and hospitality that the Filipino is known for. More than vacationers, we see them as potential promoters of Philippine tourism,” DoT Team India marketing head Glen Agustin said.

Currently, DoT is pushing the country’s shopping, entertainment and beach attractions to this particular tourist group.

Cebu and Manila are the highlighted destinations since these are considered as the more cosmopolitan centers that will appeal to the market.

Specific target groups are families and business persons who have a high propensity to shop and look for entertainment and recreational facilities.

Agustin also said the Philippines won the Most Promising New Tourist Destination and Best Pavilion Presentation at the Mumbai and New Delhi editions of the 2007 Outbound Travel Mart respectively.

The Outbound Travel Mart is India’s top tourism exposition that brings together representatives from hotels, resorts, tour operators, airlines and public tourism offices from 42 countries around the world.

“These awards are a cue for us to really look into the Indian market because they’re clearly showing interest in what we have to offer. Singapore and Thailand are so far the most popular destination for this group.

"Our challenge is to meet their expectations based on their experiences. At the same time, we’re confident that we have something new in store for them,” Agustin said.

Visitor arrivals from India increased by 15.8 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2006. A total of 13,651 tourists from this country came to the islands between January and June 2007.

“India is a very promising market. Traveler traffic at the international airports of Mumbai and New Delhi alone are already in the millions. Their economy is showing strength and their call center industry is creating a generation with a heightened awareness of the global village, which would translate into an interest for travel.

"These are clear signs that there are investment opportunities for Philippine tourism,” Durano added.

Changing landscape (http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/25/newcars13956/)
By Jim Parker
The Post and Courier, US
Saturday, August 25, 2007

Local car dealers foresee evolving market as existing brands ready to compete with Smart car as well as models from China, India

Local car dealers foresee evolving market as existing brands ready to compete with Smart car as well as models from China, India

You would think Charleston area auto executives have enough competition, with 38 brands from a half-dozen countries being sold in the market. Well, get ready to add a few more monickers and at least two more venues, China and India.

So say car dealers who participated in a panel discussion last week before the Mount Pleasant Business and Professional Association.

"The U.S. car market is the largest in the world," says Brad Davis, general manager of Hendrick Imports in Charleston. "You want to be where the fish are biting."

Graham Eubank, president of Palmetto Car & Truck Group, is up to speed on the interest in America shown by Asian countries that haven't exported to the U.S. before in a major way.

At least four Chinese companies have talked about coming: Changfeng Motor Co., Geely Automobile Holdings Group, Great Wall Motor Co. and Chery Automobile Co. Also, U.S. manufacturers have partnerships in China, such as General Motors with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

"We dealt with Chery Automotive the last two to three years, bringing in vehicles from China," Eubank said. "The deal fell apart."

Still, he said, "There is going to be a Chinese manufacturer come into the U.S. in the next year. I'm not sure on the quality at first. What you'll see is small compacts. China will get the quality (in the future)."

Eubank added, "India will be bringing vehicles in. They're very good at diesel technology."

Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has disclosed it is looking to import a pickup truck and sport utility by next year, reportedly via Alpharetta, Ga.-based Global Vehicles USA Inc. Luxury Cars of Charleston, which is in a network of 135 dealerships lined up by Global Vehicles, has said it would market the Indian models if distribution plans go forward.

"Those (China and India) are the two I see coming in next," Eubank said.

Meanwhile, the Smart car, a long-anticipated mini-compact from Daimler AG, is expected to export to the U.S. in the next year or so, including through Mercedes-Benz outlets.

"Rumor has it" that Baker Motor will be a local Smart dealer, quipped Chief Executive Tommy Baker, whose company has the local Mercedes franchise. "It's a niche car," he said. "The price is right, $12,000 to $17,000."

With fuel economy a big issue, the models get 40 mpg. "You can park it on a curb," Baker said. "We'll sell what we can get."

The four panelists took questions for close to an hour from association members on a range of automotive topics, including congressional plans to raise fuel economy levels.

"The average commute is 30 miles a day. GM has a concept, the (battery-powered) Volt that can go 40 miles a day," said Doug McElveen, owner of McElveen Pontiac Buick GMC Hummer in Summerville and McElveen Chevrolet Hummer in Mount Pleasant.

Even so, there are lots of buyers who make purchases based on needs or wants rather than fuel savings.

"I drive a truck," McElveen said. "I have applications for it. You can't pull a boat with an electric car, I don't think."

In India, One Cheap Car Could Go a Long Way (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402015.html)
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 25, 2007

K Every afternoon when Sudheer Mahanan, a government forest warden, picks up his two children from school, he is forced to squeeze them onto his moped.

As they speed over monsoon-drenched potholes and weave around meandering cows, his 5-year-old daughter, Harichandana, gets smushed between the seat and the handlebars. Seated in the rear, her 11-year-old brother, Harikrishna, hugs his father's waist and jostles for space with his heavy bookbag fastened on his back. Sometimes, the children look terrified, as when a truck cuts them off or a bus screeches to a stop within inches of their moped.

"I just don't make enough to afford a car as of yet," Mahanan said as he pulled out of traffic one day recently and watched other mopeds roar by, some with infants teetering on their mothers' laps. "But to own a car -- oh, it's something I want. It is every family's dream."

In many of India's boomtowns, a car is a quintessential part of the middle-class dream, a symbol of status and comfort that helps a family arrive in style, without a layer of grime from the choking pollution or soggy, mud-stained clothes from the rain.

That fantasy may soon be within reach of families like Mahanan's. An Indian automaker is set to roll out the world's cheapest car early next year in what is being called a revolution by those in the industry and a nightmare by environmentalists and urban planners worried about India's already harrowing traffic and overly congested roads, not to mention lack of parking.

The manufacturer, Tata Motors, has provided few details about its new, four-door vehicle other than its sticker price: about $2,500 -- 100,000 rupees, also called 1 lakh, in Indian currency. Dubbed the "1-lakh car," it will cost half as much as the lowest-priced cars on India's roads today.

"Owning a car will become like owning a TV or air conditioner. It's not a dream. But it is a necessity," said Azad Pathan, who owns the largest Tata dealership in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, a state in southern India. "This will be huge. There's been a boom. Now, many Indians are on huge credit sprees. But the real question is: Are the roads ready?"

The cheapest car in the world is being released during a time of good fortune for many Indians. While two-thirds of the country's population still struggles on $1 a day, millions of people here have emerged from grinding poverty into the lower middle class. The Asian subcontinent's largely service-based economy has been growing 8 to 9 percent a year, and World Bank studies estimate that India's middle class will expand from 50 million people today to more than 500 million by 2025.

"Because of India's rise, the 1-lakh car is going to be a revolution," said Radhakrishnan Nair, chief executive of Technopark, a large office complex with 120 service companies in Thiruvananthapuram, where the newly paved parking lot is filled with inexpensive and mid-range cars.

Nair said he has already seen many well-paid young college graduates take advantage of low-interest loans to buy cars. "Few people want to take the bus anymore," he said. "If you are doing well, you want a car."

How those extra cars would affect the roads here is an open question. Traffic in India is already a mind-boggling, exhausting experience. In Mumbai, the country's financial capital, a 40-mile drive can easily take longer than three hours. The roads often seem like a circular parking lot, where savvy vendors take advantage of the captive audience, hawking cold drinks, magazines and books to ease the pain.

There are few rules of the road -- no one stays in a lane, and everyone honks the horn all the time. Drivers are generally advised to let any car or cow bigger than their car go ahead.

The Institute of Road Traffic Education recently estimated that in New Delhi alone, the number of traffic offenses is 146 million -- per day. India's parliament has said that expanding the roads is key to attracting and keeping multinational companies, and to giving motorists space to drive.

"Poor infrastructure is an issue," said Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai. "We need to expand our roads, and we have to keep working at it."

Then there is pollution. Only eight of every 1,000 adult Indians own a car -- compared with about 770 per 1,000 American adults -- but India's emissions of greenhouse gases are rising fast. Experts say that as more of the country's 1.1 billion people buy cars, India could soon overtake the United States in emission levels.

"Can you imagine if even half of the 1.1 billion Indians owned a car?" said Mahesh Mehta, an environmental lawyer in New Delhi. "We should not be following the Western model of car ownership. I think this will be disastrous in India."

While the Indian government begins to widen roads, Mehta has been lobbying for better public transportation. He said, however, that no one wants to listen.

"I am very worried, since a car is status and everyone wants that in India today," he said.

Marketing campaigns by Tata and other car companies seem to play into the idea of the car as a symbol of wealth. Huge billboards show pretty housewives cozying up to their beaming husbands and their new cars, with slogans like: "Welcome to civilization" and "Your American relatives are not the only ones who can enjoy the good life."

Tata has said it will offer trade-in deals for motorcycles and mopeds. And even driving schools are expanding in preparation for the 1-lakh car.

Saji Kumar, owner of Pradeep Driving School in Kochin, said the cheap cars will be great for business. But he also said that traffic is so bad, he often watches with horror as mopeds drive on the sidewalks during what he calls "Indian rush hour, which is pretty much all the time." He then offered some advice for Indians wanting to buy their first car.

"Please keep your car parked outside your house. Use your moped instead," he said, with a chuckle, but then looked very stern: "I know we all love cars. But how can we all fit?"

Tata favourite in race for Jaguar and Land Rover (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2332298.ece)
Nick Hasell
The Times, UK
August 27, 2007

Tata, the Indian conglomerate, has emerged as the front-runner to buy Jaguar and Land Rover, as the turmoil in world debt markets makes it more difficult for private equity firms to secure funding.

Ratan Tata, the chairman, has formally confirmed his company’s interest in buying the marques, which have been put up for sale by Ford, the struggling American carmaker.

“It will give us more of a global presence,” he said in an interview. “It is to give us scale and global reach as we take ourselves away from subordination to a single economy.”

Tata is understood to be one of only two likely trade buyers for Jaguar and Land Rover. The other – Mahindra & Mahindra, a maker of 4x4s – also hails from India.

The sale, on which Ford says it does not expect to make an announcement until the end of this year or early in 2008, is thought to have drawn preliminary interest from at least five private equity firms. However, corporate financiers believe that their chances of prevailing in the $1.5 billion (£745 million) auction have been hit by the near-shutdown of the credit markets since late July.

Three of the firms are being advised by former Ford executives. Texas Pacific Group has retained Bob Dover, once chief executive of Jaguar and Land Rover. Jacques Nasser, the former Ford chief executive, has teamed up with One Equity Partners. Sir Nick Scheele, Ford’s former president and chief operating officer, has joined forces with Ripplewood.

Other buyout groups known to have expressed an interest are Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Management.

Pre-tax losses at Jaguar in the UK halved last year from £535 million to £258 million, while Land Rover made a profit of £99 million.

Those outsourced jobs are coming back, but now the boss is in Bangalore (http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/08/those_outsourced_jobs_are_coming_back_but_now_the_boss_is_in_bangalore.html)
John Murrell
SiliconValley.com, CA

After years of watching U.S. jobs flow to the cheaper labor markets of Asia and India, we’re starting to see some backwash. Wipro Technologies, the global services arm of Indian outsourcing company Wipro Ltd., announced plans Monday to open a software development center in Atlanta that will employ 500 people within three years and may grow to double that. The positions will be for engineers and software developers, and Wipro and Georgia are working together to make sure that local talent gets hired.

Wipro, facing wage inflation for engineers and unfavorable currency conditions, picked Atlanta after looking at 600 sites in the U.S. (”We got a little carried away,” said Chairman Azim Premji), basing the choice on factors like the presence of colleges, airline access and retired military personnel with valued technological skills. Working with Georgia’s Board of Regents and its job training program, the company already has started collaborating with Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University. Georgia had been courting Wipro for four years, largely thanks to the efforts of Jagdish Sheth, a longtime adviser to Premji who sits on Wipro’s board and is also a professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Said Sheth, “For the first time, this shows that it’s not going to be sufficient to take the work to India. We have to invest in the United States.”

“The work we’re doing requires more and more knowledge of the customers’ businesses, and you want local people to do that,” said P.R Chandrasekar, president of Wipro Tech. “The Atlanta center is an investment that will help Wipro’s existing customers as well as help address new business opportunities.” On the drawing board are two more U.S. centers, possibly in Texas and Virginia. “India’s economy is now getting into the next phase,” said Ash Thakker, chairman of the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. “It is truly becoming a two-way type of trade. It’s jobs, revenues, goods and services for both India and the United States.”

Tata favourite in race for Jaguar and Land Rover (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2332298.ece)
Nick Hasell
The Times, UK
August 27, 2007

Tata, the Indian conglomerate, has emerged as the front-runner to buy Jaguar and Land Rover, as the turmoil in world debt markets makes it more difficult for private equity firms to secure funding.

Ratan Tata, the chairman, has formally confirmed his company’s interest in buying the marques, which have been put up for sale by Ford, the struggling American carmaker.

“It will give us more of a global presence,” he said in an interview. “It is to give us scale and global reach as we take ourselves away from subordination to a single economy.”

Tata is understood to be one of only two likely trade buyers for Jaguar and Land Rover. The other – Mahindra & Mahindra, a maker of 4x4s – also hails from India.

The sale, on which Ford says it does not expect to make an announcement until the end of this year or early in 2008, is thought to have drawn preliminary interest from at least five private equity firms. However, corporate financiers believe that their chances of prevailing in the $1.5 billion (£745 million) auction have been hit by the near-shutdown of the credit markets since late July.

Three of the firms are being advised by former Ford executives. Texas Pacific Group has retained Bob Dover, once chief executive of Jaguar and Land Rover. Jacques Nasser, the former Ford chief executive, has teamed up with One Equity Partners. Sir Nick Scheele, Ford’s former president and chief operating officer, has joined forces with Ripplewood.

Other buyout groups known to have expressed an interest are Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Management.

Pre-tax losses at Jaguar in the UK halved last year from £535 million to £258 million, while Land Rover made a profit of £99 million.

Just a week ago, all the "experts" in the financial press were convinced that Tata had no shot, and that it would go to some good ol' boy investment firm. :lol:

To be honest with you, buying out Jaguar or Land Rover makes no sense from a business point of view. Whoever is buying it will get a name and some outdated factories, and will have to sink billions of their own dollars turning them around.

That said, it would be awesome if these prestigious English marques were now Indian owned. :cheers:

Just a week ago, all the "experts" in the financial press were convinced that Tata had no shot, and that it would go to some good ol' boy investment firm. :lol:

To be honest with you, buying out Jaguar or Land Rover makes no sense from a business point of view. Whoever is buying it will get a name and some outdated factories, and will have to sink billions of their own dollars turning them around.

That said, it would be awesome if these prestigious English marques were now Indian owned. :cheers:

I agree with you. Moreover, it looks like they will not be allowed to:
-move the manufacturing to India
-cut the workforce .. etc
How do they expect to run profitably if they dont do anything different? They just want someone to sponsor their loss making units. :bash:

India – The next superpower? (http://www.vailtrail.com/article/20070829/OPINION/70829010)
Peter Leslie
The Vail Trail, CO
August 29, 2007

World View

One hundred and fifty years ago, Indian rebels were massacring British men, women and children in a vicious war of independence, with little mercy shown by combatants on either side. The rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed, the last Moghul Emperor forced into exile, and for the next 90 years the British government replaced the East India Company as rulers of India.

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Indian independence that was eventually achieved in August 1947. And since that time, India has been the world’s largest democracy.

Recently, India, the world’s second largest country, with a population of more than 1.1 billion (almost four times that of the United States), joined the trillion dollar club — a club with only 11 other members with economies exceeding this amount. This reflects an economy that has been growing very fast in recent years and is currently growing at an annual rate of more than 9 percent.

Along with its economic strength, India has the world’s second-largest standing army with a total troop strength of around 2.5 million (1.3 million active and 1.2 million reserve), has nuclear weapons, and the world’s fifth-largest navy that includes one aircraft carrier (and a second under construction).

The 90 years of direct British rule gave India an excellent network of roads, railways, canals and irrigation works, large-scale capital investments in shipping and mining and well-developed commercial agriculture. An education system in English, English law and a functioning civil service created suitable conditions for the growth of industry and enterprise; and the integration of India into the world economy.

But India’s economic strength and status as a potential superpower is relatively recent. The first 40 or so years following independence were years of sluggish economic growth.

Following independence, India’s socialist leaders imposed strict government control over private-sector participation, foreign trade, and foreign direct investment. A cumbersome central bureaucracy developed a huge and inefficient public sector, with business regulation, and central planning, import substitution, inept industrialization and state intervention in financial and labor markets.

However, starting in the early 1990s, economic reforms that reduced government controls on foreign trade and investment gradually opened up India’s markets. And the availability of large numbers of English-speaking, highly educated people willing to work for one-quarter the hourly wage of equivalent U.S. workers made India a logical choice for international companies seeking to outsource workers, especially in such fields as call centers, data entry and software development.

According to consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, the average computer programmer in India costs $20 per hour in wages and benefits compared to $65 per hour for a comparably qualified and experience American.

While large numbers of Indians still live on subsistence agriculture or on starvation wages in the slums of the big cities, there is a growing middle class — estimated at 250 million to 300 million — that shows an ever-increasing appetite for consumer goods. The Indian auto market reached one million cars in 2003-04 and this could easily treble by 2015. Indian manufacturers are going global with multi-billion dollar acquisitions that bring them into the league of Fortune 500 companies; and some are already world leaders in their sectors.

In recent months we have seen numerous cases of poor quality control by Chinese companies necessitating expensive recalls of defective or dangerous products and a ban on exports to the U.S. of certain human and pet foods. This may provide an opportunity for India to build on its large numbers of highly skilled and experienced managers and engineers and a vast pool of low cost, unemployed or under-employed workers. If India can be relied on to sell high-quality products, it could well take advantage of China’s recent missteps.

Investing much more in the manufacture of consumer goods for both local consumption and export could help sustain India’s economic growth and provide a major competitor for China. And because India’s population is growing faster than China’s, we might soon see India as both the largest country in the world and one of the most powerful.

This possibility has major implications for U.S. foreign policy in Asia and for the balance of power in the region. We are lucky that Indian-U.S. relations have never been better. This and future administrations should ensure that this continues.

Peter Leslie is the former CEO of the United Nations Development Office. He lives in Vail.

Beyond the Taj Mahal: 25 exceptional Indian tourist attractions (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2007-08-31-indian-attractions-forbes_N.htm)
By Adam McCulloch,
ForbesTraveler.com

Consider this: All of India receives just the same number of visitors in a year as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. According to A.R. Ghanashyam, India's Deputy Consul General based in New York, India receives just five million international tourists per year, most of them making predictable journeys to tourist icons like the Taj Mahal. It's fair to say that many of the country's spectacular monuments, cities and natural wonders remain largely unseen.

India's tourism potential is enormous and the statistics bear this out. Just look at the most recent 2005 archaeological survey listing visitor numbers to significant sites. The ever-popular Taj Mahal received 593,637 international visitors and 364,997 locals over the year. Yet, in the same period, Mariam's tomb—a mini Taj Mahal that's the last resting place of the Mughul emperor Akbar's wife—also located at Agra, received just 43 visitors.

India's economy is hotter than a vindaloo and domestic tourists—namely the 250 million-strong middle class—are demanding improved infrastructure, which in turn benefits international visitors. India has the second largest road network on Earth (next to the U.S.) but many roads and airstrips are in poor condition. Now, according to Ghanashyam, the rising demand for accommodation across the regions is spurring massive improvements in many crucial areas.

No one is pretending that travel throughout India has suddenly become seamless. "On the contrary, many of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites have been well-preserved precisely because the access is difficult," says Junko Okahashi, UNESCO's Paris-based assistant program specialist. Traveling between states is frequently more akin to traveling between countries. "We have 22 official languages and 4,000 dialects. When you travel from one state to another the language, dress, people, food, culture… all this changes," says Ghanashyam. It's not surprising then that entire states in the Himalayas or in far-flung regions near Bangladesh have been completely overlooked for centuries.

In short, India is a vast country of unexplored treasures with wide ranging appeal. For this list we consulted experts both inside and outside the country. We talked to foreign correspondents and filmmakers like Kris Cheppaikode who has worked closely with Indian New Wave director Jayaraaj. We spoke with specialist luxury tour operator Carol Cambata, President of Greaves Travel, as well as tiger conservationist and wildlife documentarian Toby Sinclair, who has hundreds of tiger sightings and more than 30 years' experience under his belt. We chatted with yoga lovers and concierges and talked extensively with UNESCO representatives and diplomats like Ghanashyam (who freely admits to loving India, even if it wasn't his job to do so). "There are hundreds of places I could list. We could be here until tomorrow," he says. Unfortunately our list is restricted to just 25 underrated tourist attractions.

Given the country's rich history, India's monuments feature heavily, but the examples cited here are also remarkably untouched. You certainly won't find yourself adrift in a sea of fellow tourists. Our list includes a spectacular river with more water than the mighty Ganges, and wildlife parks teeming with tigers and tens of thousands of wild elephants. There are some unusual inclusions and exclusions: Iconic luxury train journeys like the Palace on Wheels have been passed over in favor of traditional steam locomotives with oodles of charm, while a quirky yoga retreat makes the list partly for its strange geographic features. Some of our experts nominated entire states, ignored by development and now on the cusp of becoming eco-tourism hotspots. Another knowing source nominated a transparent hotel favored by expats for its nod to Western decadence. Our list of 25 underrated tourist attractions is eclectic, colorful, and a bit chaotic… just like India.

In Picture: 25 Exceptional (and Criminally Underrated) Indian Tourist Attractions (http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/08/07082901_slide_1.html?partner=usatoday)

^^ Good find man...........awesome!

the golden pagoda and the buddha statue at kushinagar should attract more tourism when finished

Confident India bulks up military (http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/08/23/4439924-sun.html)
U.S. NAVY
China's modest navy cannot operate in the Indian Ocean because it lacks air cover. The only non-Indian navy operating in the Indian Ocean is the U.S. navy.

The U.S. has been so eager to draw India into a nuclear pact in order to exert political leverage over Delhi and enlist it as an ally against China and Iran that it has totally ignored the potential threat to American security posed by India's growing nuclear arsenal.

WTF!?

Most of the foreign journalists don't know the shit they are talking about.

WTF!?

Most of the foreign journalists don't know the shit they are talking about.

This article is junk. He has no idea of what he is talking about. It is not even worth debating.

Quote:
Originally Posted by harsh1802
WTF!?

Most of the foreign journalists don't know the shit they are talking about.

This article is junk. He has no idea of what he is talking about. It is not even worth debating

Yup you are right. I agree. Just think of the number of nuclear armaments and missiles/rockets USA has that can reach India. India started developing them now. USA had them long before the cold war. Language like this hurt relationships between countries. All they see is threats when both countries are talking about friendship. The war mentality still prevails.

Investors ‘failing to see India potential’ (http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/public/showPage.html?page=466078)
By Jennifer Bollen
ifaonline.co.uk, UK
Tuesday 11th September 2007

Investors do not recognise the Indian market’s full potential, according to a survey by Barclays Financial Planning.

A survey of 400 investors shows one fifth, or 21%, identify India as the most repeatedly top performing global market over the last decade.

However, Barclays says the India stock market is the only stock market to outperform the other global indices in three out of the last ten years.

The survey also found a quarter believe the UK held the title as top performing global market over the last decade while its best year came in 2000 when it reached second best performing region.

Stephen Ingledew, commercial director for Barclays Financial Planning, says: “Despite record growth in the Indian economy, and substantial development in the area in terms of increased infrastructure, many investors are still not aware of the potential India offers as an investment opportunity.

“Recent political tensions and rising inflation rates could be some of the factors that prohibit investors from realising the true potential of this vast nation, but as the world’s second most populated country, all the signs are this powerhouse will continue to prosper and is not a growth area investors can afford to overlook.”

The research also shows almost two thirds, or 59%, of investors, know China has become the fastest growing stock market in the world over the past year. More than half know emerging markets have become the top performing unit trust fund sector over the last three months.

How a muslim billionaire thrives in Hindu India (http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page94?oid=159937&sn=Detail)
Mr Premji has wealth and clout as Wipro chief; the Imam disapproves.

Yaroslav Trofimov
Wall Street Journal
11 Sep 2007

BANGALORE, India -- The world's richest Muslim entrepreneur defies conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons: He doesn't hail from the Persian Gulf, he didn't make his money in petroleum, and he definitely doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve.

A native of Mumbai, Azim Premji has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable-oil firm, Wipro Ltd., into a technology and outsourcing giant. By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Mr. Premji a fortune of some $17 billion -- believed to be greater than that of any other Muslim outside of Persian Gulf royalty.

Such success, Mr. Premji says in an interview, shows that globalization -- a force Islamist activists decry as Western neocolonialism -- is turning into "two-way traffic" that can bring tangible benefits to developing countries.

Mr. Premji's rise is already inspiring some Indian Muslims to embrace the modern, globalized world. "He's an icon. He shows that excellence has no caste and no creed, and that if one has excellence, one can make it to the top," says Mohamed Javeed, principal of Bangalore's predominantly Muslim Al-Ameen College. One of the students, Mohammed Nasseer, enthuses, "I'd love to become like Premji one day."

A role model like Mr. Premji might seem to be what India's Muslims need. Though the country's economy is growing at 9% a year, the vast majority of India's estimated 150 million Muslims -- the largest Islamic population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan -- remain socially marginalized, badly educated and mired in deep poverty. By and large, they're left out of the social transformation that is propelling millions of their Hindu compatriots into prosperity, as barriers of caste disappear and India's new corporate giants provide opportunities that never existed before.

Yet, to many in India's Muslim community, Mr. Premji's enormous wealth, far from being inspiring, shows that success comes at a price the truly faithful cannot accept. They resent that Mr. Premji plays down his religious roots and declines to embrace Muslim causes -- in a nation where people are pegged by their religion and where Hindus freely flaunt theirs. "If you are a Muslim and want to be rich in India, you have to show you are very secular," says Zafarul Islam Khan, secretary-general of the All-India Muslim Majlis e Mushawarat, an umbrella group.

A Muslim school a half-hour's drive from Mr. Premji's Bangalore home reveals the chasm between this globalist success story and the country's Muslim masses. Students sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Masjid e Takwa madrassa spend their days memorizing the Quran in Arabic -- a language that neither they nor their teacher understand.

The classes are taught in Urdu, a tongue that's largely confined to Muslims and uses the Arabic script. There is no science in the curriculum. Neither is there English, the language in which Wipro conducts business and interviews job applicants, as it looks for Westernized staff who can deal with international customers.

The madrassa's imam, Munir Ahmed, says that for his students, a future as self-employed shopkeepers or peddlers is preferable to seeking formal work at a large company. "A job is like being a slave," Mr. Ahmed chuckles, adding that his graduates are in great demand as teachers in other madrassas. Schoolboys in the streets nearby, asked about Wipro, say they've never heard of it or of Mr. Premji.

The condition of India's Muslims is rooted in the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines in 1947. Amid horrendous massacres, millions of Muslims fled to the newly formed Muslim-majority state of Pakistan, just as most of Pakistan's Hindus and Sikhs escaped to India.

The Muslims who abandoned India included large numbers of the most educated and successful. Those remaining after partition have become "economically, socially, educationally...India's most backward community," says Mahmood Madani, a Parliament member who is secretary-general of India's leading Muslim religious organization, Jamiat Ulema e Hind. By some economic and social measures, Muslims are even losing out to Dalits, the erstwhile "untouchables" who are at the very bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.

Illiteracy is higher among Muslims than among Dalits in the key 6-to-17 age group. Although Muslims account for more than 13% of India's population, they make up only 1.7% of undergraduates in India's version of the Ivy League, the seven Indian Institutes of Technology. The underrepresentation is just as severe in the nation's bureaucratic elite: Muslims make up 3% of staff in the Indian Administrative Service and 1.8% of the diplomatic corps.

Only a few of the Muslims who stayed behind in India after partition have managed to prosper, including some Bollywood stars and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who until recently held the largely ceremonial post of Indian president. "The Muslims we have in India are mostly the poor and the laborers, and a few very rich people like Premji," says Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian.

With the country regularly rocked by bombings carried out by radicalized Muslim groups, such as the twin attacks that killed 42 people in the technology hub of Hyderabad in late August, even many Hindu politicians and academics see an urgent need to bridge the economic divide between the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority. The Indian government is considering measures to extend to most Muslims the affirmative-action benefits that have long reserved a large share of government jobs and university places for Dalits and other underprivileged groups.

Unlike those observers and Muslim community leaders, Mr. Premji bristles impatiently when the plight of the broader Muslim populace is cited. "This whole issue of Hindu-Muslim in India is completely overhyped," the 62-year-old executive says.

Mr. Premji has mentioned his Muslim background so rarely in public that many Indian Muslims don't even know he shares their heritage. None of Wipro's senior managers aside from Mr. Premji himself are Muslims. The company maintains normal working hours on Islamic high holidays. Among its 70,000 employees, there's only a "sprinkling" of Muslims, according to Sudip Banerjee, president of a division that accounts for a third of revenue.

Mr. Premji's private philanthropy is dispensed through a foundation that's managed by a Hindu former Wipro executive and cuts across religious lines. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. officials asked the Aziz Premji Foundation to help start an education program that would instill moderate values in Islamic schools. The foundation declined the religion-focused project, according to its chief executive, because "we are working for all."

In an interview at Wipro's sleek Bangalore campus, which had just been visited by a group of Israeli businessmen, Mr. Premji scoffed at the idea he should display his Muslim identity or champion the cause of Muslim advancement in India. "We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians or Buddhists," he said.

These secularist values came to him naturally. There was no madrassa in Mr. Premji's own education. He attended a Mumbai Catholic school, St. Mary's, and then studied electrical engineering at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

As a prominent Muslim businessman in the 1940s, Mr. Premji's late father, M.H. Premji, faced repeated requests for support from Pakistan's fiery founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who offered the father a cabinet-minister job in the new Muslim country. But the Premji family didn't believe in a religious state, and refused to move. "We did not think in these terms," Mr. Premji says. "There were roots in India, there were roots in Bombay. Why should one in any way dislodge these roots?"

While India's Muslim groups complain about facing daily discrimination, Mr. Premji says the only time he has been singled out because of his Muslim heritage wasn't in India but at a U.S. airport shortly after 9/11. In doing business in India, he maintains, "I don't think being a Muslim or being a non-Muslim has been an advantage or disadvantage. It's just been based on the merits of the opportunities."

He's been adroit at seizing those. After the death of his father in 1966, he took the helm at Wipro at the age of 21, against the wishes of board members who wanted seasoned management. Long publicly traded -- although controlled by the Premji family with 81% of the stock -- the company then had annual sales of only $2 million. It was known as Western India Vegetable Product Ltd. and mostly produced a kind of sunflower oil called vanaspati, a staple of Indian cuisine.

Mr. Premji set out to diversify, and a break came in 1977, when a coalition of Hindu nationalists, Socialists and others displaced the ruling Congress party. The new government clamped down on multinationals, prompting the exodus of corporate giants like International Business Machines Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. Mr. Premji stepped in, beginning to manufacture computers and other electronics.

"The space was opened because imports were banned into India, or imports were very expensive because of duty tariffs," he recalls. He set up shop in Bangalore, a southern city whose dry highland air is well suited for assembling electronics. He hired managers and engineers from India's large military industry. Wipro became a major manufacturer of technology hardware.

The bonanza ended in the early 1990s as a different Indian government, seeing capitalism rise in former Eastern-bloc nations, abandoned socialism and eased import restrictions. This created something of a crisis for Wipro and other electronics manufacturers. "The goods and services that we produced were no longer needed because customers could buy what's best and available on the global market," says Wipro's Mr. Banerjee.

While many of Wipro's peers didn't survive the change, Mr. Premji spotted another opportunity in the upheaval. Wipro went to the foreign companies with which it did business when it was a manufacturer, such as General Electric Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc., and offered a new relationship. At relatively low cost, its high-quality engineers could take on outsourced work such as design, research and testing.

Wipro's outsourcing business now spans the gamut. It has simple call-center management, but it also designs mobile phones for leading international brands. It runs the computer systems of European utilities and does full-service business consulting. In the fiscal year ended March 31, Wipro's profit surged 44% to $677 million, as sales climbed 41% to $3.47 billion. The shares, which are also traded on the New York Stock Exchange, have tripled in value over the past five years, giving the company a market value of some $20 billion.

As Wipro becomes a global powerhouse, company officials say they seek to hire the best regardless of creed. They say that among the reasons few Indian Muslims meet Wipro's stringent standards is that they often study in Urdu rather than English, and rarely pursue engineering degrees. Urdu, which is also the official language of Pakistan, is intertwined with Islamic identity on the subcontinent. In southern India, where most of the country's technology industry is based, Hindus speak a number of regional languages and are more likely to study English.

"All our hiring staff are trained to interview in English," Mr. Premji says. "They're trained to look for Westernized segments because we deal with global customers." Out of every 100 résumés received, only one or two usually come from Muslim applicants, according to a former manager in Wipro's human-resources department.

Yet, as outsourcing giants like Wipro and Infosys Technologies Ltd. have grown and hired, the attitudes of some Muslims toward education are slowly beginning to change. Bangalore's Al-Ameen college is run by a movement that seeks to modernize the Muslim community. About 360 graduate and undergraduate students, both men and women, are currently studying for computer-science degrees. Most are Muslims, including pious young men with long beards and women with an Islamic hejab that covers their hair, though not their faces.

Many graduates have already gotten jobs at companies like Wipro and Infosys, says the college's principal, Mr. Javeed, and have started to earn salaries well above those offered outside the booming technology industry. "This has brought awareness to the Muslim community about the need to pursue higher education," he says. "People are beginning to realize that education is power, that education is money, that education is an opportunity."

Delegation looking for Indian partnerships (http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/business/s/1016/1016051_delegation_looking_for_indian_partnerships.html)
Kevin Feddy
Manchester Evening News, UK
11/ 9/2007

MANCHESTER professionals are heading to Mumbai and New Delhi to show how the city can help Indian businesses.

Delegates from pro.manchester, representing the city's burgeoning financial and professional services sector, aim to strike up partnerships with Indian advisers during a week-long visit.

They will also look to raise Manchester's profile as a place where Indian people can work, visit, study and invest.

Daniel Charles Mouawad, pro.manchester's chief executive, believes there are opportunities in India for banking, insurance, accountancy and legal firms.

"India is making its mark on the global economy," he said.

"The scales of economy are tipping in favour of developing nations such as India, which is why we believe it is important to raise the profile of Manchester's financial and professional services community."

Among those in the delegation, which leaves on Friday week, will be representatives from the Royal Bank of Scotland, law firm Halliwells, and insurance business Alec Finch. It will be led by pro.manchester's business development group chairman, Susan Webster.

Major Hotel Chains Target China, India For Multibrand Development (http://www.btnmag.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003636929)
Business Travel News, NY
By Michael B. Baker

SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 -- Major hotel companies are focusing heavily on development in the Asia/Pacific region, particularly in India and China, although hotel programs in the region, many parts of which have limited availability and fast-rising rates, remain a challenge for corporate travel buyers.

Average daily rates increased from 2006 to 2007 by 13 percent to $128.60 during the month of July, according to the latest data available from Smith Travel Research and The Bench. The 30 percent increases in average daily rates in both Southeastern Asia and Central and South Asia are the highest regional increases in the world, as recorded by the firms.

Hotel revenues also are showing tremendous growth in the region. Revenue per available room in July was up 12.8 percent, according to Smith Travel Research and The Bench. RevPAR in Central and South Asia was up 32.7 percent, and RevPAR in Southeastern Asia was up 40.6 percent, higher than any other measured region, globally.

With many individual hotel companies posting similar results in the region, it comes as little surprise that the companies plan ambitious development. With locally owned hotels in some countries not listed in global distribution systems and often of unknown quality to foreign visitors, the presence of more brand names in those countries is a welcome sight to some U.S. travel buyers.

"There are certain standards those chains in general provide," said Kevin Iwamoto, former president of the National Business Travel Association. "When you go outside the norm, the onus shifts on you and you have to check everything out for yourself."

With the Olympic Games scheduled to hit Beijing next year, major hotel companies have scrambled to get new properties in China open in time.

Via its international subsidiary, Hilton Hotels Corp. operates six hotels in China, but will more than double that in the next few years. In late August, Hilton announced an agreement to manage a new Hilton in the Wangfujing district of Beijing, set to open next year, and also has scheduled to open in 2008 a Doubletree in Beijing, a Conrad in Shanghai and a Doubletree in Kunshan, as well as a resort and spa in Chongqing. Three other Hiltons are set to open in China by 2011. In June, a joint venture of one of Deutsche Bank's investment arms and private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific agreed to create and manage more than 25 hotels in mainland China under Hilton's midprice Hilton Garden Inn brand.

China has been the biggest growth area for InterContinental Hotels Group's Asia/Pacific development, according to IHG spokesman Stephen Boggs. The company is the largest international hotel management company in Greater China—mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau—where it now has 67 hotels open. IHG plans to nearly double that by next year, and future growth is particularly focused on Crowne Plaza, which Boggs said is the fastest growing upscale hotel brand in the Asia/Pacific region, and Holiday Inn.

"There is tremendous international expansion and brand proliferation, especially in China," Boggs said. "IHG recently signed our 125th hotel in China, keeping us on track for our target of having 125 hotels open in the country by the end of 2008."

Marriott International now has 27 properties in China, according to company spokesman John Wolf, and by 2010 will have 15 more: six under the Marriott brand, three under the Renaissance brand, two under the JW Marriott brand and four under Marriott's midprice Courtyard brand. In addition, the company will open six of its luxury Ritz-Carlton properties in China by 2010, Wolf said.

Early this year, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts announced plans to open in China 15 new properties—three Park Hyatt hotels, three Grand Hyatt hotels and nine Hyatt Regency hotels. China already has more Hyatt properties than any other country outside of North America, according to the company.

Even U.S. economy brands are gaining traction in China. Wyndham Hotel Group on Aug. 27 announced that an Asia-focused investment management firm is investing $50 million in the master franchisor of the Super 8 brand in China, Tian Rui Hotel Corp. The franchisor already has opened 49 Super 8 properties in China and has agreements in place to develop 67 more. The new investment will allow it to begin operating and managing hotels in addition to franchising, according to Tian Rui CEO Mitchell Presnick.

Although it does not have the same established level of infrastructure as China, India also is a major growth area for U.S. hotel companies. Rates in the country continue to soar. In a midyear hotel update released in August, HRG U.K. reported that Mumbai's rates had increased 30 percent during the first six months of 2007, and that followed a 49 percent increase in rates during 2006.

Indian hotel rates can run as high as $600 per night, said Guga Saravanan, head of account management for Carlson Wagonlit Travel in India, during an educational session on the country at the Association for Corporate Travel Executives conference in Miami.

Distribution also is a challenge, with a majority of local hotels preferring direct reservations, leaving many travel buyers to seek their own solutions. "A large number of hotels are not hosted on the GDS," CWT's Saravanan said. "Corporations are building their own accommodations, most prevalently in Bangalore."

Locally established hotel brands already are embarking on expansion plans in India. The luxury Leela Palaces-Hotels-Resorts, for example, this year announced a three-year plan to double its capacity with a $300 million investment that will bring new hotels to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, South Delhi and Udaipur.

Meanwhile, U.S. brands also plan to increase their presence in India. Marriott now has six hotels in India, but by the end of 2010 that portfolio will increase to 21, Wolf said. This will include three JW Marriott properties, one Renaissance hotel, one Ritz-Carlton, one Marriott, one Marriott Executive Apartments and eight Courtyard by Marriott properties, he said.

Best Western also has indicated plans to greatly expand its minimal presence in India. Earlier this year, Hilton also announced development brands for 10 hotels in India, a combination of the upscale Hilton brand, the midprice Hilton Garden Inn brand and the extended stay Homewood Suites brand.

Wyndham also is bringing its economy brands to India. The company announced Aug. 30 that Mumbai-based construction and engineering firm Gammon India would develop at least 38 Super 8 and Days Inn properties in the country by 2011.

Although China and India are receiving a majority of the focus, hotel companies also are developing other key business destinations in the Asia/Pacific region. IHG has aggressive growth plans for Japan and Vietnam, Boggs said, and Wolf said Marriott is bringing additional properties to Bangkok and Seoul.

Even with all those growth plans in place, however, travel managers said the region would continue to be a challenge as travel to the region increases. "I don't think it's going to be enough," buyer Iwamoto said. "It's going to help, but in the long term, I don't think it's adequate."

For that reason, travel managers often have to look outside of hotel offerings when planning Asia/Pacific travel. Iwamoto said corporate apartments are an effective alternative in high-volume cities.

"In Singapore, which still doesn't have enough hotels and doesn't have the land volume to support that many more hotels," he said, "you have to switch strategies."

Bigger Than Bollywood (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20546429/site/newsweek/)
Meet the man who is changing India's film industry—and gunning for Hollywood, USA.

By Jason Overdorf
Newsweek International

Sept. 10, 2007 issue - Ronnie Screwvala is the front runner in the race to become Bollywood's Jack Warner—the man who began the transformation of parochial U.S. cinema into its modern global form. Yet Screwvala is rarely picked out of a crowd in India, let alone in the United States. But Hollywood insiders know him well, for producing the "The Namesake," the groundbreaking hit about Indian immigrants, and for coproducing a Chris Rock comedy ("I Think I Love My Wife"). Now he is coproducing "The Happening," a new sci-fi thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") that seems destined to vault him into the big leagues. With a budget of $57 million, it will cost as much as 10 Indian blockbusters, setting a new bar for Bollywood. "Our ambition is to be a global Indian entertainment company—there's no reason we can't make big-budget Hollywood movies, too," says Screwvala.

At 45, Screwvala is a stocky, soft-spoken man whose urbane colonial English is a far cry from Jack Warner's notorious bluster. But his innovations are fast putting his Mumbai-based company, UTV Software Communications, on the world map and setting the modern standard of studio efficiency in Bollywood, the way Warner did in Hollywood. A multimedia conglomerate with interests in film, TV, animation and videogame production and distribution is also the closest thing to the diversified Warner Bros. that India has ever seen.

Indeed, over the past five years Screwvala has led the transformation of India's prolific but chaotic film industry. India makes about 1,000 movies a year, including Bollywood's 200-odd Hindi pictures and others in regional languages—about 10 times Hollywood's total. But until recently, every Bollywood movie was an independent film made by a producer-director who ran his operation like a mom-and-pop shop. Deals were cut off the books between film families. Marketing was left to theater owners. And writers scripted scenes on the day of shooting, following stock formulas: brothers separated at birth; village rebel vs. rapacious landlord, or cops vs. robbers. It was considered the height of innovation simply to meld these elements, creating, say, a story about brothers separated at birth who grow up on opposite sides of the law but then ultimately join forces against an evil landlord after much singing, dancing and weeping.

In its heyday, from the 1950s through the early 1980s, Bollywood managed to pack cinemas throughout this movie-crazy country with such fare. But its formulaic plots grew stale at just about the time that TV penetrated middle-class homes. Film revenues virtually stagnated between 1985 and 2000 at about $1 billion annually —less than one third the box office of a single major Hollywood studio. India's poverty and low ticket prices started making foreign markets more alluring. But Bollywood couldn't produce a global hit.

That may finally be changing. Indians are getting wealthier. The younger generation is spending more on entertainment. And innovators like Screwvala have begun professionalizing the business, bringing in outside investors and accounting standards and aggressively marketing films with novel plots. His production company has cut the old three-and-a-half-hour marathons to between 90 and 120 minutes, and has hired Hollywood scriptwriters to make its features more watchable. He's also gone straight to foreign shores—backing Mira Nair's New York-based production of "The Namesake," a story about the Indian diaspora—to prove that his model will work. The film grossed about $14 million at the box office—nearly 95 percent from the United States, more cash than any other Indian production has earned abroad to date.

Indian movies are also enjoying an impressive domestic boom. In 2006, India's film business grossed about $2 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2004, and PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that revenue will leap to more than $4 billion over the next five years. "Our growth rates are much higher than Hollywood's, but in value terms we are way below [the U.S. movie industry]," says Timmy Kandhari, head of PWC's media and entertainment practice. But that will change as ticket prices—which now average less than $1 in India—swiftly catch up with the racing Indian economy.

This anticipated boom has foreign and domestic players scrambling to get in. Disney bought a 15 percent stake in Screwvala's UTV for $14 million in 2006. This year, Viacom inked a 50-50 joint venture with budding news-media mogul Raghav Bahl, head of the Indian entertainment conglomerate Network 18. The venture, called Viacom 18, will produce and distribute TV shows, digital media and (eventually) 10 to 12 movies a year. A separate entity called the Indian Film Company—in which Network 18 and Viacom own stakes—will begin financing about 40 to 45 films a year within three years. Billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance ADAG conglomerate has acquired a 51 percent stake in a leading movie company called Adlabs Films for a little under $90 million. And three Indian studios held IPOs in London this year, raising a combined $220 million.

That's big money in a nation where until recently the average film budget was only about $150,000, and should dramatically increase the number and quality of Indian films. But very little cash will likely flow into coproductions with Hollywood, an area where Screwvala remains at least several years ahead of his competitors, most of whom still shy away from big Hollywood gambles. Screwvala is contributing $27 million—more than an Indian hit would gross—to the $57 million budget for Shyamalan's "The Happening." But the returns can be huge: "The Sixth Sense," which cost Shyamalan around $40 million to make, grossed nearly $700 million.

Screwvala has more than one wager in play. UTV has also forged coproduction deals with Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures, and with Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment. Hollywood—which requires endless cash injections and has for years been looking for outside funding from sources as diverse as German pensioners and private-equity funds—is only too eager to cut more such deals. "I think [these coproductions] are going to become more common," says Jose L. Rodriguez, Shyamalan's U.S.-based coproducer on "The Happening." "Ronnie is sort of leading the pack."

He's also shaking up Bollywood. Until recently, India's film industry was controlled by a few powerful producer-directors, like Yash Chopra, who enjoyed strong family or personal ties to Bollywood's fickle superstars, many of whom were also related. The heads of these "film families" never worked out a budget in advance and started shooting with only a fraction of the cash they needed in hand. Preproduction was a 20-minute meeting. Writers made up the dialogue as they went along. There were no production schedules or contracts; stars walked in and out of projects at whim. With hundreds of local distributors and tens of thousands of theater owners who habitually underreported box-office returns, it was hard to tell who, if anybody, was making money. "Nobody thought of this as a profit-and-loss [business]," says Screwvala. "They thought of it as a cash-flow [business]. So if a producer-director made a movie and it lost $5 million, but he got advances to make his next movie of $5 million, [in his mind] he'd broken even."

UTV, by contrast, went public on the Mumbai Stock Exchange in 2005, becoming one of the first listed film companies in India and introducing modern methods. The studio spends as long as two years in preproduction selecting scripts and setting casts, budgets and distribution plans. UTV has also taken control of marketing and raised spending to 25 percent of each film's production costs, nearing the Hollywood average (about 50 percent). And UTV shoots pictures in three months—on budget. To improve collections from the foreign market, UTV has avoided selling the overseas distribution rights to its films and built its own distribution network instead, setting up offices in the United States, Canada, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Now the company is focusing on turning the 20-odd other countries where Bollywood films have established a niche market into a meaningful part of the business.

Screwvala says he shook things up out of necessity. "I was an outsider," he explains. "I hadn't grown up with these stars and directors." The son of a businessman (his father retired as managing director of a cosmetics firm), he was hardly destined for the movies. But after graduating with a degree in commerce from Mumbai University, he cut his teeth in television. He was the first to launch multichannel TV in India, schlepping around to meet with the residents' associations of Mumbai apartment buildings to sell closed-circuit cable at a time when the only other option was a single, state-owned broadcaster. Later, his company produced India's first daily afternoon soap opera, "Shanti." Working with Disney to dub its library of films into Indian languages in 1996 gave Screwvala the idea to try and create a modern, Western-style film company himself.

With little capital and without the family ties needed to attract big stars, he attacked the industry's fringe first. UTV got into film distribution in 1996, and then in 1997 Screwvala produced a typical low-budget Bollywood romance named "Dil Ke Jharoke Main" ("In the Windows of the Heart"). It bombed, convincing Screwvala of the need to work with a new generation of actors, directors and writers who were willing to experiment. UTV then inked deals to coproduce three films with big budgets (for Bollywood) and A-list stars. All three strayed from the Bollywood formulas and laid the foundation for the company's subsequent hits, including "Rang de Basanti"—a realistic film about Delhi youth.

UTV wasn't the first to make innovative movies; director-producer Ram Gopal Varma preceded Screwvala on this count. And Yash Raj Films, the perennial box- office leader, was quick to adopt many of UTV's Hollywood-studio-style practices. But Yash Raj was slow to see the potential of genre-breaking films, making its first such attempt this year with "Chak De," a movie about women's field hockey. This delay let Screwvala harness new-style films to new corporate structures more quickly than his rivals.

Hollywood is impressed. James Lassiter, Will Smith's partner in Overbrook Entertainment, says he and Smith were blown away last year when they met Screwvala in India. "We connected with Ronnie," Lassiter says. "He's more ambitious [than other Bollywood players], the way we're more ambitious [than Hollywood] ... He's smart, he has excellent taste, he has a global perspective and I think ultimately he'll be a big winner in worldwide cinema."

At home, Screwvala has already come a long way. He has crept steadily up the charts to become the second biggest box-office success in Indian film after Yash Raj, which still focuses on romances and big-budget song-and-dance extravaganzas. And Screwvala now takes in more than any of the other big producers from India's film families, many of whom are now scrambling to adopt his basic business model. Where there were once scores of director-producers who made one or two films a year, operating by the seat of their pants, now many of the best directors have been absorbed by the three major studios, which produce eight to 10 films a year. Thanks to the recent IPOs and other deals, three more studios—each with serious financial muscle—will produce their own slates next year.

The next challenge for Bollywood is to branch out into the broader media and entertainment business, which is expected to grow in India from about $11 billion to $25 billion by 2011. Screwvala is building UTV into what he calls a 360-degree media and entertainment company. He already has ventures in animation, gaming and TV content production, and he has eight to 10 TV channels in the works. UTV's animation division is producing four features for the world market this year, including one starring Will Smith and another directed by Simi Nallaseth, one of the animators of "Ice Age." Earlier this year, UTV acquired a British videogame company called Ignition Entertainment Ltd. Ignition is set to release Wardevil, a high-end game for the Sony's PS3, in 2008 and hopes to turn it into the linchpin of a multimedia franchise. UTV is also partnering with Richard Branson's Virgin Comics on a line of superheroes based on Indian mythology.

UTV can expect plenty of competition, with many big Indian media players now seeking out foreign partners and new markets. With Viacom's backing and marketing muscle, Network 18 is also building a media and entertainment empire. Apart from its fast-growing film operation, it is already one of the biggest players in Internet content and TV broadcasting, where it has teamed up with NBC Universal and Time Warner as well as Viacom. With its dominance in TV news, it could soon play News Corp. to UTV's Warner Bros. Deep-pocketed Reliance ADAG, one of India's biggest conglomerates, is going into satellite broadcasting, launching 45 radio stations, and recently established a second film production company, Big Motion Pictures, to complement its majority stake in Adlabs.

It's difficult to predict where the deal making will end. Hollywood, which has been going global for the past several decades, now earns more than 60 percent of its revenue abroad. While it's tough to imagine Indian films ever developing as broad a global market, the PricewaterhouseCoopers projections show the ticket sales for Indian productions rising fastest outside India, even as its increasingly wealthy middle class heads to the box office at home for more unconventional fare. Meanwhile, Bollywood seems set to continue its development as a financier and marketer of global products—whether created at home or abroad. As the muscle of the new media titans like Screwvala increases, it won't be long before they truly become household names—in India and beyond.

The Best of Bollywood (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20537192/site/newsweek/)
From cheap thrills and melodrama to slapstick and high romance, here’s a primer on some of Bollywood’s best films.

By Jason Overdorf
Newsweek

Sept. 2, 2007 - In its heyday from the 1950s through the 1980s, Bollywood produced dozens of beloved films. These classics made superstars out of actors like Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan—a hero so well-loved the nation came to a standstill when an on-set injury in 1982 left him at death’s door for two months. Colorful song-and-dance spectacles that encompass melodrama, slapstick, high romance and cheap thrills—all in the same three hours—these movies rank second only to yoga among India’s most successful cultural exports. Here’s a primer on some of Bollywood’s best films—including a few from the “New Bollywood.”

Awaara (1951)
Directed by Raj Kapoor
Bollywood bwana Raj Kapoor directed, produced and starred in this melodramatic tale of a boy cast out of his law-abiding home and raised by bandits. When his father, an unforgiving judge, throws out his mother because he suspects her of infidelity, Raj (Raj Kapoor) finds succor with Jagga (K. N. Singh), only to discover years later that Jagga was the one who spread the lies that caused his mother’s disgrace. Enraged, Raj kills Jagga but fails to kill the judge, and is sentenced to years of rigorous imprisonment—by his own dear old Dad (Prithviraj Kapoor). The movie was a sleeper hit abroad in China, Romania, Turkey and Russia, where some still cherish fond memories of its signature song, “Awara Hoon” ("I Am a Tramp").

Mother India (1957)
Directed by Mehboob Khan
Nominated for an Oscar in 1957 in the best foreign film category, this sentimental, patriotic tribute to Indian womanhood stars Nargis as a poverty-stricken village mother whose marriage has left her in the clutches of an unscrupulous local moneylender. Even though her husband abandons her, she spurns the moneylender’s offer to marry her and cancel her debts. In what would become a classic Bollywood trope, one troublemaker son is driven from the village to become a bandit, while the other toils away as a farmer. In the end, the bandit (played by Sunil Dutt) returns to kill the moneylender and steal his daughter. But “Mother India,” who has vowed her son will do no wrong, shoots him and he dies in her arms. In real life, Sunil Dutt and Nargis married a year after the film was released.

Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Directed by K. Asif
This epic period flick about a Mughal emperor and his son took nine years to complete, set the bar for lavish productions and held the all-time box-office record until 15 years after its release. In the film, the Mughal prince Salim (Dilip Kumar) falls in love with a beautiful slave girl named Anarkali (Madhubala) when she dances for him in a palace of mirrors to the song “Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya” ("I Have Loved, So What Is There to Fear?"). But when the prince tries to marry the slave, his father, Emperor Akbar, throws the girl in jail. A battle ensues. The prince is defeated and sentenced to death, but the slave girl bargains for his life by offering her own in return.

Padosan (1968)
Directed by Jyoti Swarup
"Cyrano De Bergerac" meets "Romeo and Juliet" meets Milli Vanilli in this tearjerker. Village simpleton Bhola (Sunil Dutt) wins the love of his neighbor Bindu (Saira Banu) with his beautiful songs. The only trouble is, Bhola can’t sing—he’s lip-synching tunes crooned by his buddy Guru (Kishore Kumar). When Bhola finds out he’s lied, she dumps him and decides to marry her music teacher. But Bhola wins her back by faking his suicide. Tears pour, and a wedding ensues.

Sholay (1975)
Directed by Ramesh Sippy
A crackling Bollywood-style Western—chapati Western, some call it—Sholay brings together two lovable crooks, a principled policeman and a ruthless gangster in a tragicomic, action-filled caper. The story of two convicts (Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra) who help a retired policeman capture the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) who massacred the policeman’s family, Sholay was loved by audiences so much that one Mumbai theater ran the film for 286 consecutive weeks—more than five years. Even today, millions of Indians can quote rafts of the superstylized dialogue from memory.

Amar, Akbar, Anthony (1977)
Directed by Manmohan Desai
Undoubtedly one of the zaniest Bollywood movies, this film may be the greatest of all the stories to follow the once-beloved “lost and found” formula. With three major stars (Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor) and three equally big heroines (Parveen Babi, Shabana Azmi and Neetu Singh), "Amar, Akbar, Anthony" was an old-school blockbuster about the three sons of an ex-convict who are abandoned when their father is forced to flee his old mob boss and their mother goes blind. One son (Amar) is adopted by a Hindu policeman and becomes a policeman himself. Another (Akbar) is raised by a Muslim tailor and becomes a singer. The third (Anthony) is raised by a Catholic priest and becomes a rebellious scofflaw. In the end, the boys are reunited and join forces in fighting, singing and dancing; they find their mother, and take revenge on the evil mob boss—and Mom miraculously regains her sight. Throughout it all, Amitabh Bachchan delivers the goods—tears, guffaws, funny accents, goofy costumes—as Anthony. And the smash song “My Name Is Anthony Gonzalves” remains on most Indians’ list of desert island discs.

Umrao Jaan (1981)
Directed by Muzaffar Ali
Set at the time of the Indian Uprising (or Mutiny, as the British called it) of 1857, this poetic and atmospheric film tells the story of a young girl—Umrao Jaan, portrayed by the incomparably gorgeous Rekha—who is kidnapped by a neighbor and sold to a brothel to be trained as a courtesan. Skilled in poetry, song and dance, she charms the local prince (Farooque Shaikh) but winds up running away with a handsome bandit (Raj Babbar). But when the police kill him and the British attack Lucknow to put down the mutiny, she is forced to flee the city and winds up—can you guess?—back in her old village, where she meets her old mother and younger brother and sings a heartbreaking song.

Mr. India (1987)
Directed by Shekhar Kapoor
Not many non-Indians know that Shekhar Kapoor—a former model in ads for “suitings and shirtings”—directed this crowd-pleasing fantasy before moving to Hollywood to make "Elizabeth." But its goofy comedy and good-natured spoofing of James Bond hijinks made "Mr. India" a smash. The story pits Arun Verma (Anil Kapoor), an orphan who makes his money busking with a violin, against Mogambo (Amrish Puri), a dastardly villain as absurd as Dr. Evil with his own high-tech island. It’s a mismatch until Verma receives a mysterious letter revealing that his late father invented an invisibility cloak. After that, the common man becomes a crimefighting superhero—Mr. India—and takes down Mogambo and his mad scientists.

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ...! (1994)
Directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya
Perhaps the first of the lavish “family dramas” that became the staple, and then the bane, of Bollywood, "Hum Aapke Hain Koun ...!" ("Who Am I to You") is the story of two Indian families brought together by the (of course) lavish wedding where musclebound pretty boy Salman Khan and curvaceous screen siren Madhuri Dixit meet and fall in love. The three-and-a-half-hour spectacle with 14 songs and big dance numbers is hard to beat.

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995)
Directed by Aditya Chopra
The first and most successful of the “NRI movies” (films featuring, and in part targeting, nonresident Indians), "DDLJ" as it came to be known was a megablockbuster, attracting enough fanatics to keep it running for 600-plus consecutive weeks at one Mumbai theater. Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol play Raj and Siman, Indians living in the U.K. who meet and fall in love on a tour of Europe. But Siman’s father insists that his daughter will have an arranged marriage with the man of his choosing—a pompous, arrogant ass (of course). In a socially regressive turn typical of later NRI movies, Raj refuses to elope with Siman, but insists on convincing her father that he’s the right choice with lots of (smarmy, but in a good way) singing and dancing.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
Directed by Farhan Akhtar
Many consider "Dil Chahta Hai" ("What the Heart Desires") to be the spark that began the current stylistic revolution in Bollywood filmmaking. The story of the lives and loves of three friends (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna) leaving college for the adult world, the movie was the first film to depict India’s modern, urban youth. Though it didn’t do well in the hinterland, it won critical and popular acclaim for its easygoing, realistic humor and its postmodern tributes to classic Bollywood songs. And for the upwardly mobile kids of India’s cities, it provided as seminal a cultural touchstone as the TV series "Friends" did in the U.S.

Lagaan (2001)
Directed by Ashutosh Golwarikar
One of the earliest films to break away from the romance formula, Lagaan tells the story of a 19th-century Indian village under the thumb of a ruthless (and racist) British officer. When the British officer doubles the tax on the village crops despite a ravaging drought, a rebellious villager (Aamir Khan) wagers him that the villagers—who’ve never played before—can beat the legation team at a game of cricket. If the village wins, the tax will be canceled instead of doubled. If the British win, the tax will be tripled. The story unfolds with all the gimmicks of Hollywood’s classic sports flicks, as well as a few Bollywood twists—like the village untouchable whose mangled hand turns out to make him a wicked spin bowler! As usual for Bollywood, the English-language songs were dismal. But the high drama, British villains and terrific Hindi soundtrack made "Lagaan" a moderate success around the Commonwealth.

^^
They should have mentioned Company, Munna Bhai, etc :)

^^
They should have mentioned Company, Munna Bhai, etc :)

Munnabhai definately is worth a mention.

Caipirinha with Curry: Brazil-India Growing Ties Worry Washington (http://www.brazzil.com/content/view/9969/1/)
Written by Alex Sanchez
Brazzil.com, Central America
Monday, 10 September 2007

It shouldn't be a surprise that India is extending a widening presence in the Western Hemisphere. With Washington focused on Iraq and its "War on Terror" in other parts of the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have become candidates for meaningful political and economic relationships with a number of emerging global powers, like India.

Latin America and the Caribbean are zones of interest to the world's powerhouses, which means that India will have to push its way by other interested parties, like the European Union, Russia and China, aside from the U.S. in order to establish a serious presence on the continent.

So far, it has made good progress towards this goal, but much is left to be done. What is clear is that Brazil will be the centerpiece of New Delhi's geopolitical aspirations in the Western Hemisphere, due to common visions and or grandiose schemes like nuclear energy cooperation, shared interest in ethanol, and a mutual desire to be awarded a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Trade agreements, high-level diplomatic visits and growing investment projects signal New Delhi's increasingly bulking presence on the continent, and exemplify the fact that India is here to stay.

Brazil

When it comes to Latin America and the Caribbean, New Delhi's most important relationship and main country of interest, is Brazil. This is not surprising, as both of these huge nations share common interests and their economic profiles almost look like mirror images of one another.

Among the numerous similarities between Brazil and India are that both nations have emerged to become the gentle giants of their respective regions, which has prompted policymakers in both capitals to begin to have global aspirations.

The two countries see themselves as the representatives of the developing countries in Latin America and Asia respectively, and out of this still tentative setting they have quietly embarked on what essentially could be seen as a launching of competitive campaigns (if the expansion of the UN Security Council is very limited) to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

In addition, both countries have a nuclear history, and today continue to tease with the idea of becoming major nuclear powers. India, of course, already has a small nuclear arsenal and a military edge due to its longtime dispute with Pakistan. Lastly, both Brazil and India have rapidly growing economies, in part due to their fast burgeoning populations.

On July 23rd, Indian Business Insight reported that Brazil and South Africa, both members of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, had agreed to sign a nuclear civilian power agreement with India In July, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee hosted a day-long talk which was attended by his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, and South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

"The meeting of the foreign ministers is also a prelude to a trilateral summit in South Africa in October," an official from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office told Agence France Presse.

The three nations also created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) in September 2006, when their respective leaders met in Brazilian capital Brasília and urged the rich nations to yield somewhat on overheated trade talks.

The leaders are calling for the UN Security Council to be expanded and add more permanent member seats for Africa and Latin America, as well as another for Asia. A June 26th article in the Financial Express highlights the convergence of trade interests between Brasilia and New Delhi:

"Some immediate examples are sugar, soy and wood [...] Brazil is a very strategic partner that today shares a lot of strategic and political goals with India, does not have territorial conflicts over land or sea and finds itself outside, like India, to the dominant political power structures in the world sharing more common ground with India than with these structures. Brazil's prowess in sugar and Ethanol is already known. What is yet unknown is Brazilian potential to be a major supplier of wood and wood products to India and the rest of the world."

A June 3rd article entitled "Why Brazil Matters to India," carried in Indo-Asian News Service, points out that "it is India's search for alternative energy resources [that] can make Brazil [the] world leader in biofuels like ethanol - a crucial linchpin of its quest for energy security."

Moving from the domestic to the international scene, India and Brazil have evolved as "major voice[s] of moderation" regarding world politics with their two-trillion dollar economies transforming their strategic ties across diverse areas.

No wonder that India's Ambassador to Brazil, Hardeep Singh Puri, was brought to say that "if Brazil and India can take a position together on an important global issue, no one can ignore it." Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited India for three days in early June, demonstrating the growing ties between the countries.

Among the numerous examples of different interests and projects closely tying the two growing powerhouses, is the relationship between OVL, India's dominant oil company, and Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned energy giant.

The two companies are collaborating in oil exploration, and in addition, the Chennai-based Paramount Airways has collaborative ties with Embraer, the leading Brazilian manufacturer of civilian aircraft, and plans to add another 51 Embraer planes to its existing fleet of five. Furthermore, India and Brazil have signed an Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement.

India and Brazil have staked out a somewhat ambitious bilateral trade target of US$ 10 billion by 2010. However, it is not only Brazil that India is out to befriend in the hemisphere. New Delhi is returning to historical and ethnological links, as well as aggressively using its newly-born economic dynamism and its available foreign investment capacity to attract new friends, even some of which are not necessarily to Washington's liking.

Guyana

Guyana seems to be India's main interest in the Caribbean region, due, of course to Indian Guyanese making up the majority of the small South American nation's population. A somewhat comparable condition exists in Trinidad, where large numbers of descendants of Indian immigrants can also be found.

An August 17 report by the Caribbean Media Corporation quotes the president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, praising the Indian government for its contributions towards his country's growth. "I acknowledge with appreciation the development assistance which Guyana has received from the government of India over the years. This valued assistance has been in various sectors and served to enhance national capacity to promote development."

The statement was made as part of remarks made at the celebration of India's 60th independence anniversary from the U.K. Also attending the celebration was India's High Commissioner, Avinash Gupta, who said that "the seed of our relationship, which was sown by the first batch of Indian indentured laborers in 1837, has grown today into a big fruit-bearing tree and today's generations in both countries are enjoying its fruits."

Other reports indicate India's interest in assisting Guyana with its developmental thrust through the provision of funding from the Export Import Bank of India (EXIM). In addition, India has been providing medical treatment to poor Guyanese children.

Cuba

Cuba and India have extended a renewable energy cooperation agreement to 2009. Vilas Muttemwar, India's renewable energy minister, said that the agreement will help consolidate and integrate Cuba's strategies for hydroelectric, wind, thermal and photovoltaic solar power generation.

"Cuba can count on all our support," Muttemwar said, adding that India, the world's fourth largest nation in wind-power electricity generation, would also offer study grants to Cubans under its Indian Technical Cooperation Program. Cuba is the only Latin American nation to have a renewable energy pact with India, which was signed in 1998.

India is a nation that is increasingly emerging in the U.S.' line of interest, due to the nature of its economy, its geographic location which allows it to bridge eastern and western Asia, and its geopolitical advantage with proximity to Central Asia, Pakistan and China.

Meanwhile, given that there is no sign that Washington-Havana relations will improve anytime soon, it would be of interest to know what Washington policymakers think about the potential New Delhi-Havana relationship, which is likely to broaden and deepen in the near future. This makes Havana ever more unassailable to U.S. efforts to isolate the Castro Regime.

Central America and Mexico

Guatemalan foreign minister, Gert Rosenthal, traveled to India from August 25 to the 31st. During his six-day visit, he held talks with the sub-continent's minister of state for external affairs, Anand Sharma. According to press accounts, the two officials discussed deepening the dialogue and vows of cooperation between India and the Central American Regional Group, known as Sica.

Sharma visited Guatemala in June 2006; on this occasion, he announced a line of credit of US$ 10 million to Guatemala, and an increase in the number of annual ITEC scholarships from 7 to 15 per year. India's exports to Guatemala totaled US$ 73 million in 2006, while imports were only US$ 3 million.

But New Delhi would like to upgrade the pace of trade. For example, India has set up an Information Technology Training Center in Guatemala run by Tata Consulting Services, India's largest software firm. In addition, the Reliance group is reportedly exploring the possibility of constructing a refinery in Guatemala, according to a recent report by the Indian publication, The Statesman.

In May, India and Mexico signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a bilateral high level group (HLG) to explore, among other issues, the possibility of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) to improve bilateral trade between the two countries.

The Statesman has reported that high-level ministerial authorities have been involved in the development of bilateral trade arrangements, with both countries keen to achieve the trade target of US$ 3 billion. Additionally, Tata Consultancy Services, has announced plans to hire 5,000 personnel in Mexico over the next five years to serve its clients in the U.S.

Canada

A January 14 article in the Financial Express evaluated the workings of the Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) which had been set up in 1982. Canada had imposed a freeze on strategic aspects of trade after India's 1998 series of nuclear tests, but relations have improved since, especially after a draft nuclear agreement was signed between the two countries in September 2005.

India's trade with Canada is currently around US$ 3 billion. The article goes on to point out existing aspects between India and Canada that have facilitated relations, like their mutual membership in the Commonwealth and the predominance of the English language in India. The fact that India possesses major mineral deposits, for which Canada has the expertise and technology to effectively exploit, is another issue for consideration.

At the same time, Canada's automotive sector "is suffering," while India can provide inexpensive Trinidad labor for the industry. An example of the potential that could come from close Indo-Canadian ties occurred in January of this year, when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty visited India with a 100-member trade mission.

South America

"The bilateral trade between India and Peru has shown a quantum growth from US$ 82 million in 2001 to US$ 190 million in 2005 and we need to build up an integrated approach in our investments and partnership," observed Victor Munoz, the chargé d' affairs of the Peruvian embassy in India.

Total exports from Peru to its clients touched US$ 17 billion and imports accounted for $12.5 billion in 2005. Of this figure, mining constitutes more than half of Peru's exports. Munoz continued, "Peru is a good investment destination for India in these areas because the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the US provides a platform for Indian investors to export to the U.S."

Peru-India Chamber of Commerce Vice President Marco Hurtado observed that on August 15 of this year, Peruvian President Alan García Pérez met with a group of Indian businessmen to discuss the possibility of a US$ 1.2 billion investment aimed at constructing a petrochemical plant in Peru, according to the Lima daily La República.

Furthermore, on July 16, Asia Pulse issued a report about the statements made by Jorge Heine, the Chilean Ambassador to India. The diplomat argued that Chile is keen on reducing its trade imbalance with India and at the same time boosting the unfavorable trade volume between the two countries, to their mutual interest.

Addressing the members of the Chamber of Commerce, Heine gave a comparative figure of the exports between the two countries, pointing out that in 2006 exports from Chile to India stood at US$ 1.7 billion, tripling its 2006 export figures. Heine also said that 95% of the exports from mineral-rich Chile to India were made up by copper.

An article by Business Line also highlights Indo-Chilean relations, mentioning how the preferential Trade Agreement with India (signed in 2006, and covering 300 products on both sides), has been ratified by the Chilean Congress. Pointing out that Chile's exports to India have grown exponentially from US$ 230 million in 2003, to US$ 1.7 billion last year, he said, "We expect Chilean exports to India to exceed the figure of US$ 2 billion in 2007."

Meanwhile, India has moved to the 10th largest Chilean trade partner globally, up from 20th in 2003, and according to Heine, "our exports to India are more than that to Germany, the UK and Spain"

However, there may be some tensions in the future trade patterns involving New Delhi and Santiago. Japan and Chile want India to reduce its steep import tariffs on wines and spirits. While they have not formally raised a direct dispute against India regarding the issue, they have requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow them to participate as a third party in the panel's proceedings which hopefully will sort out the dispute.

When it comes to South America, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, has said that "a trilateral arrangement between India, Mercosur and SACU (South Africa Customs Union) is on the way to widen [the] scope of South-South Cooperation."

Following the conclusion of a Preferential Trade Agreement in 2005, India and Mercosur agreed to grant mutual tariff concessions, ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent on 450 tariff lines.

Using a variety of strategies, from historical ties, to traditional trade, to sharing grandiose plans, India is becoming more and more a living presence in the Western Hemisphere. It still has a long way to go, however, before it becomes a household name among Latin Americans, but it certainly is on the right path.

India's relations with Cuba may perhaps annoy Washington, as well as its dealings with close U.S. neighbors (Canada and Mexico), which may also draw some unwanted attention, however, it is the India-Brazil alliance that should be gathering the bulk of Washington's attention. The global aspirations of both nations continue to rise even higher, with a very bright future seeming to lie ahead.

Global automakers jostle for place in India's hot auto market (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/12/business/EU-FIN-Germany-Auto-Show-India.php)
International Herald Tribune

FRANKFURT, Germany: Global automakers on the hunt for new and lucrative markets are jostling for a place in India, where the car market is growing at an average of 20 percent a year, outpacing even China.

Getting a foothold in the giant country and economic powerhouse can be a tricky affair — the key to success lies in keeping the price ticket low, squeezing margins. Still, that's not deterring automakers like Renault, Hyundai and others from trying.

"Not being in India would be a huge strategic mistake," Nissan Motor Co. Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Frankfurt auto show. "It's an investment for the future."

Indian car sales totaled 1.1 million in the year ended in March, with compact hatchbacks accounting for nearly three-quarters of that. Though that number pales in comparison to China, the market is growing much faster.

J.D. Power and Associates predicts annual vehicle sales will nearly double to 2 million by 2012. Manufacturers, using their Indian bases as a low-cost export hub, they say expect annual production to rise well above 3 million by that time.

"All the car makers know that India is one of the markets offering the best growth potential," said Pete Kelly, a director at J.D. Power and Associates' automotive forecasting unit.

India's demanding, frugal consumers want inexpensive and fuel-efficient cars, durable enough to withstand potholed roads and roomy enough to fit a family of five or six. Plus, of course, an arctic-level air conditioner.

Nissan has lagged behind its Japanese rivals in tapping opportunities in India, both as a market and as a manufacturing base.

Leading Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Suzuki Motor Corp., have significantly expanded their operations in India in recent years.

Nissan made its first move to enter India this year, signing up for a passenger car venture with its partner, Renault SA of France and Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

The three are building a large plant near the southern Indian city of Chennai, which Nissan would use to manufacture and export compact cars to Europe.

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday that construction at the plant isn't likely to start before 2008, with production expected to begin in 2010.

Spurred by Tata's ambitions for a super-cheap car, Nissan and Renault also are exploring the viability of a sub-US$3,000 (€2,175) vehicle.

Renault is talking with Indian automaker Bajaj Auto Ltd. about a possible alliance to manufacture such ultra-cheap cars. Bajaj Auto, based in the western Indian city of Pune, is one of India's leading manufacturers of motorcycles and motorized rickshaws, but has no experience making cars.

Given import taxes that exceed 100 percent, carmakers looking to break into the Indian market need to think about producing locally.

India has a competitive advantage over China, as the Indian government allows carmakers to establish 100 percent owned local subsidiaries, an option chosen by companies like General Motors Corp., Hyundai Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. In China, local partners are mandatory.

South Korea's Hyundai developed the Santro for the Indian market, designing extra head room for turbaned passengers and paying more attention to the back seat, where the owners of Indian cars often sit, Hyundai spokesman Thomas Rauh told The Associated Press,

Hyundai's Indian unit has shifted its entire production of the Santro, known outside India as the Atos Prime, to the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur, just outside the port of Chennai.

A third of the cars produced at this plant are exported to 68 countries, from neighboring Sri Lanka to faraway Mexico. By October, Hyundai will complete a second factory nearby, doubling annual production to 600,000 cars — most of them compact hatchbacks that sell for about US$7,000 (€5,080).

Rauh said car makers once questioned whether Indians were interested in making quality cars, long considered a luxury in this once-socialist style economy. Now, Hyundai is focusing on making cars for affluent Indians and for export, leaving others to fight for the lower end of the market.

"It's a dogfight down there," he said. "It would not help us to go downmarket."

Modern Madras is a world away from the fortified trading post established by the British East India Company in 1639 on a small but strategic strip of coastline. Like other industrial cities enjoying India’s economic boom, its colonial heritage has been swamped by new monuments to power and commerce: gleaming IT parks, huge car factories, sprawling special economic zones and five-star hotels packed with cash-burdened investors.

Yet in another sense, India’s fourth-largest city cannot escape its past. In 1996, a quest for a postindependence identity led to the Government changing its name to Chennai, but that move has been resisted by most English-speaking locals, who still call it Madras.

The younger generation of residents, as they drive to their engineering jobs or buy electronic gadgets in vast shopping centres, could not care less about the British legacy of education, governance and jurisprudence. Those with a longer perspective say that they cannot ignore the influence, for better or worse, of the British traders who used India as a resource to fuel the industrial revolution back home.

“Madras was the first city of modern India,” S. Muthiah, an historian and authority on the city, said. “It was the chief settlement; everything was established here first and there is a long business tradition. Whether we like it or not, Madras has had a solid foundation based on what the British left behind.'

The idiosyncrasies of Madras’s split personality are everywhere to be seen: from the civil servants bustling around the old military stronghold of Fort St George, now home to the Tamil nationalist state government’s offices, to the Indian executives desperate to become members of the Madras Club, a 175-year-old elitist playground that did not admit nonwhites until 1964.

However, it managed to get where it is today – a city rediscovering itself as a magnet for international manufacturing and a less stressful alternative for an IT industry bursting at the seams of its hub in Bangalore. BMW, Nokia, Flextronics, Renault, Nissan, Ford, Motorola, Caparo Group, Dell, Accenture and Hyundai are among the foreign companies that have made substantial investments.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software services provider, employs more people – 22,000 – in Madras than anywhere else. The World Bank’s biggest office outside its Washington headquarters is here.

The “Gateway to the South” is not a one-trick pony, like some Indian cities. Bangalore was a leafy haven for retired army officers that exploded suddenly into India’s Silicon Valley. Madras has grown more steadily on a long industrial history rooted in textiles, agriculture and leather.

A power surplus, good connectivity – the global submarine fibre-optic cable network lands in Madras from Singapore – and an export platform via India’s second-largest port have heralded a lucrative diversification in the past decade or so to software, hardware, healthcare, carmaking and business process outsourcing.

The state of Tamil Nadu, of which Madras is the capital, accounts for 35 per cent of India’s car component production, earning the city the tag the “Detroit of India”. Unlike most places in bureaucracy-heavy India, private enterprise is thriving, despite the interchange of the two Tamil nationalist parties every five years.

“Whichever party is in, their economic policies are the same, so there is a high degree of consistency,” Pradipta Mohapatra, southern chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, said. “You can actually do business here without having to have anything to do with the Government.”

Manpower and education are the other main selling points. The state’s 250 engineering colleges produce more than 70,000 graduates a year.

“The focus is on education, knowledge, execution and delivery,” said Sreeram Iyer, chief executive of Scope International, the captive outsourcing unit of Standard Chartered Bank, which employs 6,000 people in the city. “It fits a financial services business like ours, which requires intellectual skills.”

Madras has its issues: it shares the infrastructure inadequacies of every expanding Indian city, travails under an oppressively humid climate, faces a potential water supply crisis and is looked down on by the Hindi-speaking powerbrokers of Delhi.

Then again, throughout its history, Madras has always managed to make a mark disproportionate to its size and location.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/india/article2441910.ece

Dynshaw Italia going global with Cobra Beer (http://www.itweek.co.uk/accountancyage/features/2198608/profile-dynshaw-italia-going)
Thanks to the finance-raising skills of its FD, Cobra Beer has turned from a Fulham-based outfit into a giant operating on three continents, and a dominating force in India. Dynshaw Italia tells our reporter how his role has grown

Michelle Perry,
Accountancy Age,
13 Sep 2007

It's challenging enough being a finance director of a fast-growing company in the current business climate, but taking over from the company's founder, himself a fully qualified accountant, is nothing less than daunting.

Still, Dynshaw Italia, 36, rarely refuses a challenge, taking on that very role at UK-based Cobra Beer several years ago and most recently overseeing the business' successful inroads into establishing the brand in one of the world's fastest growing economies, India.

Like most successful FDs he's a risk taker in his life as well as his work - calculated risks of course, but risks nonetheless. They've paid off, although he puts a great deal of his success down to chance rather than strategy.

After qualifying with a small practitioner, Italia, backed by the sole practitioner who trained him, went on to work at KPMG. Then the same sole practitioner contacted him three years on with a job offer to work as financial controller of the then newly created ebookers, internet travel site.

'Those are the times to take a risk,' he says. 'That was the best move I made.' Within six months the business got all the content online, raised the money needed from Nasdaq and

the German stock market, and turned a business with a turnover of $1m and five employees to one with a $300m turnover and 1,000 employees.

Just as ebookers moved into the second phase of its business model, which included raising another $100m to fund expansion, the dotcom crash hit hard resulting in the company raising only $40m due to jittery investors. It's worth noting the online travel business surfed the choppy waters of the crash and is still around.

New Challenge

At that point, however, Italia was offered a role at Cobra Beer. Ready for a new challenge and having known founder Karan Bilimoria for several years professionally he decided to take up the job offer. In 2001 he became FD and by 2004 was chief operating officer.

All the experience he had garnered in the early years of his career served him well for his new role at Cobra, particularly his expertise in raising money; something he's becoming particularly adept at given his recent record.

Last year in order to fund the company's expansion in India, Italia set about raising £27.5m. For a publicly listed company there is an established framework to do so, but raising funds in a small, fast-growing company where the owner doesn't want to dilute his stake is a more complicated business.

'If you look at our balance sheet there are no real assets. The only one is our brand. The challenge was to raise the money when pure debt wasn't possible as there's no debt capacity on our books. What we did is raise it through a hedge fund with a PIK instrument.

'Today most people know about them but when we used it not many people knew about it in the UK. In the UK only one or two deals were done using one before us. So that was very innovative,' Italia says.

Indeed cash flow takes up most of his working hours, and the impact of having huge debt on the balance sheet doesn't escape him, but without a pile of private cash to fall back on to continue growing as the company wants it must take on debt.

'There's a risk because you are building up a considerable amount of debt on your books but if you believe that what you're doing with the money and the brand is generating value over the years that far outweighs any cost of debt or the debt itself,' he says.

Anuj Chande, international business partner at Grant Thornton, who worked with Italia on raising funds, says: 'He's pragmatic and commercially minded who has seen the wood from the trees and is clear in his thinking on how the funding will impact the business.'

'He's also a modest individual; actually too modest,' Chande adds, pointing out the significant role he's played over the past five years.

At present the company is growing at a rate of 35% but the aim is to 'start hitting, from next year onwards, 50% growth'. It's a tall order but if their predictions are correct the goal of turning Cobra Beer into a global brand is not far off. To put things in perspective three years ago there was just one company operating from one UK location. Three years on and the company has offices in four different countries and exports beer from around the world.

From July, Italia's role has changed thanks to the decision to take on board a chief executive leaving him to focus wholly on financial matters, in particular cash flow.

Until the appointment of the new CEO however Italia was running the business on a daily basis as well as managing finance, operations, HR and IT because Lord Bilimoria has taken on a more public role for the company.

'There was a gap with no one running the business on a day-to-day basis. I was trying to do it but not successfully and wasn't being proactive enough for a growth company.'

Broader Role

Interestingly as an FD Italia says he's learnt the most from his responsibilities in HR 'Today's FD role is much broader. It's a people business today. Over the years that has been my biggest strength, my ability to deal with all types of people. Change causes disruption so the ability to manage people is important.'

Cobra's ability to recruit well is reflected in its gaining a place for the past few years in the Sunday Times' 100 Best Small Companies to Work For. In 2007 it came 84th. According to the survey, staff have a lot of fun working with their colleagues, with a positive score of 86%, and feel a strong sense of family (82%).

'What we've done successfully is employ very good people. I'm confident that at any time I can delegate jobs to someone with a little bit of management.

'You can replicate anything, even our beer, but you can't replicate the culture we've create here. People skills, leadership and management are skills that have to be there for today's FDs,' Italia says.

India: Challenges and goals

While concerns abound over the impact of the crisis in the US housing market on the global economy the International Monetary Fund has said that booms in China, Russia and India would allow the global economy to shrug off any detrimental impact the troubles in the US housing market could cause.

Early on, Cobra Beer saw the potential in India and made sure they were well positioned. Despite it being one of the smallest beer markets in the world, until recently, growing at a mere 8% or 9% in previous years, Cobra is investing heavily for the future. Wisely, too. Last year growth in India’s beer market leaped to 27%, and that’s just the start, predicts Italia, who has been in charge of Cobra’s activities there for the past few years.

At Cobra’s Indian operations there was 15 staff last year churning out 1,000 cases a month. Less than a year on the number of staff has exceeded 150 people and now produces 7,000 cases a month.

However the real challenge for Cobra in India is capacity. ‘There are few breweries there; only about 50 or so.’ To fulfil the business growth ambitions the board took the executive decision to take manufacturing into their own hands. It is a shift in policy given that the majority of its activities are outsourced.

‘One of the decisions we made was to set up two breweries. We have to secure supply and quality. We’ve started building one and it’ll be ready by next year,’ Italia explains

They are again taking calculated risks on the market as specific changes on licensing and duty laws need to change for Cobra to really grow there.

‘It’s a challenging market as it’s got 28 states, all with different laws. We know the government regulation on licensing laws will change soon and we’ll be right there.’

With roughly 50% of the population under 25 years of age and a fast-growing middle class with more disposable income than ever before India will soon be their biggest market, beating the UK in volume terms. Italia predicts that will happen in the next two to three years.

Immigration: Another 20m Invitations? (http://eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1969/Immigration:_Another_20m_Invitations_.html)
By EURSOC Two
14 September, 2007

The European Commission is studying proposals to bring another 20 million economic immigrants from Africa and Asia over the next two decades.

Currently, there are 18 million non-EU residents in the European Union: The new proposals, if enacted, could more than double this. Europe, the Commission said, "has to compete against Australia, Canada, the USA and the rising powers in Asia.”

In a brilliant stroke of EU Newspeak, the Commission proposes to drop the word "immigration" with its "dark associations" from the discourse and replace it with "mobility."

Of course, the European Commission has no power (yet) to enforce immigration policy for the entire EU. However, a unified immigration policy is high on the wish-list, and the proposals under considering are among the first glimpse we've had of what such an EU-wide policy might look like.

The scheme, the Telegraph says, is based on the US system of Green Cards, though Eurocrats have named it a "Blue EU Labour Card" scheme. Qualified immigrants would be allowed to live and work in a EU nation for two years, initially. After being resident in one for five consecutive years, they would have the right to live anywhere in the EU.

EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini outlined the proposals yesterday. He argued that Europe needed more workers because of falling populations, but he said that immigration should be more "targeted" to ensure the best people are welcomed while illegal immigrants are deterred.

"We have to look at immigration as an enrichment and as an inescapable phenomenon of today's world, not as a threat," he said,

"We should take more account of what statistics tell us: 85 per cent of unskilled labour goes to the EU and only five per cent to the USA, whereas 55 per cent of skilled labour goes to the USA and only five per cent to the EU. We have to reverse these figures with a new vision."

He added that all skill levels were required.

While many governments admit privately the need for higher levels of immigration to balance ageing populations and sustain growth, it is unlikely that the Commissioner's proposals will be warmly welcomed in government offices. Voters object to handing over control of their borders and immigration is a sensitive political issue.

Germany is reported to have rejected the proposals already, arguing that it cannot take in massive numbers of workers to fulfil current needs, particularly as it has unemployment among its own citizens running at 9 percent.

Governments have regularly used the EU as an excuse for enacting unpopular legislation. French ministers in particular have shrugged their shoulders and told citizens that the liberalising measures they've introduced were part of the cost of EU membership, which accounts for some of the strong anti-EU feeling in that country.

Cuts designed to ease the birth of the single currency were one thing: Bringing in 20 million immigrants could be more costly politically.

Britain is implementing a points-based system as of next year. Few would object to inviting those remaining Korean computer geniuses and Indian software entrepreneurs who haven't gone to California to come to live in Europe, but would they want to migrate to Poland? And are there really 20 million of them? Voters will be concerned that as well as those who will produce gains for the economy, no amount of well-meaning points systems will stop those who would be a net drain: And no-one, as yet, has come up with a means of either barricading the doors or ejecting unwanted migrants that doesn't offend human rights watchdogs.

For example, this week Nicolas Sarkozy's government in France announced plans for DNA testing for migrant families. France is also considering a points system for immigrants, but is worried that even this is open to abuse by those bringing "families" with them. A French senator claims that in "African countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo, between 30% and 80% of birth and marriage certificates were forged." While the tests will not be compulsory, migrants with dodgy documents will be responsible for the cost themselves and some fear they will be turned away if they elect not to have them.

Opposition groups have reacted furiously - tests in France are generally only allowed after a magistrate's order, and there are fears that a DNA database of immigrants could be developed. Welfare groups oppose the move, while others worry that it could damage French links with other nations.

Southern Jewels announced tomorrow (http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1689517.0.southern_jewels_announced_tomorrow.php)
By Alex Hayes
Ealing Times, UK

FOUR successful business people from Ealing have made it onto the shortlist to win an award celebrating the achievements of British Asians.

The Southern Jewel Awards, which will be presented on Saturday, September 15, recognise the contribution made by Asian businesses to the economy.

One nominee in the retail food and franchise category is 23-year-old Dipna Anand from Southall.

She combines the roles of businesswoman, chef, lecturer and student, working full time at her father's Indian restaurant and studying for a masters degree at Thames Valley University.

The former Heston School student said: "Just to get a nomination is quite amazing and really unexpected, I'm very honoured by it.

"I developed a low fat menu for my father's restaurant as part of my food technology A-level and I'm currently also writing a cookery book.

"The restaurant recently won the Best in Britain award for the best restaurant in London and I have been doing a lot of work on the refurbishment as well."

Dipna is studying for a masters degree in hospitality at Thames Valley University, where she also teaches cookery to B-TEC students.

She said: "My ambition is to go into large scale manufacturing of my food and to take it on to another level.

"I still don't know who actually nominated me for the award, I just got a phone call out of the blue telling me I had been."

Sumir Karayi, who runs 1E, an IT company, has been shortlisted for the business and commerce excellence award.

He came to the UK from a small village in the foothills of the Himalayas in the 1970s and got a degree in electrical Engineering and a masters in IT.

As an environmentalist, he was at the forefront of developing Nightwatchman, a programme that centrally shuts down computers overnight to save electricity, and his corporation employs 85 people worldwide.

Harjit Singh and Superna Sethi are both up for an award in the entrepreneur excellence category, for their property refurbishment business.

They started in 1994 by buying and refurbishing a two-bedroom flat in Kenton, before selling it inside six weeks for a profit.

Between 1996 and 1999 they bought half the auction stock in West London, before breaking into the competitive central London market with their Manhattan Property company.

The presentation ceremony will take place at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane.

Indian outsourcer on the inside track (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2168806,00.html)
The chief executive of Infosys has profited from embracing globalisation and all its opportunities

David Teather
Friday September 14, 2007
The Guardian, UK

In 1981, as IBM was introducing its first personal computer, seven software engineers who worked together in Mumbai decided to set up their own business, excited by the advances in technology.
At the time it was an unusual decision fraught with difficulties. Most ambitious Indians, including friends and former classmates, pursued careers by leaving the country. Running a business in India before the economic reforms of the early 1990s was not easy. Venture capital was non-existant and investment funding amounted to $250 between them.

Infosys was started in the living room of the group's leader, Narayana Murthy. They had to wait a year just to get a telephone line and made more than a dozen visits to the department of electronics before being allowed a computer. Last-minute trips abroad to visit clients were out of the question as the government needed two weeks notice of plans to fly overseas.
But their faith in India paid off. Infosys is today one of the biggest outsourcing companies in the world - handling IT work such as software development and system maintenance for corporations chiefly in north America and Europe. It also provides back office support from order processing and call centres to high-end actuarial analysis for the insurance industry. Alongside rivals Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services, it is helping to profoundly change the image of India.

An oft-quoted statistic, and one bringing a smile to the face of Infosys chief executive Kris Gopalakrishnan, is that it took the company 23 years to reach $1bn in revenues and just another 23 months to hit $2bn, a landmark achieved in 2005. The company forecasts sales of more than $4bn in the current financial year. Infosys clients include Royal Bank of Scotland, Sainsbury, Tesco, ABN Amro, Boeing and DaimlerChrysler.

"The analogy we internally talk about is when you are in a 747, comfortably in your seat, you don't really realise how fast it is going," Gopalakrishnan says. "So when you are in the midst of change you don't realise because you are caught up in the day-to-day operations and things like that - but the world has changed dramatically in the past 20 years."

If there are winners and losers in globalisation, Infosys, thus far, is clearly ahead of the game. The company - the inspiration for The World is Flat by author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman - employs a rapidly growing army of relatively cheap software engineers churned out by Indian colleges, the workforce numbering 77,000. It plans to hire another 26,000 this year and has recruited 25 graduates from UK universities in its first milk round. The successful candidates are in India undergoing training and will return to London to handle clients in Europe from offices in Canary Wharf. How did he find British graduates to deal with? Indians, he says diplomatically, tend to be a little more flexible.

Global

Gopalakrishnan, 52, is a slight man with neat hair, a grey moustache and an unassuming manner, the son of a small businessman. He is one of five of the founders still working at the company and took over as chief executive in July. The original group still hold 18% of the company, which is listed on Nasdaq and valued at $26bn, making each of them enormously wealthy. Still, he is no simple apologist for globalisation.

"Competition is today global even at an individual level," he says. "Today if you are a factory worker or a software programmer or even a financial analyst or a banker, you have to worry about competing with somebody else in another part of the world, just as you know the farmer who is growing oranges in India is worrying about the oranges coming from California or apples coming from Australia, because that is what is coming to India now. Almost all the brands of soft drinks in India, which were in the eighties all local brands, have been completely replaced by Pepsi and Coke."

So do the benefits of globalisation ultimately outweigh the negatives? "No. Even in the Indian context it is positive only for about 1.3m people. Well plus, of course, there is maybe five times that, maybe 5 million benefit from the extended economy. But then when you look at the rural economy ...

"So yes, we have benefited as a company. We have also benefited individually but I mean that's true for companies and individuals who have understood that this change is happening. We can't say it is the right thing or the wrong thing. It is just happening. Maybe it is happening faster these days because it is easier to move, it is easier to travel, technology brings us all closer and things like that. And when change happens faster it is going to have an impact on some people positively and some people negatively. Now is it right or not?" He lets out a bemused laugh. "I don't know. But in the past we have seen that it is difficult to stop."

Infosys's turning point came in the late 1980s with a chunk of business from General Electric. It went public in 1993 and later became the first Indian company with a Nasdaq listing. A significant boost came from groups hiring extra help to head off the millennium bug and more contracts followed when the internet bubble burst and companies in the developed world looked to slash IT budgets partly by offshoring.

Infosys reckons that only about 10% of the potential for outsourcing among companies in Europe and North America and other developed economies has been tapped, leaving a huge potential market. Infosys is also trying to move up the value chain, offering strategic consultancy services as well as behind the scenes IT work. Gopalakrishnan sees the world as a kind of jigsaw. Companies like Infosys are stepping in as populations age in the west and fewer people opt for science and technology degrees.

Competition for staff is a challenge and the growing economy in India is leading to wage inflation running at about 15% a year. To help retain talent, Infosys pampers its workers from a campus with a putting green, swimming pool, food courts and cinemas. Even with the 450,000 engineers produced in India each year, big skill shortages are forecast by 2010.

Competition

The rupee has strengthened and infrastructure in India, particularly in booming Bangalore, is creaking. Also, Infosys, Wipro and Tata are going head-to-head with big global competitors like Accenture, IBM and Cap Gemini, which have been investing in their own Indian workforces to lower their cost bases (IBM alone has 53,000 people in India, 15% of its workforce).

Then there is the possible threat of competition from other developing countries envious of India's success, including some in eastern Europe, South America, the Phillipines and China. Infosys has already opened offices in China and Mexico to take advantage of pools of local labour.

Currently North America accounts for about 63% of revenues and Europe 27%. Europe, though, is growing at a faster rate. Infosys recently did a groundbreaking deal with Royal Philips Electronics to process purchase orders and provide finance and accounting services, hiring 1,400 Philips people in Poland, India and Thailand as part of the deal. Eventually the workers will begin taking on other parts of the Infosys business as well as continuing to handle the Philips account.

I wonder if the west is finished, taking the example of the American car makers burdened by huge labour costs who watch their business crumble each year. Gopalakrishnan's response is that markets are complex and can develop in surprising ways.

"Work is actually shifting back to the US," he says. "If you look at some of the new plants that Toyota and Honda are setting up, they are being built in the US. What has happened is the distribution costs and the logistic costs are higher than the manufacturing costs. They have automated their factories so much that they have less numbers of people building each car, so it is cheaper actually to set up your factory in the US. The key is to understand that these things change in cycles. But you need to adapt and change and if you don't do that and you don't change fast actually then you get obsolete."

Globalisation is, after all, nothing new, he adds. He cites an example which is a reminder that it hasn't always been about the developing world nicking our jobs.

"What we are seeing is a redistribution of work - now we saw this in the 1700s and 1800s when the industrial revolution happened," he says. "Now, in those days, actually, the entire garment industry or weaving was a big industry in India and, you know, cotton and cloth used to be exported from India and then the industrial revolution happened and all that moved to Manchester and UK etcetera and the entire industry collapsed and it was completely devastated and disappeared actually."

CV

Born
April 5 1955, Trivandrum, Kerala

Education
MSc (Physics) and MTech (Computer Science) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Career

1979 software engineer, Patni Computer Systems

1981 assistant project manager, Patni Computer Systems

1987 head of technical operations of KSA/Infosys (a joint venture between Infosys and KSA at Atlanta, Georgia)

1994 deputy managing director of Infosys Technologies

2002 chief operating officer, Infosys Technologies

2006 president and joint managing director, Infosys Technologies

2007 chief executive and managing director, Infosys Technologies

Non-executive posts
Chairman of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Kerala, and vice-chairman of the Information Technology Education Standards Board (BITES) set up by the government of Karnataka. He is on the board of directors of the National Internet Exchange of India and chairs the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Apex Council on Services.

Family
Married with one daughter

Canada needs to get on India business bandwagon: EDC head says (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=de8d713d-c4ef-481f-a06e-c20ceffafd45&k=60247)
Michael Kane,
Vancouver Sun, Canada
Friday, September 14, 2007

Canadian companies were lambasted this afternoon for being slow to embrace opportunities in India.

While bilateral trade nearly doubled from 2001 to 2006, "Canadians are not doing enough in India, we have an uphill climb," said Eric Siegel, president and CEO of Export Development Canada.

"Canada must pick up the pace of change quickly, expand on its role in the Canadian marketplace and become a partner with India as it goes global," the head of the Canadian government's trade financing arm told a Vancouver meeting of the B.C. chapter of the Canada-India Business Council.

Every major country in the world is beating a path to India's door while India is already well past Canada's doorstep and right in our living room."

In particular, Canada's share in India's investment boom is negligible. The growth of private equity firms and merger and acquisition activity in India comes largely from other countries. However, he said a long-awaited trade pact could change this.

In June, the Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement was signed by both governments to protect companies in each country from expropriation, nationalization or repatriation of profits while providing access to international arbitration to settle disputes.

Some experts forecast the agreement will help increase Canada's $3.5-billion trade flow with India to $20 billion within five years.

"Meanwhile, Canada simply isn't taking full advantage of our natural affinities that should draw us closer to India, our cultural ties, our common language, similar legal systems, and now more flights than ever between Canada and India," Siegel said.

Canada's financial institutions, in particular, are being outflanked by American, British and Japanese banks already heavily invested in the sub-continent, while "India's top-notch financial institutions" have been ramping up activities in Canada.

But not everything is bullish in India's financial sector, he said.

Savings and investment rates, hovering around 30 per cent, are still too low, and state ownership is still very high at 80 per cent. Foreign participation in India's insurance and banking sectors is still heavily regulated with foreign direct investment in state-owned banks capped at 20 per cent. And, in 2006, India ranked only 134th out of 175 countries on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Scale.

The good news, he said, is that this is up four levels from 2005 and India ranks relatively high in the world, at 33, for protecting investors. While India may still be considered an emerging market, Siegel said it is producing leading multinationals, including the Tata Group, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Infosys Technologies, and massive evidence of India's growth includes:

. Forecast economic growth of 8.2 per cent this year, compared to a forecast of nearly five per cent for world growth, 2.3 per cent for Canadian growth and just under two per cent for the U.S.

. Plans to invest more than $300 billion US on infrastructure - roads, airports, power, sanitation and more - over the next decade.

. Foreign direct investment to India has been growing at a compound annual rate of 30 per cent since 2000; from India it has been growing at more than 60 per cent.

Indians eye exotic destinations like Maldives (http://www.live-pr.com/en/indians-eye-exotic-destinations-like-r1048146827.htm)
live-PR.com, Austria
14.09.2007 19:32:50

That there is a growing Indian populace with disposable income is well known. Disposable incomes have been growing for the last few years and people are using a growing part of it to travel.

Your first-time traveller is now an almost seasoned traveller, who is itching to explore newer destinations, be it for short or long holidays. People are getting adventurous even for their honeymoons.

AllTheTravel.com 14 Sep 2007 - That there is a growing Indian populace with disposable income is well known. Disposable incomes have been growing for the last few years and people are using a growing part of it to travel.

Your first-time traveller is now an almost seasoned traveller, who is itching to explore newer destinations, be it for short or long holidays. People are getting adventurous even for their honeymoons.

From the staid 10-country trip across Europe and the mundane family destinations in South-East Asia, people have started opting for more exotic and interesting and sometimes offbeat locations.

Egypt has suddenly become a favourite, so much so that cynics predict that it will be another run-of-the-mill destination for Indians soon. In Egypt, apart from Cairo and the Nile cruise, people are now heading to the very expensive Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh for Red Sea diving, water sports and historic cultural tours.

Similarly, the Canadian Rockies, in British Columbia, has suddenly become popular. Ashish Chadha, managing director, Leisure Ways, says he has received quite a few requests for the destination and the company has sent quite a few families to the new destination already.

What makes it even more interesting is that till last year, not many had even thought about these places. People would go on an Alaskan cruise, which is turning out to be another hot option, from Vancouver.

As for the great Canadian Rockies, people are opting for a seven-night cruise tour package with a land tour to Banff and Jasper national parks, Lake Louise, and the cities of Vancouver and Calgary.

Turkey, says another tour operator, is selling like hot cakes with the Indians, and it's not just plain vanilla Istanbul, Antalia and Kusadasi that people are asking for. People are asking for newer places like Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Bodrum.

They don't think twice before spending $3,000 for a seven-nights trip covering Istanbul, Cappadocia (for its monolithic rock formations), Pamukkale (for its hot springs, thermal spas and salt formations called cotton castles!), and Bodrum (for its splendid beaches).

The country head for New Zealand Tourism, Kiran Nambiar, tells us that more and more Indians are exploring New Zealand. They are spending on high-end luxury lodges, which sometimes cost upwards of Rs 60,000 a night, and are hiring yachts for their holiday.

"A majority of Indians no longer travel in large groups like in the past. The traveller has matured," he says, adding, "The kind of Indians who travel to New Zealand are not first time travellers. They are more confident, spend more and know what they are looking for."

Exclusivity is what they are seeking. Some of them go all out and hire whole islands in the Caribbean or the others off the coast of Dubai, Australia, the Bahamas, Fiji, The Philippines, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and a host of others one even on the Indian coast, called the Kerala Island Resort.

This one costs $485 per week to hire but there are others that cost up to $30,000 a night.

Luxury holidays in Tahiti and Bora Bora are getting common, says Ankush Nijhawan, managing director, Nijhawan Group. A one-week trip could cost upwards of Rs 500,000 per person.

As for the honeymooners, a self-drive on the garden route in South Africa or in New Zealand is preferred over Swiss Alps, says a tour operator. Recently, he got a request from a couple for a trip to Rio during the carnival period in February. People are also renting fully staffed honeymoon villas in Barbados for $2,500-5,000 a day.

Another exclusive destination for honeymooners is the couples only Sandals Resort in Acapulco in Mexico, which costs $700 per night. The Versace-owned Palazzo Versace at the Gold Coast in Australia costs $1,000 a night but that doesn't stop people from spending a night or two there.

The list of exotic destinations that the new Indian is exploring is endless.... Wilderness in South Africa, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Botswana for more wildlife. . . So where are you headed?

India's Cell-Phone Ride Out of Poverty (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_39/b4051058.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business)
BusinessWeek
SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

Struggling artisans and tradespeople in rural India are finding that mobile phones are their ticket to better sales and better lives

Times are good for Ganesh Bicchwe. The festival season in India is around the corner, and in Maheshwar, a hand-loom weaving center in the central India state of Madhya Pradesh, master weaver Bicchwe's Nokia (NOK ) 3310 mobile phone is ringing busily. A garment store in New Delhi wants 500 scarves—the broad, 3-meter-long, intricately designed, fine cotton ones worn across the shoulders by Indian women—in 20 days.

A yarn supplier phones from Coimbatore in south India to say he's dispatching a consignment of raw material ordered by Bicchwe that very evening. Then, an exhibition organizer phones from Mumbai to find out whether Bicchwe can put up a stall at the site. It's a huge amount of work for Bicchwe and his staff of 35 weavers who are all working 12-hour shifts. "The pressure to deliver is mounting," says Bicchwe, with a broad grin on his face.

Bicchwe, 50, is hardworking and enterprising, but he's the first to admit that he wouldn't enjoy his current level of success were it not for his cell phone. He is from the weaver caste—at the center of India's international trade in textiles in the 19th century before it lost out to industrialization. It now occupies India's lowest economic rung. It wasn't so long ago that Bicchwe was a small-time weaver and trader, getting piecemeal work and barely eking out a living. But that was before cell phones. Hardly anyone in his town had a traditional wire-line phone.

SUCCESS BY ALL MEASURES. Then, in 2005, Bicchwe spent a precious $100 to buy himself a mobile phone. It was a huge investment, but Bicchwe wagered that it could enhance his business. Did it ever. Getting connected has allowed Bicchwe to become a player in India's reviving textile business and in the booming domestic consumer market. His business has more than doubled, from $12,000 in sales to $25,000 a year. He has his own home and a separate work space, and he has expanded his business—from 15 looms in 2005 to 35 now. The other weavers he employs create 20,000 meters of exquisite hand-woven fabric a year, twice that produced two years ago.

His success has also enabled Bicchwe to become a consumer in his own right. Among his recent purchases are a 14-inch TV set, a Maruti Suzuki car, and a second-hand computer with Internet access. In a true sign of middle-class success in India, Bicchwe married off his daughter in reasonable style. And his 28-year-old son has joined the business, rather than strike out on his own.

Bicchwe has big plans for the future, and his trusty cell phone could make the difference. He wants to add another 15 looms this year; doing so would increase business and income by 30%. The phone helps wrap up deals within minutes rather than the two weeks it typically took to get in touch with suppliers and customers through letters and a single wire-line phone at the local village store. "It's been a life-changing and time-saving experience for me," he says, affectionately patting his handset.

A LOAN FOR A PHONE. Bicchwe has plenty of company, including the 1,500 other independent weavers (both master weavers like Bicchwe and others) in Maheshwar. But all sorts of other small entrepreneurs in rural areas are also seeing their lives improve. Aruna Gaikwad, 29, is a semiliterate fruit and vegetable vendor in Kokrade village, 270 miles from Mumbai. Her husband used to sell their goods from two stalls on the village pavement, while she tried to make sales in the markets of neighboring villages. It was a life of struggle, providing only about $60 in monthly income for the couple and their two children.

Gaikwad, however, had seen how mobile phones had helped some of her friends strengthen their small businesses and become wealthier. So last year, Gaikwad bought a $34 phone with a loan from the local Mann Deshi Mahila Sarkar Bank for women, which provides credit to rural entrepreneurs.

Today, thanks to her phone, Gaikwad no longer has to rely on local traders to give her a decent price on fresh produce, but can deal directly with wholesalers a few towns away. When there's glut of mangoes, for example, she is able to plan her pricing ahead of time. And instead of seeking customers, she now takes orders over the phone, sometimes a day in advance.

THE FIFTH NECESSITY. The better time management also allows her to expand her inventory of fruits and vegetables. Gaikwad's monthly income doubled to $122, and she has become creditworthy for large loans from her local bank. Two months ago, she took out a $2,400 housing loan to move from her straw hut to a cement home. She also owns a TV, and repays her home loan with weekly installments of $24. "This is very liberating," she says.

Such life improvements due to mobile telephony are becoming commonplace in rural India, where for many, basics like going to a doctor or to school still entail a five-mile walk. No wonder, then, that India is the fastest-growing telecom market. Both handset and service providers continue to lower the cost of their products. According to Sanjeev Aga, managing director of local Idea Cellular , a mobile phone has become the fifth most important household expenditure item after food, clothing, shelter, and education.

"As their aspirations grow, even the poor don't mind setting aside $30 of their paltry $150 monthly income for a mobile phone," he says. India now has a total subscriber base of 190 million, with 6 million new users joining the ranks every month. By next year, two-thirds of Indians will own a mobile phone according to the Indian Cellular Assn., with the subscriber base reaching 450 million by 2010. And, says ICA President Pankaj Mohindroo, "Most of the sales will come from rural India."

"THE REAL DIGITAL REVOLUTION." Dominating the mobile handset landscape in India is Nokia with a 74% market share. As for service providers, at last count, there were 13 mobile-phone operators, with Bharti Airtel leading the pack with a 24% share and Vodafone (VOD ) in third place with a 17% share.

Almost all the players who have a large urban base in India are expanding rapidly into the rural areas by providing innovative services. For instance, Bharti runs a pilot project for farmers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, providing much needed voice and text tips on farming and animal husbandry and the availability of easy loans, and weather forecasts twice a day. "This," says Aditya Dev Sood, chief executive of Bangalore design research firm Center for Knowledge Societies, which brought out a Nokia-commissioned mobile development report, "is the real digital revolution."

U.S. man first to turn to India for liver transplant surgery (http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=E33B28FA121F48DC84AF88DFB91F397E)
BY CHRIS NELSON
Indus Business Journal, MA
September 15, 2007

CONCORD, Calif. — When Kevin Stewart's doctor told him late last year that he had advanced cirrhosis of the liver and would need a transplant or face certain death, Stewart never thought that his salvation existed half a world away in India.

That changed when Stewart, a resident of Big Pine Key, Fla., learned of the cost to have the procedure done in the United States — about $350,000 — and after the federal government and public and private hospitals repeatedly rejected his pleas for financial assistance.

Stewart, his options exhausted, discovered almost by accident WorldMed Assist LLC, a California company that arranges high-end medical treatment abroad for its clients at prices that are far less-expensive than what they would pay in the United States.

Concord-based WorldMed Assist took Stewart on as a client and arranged for him to travel to India earlier this summer for a liver transplant surgery. His sister, Jo-Ann Hall of Ottawa, Canada, donated a portion of her liver to Stewart — a procedure known as live-donor liver transplant. Subhash Gupta, a liver-transplant specialist with Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi and the chief of the hospital's liver surgery unit, performed the transplantation.

Stewart paid approximately $55,000 for his surgery and hospitalization — $275,000 less than what it would have cost to have it done in the United States. "Having this surgery in the [United States] would have wiped me out," Stewart said. "Having someone help me get the transplant I needed in India — with top-notch doctors in a great hospital, at a fraction of the cost — saved me so much money that I flew my girlfriend and Jo-Ann's husband to India to help us recuperate. This surgery has given me back a life I thought was lost."

WorldMed Assist was founded in October 2006 by Wouter Hoeberechts, 37, a Dutch entrepreneur with a background in management consulting, who recognized the need for low-cost, quality health-care options for Americans.

"At the start of 2006, I read an article about [medical tourism]. Ever since I arrived in the U.S. from the Netherlands, I've known that improvements to the U.S health-care needed to be made," Hoeberechts said. "My wife's father is an internationally renowned urologist and professor in Turkey and I became fascinated with the strides that country was making in the delivery of high-quality, affordable care. I started following advances made in other countries like India, Belgium, Mexico and realized North Americans have viable low-cost alternatives that are of high quality."

WorldMed charges a flat fee of $300 for its services (separate from any medical costs). Hoeberechts, who prefers to call himself a logistical coordinator rather than a medical tourism provider, has connected 14 U.S. residents with physicians and hospitals in India, Turkey and Belgium since last October.

"We create alternatives for our clients," Hoeberechts said. "Many of the people who contact us have run out of options — they are uninsured or underinsured — and we connect them to high-quality hospitals outside the United States where they will receive excellent care for much less than what they would pay in America."

WorldMed's executive board is comprised of Hoeberechts, the company's chief executive officer; his wife Gulbin Muftuoglu-Hoeberechts, WorldMed's marketing manager; Dr. Paul Kim, WorldMed's chief medical officer; and Dr. Orkun Muftuoglu, an ophthalmologist and WorldMed's medical advisor for Turkey.

Stewart stumbled upon WorldMed when he looked up medical tourism on the Internet.

"In early June, I hit the Internet, and eventually landed on the words 'medical tourism.' I searched several firms, saying, 'I need a liver transplant.' Several responded, but I kept coming back to WorldMed Assist," Stewart said. "By late June, they had me on my way to India, and my surgery was finished July 11. Pretty amazing — I heard I was the first American to have a liver transplant in India."

Interestingly, Hoeberechts almost declined to accept Stewart as a client because of the risks associated with liver transplants. "I was initially reluctant to take Kevin on as a patient," he said. "Live liver transplants are extremely risky, no matter where in the world they're done. But I knew of Dr. Subhash Gupta at one of WorldMed Assist's contracted hospitals (Apollo in New Delhi); we did our research and gathered references — Dr. Gupta has done 120 live liver transplants with a long-term survival record that surpasses the Mayo Clinic's, the U.S.'s gold standard for liver transplants."

Gupta, who received his surgical training in the United Kingdom, pioneered the practice of "bloodless surgery," an approach that involves the delivery of medical and surgical care without the transfusion of blood products. The technique has long been applied to Jehovah's Witness patients, but it is now experiencing widespread popularity with other patients due to the lessened risk of infection and immunologic complications.

"We were blown away by Dr. Gupta," Hoeberechts said. "I don't think you'll find a better-qualified liver-transplant surgeon anywhere."

Stewart returned to the United States Aug. 24 after spending two months in India. He is currently recuperating at his house in the Florida Keys, and says he feels "wonderful."

"I feel great — I haven't felt this good in years," he said via telephone. "Every day is better than the one before it, and I'm constantly wearing a smile. I can't say enough about what Wouter and WorldMed Assist have done for me."

Expats bankrolling `Kerala model' (http://www.thestar.com/News/article/256915)
Money sent home by migrants means a better life in Indian state, but the human cost is high

Jason DeParle
NEW YORK TIMES
Sep 15, 2007 04:30 AM

TRIVANDRUM, India–This verdant swath of southern Indian coastline is a famously good place to be poor. People in the state of Kerala live nearly as long as North Americans do, on a sliver of the income. They read at nearly the same rates.

With leftist governments here in the state capital spending heavily on health and schools, a generation of scholars has celebrated the "Kerala model" as a humane alternative to market-driven development, a vision of social equality in an unequal capitalist world. But the Kerala model is under attack, one outbound worker at a time.

Plagued by chronic unemployment, more Keralites than ever work abroad, often at sun-scorched jobs in the Persian Gulf that pay about a dollar an hour and keep them from their families for years.

The cash flowing home now helps support nearly one in three Kerala residents. That has some local scholars rewriting the Kerala story: far from escaping capitalism, they say, this celebrated corner of the developing world is dependent on it.

"Remittances from global capitalism are carrying the whole Kerala economy," said S. Irudaya Rajan, a demographer at the Centre for Development Studies, a local research group.

"There would have been starvation deaths in Kerala if there had been no migration. The Kerala model is good to read about but not practically applicable to any part of the world, including Kerala."

Local lessons would matter less if this were a section of Mexico or Manila – places known for the hardships that make migrants flee. But Kerala's standing as the other way – the benevolent path to development, a retort to globalization – makes the travails of its 1.8 million globalizing migrants especially resonant. The debate about Kerala is a debate about future strategies across the impoverished world.

Laly Mohan's life offers the kind of case study common here. Having risen from a poor family to finish two years of college, her husband, Ramakrishnan, 39, saw few job prospects and left for the gulf 15 years ago. As a driver in Qatar, he earns $375 a month, five times the local wage, and sees his family once a year, on a three-week visit.

Ramakrishnan Mohan's earnings have brought the family the accoutrements of middle-class life: a renovated kitchen, a new motor scooter and a parochial school education for daughters, Blessy, 10, and Elsa, 6. But despite her husband's daily calls, Laly Mohan said, "I feel very alone," and the girls plead for their father's return. "They want Papa and they also want money," she said. "They cannot have both."

"So many educated people are here, but we have no jobs," she added. "That is a big problem, a really big problem."

To its admirers, the state's struggles are those endemic to the developing world, while its achievements are unique. It is poor, even by India's standards, with an annual per capita income of $675, compared with $730 nationwide.

But life expectancy in Kerala is nearly 74 years, 11 years longer than the Indian average and approaching the U.S. average of 77 years. Its literacy rate, 91 per cent, compares to an Indian average of 65 per cent.

Those enviable outcomes, its supporters stress, are a result of policy choices: Kerala spends 36 per cent more on education than the average Indian state and 46 per cent more on health.

"The fact that quality of life can be improved through government intervention, even in societies that are very poor – I think that's important," said Prabhat Patnaik, the vice-chairman of the state planning board. Kerala's experience, he said, shows "the quality of life is not just related to the growth rate" of the economy.

"Put it in the context of any other part of the developing world and its achievements still stand out as remarkable," said Richard Franke, an anthropologist at Montclair State University in New Jersey. "Children don't die in the first year of life, boys and girls have approximately equal life chances, they get educated, and they live long lives."

He added, "The Kerala model stands as a great achievement, with or without migration."

Talk of the Kerala model began after a 1975 United Nations report praised the state's "impressive advances in the spheres of health and education." Starved for success stories from the developing world, experts noticed.

Amartya Sen, who went on to receive a Nobel laureate in economics, wrote widely on Kerala, arguing (in a book with Jean Dreze) that its "outstanding social achievements" were of "far-reaching significance" in other countries. In a book on three places that inspire global hope, Bill McKibben, an American, wrote that "Kerala demonstrates that a low-level economy can create a decent life" and shows that "sharing works."

Yet even as Kerala gained fame, large numbers of its workers were leaving. The Persian Gulf needed labour, and Keralites were used to travelling for jobs. The number of overseas workers doubled in the 1980s, and then tripled in the 1990s. In a state of 32 million, where unemployment approaches 20 per cent, one Keralite worker in six now works overseas. The largest number work at taxing construction jobs, outdoors in the Arabian sun, though high literacy allows some Keralites to land office work.

Without migrant earnings, critics say, the state's lustre could not be sustained. The $5 billion that Keralite migrants send home augment the state's economic output by nearly 25 per cent.

Kerala's homegrown critics say its dependence on migration severs human development and economic growth. "Keralites are developing the gulf economy," Professor Rajan, the demographer, said. "They are not developing our economy."

Discover Samudra, India (http://50connect.co.uk/index.asp?main=http%3A//50connect.co.uk/50c/articlepages/travel_index.asp%3Fsc%3Dguides%26aID%3D16319)
By Jill Fordham
50 Connect, UK

A mere three bays, but in fact decades away from the Costa Del Kerala, retaining much as the unchanging India of old.

If Mumbai is to be described as 'a generation and a continent away' from Kalkata, then India’s southernmost state of Kerala can only be described as a world and a lifetime away from the northern states of this vast and plural land. Whilst the contrasts of ancient and modern and the extremes of want and wealth are diversities we associate with this country, Kerala remains much as the unchanging India of old.

A most beguiling and peaceful atmosphere permeates this region, with enduring traditions practiced by a people renowned for their friendliness and courtesy. Folk in Kerala live together as Hindus, Christians and Muslims, alongside the less represented faiths of Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism, all far removed from the brutal divisions imposed in the north by The Raj at the time of Independence, when 20 million people were displaced by partition and one million died because of their religion. Here in Kerala, the temples, churches and mosques lie in town and country as compatibly, yet as distinctly as the jewels of a charm bracelet, linked by a chain of respect and of knowledge – for the state of Kerala is blessed also with the highest literacy rate in the whole of India.

The city of Kochin in the north is the cultural capital, encompassing a vast miscellany of architectural styles and customs, influenced by its complex and colourful history. Whilst Thiruvananthapuram, commonly known as Trivandrum in the south, is the official state capital. Here symbols of commercialism are evident with wide roads and multi-storey office blocks which contrast with traditional houses and backstreets, interspersed with large spaces of parkland which offer respite from the bustle of its modern business centre.

Located 15 kilometres south of Trivandrum lies the beach resort of Kovalam, popular for decades with travellers to India, but more recently discovered by plane loads of package tourists, who have encouraged development to its detriment, causing it to be branded akin to the “Costa del Kerala”. Yet take a 3 kilometre stroll north of Kovalam, and you arrive at the traditional little village of Samudra, now developing, but still retaining a certain allure that encompasses, in many respects, the real notion of rural India.

Samudra is historically a ‘rock making’ village, and is supported by the government who are funding the import of stone from Malaysia. Throughout the day, predominantly the women, but also whole families, sit by the roadside laboriously chipping stones from mountains of rock that tower beside them. It is also a fishing village, with a small strip of beach that becomes the fervent venue each morning for a dramatic and mesmeric spectacle, resembling a fine Indian musical. Here market traders deal cards in the shade, whilst awaiting the catch of the fishermen who sing and chant as they tirelessly haul in their often meagre catch. Regardless of the end result, the act alone is guaranteed to magnetise you from bed to beach before breakfast each morning.

Days can be spent in any number of ways, both in and beyond the bona fide charm of this little village, with opportunities to experience both near and far the culture and the attributes of this most welcoming land.

Beaches in the Kovalam area are plentiful yet diverse, with something to offer both the commercial and the discerning traveller. Regarding safety, you must be aware that however inviting their shorelines, the seas on this coast are less kind. The currents are unpredictable and there is a strong undertow, so note the warnings of the safety flags at all times.

To the south of Samudra, and a five minute walk over a small headland, is Ashok Beach. This larger beach is preferred by tourists for relaxation, over the smaller, yet enchantingly industrious Samudra Beach. It is home to a small mosque, and much of the beach is appealingly frequented also by locals. Beyond that is Hawah Beach, which again functions as a base for local fishermen. Beyond that is the larger and more commercialized Lighthouse Beach where a concrete pathway runs along it's length, and it is home to shops, restaurants and guesthouses, and patrolled by traders persistently touting their ware. This is one to visit for facilities, but not for relaxation.

Approximately 9 kilometres further south of Kovalam is Chowara Beach, home to The Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort (Tel. 91 471 2268101, www.somatheeram.com). That apart, there are no other facilities here, as Chowara is home to a local fishing community, but still, the beach which is wide and long, affords the peace that is lacking at Lighthouse.

Lying north of Samudra, and approximately 4 kilometres from the centre of Kovalam, and a world away from commercialism, lies Pozhikkara Beach. Here the young children of fishing communities captivatingly run and tumble naked across the beach – too poor to attend school, but clearly revelling in the delights of their natural world. This beautiful sliver of white sand beach, which is neatly strewn with ruggedly ornate boats, can be reached on foot from Samudra, via village communities of Hindu fishermen and Christian coir makers, or by road and boat across the Veli Lagoon.

Backwaters offer an alternative view of life beyond the streets, where families live on tiny pockets of land and busy themselves with all manner of colourful chores at the waters edge. Local to Kovalam, and less than ten minutes by rickshaw or taxi from Samudra are the Backwaters of Thiruvallam. Here the rivers Killi and Karamana converge to form the saltwater Veli Lagoon, which then merges with the Arabian Sea.

The waters are adorned with lotuses and lilies, and encompassed by lush green vegetation which is periodically lit by the flash of an iridescent blue kingfisher or the green of a parakeet. Families bathe at the waters edge, some more accustomed to the limelight than others, but even those that are not, still bear a bashful smile that is customary from the people of Kerala. Coconut trees grow at improbable angles across the waters edge and are skilfully negotiated by lithe dark bodies who gather the fruits of the trees – another major source of the Keralan economy. The sounds of nature permeate this idyllic scene.

Shopping in India is a permitted indulgence, however tight one’s budget, but if you are passionate about clothes take a half empty suitcase, so as to ensure the safe return of your purchases at the minimum cost.

Local to Samudra Beach are several small shops that offer a colourful potpourri of choice by way of clothes and handicrafts not only from Kerala, but from Kashmir and Nepal in the north, and from many other parts of India. The traders here are friendly and welcoming, and the shopping experience considerably more relaxed than at Lighthouse Beach. However, if you can brave the hassle of the tenacious touts who line Lighthouse Beach prom, there is a much greater selection of exotic garments and textiles, along with jewellery, metal and woodworks and many other trinkets representative of this vivacious continent. Most prevalent of all are the tailors, who within hours will create any of the given designs - but always have a tester before committing to order your entire wardrobe, as the quality can vary greatly.

Try Trivandrum for a greater choice still or Parthas for a vastly bewildering selection of textiles and ready made clothing - which although more costly than local shops, are a bargain all the same. Suffice to say that you can get most anything here, and combine it with a day of sight-seeing. As for an Indian capital city, it is relatively relaxing. Trivandrum was strongly influenced by the Raj, and as a result of its colonial legacy to the north of the city is a park, home to the Shri Chitra Art Gallery and Napier Museum, and also to botanical gardens and a zoo. The oldest and most interesting part of the town is the Fort area in the south, where you can visit the Shri Padmanabhaswamy temple and Puttan Malika Palace.

For trips further afield, the most liberating and cost-effective experiences are to be had by hiring a driver either from the taxi rank in the village square or by haggling, as is the norm, with one of the local agents. The resultant bargain is at least four for the price of one, plus an experience that is guaranteed to far surpass any of the hotel operators more costly and regimental bookings.

Travel 73 kilometres south of Samudra, through the state of Tamil Nadu to the Indian “Lands End” of Kanniyakumari, which is the meeting point of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Here stalls of colourful seaside tack compliment the vibrant attire of the mortals who visit this rather bland little seaside town, significant for being of enduring appeal to pilgrims. They come from far and wide to visit the Vivekanda memorial, accessible by the Poompuhar ferry service from the harbour; and the Gandhi Mandapam temple - the location of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes, prior to their immersion in the sea.

The street cafes serve a delectable range of sweet and spicy Indian teas, but none as sweet to the palate as the juice from giant sugar canes, pressed in ancient, complex contraptions of the street vendors. Yet there is a sense of ambivalence in the air, when the enduring heat of the atmosphere is replaced by a chill, most apparent when casting one’s eyes across the desolate harbour. Here, brightly painted fishing boats pale against the tatters of a harbour that is patched, but not mended, from the devastation caused by the Tsunami of 26th December 2004, which claimed over a thousand lives as it ripped it’s way across the seafront and jetty of this sacred town.

Whilst journeying south, stop on the way to visit the Padmanabhapuram Palace, once in Kerala, but now in Tamil Nadu. Ornately carved teak, rosewood and mahogany ceilings are reflected in the polished black floors which are made from a now redundant technique using burnt coconut, sticky sugar cane extract, egg whites, lime and sand. Wander the passageways and climb the steps through rooms housing ornate artefacts and murals that relate the history and religious fervour of this, the seat of the erstwhile rulers of Travancore – a seat only secondarily controlled by the Raj, who had to agree to rule as a servant to the God of Vishnu.

On your return, stop at the Stanunathaswami Temple at Suchindram, which is jointly dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This elaborately tiered monumental shrine of worship is open to non-Hindus and all castes, who give what they can ill-afford by way of dedication to a religion which embraces the beliefs of many hundreds of gods, goddesses, faiths and practices.

Travel 67 kilometres north of Samudra to Varkala, also long renowned by Hindus as a place of pilgrimage, but with a wealth of natural beauty that is lacking in Kanniyakumari. The expanse of silver sands at Papanasum Beach are backed by sheer red laterite cliffs, on top of which ethnic shops and palm thatched cafes offer an interesting stroll for the bargain hunter as they wind their way down towards the diamond glinting sea.

There is an undisputable radiance about this place, which is fast becoming a magnet for western travellers on the hippy trail, who come to reflect on the natural beauty and to experience the many courses that are offered by the increasing numbers of schools of yoga, meditation and massage that are springing up here. However, there is also a plasticity about the growing commercialism of the clifftop area, which is rarely visited by the Hindu pilgrims, who after praying at the Janardhana Swamy Temple in the village, then bring the ashes of their departed relatives to their final rest in the sea.

Back at Samudra, rejuvenation and recovery is available in the form of Ayurvedic treatments, the ancient system of herbal medicine, for which Kerala is particularly renowned. There are several little practices in the village, and many more at nearby Lighthouse Beach.

However, it is worth some research by way of networking with other travellers, and even seeking professional advice from the highly reputable college in Trivandum (0471-246 0823), to ensure a well qualified practitioner as opposed to the seasonal ‘doctors’ and ‘masseurs’ who run dry with the rains, which is when treatment is deemed to be the best – during the monsoon from June to November.

With their reputations at stake, the hotels are usually a safe bet, but Ayurvedic medicine was never meant to be practiced within the luxurious confines of air conditioned rooms. So for a more authentic and personal experience, visit registered practitioner Dr. Prabhakaran Vaidiyan at the Prakriti Ayurvedic Centre, located to the rear of the Samudra Beach Hotel, and not far from the Taj (Tel.0471-3261362).

Here you will be guaranteed an experience that will transport you through the depths of oblivion to complete rejuvenated state on awakening that will equip you to party the world, although there isn't an opportunity available here. But then that’s the charm of this little hamlet. So you’ll have to settle instead for drinks over a Samudra sunset and an indulgence in the subtly spiced delights of Southern Indian cuisine, much of which is influenced by Ayurvedic traditions.

Restaurants provide the evening’s ‘entertainment’ and after drinks above the rocky beach there are a considerable few from which to choose. High above Ashok Beach stands the Lobster Pot, whilst at the waters edge in Samudra is located the 3rd Rock Café and the aptly named Water’s Edge Restaurant. A little inland, but still in the village, is to be found the hugely popular restaurant known as Mollys, under the proprietorship of Heather and Dharma, who last year added to their success with the building of a small block of rooms and pool in the most serene and beautiful of settings imaginable. Here, as with the others, the menu is diverse, with the Keralan specialities of fresh fish, vegetables and spices leading you on your journey through to the sweetly delicious mouth watering puddings. Hotel restaurants are also open to non residents, with much variety at the Uday Samudra Beach Hotel, and an even more delectable choice at the Taj Green Cove Resort.

Places to stay in the village range from rooms at Mollys in a delightful complex of eight, thus far smaller, but no less seductive than those also on offer within the much larger complex of the 5 star Taj Green Cove Resort. Here there are 59 hillside cottages with panoramic views of the sea, built on granite stone with elephant grass thatched roof-tops, private balconies and lawns. Mid-way in terms of rating and pricing is the Uday Samudra Beach Hotel, currently a 3 star, but upgrading to a 4 star, with the ongoing process of expansion creating the largest hotel in the village, offering more in the way of facilities, but at a cost to intimacy and character.

'Chindia' poised to boost global economic growth (http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Comment_and_Analysis/10153872.html)
By Sean Kelleher,
Special to Gulf News
September 15, 2007, 23:04

"It's not about India versus China - it's about India and China", says Ajay Argal, the Birla fund manager in charge of the Mauritius-based India Advantage Fund. "Chindia is the name gaining currency in the investment world," says Argal, "and we believe that diversified portfolio invest-ors should be looking at Chindia as the engine for future global economic growth."

The stats support his case. 38 per cent of the world's population are Chindialese (or maybe Chindians?). Fifty per cent of the world's population below the age of 25 is from Chindia.

The two most populous countries in the world clearly make a major consumption unit, they are consuming 50 per cent of the world's cement, and 60 per cent of the world's vegetables, (we can't blame all of that on MacDonald's). When considered as one engine, Chindia is one massive consumption unit.

For now, Argal sees the combination as having the greatest appeal for "offshore" and international investors, "China and India are highly complementary economies'' says Argal. China does the hardware; India provides the software. China leads in manufacturing, India leads in services.

While there is no formal alliance, and while Argal fully expects India and China to compete more obviously in the future, it is the present opportunity for investors that concerns Argal. "We see China at the very start of their 'S-Curve', with India some 15 years behind," says Argal.

The S-Curve is used by economists to measure the improvement of emerging economies. It tracks the improving per capita GDP (adjusted by purchasing power parity data). The tracking, economists reckon, should follow an S-curve.

China's economic liberalisation programme started in 1979, with India joining in 1991. Many Indian commentators echo Argal's view of a 10-15 year development gap between the two.

For Argal, the Indian "advantage'' over China and other economies include its global power status in IT services. "The IT sector has provided India with a domestic example of global success, and other Indian companies are beginning to see the world as a place in which they can expand into," he says.

Further confidence is supplied by the fact that Indian corporations enjoy one of the best sets of 'return-on-investment' data in the region. "Corporate re-structuring has been taking place aggressively since 2005, allowing plenty of scope for increased capacity," says Argal.

Unique fund

The background above provides a good lead-in to Argal's India Advantage Fund (IAF). In isolation, Argal's point that the fund's principal USP (Unique Selling Point) is its focus on capital growth seems mute. Isn't every long-only equity fund manager USP-ing on capital growth?

Argal would argue that they are not all providing access to an onshore Indian-managed fund through an offshore vehicle (with its tax-benefit wheels) garaged in Mauritius. A vehicle whose performance will be generated by high-octane Indian equities poised for growth in an environment prepared for increased capacity.

"It may be turbulent in the short term, but this is a medium/long-term fund," says Argal. "The capacity of the Indian economy will improve. The 11th Plan (part of a series of five-year plans) runs from 2007 to 2012 and orders are being taken for major infrastructural improvements now."

This macro-explanation might help explain why Argal remains focused on large cap with a few mid cap stocks. The big Indian corporates are already well-placed to benefit from large government orders.

This leads to the thought that, would not all Indian 'offshore' managers see the story the same way? For Argal, despite the strong macro-direction, "India remains a bottom-up economy. One advantage we have over fund managers based outside India is that we are here in Mumbai, and we are here in the market ready to meet face-to-face with the companies in whom we invest. In addition, the team I work with enjoys back-up from 12 analysts. Decisions are based on analysis, not on sales-speak. In addition, our team has an 11 to 12 year track record," he says.

Money-makers

Argal supplies us with insights into three stocks. His choices were: first-up, BHL, which occupies about six per cent of the IAF, and is there because Argal's team believes that it takes 60 to 65 per cent of India's power contracts. As the economy grows, and as the 11th Plan takes effect, the need for power will remain a high. "They have a $12 billion order book, the equivalent of two to three years of revenue," says Argal.

The second selection is Reliance Industries. This is a 'must-have' stock for any fund benchmarked to the Sensex and MSCI India indices. The stock occupies some 14 per cent of the Sensex.

Argal's brief allows him up to 10 per cent of any one stock, and his decision is to weight the fund at 7.25 per cent toward Reliance Industries, which as the biggest single selection, should be read as a vote of confidence in the company.

The final selection is Bharti Airtel, which occupies 5.6 per cent of the fund. It is a play on the general expectation that telephone subscribers will continue to rise at the rate of 30 per cent per annum over the next few years.

In a country where IT services and skills are common-place, it is rather ironic that the country's telephone penetration rate sits at around 18 per cent of the population.

While the 'mature markets' wrestle with sub-prime, the negative pros-pects of hedge funds, and other issues, India's development issues are suddenly more interesting.

While (in economic terms) India is behind China and the mature econ-omies, it is nevertheless developing. Mother Teresa said: "It is the journey that counts not the destination". The journey is just beginning.

The writer is chairman of Mondial Financial Partners International.

SA to host Indian tech expo (http://www.southafrica.info/what_happening/conf_expo/mtiindia-170907.htm)
South Africa.info, South Africa
17 September 2007

India has selected the Manufacturing Technology International Exhibition (MTI), taking place at the Nasrec Expo Centre south of Johannesburg between 23 and 26 October, to host the 17th all exclusive Indian Engineering Exhibition (INDEE).

India, the second fastest growing major economy in the world, accepted an invitation by the MTI to participate in this year’s event as a partner nation, as the two countries seek to increase bilateral trade.

MTI business development director Pierre Potgieter said India had accepted an invitation by the MTI to participate as a Partner Nation and had booked 4 800 square meters of space, providing a platform for Indian exporter to showcase their technological achievements and products from 41 engineering sectors.

These include castings and forgings, hand and machine tools, industrial machinery, mechanical engineering products, construction machinery, pharmaceutical machinery, ferrous and non-ferrous metal-based engineering items and medical and surgical instruments amongst others.

"MTI on the other hand will showcase all aspects of the manufacturing chain, from raw material and input suppliers, through manufacturing support suppliers, such as tooling, technology and instrumentation, to output management including storing and picking, logistics, materials handling and packaging," Potgieter said.

'Business matchmaking'

In addition, the exhibition will feature a unique business matchmaking programme whereby exhibitors will have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with clearly identified, pre-profiled buyers and decision-makers. Those wishing to participate in the programme and required to pre-register for free on the exhibition website.

"This ensures that no time is wasted at exhibitions and that exhibitors and visitors diaries are determined in advance, and managed by the organisers ensuring that the right people meet each other resulting in a mutually beneficial outcome," Potgieter said.

"Partner Nation India will also bring trade and investment missions to MTI and will host workshops during which all aspects of trade between India, South Africa and Africa would be discussed."

In terms of trade between the two countries, the most important products exported to India are gold and silver, coal and briquettes, iron and steel, inorganic and organic chemicals, electrical goods, non-ferrous metals, crude fertiliser, pulp and waste paper and petroleum crude.

Cotton yarn, finished leather goods, machinery and instruments, handmade yarn fabrics, chemicals, spices, rice, handicrafts and handmade carpets meanwhile dominate South Africa’s imports from India.

Immigration: Another 20m Invitations? (http://eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1969/Immigration:_Another_20m_Invitations_.html)
By EURSOC Two
14 September, 2007

The European Commission is studying proposals to bring another 20 million economic immigrants from Africa and Asia over the next two decades.

Currently, there are 18 million non-EU residents in the European Union: The new proposals, if enacted, could more than double this. Europe, the Commission said, "has to compete against Australia, Canada, the USA and the rising powers in Asia.”

In a brilliant stroke of EU Newspeak, the Commission proposes to drop the word "immigration" with its "dark associations" from the discourse and replace it with "mobility."

Of course, the European Commission has no power (yet) to enforce immigration policy for the entire EU. However, a unified immigration policy is high on the wish-list, and the proposals under considering are among the first glimpse we've had of what such an EU-wide policy might look like.

The scheme, the Telegraph says, is based on the US system of Green Cards, though Eurocrats have named it a "Blue EU Labour Card" scheme. Qualified immigrants would be allowed to live and work in a EU nation for two years, initially. After being resident in one for five consecutive years, they would have the right to live anywhere in the EU.

EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini outlined the proposals yesterday. He argued that Europe needed more workers because of falling populations, but he said that immigration should be more "targeted" to ensure the best people are welcomed while illegal immigrants are deterred.

"We have to look at immigration as an enrichment and as an inescapable phenomenon of today's world, not as a threat," he said,

"We should take more account of what statistics tell us: 85 per cent of unskilled labour goes to the EU and only five per cent to the USA, whereas 55 per cent of skilled labour goes to the USA and only five per cent to the EU. We have to reverse these figures with a new vision."

He added that all skill levels were required.

While many governments admit privately the need for higher levels of immigration to balance ageing populations and sustain growth, it is unlikely that the Commissioner's proposals will be warmly welcomed in government offices. Voters object to handing over control of their borders and immigration is a sensitive political issue.

Germany is reported to have rejected the proposals already, arguing that it cannot take in massive numbers of workers to fulfil current needs, particularly as it has unemployment among its own citizens running at 9 percent.

Governments have regularly used the EU as an excuse for enacting unpopular legislation. French ministers in particular have shrugged their shoulders and told citizens that the liberalising measures they've introduced were part of the cost of EU membership, which accounts for some of the strong anti-EU feeling in that country.

Cuts designed to ease the birth of the single currency were one thing: Bringing in 20 million immigrants could be more costly politically.

Britain is implementing a points-based system as of next year. Few would object to inviting those remaining Korean computer geniuses and Indian software entrepreneurs who haven't gone to California to come to live in Europe, but would they want to migrate to Poland? And are there really 20 million of them? Voters will be concerned that as well as those who will produce gains for the economy, no amount of well-meaning points systems will stop those who would be a net drain: And no-one, as yet, has come up with a means of either barricading the doors or ejecting unwanted migrants that doesn't offend human rights watchdogs.

For example, this week Nicolas Sarkozy's government in France announced plans for DNA testing for migrant families. France is also considering a points system for immigrants, but is worried that even this is open to abuse by those bringing "families" with them. A French senator claims that in "African countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo, between 30% and 80% of birth and marriage certificates were forged." While the tests will not be compulsory, migrants with dodgy documents will be responsible for the cost themselves and some fear they will be turned away if they elect not to have them.

Opposition groups have reacted furiously - tests in France are generally only allowed after a magistrate's order, and there are fears that a DNA database of immigrants could be developed. Welfare groups oppose the move, while others worry that it could damage French links with other nations.

Europe is a pretty multi-cultural place - for instance here in Britain, there are larger numbers of inter-ethnic marriages than anywhere else - I myself am multi-ethnic.

i don't want to start another America vs. Rest of the World debate here, but i just don't see why an Indian engineer would go to Europe if he can go to US. though, Europe is a multi ethnic place, it's still not as non-racist as America. remember the Arcelor-Mittal fiasco? the PM of the country in which Arcelor is based made a public statements that he has inhibitions for the deal b/c Arcelor is European and Mittal isn't. in America, race is pretty much a no-show if you have the money. money is given more value than anything else. so, doesn't matter which ethnicity you belong to; if you have ideas and can pull up the money, then you can do what you want, of course it's gotta be legal.

i don't want to start another America vs. Rest of the World debate here, but i just don't see why an Indian engineer would go to Europe if he can go to US. though, Europe is a multi ethnic place, it's still not as non-racist as America. remember the Arcelor-Mittal fiasco? the PM of the country in which Arcelor is based made a public statements that he has inhibitions for the deal b/c Arcelor is European and Mittal isn't. in America, race is pretty much a no-show if you have the money. money is given more value than anything else. so, doesn't matter which ethnicity you belong to; if you have ideas and can pull up the money, then you can do what you want, of course it's gotta be legal.

I have lived long enough in Europe before shifting to the US and without doubt I can attest to the comment above. Europe even to this day is very racist and this is one of the reasons why the economic development there is barely noticable. Compare that to US where race plays a minimal role and what counts is your ability and money and one can clearly see the giant economic strides that US is still making. God Bless America is not just something americans feel but the immigrants as well. Ask any non-white immigrant (and this includes americans who aren't white as well) and they will tell you how happy they would be never to go back to Europe.

If you go to some hick town, im pretty sure you will find plenty of racism.

So I dont buy the idea Europe is more racist.

Maybe France, going by their recent troubles, but not Britain, or the Netherlands, etc.

I have lived long enough in Europe before shifting to the US and without doubt I can attest to the comment above. Europe even to this day is very racist and this is one of the reasons why the economic development there is barely noticable. Compare that to US where race plays a minimal role and what counts is your ability and money and one can clearly see the giant economic strides that US is still making. God Bless America is not just something americans feel but the immigrants as well. Ask any non-white immigrant (and this includes americans who aren't white as well) and they will tell you how happy they would be never to go back to Europe.

I aint takin' sides here, but if one is talking about black- negro- people then America wins hands down in the racism contest.
i aint balck & aint never been to the US but thats waht i've heared from those who are. The sub continental experiance may be different.

]I aint takin' sides here, but if one is talking about black- negro- people then America wins hands down in the racism contest.[/B]
i aint balck & aint never been to the US but thats waht i've heared from those who are. The sub continental experiance may be different.

true..and that's blatantly obvious from their statistic on per capita figures by race........

north east US is more liberal (left wing)...but down south and midwest US, majority people are right wing christian republicans, where racism still exits...

Confident India bulks up military (http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/08/23/4439924-sun.html)
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Edmonton Sun, Canada

India and Pakistan just celebrated their 60th birthdays this week. For fast-rising India, it was a justifiably joyous event.

In sharp contrast, military-ruled Pakistan, which faces growing internal tensions or even civil war, had very little to celebrate.

More than a billion Indians feted their nation's zesty economy, cutting edge information technology, growing influence, and pride in being the world's most populous democracy.

Indians are bursting with confidence, but it often borders on hubris. India's economy is still only two thirds that of Canada's. But once totally self-absorbed and self-isolated, India has opened its markets and mind to the outside world.

India, however, remains a giant with feet of clay. A majority of Indians subsist on 50 cents daily. Urban India with 200 million westernized citizens is booming. By contrast, rural India remains desperately poor, with public health as bad as in black Africa.

India's understandable, but overly eager, quest for respect and great power status has led Delhi to lavish billions on nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers, and an arsenal of modern weapons for its 1.3 million-man armed forces -- while tens of millions of its citizens still sleep in the streets and lack toilets.

India has every right to develop powerful conventional and strategic forces. Over the past 60 years, India fought three wars against Pakistan, and one against China, both of whom are hostile and nuclear-armed.

STRATEGIC WEAPONS

But why is India, still among the world's poorest nations, building a range of hugely expensive strategic weapons it clearly does not really need?

More important, why is the Bush administration about to supply India with nuclear fuel and technology, and has blessed Delhi's hitherto "rogue" nuclear weapons program, when India is developing long-ranged missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads to North America?

India has been covertly developing a 12,000 km-ranged intercontinental ballistic missile, Surya-2, under cover of its civilian space program's heavy space launchers, PSLV and GSLV. According to India's space agency, "Surya's targets will be Europe and the U.S."

India's existing Prithvi and Agni-III missiles cover almost all of Pakistan and China. India has no earthly reason to fire nuclear weapons at Europe or Japan. India's 12,000-km Surya ICBM has only two logical targets, the United States or Australia.

Why is Delhi spending a maharaja's ransom on these strategic systems? Great power prestige? Possible war with the U.S. to control oil from the Gulf, Central Asia and Indonesia? It's hard to fathom Delhi's strategic thinking.

India is deploying aircraft carriers and surface combatants to project power throughout the Indian Ocean, a vast body of water Delhi considers "mare nostrum." India's fast-growing navy will operate from the coast of East Africa and the Mozambique Channel to Australia's west coast. Its primary operating zone straddles main oil tanker routes from the Gulf.

U.S. NAVY

China's modest navy cannot operate in the Indian Ocean because it lacks air cover. The only non-Indian navy operating in the Indian Ocean is the U.S. navy.

The U.S. has been so eager to draw India into a nuclear pact in order to exert political leverage over Delhi and enlist it as an ally against China and Iran that it has totally ignored the potential threat to American security posed by India's growing nuclear arsenal.
Indian spending billions? considering Indias Situation, we have the most pathetic defence spending. Govt had spent much better on defence during Rajiv Gandhi times. Third Largest Army, Fourth largest Airforce And fifth largest navy in the world needs lot more budget to just replace old weapon systems. Forget about Military expansion, our funding is hardly enough for replacing older weapon systems. Spending 2.3% of GDP would be -- the lowest for any nation having two enemies right in neighbourhood possessing nuclear weapons.

More important, why is the Bush administration about to supply India with nuclear fuel and technology, and has blessed Delhi's hitherto "rogue" nuclear weapons program
He is talking krap. nuke fuel & tech from US n other nations will be used for civilian reactors only. its a different that thing indirectly that Uranium in India will be free for Military Reactors.

An article full of bull shit, with the typical attitude of the westerner towards India. They want to have all the nuclear and conventional warfare goodies with them but are s$%t scared when an eastern country develops the skills to build the same.

north east US is more liberal (left wing)...but down south and midwest US, majority people are right wing christian republicans, where racism still exits...

Confusing right-wing/republicans with racism is false.

There are plenty of racist liberals, and plenty of non-racist Republicans.

The ONLY Indian-American serving in Congress is FROM THE SOUTH and is A REPUBLICAN

typical Southern Republican
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Bobby_Jindal%2C_official_109th_Congressional_photo.jpg

An article full of bull shit, with the typical attitude of the westerner towards India. They want to have all the nuclear and conventional warfare goodies with them but are s$%t scared when an eastern country develops the skills to build the same.

Eric Margolis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Margolis) has usually had dim views about India. So there is nothing new in his article. He has been like a broken record for quite some time on India related issues.

An article full of bull shit, with the typical attitude of the westerner towards India. They want to have all the nuclear and conventional warfare goodies with them but are s$%t scared when an eastern country develops the skills to build the same.

I disagree. As a westerner, I think the vast majority has no problem with a nuclear India. After all it's a progressive modernizing democracy. We share the same values.


India is stable, responsible and totally trustworthy by virtually all Westerners.

Satyam's president: 20 big deals are in the pipeline (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/satyams-president-20-big-deals/story.aspx?guid=%7B7BE67D21-8BBB-41F1-A1DA-8FEE49C65CD5%7D)
Ram Mynampati discusses India's economy, global growth and Satyam's expansion plans
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
Sep 19, 2007

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Satyam Computer Services, the fourth largest IT services provider in India, has about 20 large deals in the pipeline, nearly half of which are in the U.S. market, the company's president said in an interview with MarketWatch.

Ram Mynampati, president of Hyderabad-based Satyam, said earlier this week that 10 of the 20 deals are in a fairly advanced stage, with 45% of them in the U.S. market, 30% in the Asia-Pacific market and the rest in Europe. The current order pipeline represents a significant increase from the 12 big deals that Satyam had last year. Satyam has a market capitalization of over $7.8 billion. Watch a video interview with Mynampati.

U.S., rupee challenges

Like its rivals in the Indian outsourcing industry, Satyam has had to contend with the rapid appreciation of the Indian rupee this year. On top of that, there have been worries that a U.S. economic slowdown and financial market turbulence might hit particularly hard Indian IT firms whose major client bases are in the U.S.

"The rupee has certainly appreciated beyond anyone's expectation. Particularly in the first quarter of our financial year, the rupee appreciated about 7%," Mynampati said. As a result of the rupee's rise, Satyam's operating margins dropped 64 basis points to 22.4% in the first quarter.

"The rupee has stabilized against a number of currencies and we believe the worst is behind us," Mynampati said.

He also believes that a slowdown in U.S. economic growth is not imminent: "Even in the event of a slowdown, we believe that only 7% of our business is exposed to any discretionary spending. To that end, it is not a major concern for us at this stage."

Speaking more broadly about global growth and how it's affected by U.S. growth, Mynampati said: "I'm not so sure that we are isolated in any part of the world. What happens in the U.S. will have an impact everywhere else in the world, and I think we just need to take that into cognizance as we project out what the economic changes would mean to any one region or geography."

Satyam to raise prices by about 3%

In meetings with analysts Friday and Monday, Satyam reiterated its guidance for fiscal year 2008 and said it saw no impact of turmoil in the U.S. financial markets. The company's direct exposure to U.S. mortgage lenders is below 1% and its exposure to capital market clients is 6%, according to analyst research notes.

In a move to offset the impact of the rapid appreciation of the rupee, Satyam plans to raise its prices by about 3% year-on-year in fiscal year 2008 and could limit a drop in operating margins to approximately 125 basis points.

"The management highlighted that the demand environment continues to be encouraging, and it does not see any slowdown as a consequence of the U.S. subprime issue," said Ashish Jain, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, in a research note. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on Satyam's stock and an attractive view of India's software industry.

UBS analyst Trideep Bhattacharya, who has a buy rating on Satyam, said that "near-term business fundamentals are intact." Following a Satyam meeting with analysts in New York Monday, George A. Price, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Company, reiterated his buy rating on Satyam's shares.

"While some concerns remain, we believe that strong offshore demand trends remain intact and that the risk/return on Satyam's shares is attractive given current valuation and recent pullback," Price said in a research note Tuesday.

Satyam's expansion plans

Satyam is expanding its footprint around the world. Earlier this year, Satyam opened a new software development center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The company also has offices in China, Malaysia, Hungary, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, among others. From its Middle Eastern centers, Satyam is servicing the African region, including countries like South Africa and Kenya.

Malaysia is one of the countries where Satyam sees a lot of opportunities.

"Malaysia, as a destination for services, is a very small market, so our business coming from Malaysia is not much," Satyam's Mynampati said. "But what we are seeing is Malaysia as an extension of our supply chain."

The favorable policy framework and infrastructure as well as worker mobility are some of the reasons why Satyam is investing in Malaysia, he said.

"There are lots of cultural similarities between people from Malaysia and other nations within far-east Asia, so we are able to service the far-east Asian market very effectively by tapping into resources available in Malaysia," Mynampati said.

Multiple industries drive India's growth

With a population of 1.1 billion, India has a booming economy. Its GDP grew a whopping 9.3% during the quarter ended June from a year ago boosted by robust growth in the manufacturing and services sectors. In Mumbai, the benchmark Sensex stock index has gained 14% this year.

"What is most noticeable about India is that growth is expanding into many markets," Mynampati said. "For a while, only IT was driving Indian growth, but today there is a far more extensive growth pattern emerging out of the Indian economy."

Industries like real estate, retail, transportation, energy and others, are all driving growth in India, he said.

One of the big challenges that India confronts is improving its infrastructure, both physical infrastructure such as roads and airports as well as communications infrastructure such as cell-phone networks, Mynampati said.

"But for India to sustain its growth, what needs to happen is that the macroeconomic parameters and the regulatory environment needs to be as open as it is today," he said. "To the extent that we are operating in an open economy, a borderless economy, India will continue to thrive."

Polya Lesova is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.

Banking on India (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1663852,00.html)
By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY
TIME
Thursday, Sep. 20, 2007

Like most popular managers, L. Brooks Entwistle, head of Goldman Sachs India, maintains an open-door policy. Entwistle admits, however, that this accessibility hasn't always been by choice. "When your entire office is a hotel room packed with desks, you can't help getting to know your colleagues," he says.

He laughs at the memory now, but those cramped quarters served as the unlikely launching pad for the investment bank's billion-dollar bet on India. Entwistle's version of sightseeing in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is a tour of the old Goldman outposts in India's financial hub. First stop, suite 1034 at the Hilton--down the hall from a group of Thai masseuses and rotating airline crews--where Goldman set up shop in late 2005, with Entwistle as employee No. 1. Next, a second temporary home in a worn-down office building abutting a sprawling slum. When rains flooded the streets, many employees chose to stay the night rather than wade through the filthy water. Entwistle points out the Dumpster that the firm donated to the block, as well as the spot where the generator truck running the trading floor used to park. "When you're working out of a dump, you know you've really got people's loyalty," Entwistle says. Another benefit, he notes wryly: "It's not hard to get them to go out and meet clients."

The Mumbai team, assembled from around the world in just 18 months, has already managed two record deals for India's banking industry: Vodafone's $11 billion purchase of mobile-phone provider Hutchison Essar, announced in February, and ICICI Bank's $4 billion secondary public offering in June.

With an economy growing at about 8% a year and corporate earnings a robust 25%, India has become a must-see for multinational investment banks looking for big, bold corporate mergers, acquisitions and financing deals outside the U.S. The country's total market cap reached $1 trillion earlier this year, up from just $280 billion five years ago. Companies in India's technology and financial sector are booming, and the world's investment bankers are paying court. Banks used to "come to India about once a decade, get spooked and pull out," says industry analyst Janmejaya Sinha of Boston Consulting Group. This time around, "it's going to take more than parachuting in."

Goldman Sachs cut ties in March 2006 with a halfhearted joint venture it had held for more than 10 years and pledged $1 billion in investment capital for India. Entwistle says he immediately got to work convincing Mumbai's business community that Goldman is in India full force. He told them, "We've brought the boats ashore, and we're burning them."

A company like Goldman has access to plenty of talent, but shaping a team in a hot market with a lousy infrastructure required a new strategy. As more foreign banks move in and local institutions grow, salaries in India's financial-services sector, like those in the even hotter technology sector, are skyrocketing, and turnover in many firms tops 35%. Goldman "took a different approach to hiring than most multinationals," says Luis Moniz, a Mumbai-based analyst for the human-resources consultancy Heidrick & Struggles. Most rivals tried a balanced approach, with half local hires for on-the-ground expertise and half expats to maintain a connection to the head office.

Entwistle threw that logic out with last night's room service. He initially recruited the majority of his investment-banking team from other Goldman offices. They had in common a commitment to make Goldman a player in India's boom. All but two employees are of Indian descent, but they're as likely to have come from New York City, London or Tokyo as Bangalore. Their boss can rely on "a team that knows Goldman's particular systems and culture inside and out," Moniz says. "They only have to get up to speed on the local market."

Nikhil Bahel, a Goldman vice president who arrived from the bank's New York City headquarters in May 2006, says he came to India "to chase the most entrepreneurial opportunity the bank has going on right now." Sandeep Patel, head of corporate finance, hoped to be part of "something historic." Rishi Maheshwari wanted the responsibility and client interaction of a smaller office. All of them say the chance to work for Entwistle sealed the deal. Built like an aging quarterback, the 39-year-old Colorado native is a charmer. His favorite stories usually involve one of his three daughters or some bit of subcontinental trivia picked up on one of the 50 trips he's made to India from Goldman's Hong Kong office since 1998. "Brooks has a limitless passion for being here," says analyst Debanshi Basu, who transferred from Bangalore. "You know he's committed to doing great things, and you want to be part of that."

The pristine space that Entwistle eventually secured for Goldman's Mumbai headquarters--three floors in a building in the eclectic Prabhadevi neighborhood--certainly looks like the office of a serious investment bank. But it feels more like the postcollegiate playground of a Silicon Valley start-up. Meetings seem to happen as often over cubicle walls as in boardrooms. Goldman employees come back from business trips abroad with a pound of Starbucks coffee for the office. On weekends, you'll find them building houses for the poor or taking the kids to the Entwistles' for Saturday brunch. Every Monday morning, Entwistle gathers the troops. "He calls on even the most junior people to talk," says associate Anjali Talera, "and everyone's contribution is treated as equally crucial." A local hire from Merrill Lynch, Talera says that feeling is "rare in investment banking."

Goldman vice president Sunil Sanghai, whom Entwistle lured from Morgan Stanley, says these strong personal bonds translate directly into stronger client relationships. Sanghai should know. He brokered Goldman's lucrative role in the ICICI offering. "You always hear how much teamwork means at Goldman, but it's true," Sanghai says. "If a client wants research overnight, I have 2,000 bankers worldwide willing to help."

That confidence may come in handy in the next few months. The U.S.'s subprime woes will have little effect on Indian investors, who have largely avoided leveraged buyouts, unlike their U.S. counterparts, who have been relying on the now shaky credit markets to finance those deals. But if global credit markets tighten, "India won't be immune," says Ernst & Young financial-services analyst Ashvin Parekh. Foreign investors sank $98 billion into India from 2003 to 2006, according to Morgan Stanley, and every major investment bank in the world is chasing that business. Less free-flowing credit will inevitably lead to Indian companies' eyeing fewer deals and therefore to even more competition for their business. In India, commissions and fees are often less than a quarter of what they are in the West, so if foreign banks want to make money, says Alok Aggrawal, chairman of market watcher Evalueserve, they will have to go after the biggest, most profitable deals. "That's a small pool with a lot of sharks."

Such talk will hardly dampen Entwistle's plans. He's adding personnel rapidly, sometimes an employee a day. Goldman Sachs has also built relationships with Indian universities and M.B.A. programs in an effort to nourish the Goldman culture in India from the ground up. The bank plans to hire most of its India staff locally within the next few years. Previously, the only way to recruit India's top students was by offering them the chance to go abroad. "Now they don't want to miss out on what's going on at home," Entwistle says, "and we can finally offer it to them."

Not that Entwistle doesn't have grand ambitions for the team he already has. Beyond more blockbuster deals, he wants to field a group of runners in Mumbai's annual marathon next January. "Participation isn't mandatory," he says, "but I think I can convince most people to join." You'll find him at the head of the Goldman pack.

Foreign Investors Fuel India’s Growth (http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Articles/1425737/Emerging-Markets/Top-News/Foreign-Investors-Fuel-Indias-Growth.aspx)
Institutional investor, NY
09-21-2007

The Indian markets will continue to remain a global favorite in the near future, due in large part to the significant role of foreign institutional investors, according to a new Celent report entitled The Indian Exchange-Traded Securities Market.

The report found that the Indian equity market has beat most global markets throughout the past four years with its annual yield passing 30% each year. Celent predicts the market capitalization of US$1 trillion will touch US$1.4 trillion by the end of next year.

The report found that external investments have had a huge impact on the economy. Companies registered in the U.S. and the U.K. alone accounted for half of the FIIs investing. Between 2004 and 2006, FIIs poured a net US$33 billion into the India market.

Also fueling the India economy is the growth of the sophisticated products such as derivative markets and the globalization of the Indian economy.

"India After Gandhi" | The rise of a nation and the people behind it (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2003893634_indiabooks23.html)
By John Freeman
Special to The Seattle Times

India, which last month marked the 60th anniversary of its independence, has a great deal to celebrate. It has become one of the most powerful economies in the world, has fought back a wave of organized crime as violent as that that plagued Chicago in the '20s and is building strong alliances regionally and internationally.

"India After Gandhi," a massive, illuminating and highly readable volume by economist and cricket historian Ramachandra Guha, however, makes a compelling argument that India's most profound success is not its economy but its nationhood.

"At no other time or place in human history have social conflicts been so richly diverse, so vigorously articulated, so eloquently manifest in art and literature," writes Guha, "or addressed with such directness by the political system and the media." Guha's book goes a long way toward explaining which founding men and women made this possible. The list includes the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who had the bravery to abolish parliament to save Indian democracy, as well as Bengali film giant Satyajit Ray, whose social realist films became a mirror of the new state.

Guha carefully tracks how the young country forged an idea of itself and used it to bind disparate groups. He takes a close look at the forming of the Indian Constitution, which at 395 articles and eight schedules is one of the largest in the world, and the amalgamation of the some 500 princely states as Gandhi gradually began to strip princes of their titles and purses in 1967.

In addition to his other hats, Guha is a biographer. If one criticism can be leveled at this impressive history, it is that it would have been helpful for Guha to apply more of his biographer's skills to the great number of characters an American reader will meet (probably for the first time) here. Guha is an elegant analyst of why India succeeds — and he brilliantly describes the permutations of India's complex government — but it would be terrific if he brought to life the people who believed in the project as well as he describes the ideas that kept them aloft.

The end of Britain's empire over the territory that became India and Pakistan gave birth to a powerful democracy; but first came the bloodshed. In the years leading to and after partition, over a million people died in a firestorm of killing that raged between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

At the center of it all were five figures, from Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the towering Nehru, whom Alex von Tunzelmann reveals in all their human foibles in "Indian Summer." Even today's soap operas would have trouble rivaling the real-life dangerous liaisons going on behind the scenes among these powerful and important figures in 1947.

For starters, the wife of Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten, who the British had dispatched as viceroy, was probably conducting an open affair with the future prime minister Nehru. Von Tunzelmann is clearly fond of the cuckolded Dickie but is less smitten with Mohandas ("Mahatma") Gandhi, whom she paints as an eccentric counterpoint to this randy atmosphere, campaigning against sex and for a morally pure new state. Dickie's wife, Edwina — affairs aside — comes across as more human, helping out with refugees in a country far from home.

Bridging these dramatic personal details with the anguished cost of independence is a tough task, and von Tunzelmann, as good a writer as she is, does not prove entirely adept at juggling the two — especially as she has a mostly forgiving picture of Mountbatten and his wife.

One departs this guiltily enjoyable read with a lingering sense that the harder, more anguished drama — that of the million lives lost — has yet to be told.

John Freeman is president of the National Book Critics Circle.

Can India expect record agri production this year?
(http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=2813)
NEW DELHI: A plentiful kharif season is the dream of every farmer as well as for economy. Can it be achieved this season? According to the first advance estimates of crop production for 2007-08 report that was released on Wednesday, India can expect record production in maize, oybean, cotton and sugarcane crops.

Releasing the advance estimates of kharif production on the conclusion of two-day annual national conference for rabi campaign -2007 on Wednesday, Union Agriculture Secretary P K Mishra said it would be the second best achievement for the foodgrains production after 2003-04 season.

The estimates were based on the assessments given by the state governments. During kharif 2007-08, foodgrain production is estimated at 122.24 million tons.

Rice is expected to remain at the last year’s level of 80 million tons. Production of coarse serials is estimated to be 26.58 million tons, which is 9 lakh tons more than the estimated production for the 2006-07.

Cotton output is expected to stand at 22.94 million bales in 2007-08 crop year (June-May) compared to 22.70 million bales last year.

Bt cotton accounted for as much as 60 pre cent of the total cotton produced. Sugarcane production is also expected at 345.62 million tons from 345.31 million tons.

Maize output in the current year is expected to go up to 13.07 million tons from 11.43 million tons last year.

The production of rice, the main foodgrain in the kharif, is pegged at 80.15 million tons against last year’s 80.11 million tons.

Among the pulses, arhar output is expected at 2.7 million tons from 2.4 million tons while total pulses would be 5.51 million tons against 4.74 million tons.

The production of groundnut, which dipped last year to 3.28 million tons as farmers shifted from groundnut to cotton, is likely to recover to 5.18 million tons this year.


India to milk the white revolution (http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=23)
AHMEDABAD: Milk output in India is poised to reach and breach the magical number of 100 million tonnes in 2007, thanks to the ongoing demand-side developments and supply-side promotions. India has remained the world's single largest producer of milk since mid-1990s.

From 98.4 million tonnes (mt) in 2006 (95.1 mt in 2005), the country's milk production is projected to reach 101.9 mt next year, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

India continues to witness expansion of over three per cent a year. Output growth is seen driven by increasing demand for value-added milk products on the consumer side and extensive dairy development programmes on the supply side.

Despite rising output, the per capita availability of liquid milk is woefully low at about 220 grams a day, according to experts. Also, despite being the largest producer, the level of integration of the country's dairy sector with the global economy is relatively low. The domestic market is largely insulated from global market influences, unlike other sectors such as edible oil.

After remaining soft for a major part of the year, international prices of major traded dairy products have begun to strengthen since October in the wake of drought problems in Australia and slowing exports from European Union where export refunds have been lowered from 2005 and intervention stocks are down by about 30 per cent. The changing export situation marks a major change for dairy markets, FAO said in its latest Food Outlook report.

World production of milk in 2006 is expected to reach 657 million tonnes (up 2.2 per cent from 2005). Preliminary projections for 2007 suggest this growth would continue. Enjoying a four per cent output growth, developing countries China, India and Pakistan as also South America largely account for the change in global output.

While developed countries continue to lose share, low cost emerging dairy producers and exporters are feeling encouraged by higher prices of last three years, FAO pointed out adding that an important question will be the impact of recent high feed grain prices.

India and China struggle over Latin oil (http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=11126)
India follows in China's van in securing energy supplies in Latin America. Indian oil firm Reliance is closing on deal for two oil blocks in Peru. Indian interests also nosing around Colombia and elsewhere.

by Alex Sanchez
EnerPub, TX
Friday, September 21, 2007

The Oil Race is on: China signs multi-billion dollar oil contract with Venezuela but India also wants Latin American Oil

It is no revelation to say that India, as it begins to bloom as a global power, is adopting a China-like posture in its search for new oil suppliers. New Delhi’s quest for energy supplies, as well as other extracted resources, has brought the Asian powerhouse to the Western Hemisphere, and to Washington’s attention. India is befriending potential oil suppliers, be it Mexico or Venezuela, Cuba or Canada. Even more interesting are New Delhi’s approaches to Cuba regarding the island’s possible oil reserves. It seems clear that India is hungry for guaranteed oil sources in order to maintain its booming economy’s momentum and its growing geopolitical influence, and in Latin America it is finding these potential suppliers and new friends.

Indian Oil Hunger

On July 2nd, the Financial Express published an article predicting that the Indian government will send the Indian Navy to fly the flag throughout the hemisphere in oil-rich zones, especially locations where the state-owned oil company, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), has invested in oil and gas exploration. Pranab Mukherjee, external affairs minister, said that maritime diplomacy has become an essential component of India’s overseas foreign policy and that it must fulfill its necessities outside the immediate geographical area. “We have to look at the investments ONGC Videsh is making in energy rich areas such as Sakhalin, Sudan, Nigeria and Venezuela and extend our maritime interests through maritime diplomacy,” Mukherjee said.

Furthermore, a senior member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the obvious when he noted that “oil is the need of the hour and India has to focus on new markets to get the momentum going. We have to go beyond Europe and build economic cooperation.” According to a report issued by the Indian news agency PTI, the growth of oil imports in the first four months of 2006-07 came to 43 percent, 32 percent in 2005-06 and 62 percent in 2004-05. India is importing crude oil not only to meet domestic demand of petroleum products, but also for export of value-added products. The report mentions that Indian oil imports, mostly comprised of crude oil, were valued at $19.87 billion between April 2007 and July 2008. India also has plans to have as much as 5 million tons of oil in reserve for emergency use. The country currently imports around 70% of the oil it consumes.

It is only natural that India will soon have to turn in a major way to areas with reliable sources of oil, like Latin America, which presently is the second-largest source of oil reserves after the Middle East.

Venezuela

Last September, as reported by the Caracas daily El Nacional, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez was quoted as saying: “India needs more oil each day. Venezuela wants to become and will become India’s oil supplier.” Not long after that, in January 2007, there were reports that Venezuela’s state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, was looking at the possibility of setting up a refinery in India and establishing a petroleum retailing venture there. An Associated Press article elaborated that the proposed refinery would process the Venezuelan crude from the San Cristobal block, where India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd., an arm of ONGC, has been offered a 30 percent stake. The block has the potential to produce 900,000 to 1 million barrels of oil daily. On February 16, AFX International Focus reported that President Chávez said he is ready to divert oil exports from their current markets to other countries like China and India, although his ability to find an immediate alternative market is complicated because most refineries capable of processing Venezuela’s heavy crude are located in the United States.

Recently, Chávez ran into trouble with foreign oil companies regarding the nationalization of oil production ventures in the South American country. As a result, oil companies like Exxon and Conoco operating in the country decided to liquidate their stakes in Venezuela and seek just compensation. It is unclear if this nationalization would also affect Indian companies, but it seems clear that, regardless of whatever decisions Chávez carries out, New Delhi intends to go well out of its way to obtain a share of Venezuelan oil rights. This is particularly true after the recent $10-billion deal signed between Beijing and Caracas. China already is India’s direct competitor in Asian energy markets, and New Delhi cannot afford to be left out of the race for dwindling global oil supplies.

As important as Venezuela is, due to its vast oil reserves, it is noteworthy that India is also looking for oil suppliers elsewhere in the region.

Brazil

A March 29 article by Business Times Singapore provides the example of Brazil as an untapped oil giant. The article explains that with almost 12 billion barrels, Brazil ranks third in proven oil reserves in the region, after Mexico and Venezuela; it also has much unexploited potential reserves. Sixteen per cent of Latin America’s oil supply in 2005 came from Brazil and the country’s market share is scheduled to expand to 21.5 per cent by end-2010, with 2.5 million barrels per day in production.

Brazil’s major oil reserves are certainly of interest to India. A June 4 AP Financial Wire article reported that India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Brazilian state-run oil leader Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, “agreed to swap interests in oil exploration blocks, as part of efforts to boost economic cooperation between the two countries.” The blocks are located in Maranhão, in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin and in the Santos Basin. Last year, the Indian company bought a 15-percent stake in a Brazilian offshore oil field for about US$170 million from Royal Dutch Shell PLC, after Petrobras agreed to waive its first right to buy that stake once it became available. Under the latest agreement, Petrobras plans to offer 25- to 30-percent stakes to ONGC in three exploration blocks in Brazil.

Mexico

A September 10 Deutsche Presse-Agentur article explains that in 2006 crude oil accounted for 90 percent of Mexico’s exports to India, which makes petroleum the cornerstone, at this time, of Indian-Mexican relations. In addition, the Mexican Energy Secretary has released a press statement announcing that four companies—the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol, Japan’s Itochu, India’s Reliance, and the U.S. company Valero—have shown interest in building a refinery in Central America. The members of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) co-operation scheme back the project, with four countries (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama) interested in being considered as the location for the new refinery.

The idea of building this type of oil facility was first announced by former Mexican president Vicente Fox at the Summit of the Americas, held at Mar del Plata in November 2005. According to a July 9 article which ran on the AP Financial Wire, Mexico has promised to supply the plant with 80,000 barrels of heavy crude daily from the state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Mexico. The company that wins the construction bid will also be committed to supplying 55,000 barrels a day of gasoline and diesel stock (36 percent of regional demand) at a preferential price.

The aforementioned Business Times article regarding Mexico mentions that the country is stepping up oil production, and is expected to produce 3.8 million barrels of oil per day by 2010, which adds up in total to about 33 percent of Latin America’s supply. Mexico’s share of regional refining capacity, at almost 21 percent in 2005, is likely to expand to almost 23 percent. The country has six refineries with a total capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day.

It will be interesting to see how the recent bombings around a dozen oil and gas pipelines in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz affect, it at all, Indian-Mexican relations and oil-related projects. The People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) has claimed responsibility for these attacks. President Felipe Calderon was actually on a visit to India when the incident occurred. He declared that “there is no room for such criminal acts in a democratic Mexico.”

Cuba & the Caribbean

In September 2006, India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. announced they will explore oil deposits in the N-34 and N-35 blocs of Cuba’s economic exclusion zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Cuban President Fidel Castro partly opened the oil sector to foreign investment in June 1999, in order to cut dependence on oil imports after years of power blackouts and fuel shortages. The blocs have an estimated size of about 1,660 square miles and are located in western Cuba. This is a six-year agreement through which the Indian oil giant will explore an area of 4,300 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) of Cuban waters. \

When the decision was announced, Florida’s daily St. Petersburg Times published an article explaining that: “exploring for oil ninety miles off the coast of Florida has set off a political debate over whether U.S. companies, sidelined by sanctions, should be allowed to explore there. Some Florida lawmakers say they are worried about environmental damage and the potential threat to Florida’s tourism industry, and want companies exploring with Cuba punished.” U.S. companies are barred from oil exploration in Cuba’s offshore due to executive-mandated trade sanctions enforced against Havana since 1962.

It is noteworthy that Cuba is not the only country that India is courting in the Caribbean, nor is it only oil on India’s mind. An April 24 article by Business Line explained how relations are improving between Trinidad and Tobago and India. The article explains that there have been on the Caribbean island, with its large Hindu population, a total of $3 billion in Indian investments. Mittal Steel has invested $1.8 billion, while Essar Steel is setting up another steel plant costing $1.2 billion. The island also possesses abundant oil reserves. Finally, the article notes that a delegation from Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was in Suriname last month looking at the possibility of oil exploration and production as well as mining projects.

Colombia, Peru and Bolivia

Meanwhile, with respect to Colombia, a key South American player, New Delhi is also making its presence felt. Last September, the Press Trust of India reported that the Indian Oil company paid about $425 million dollars to acquire 50 percent stake in the Colombian oil firm, Omimex de Colombia. The article explains that India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, and the Chinese firm Sinopec are paying $850 million dollars to acquire Omimex de Colombia, which currently produces 20,000 barrels of oil per day.

With regards to Peru, the Indian company Reliance is at an advanced stage of closing contracts on two oil blocks in the Andean country.

Finally, as a side note but of equal importance, even if it is not oil-related, is a recent deal between New Delhi and La Paz, regarding El Mutún in Bolivia, the world’s largest undeveloped iron deposit, which is estimated to contain more than 40 billion tons of ore. Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) along with its subsidiary Jindal Steel Bolivia (JSB), signed a contract with the Bolivian government, through which JSPL will invest US$2.1 billion over eight years to develop an integrated steel plant in the country. A JSPL press release explains that “this is the largest investment by an Indian company in Latin America and the largest foreign investment in a single project so far in Bolivia.”

Oil and Friends for New Delhi

Along with China, India is one of the world’s growing superpowers. With this new position comes a demand for energy to supply its accelerating economy and its increasingly diversified industries. By entering the Western Hemisphere, India is expressing interest in Washington’s backyard; even more interesting is New Delhi’s approach to Cuba. This must be of major concern for Washington as it refuses to loosen its trade barrier on the Caribbean island. What’s worse for the U.S., it is hardly in a position to exercise pressure on its vital newfound Asian ally. Washington seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place, while Indian influence, in its quest for oil, continues to expand throughout the Western Hemisphere, unencumbered by ideological considerations or historic political animosities.

This analysis was prepared by Research Fellow Alex Sánchez of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

Incredible India@60 Brings the Best of India to the Rest of the World (http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070920005840&newsLang=en)
Business Wire, NY

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saluting India’s 60th anniversary of independence and its resurgence, Incredible India@60 kicks off a week-long celebration in New York City on Sunday, September 23rd. The celebration brings Indian leaders from diverse fields to engage, inform and partner with global dignitaries.

Incredible India@60 has been brought to New York by India’s apex Industry Association, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The campaign promotes India’s vibrant democracy, diversity along with its remarkable development and impact on world business and culture. Various events will highlight India’s cultural fare, including fashion shows, musical performances, dance and culinary programs. In addition, separate sessions will cover a variety of business initiatives and feature prominent speakers and captains of industry to inspire debate and discussion.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chairman of Group MD Bharti Enterprises, is the lead of a 30 member strong CEO delegation, all of whom represent the voice of Indian industry.

"India has come of age and today is the fastest growing free market economy,” said Mittal. “India has a 9.4 percent GDP growth, $475 million USD infrastructure investments, over 500 million young people driving the economy, and the fastest growing telecom market in the world.”

Mittal acknowledges that India is a work in progress but believes it has a good story to tell. “We wish to present India to the world in New York through Incredible India@60.”

Agreeing with Mittal, CII’s Chief Mentor, Tarun Das, added "India is a continent of confidence. There are challenges to its growth, but we recognize the challenges. We feel good and want to shake hands with the world, and strongly believe that Incredible India@60 will show the world a new contemporary-facing India."

India@60 is the largest initiative undertaken by CII outside India to showcase the plurality of India’s cultural, business, intellectual, and culinary delights. The program represents a unique collaborative effort of business and government comprising 41 Events, 13 Conferences and Panel Discussions, 9 Cultural performances, 3 Dinners and 7 Receptions by partners/sponsors in addition to ongoing events on all 4 days.

Incredible India@60 is the largest brand India show held anywhere. “The scale of the campaign is huge and the message simple, Experience India,” said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of the board of Infosys Technologies, Ltd. and chairman of the Incredible India@60. "The top leadership of India from government, Indian industry and the cultural czars are coming together in New York to present vibrant India. Incredible India@60 will showcase the plurality and richness of India's cultural, business, intellectual and culinary delights.”

India to have Wimax certification lab (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/India_to_have_Wimax_certification_lab_soon/articleshow/2381517.cms)
NEW DELHI: India will soon join the elite group of nations having their own Wimax concept certification laboratories. The government is talking to the Spanish telecom solutions major AT4 Wireless for setting up a concept certification lab for Wimax technology in a joint venture partnership with the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC).

“We are in talks with the Spanish company for setting up the lab. The lab would primarily work as a pre-certification centre for concept process of Wimax technology as it would take about one year to get the stars of a full-fledged certification centre for it,” a senior department of telecommunications (DoT) official said.

WiMax is a telecom technology that enables high data output. The technology would be very helpful in extending the broadband penetration across the country, especially in the rural areas. The government is already in the process of allocating 700 megahertz spectrum for the users of Wimax.

The DoT is also in talks with the department of space and other users of the 2.5 and 3.0 gigahertz spectrum for the use of Wimax technology. Presently, there are only nine certifying labs for WiMax equipment across the globe including those in South Korea, China, Russia, Spain and Brazil. The proposed lab would be the tenth worldwide.

The new lab would be a joint venture between the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) under the department of telecommunication (DoT) and the Spanish company, the source said. The facility would pave the way for the conformation of standards which in turn would make inter-operability between the two user groups easy.

Latin America-Asia trade accelerates (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/244369.html)
BY JANE BUSSEY
Posted on Thu, Sep. 20, 2007
MiamiHerald.com, USA

When it comes to Asia, ''more of the same'' is ruled out for Latin America as the countries scramble to find new markets and new investment, experts said Thursday.

Trade between a number of Latin American countries and China and India has been growing at double, triple or quadruple digits in the last decade, said Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, the Brazilian ambassador to the United States.

In the past five years, Brazil's total exports have jumped from $60 billion to $155 billion, the Brazilian diplomat told the attendees at the annual The Miami Herald Americas Conference, which this year focused on the theme ``Latin America and the Caribbean: More Competitiveness or More of the Same?''

''This would not have been possible if we had kept all our bets in traditional markets,'' Patriota said at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Not only does Brazil supply increasing amounts of iron ore and soybeans to China's growing market, but the two countries have also launched three satellites together.

''The trade with China does not present the same type of challenge as it does for Mexico,'' he said.

While economic relations between China and Latin America are characterized by exports of raw materials from countries like Chile, Argentina and Brazil to China, Central America and Mexico have experienced strong competition from cheap Chinese imports and have lost some of their assembly industry as corporations move their businesses to Asia -- especially China, which has become the favored factory floor for much of the United States and other countries.

Economic relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and India are much smaller, but in some cases represent less competition since India's economy is strongly based in the services sector.

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, an Asia Society fellow, said that India's economic reforms started about 15 years after China began its push to attract investment and start exporting to the world as part of its globalization efforts. Now the economy is growing by at least 8 percent annually, with the high-tech, software, pharmaceutical and biotech sectors expanding by rates of 22 percent to 25 percent annually. Even the manufacturing sector has recovered from a decade of reversals and is growing at 10 percent yearly, said Chaudhuri, who is also the foreign editor of the Hindustan Times.

''Companies have become globally active,'' he said, noting that Indian acquisitions of companies around the world were doubling every year and expected to top $35 billion this year. India now has the largest number of billionaires in Asia, he said.

Trade with Latin America is very small but growing, Chaudhuri said, noting that because of an aggressive marketing campaign by Chile, wine from that South American country was more readily available in India than Italian wine.

The Indian information technology and services company Tata Consulting Services decided to open its Latin American headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2001 after deciding against going into Argentina because of economic turmoil there, said Mario Tucci, who is Tata's vice president of Iberoamerica. Uruguay is also one of the software centers of the region and its government is small enough that a company can gain the attention of the government and business sector, Tucci said.

Tata, which has worldwide headquarters in Mumbai, India, now has software development centers in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, serving customers in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

''We do believe that Latin America can help India enter into Europe,'' Tucci said, noting that the company can often find Latin Americans who speak European languages -- from Greek to Polish -- living in countries like Uruguay.

Does Urban Development Drive Rural Growth in India? (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4224)
Knowledge@Wharton
September 20, 2007

A topic that is often discussed in India across political corridors, corporate boardrooms and households is the rural-urban divide and how the country's two economies -- the rural and the urban -- are increasingly growing apart. The popular notion is that growth not only has been skewed towards urban India but also has been gained at the expense of the countryside.

Some of this thinking can be traced back to economic decisions made soon after India won independence from Britain in 1947. At that time, policy makers emphasized capital-intensive industrialisation and urban infrastructure rather than agricultural investment and rural land reform, leading to the urban-rural imbalance. Often overlooked in discussions of this issue, however, is the fact that the rural economy is no longer limited to agriculture. During the past two decades, rural India has diversified significantly into non-farm activities -- and this has brought India's cities much closer to their hinterlands than people might imagine.

Those insights into the changing relationship between rural and urban India come from Roopa Purushothaman, a U.S.-trained economist who first gained prominence as a co-author of the famed BRIC report published in 2003 by Goldman Sachs. (That report predicted that four economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China, or "BRIC" -- would drive the growth of the world economy over the next 50 years.) Purushothaman has now moved to India and is the chief economist for Future Capital Research, part of Future Group, a fast-growing Indian retailer.

Speaking at the recent Global Supply Chain Summit 2007, organized by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, Purushothaman maintained that despite the "near devotional status" of the rural-urban divide, fundamental misconceptions exist about how these two economies in India interact with one another. "Most of the discussions on the rural-urban divide are based on anecdotes about rural India, but if we look at the data, the story in rural India is a lot more dynamic that it gets credit for," she said.

Purushothaman and two colleagues -- Saurabh Bandopadhyay and Anindya Roy -- have written a paper titled, "Is Urban Growth Good for Rural India?" which addresses these questions. "Our studies show that a 10% increase in urban expenditure is associated with a 4.8% increase in rural non-farm employment," Purushothaman says. "As supply chains strengthen across the country, growing urban demand could provide a significant boost to the rural economy."

In their research, Purushothaman and her colleagues uncovered four links between rural and urban economies: Production relationships, consumption relationships, financial linkages and migration. Their study explores the consumption connection and highlights the impact of growing urban consumption expenditure on rural employment and incomes. The categories of consumption expenditure the researchers studied include food, housing, health, transport, education, clothing and footwear, consumer durables, automobiles, entertainment, household appliances, toiletries and cosmetics. Using an econometric approach spanning the past 26 years, their study shows that a Rs. 100 ($2.50) increase in urban consumption expenditure leads to an increase of Rs. 39 (just under $1) in rural household incomes. The channel through which this takes place is increased employment in the rural non-farm sector. "Our interpretation of the data suggests that a sustained urban household consumption growth rate, similar to that seen over the last decade, could lead to 6.3 million non-farm jobs in rural areas and $91 billion in real rural household incomes over the next decade," she notes.

Rural India: Myths and Reality

Purushothaman emphasizes that rapid changes in the country's consumption and production patterns require a more nuanced understanding of the integration between urban and rural India rather than falling back on traditional myths about the rural-urban divide. She lists three urban myths about contemporary rural India. The first is that faster economic growth in urban India -- as compared to rural areas -- is driving rapid urbanization; second, that rural India is still an agricultural economy; and third, that rural-urban inequality is on the rise.

The reality, Purushothaman points out, is very different. During the past two decades, the rural economy in India has grown significantly faster than the urban economy. During the past decade alone, the rural economy is estimated to have grown on average by 7.3% as compared to 5.4% in the urban economy. The latest Central Statistical Organisation figures show that the rural economy accounted for 49% of India's GDP in 2000. This is a significant increase from 41% in 1981-82 and 46% in 1993-94.

Purushothaman points out that with agriculture only growing at 3.2% on average, much of this growth is driven by the rural non-farm sector. As of 2000, agriculture accounted for 51.8% of rural economic activity. This represents a significant decline from 64% in the early 1980s and 72% in early 1970s. Moreover, services -- which accounted for 21% of rural activity in 1981 -- now account for 28%. In addition, manufacturing, utilities and construction have nearly doubled their share in the rural economy, from just under 10% in 1971 to 18% in 2000. "It is the growth in the non-farm sector that has been really crucial for rural India. A lot of the drivers for the rise in the non-farm sector have come from manufacturing, construction and trade, hotels and restaurants," she said.

Purushothaman also debunked the popular notion that India's economic growth is driving rapid urbanization. According to Census data, while rural-urban migration as a share of total rural population was 6.5% in 1981, in 2001 it fell to 2.8%. The study points out that "the slow rates of rural-urban migration along with declining rates of natural increase in urban areas" indicate that the process of urbanization in India is actually slowing down as a result of economic growth.

According to Purushothaman, policies that inhibit the growth of labor-intensive industries and a lack of urban infrastructure investment have slowed the process of urbanization. "There is a lot of demand to move into urban India, but the infrastructure and labor policy initiatives don't support it," she says. Purushothaman adds that the slow process of urbanization in India, despite the growing economy, is a different scenario than what exists in the rest of Asia. She claims urban growth in India has been too slow during the past 20 years and it needs to accelerate further.

On the issue of rural-urban inequality, research by Purushothaman and her colleagues indicates that the urban-rural income gap (or the ratio of mean urban to rural incomes) has decreased since the early 1990s. "Though this [change] is not very dramatic, it is happening in a very different way from what we see in other economies. In China, for instance, rural and urban inequality has increased as a result of growth."

Rural employment figures also reveal interesting insights. Between 2000 and 2005, rural agricultural employment growth was as low as 1%. This indicates that growth in the agricultural sector has not really resulted in a significant increase in jobs in the countryside. In contrast, during the same period, non-farm jobs have gone up by 20%.

Purushothaman emphasizes that agricultural growth will not sustain the rural economy. Her research shows that India's average yield per hectare today is roughly half that of China, although the agricultural sector in India employs roughly six million more people. In contrast, India employs just seven million people in the formal manufacturing sector compared with more than 100 million in China. "In a situation where agricultural capacity is limited and the urban economy is not fully able to absorb a growing labor force, the rural non-farm sector could act as an outlet for surplus semi-skilled labor. Urban demand, therefore, could be an important and largely overlooked engine helping to drive this shift from farm to non-farm employment in rural India," Purushothaman notes.

Role of Retail

Other Indian economists agree with Purushothaman's findings. N. Viswanadham, executive director of the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies at the Indian School of Business, says it is true that "urbanization has slowed in India." He also believes, like Purushothaman, that for rural India to grow, urban spending must increase. "As supply chains strengthen, urban demand will definitely boost the rural economy," he says. He adds, however, that in addition to urban consumption, retail will be a major driver of growth in rural India.

"Worldwide, retail is among the biggest drivers of growth and employment," Viswanadham notes. "In India, unfortunately, the retail revolution has come rather late in the day. But going forward, I believe that urban retailing will fuel rural growth in a very significant manner, and this will be both agricultural and non-agricultural growth." He argues that as urban retail expands, it will necessarily move a lot of action to the villages. As a result, rural and urban supply chains will be integrated.

In his book titled, Achieving Rural and Global Supply Chain Excellence: The Indian Way, Viswanadham points out that rural supply chains lack sophisticated infrastructure, and they mostly deal with food and other agricultural products, handicrafts, toys and apparel. Though these supply chains are underdeveloped, they are still extremely important because they provide food and clothing to urban India. Moreover, 70% of India's population depends on the production and distribution activities of these networks for its livelihood, he adds.

India's retail sector has a market size of some $300 billion, of which barely 2% to 4% is in the organized sector. The industry, however, is going through a massive transformation and the share of the organized sector is likely to increase to 20% to 25% by 2010. "India is all set for a retail revolution," says Viswanadham. "As rural supply chains are integrated with those of organized urban retailers, this will be a critical driver of rural growth."

Does Urban Development Drive Rural Growth in India? (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4224)


An interesting analysis. We keep hearing naysayers or people opposed to current economic policies or journalists sitting in New York or New Delhi - constantly writing how agricultural growth rate is just 2-3% and since 60-70% of the population is dependent on it - extrapolating that fact - listeners or readers feel confident that this must be the reason why rural areas are "not shining".

But here the analysis says that
the past two decades, the rural economy in India has grown significantly faster than the urban economy. During the past decade alone, the rural economy is estimated to have grown on average by 7.3% as compared to 5.4% in the urban economy.

And an explanation follows

Purushothaman points out that with agriculture only growing at 3.2% on average, much of this growth is driven by the rural non-farm sector. As of 2000, agriculture accounted for 51.8% of rural economic activity. This represents a significant decline from 64% in the early 1980s and 72% in early 1970s. Moreover, services -- which accounted for 21% of rural activity in 1981 -- now account for 28%. In addition, manufacturing, utilities and construction have nearly doubled their share in the rural economy, from just under 10% in 1971 to 18% in 2000. "It is the growth in the non-farm sector that has been really crucial for rural India. A lot of the drivers for the rise in the non-farm sector have come from manufacturing, construction and trade, hotels and restaurants," she said.

Fortune Global Forum

New Delhi, Oct 29-31, 2007

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/globalforum/2007/

Fortune Global Forum

New Delhi, Oct 29-31, 2007

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/globalforum/2007/

Great find Sun,

Is it possible to embed those videos in here?

The malling of Bangalore (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/14/100024843/index.htm?postversion=2007051612)
The rise of a new middle class in India's Silicon Valley has led to a demand for western-style shopping malls. Fortune's Sufia Tippu breaks ground.

By Sufia Tippu, Fortune Magazine
May 16 2007: 12:15 PM EDT

In June an Indian developer based in Oman is expected to break ground on a two-million-square-foot shopping complex in downtown Bangalore that will be India's largest mall. Nine other malls are on the drawing board for the epicenter of India's tech revolution, including projects by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, retailer Pantaloon and the Tata Group, India's largest business conglomerate.

What's driving the surge in mall projects in Bangalore is the rise of a new middle class. Many have been exposed to shopping malls in the West. "Disposable income is rising," says P.N.C. Menon, chairman of Sobha Developers, which is spending $250 million on Bangalore's biggest mall, scheduled to open in 2009.

The Sobha Global Mall, as Menon's shopping paradise will be called, features stores built around a skylighted atrium on 16 acres, a 13-screen multiplex, food courts, a rooftop disco, a 300-room hotel tower and enough parking for 3,400 cars. It is being built not in Bangalore's newer, more upmarket neighborhoods but in the center of the city, a kilometer from the bustling train station.

"I don't want this to be merely the largest shopping mall in India," says Menon, 59, who established his reputation for quality by building palaces in the Gulf and most of the California-style campus for Infosys (Charts), the Bangalore tech giant. "This should be a one-of-a-kind experience for the shopper - never to be forgotten, always to be relived and to come back to again and again."

Although relatively small by global and even regional standards - the South China Mall in Dongguan, China, with 7.1 million square feet, is the largest in the world - the Sobha Global Mall promises to set new standards in a country that already has 100 malls of more than 200,000 square feet. That number is expected to increase to 350 in the next two years as retailers, both domestic and foreign, seek to bulk up their operations in India.

Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) recently inked a deal with India's Bharti to open a chain of superstores, and Reliance Industries is spending $5 billion to expand into the retail sector. "There are so many global brands, such as Burger King (Charts) to Taco Bell to Chili's, waiting to enter India," says Bikash Kumar, managing director of Integrated Retail, an Indian retail and technology-services company. "To break even, stores have to see top-line sales of $1 a square foot a day. They believe they can achieve this here in India."

Not everyone is so upbeat. "Building the largest mall doesn't necessarily mean it will be successful," says Atul Mahajan, principal consultant at Technopak, a management consultancy in Bangalore. "There are so many huge malls that are almost empty in China. You need a right mix of tenants for it to be successful."

Menon won't reveal which, if any, retailers have committed to opening stores in his mall. All he will say is that they will include some of the world's best-known names in retail and perhaps his own branded chain of home stores, which he is launching soon. But judging from his previous work, he won't have any trouble attracting quality merchants.

A native of Kerala, in southern India, Menon moved to Oman when he was 24 to redo the interior of a photographer's small studio. He went on to make a fortune building luxury hotels and resorts in Dubai, Oman, Egypt and France and started taking on projects in India only a decade ago.

Sobha is the only company in India and possibly the world that makes almost everything that goes into its buildings - from concrete blocks to electrical and plumbing fittings to doors and windows and metalwork parts made at its Bangalore factory. "It is this backward integration," Menon says, "that gives us absolute control over quality at every level."

That attention to quality impressed Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys. "Menon is the first builder with a world-class quality that I have come across in India," says Murthy, who hired him to construct a number of architecturally distinctive buildings on the company's Bangalore campus. "He is an artist." Menon has also built Hewlett-Packard's (Charts, Fortune 500) training center in Bangalore and is putting up a new factory for Dell (Charts, Fortune 500) in Chennai.

Will he be able to translate his artistry to the world of retail? That depends, says N.G.N. Puranik, director of Enam Financial Consultants in Bangalore. "If India is able to sustain a GDP growth rate of 8 percent, the demand would definitely be there," Puranik says. "But they have to invest in the back-end infrastructure - supply chain, logistics and warehousing - not just the front end."

Menon, whose quiet manner belies his obsession for perfection, doesn't seem the least bit worried. "India," he says, "will never have a deficit of shoppers."

Displaying the hallmarks of a rapidly expanding economy (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2508126.ece)
Ashling O’Connor
From The Times
September 22, 2007

The investment arm of LVMH, the French luxury goods maker, will spend up to €500 million (£348 million) acquiring and investing in brands in India, according to one of the company’s regional executives.

L Capital Partners will make the substantial investment in the sub-continent as part of a €1 billion private equity fund for emerging markets in Asia to be launched in the next 12 months.

Mainstream investment projects include retail chains and jewellers and, in the alternative sector, Ayurvedic medicine producers and spas will be targeted. The group is already in talks with Hidesign, an Indian handbag and accessories designer, about taking a 20 per cent stake.

Ravi Thakran, group president of LVMH’s operations in South Asia, said: “We are looking to invest in retail, and brands of Indian origin.” He added that Group Arnault, LVMH’s holding company, would also invest in Indian property.

The move comes amid an explosion in the luxury goods sector fuelled by India’s increasing affluence and a foreign investment environment that allows single-brand retailers to own 51 per cent of the equity in an Indian operation. LVMH, which owns TAG Heuer and Moët & Chandon, has two shops, in Delhi and Bombay.

This month it emerged that Louis Vuitton, its flagship brand, plans to build a shoe plant in India, the world’s largest manufacturer of shoes after China. The factory, near Pondicherry, would be LVMH’s first in Asia and would only attach soles to the shoes, enabling the company to retain its Made in Italy kitemark.

Ready to read - Vogue India goes after the wealthy woman (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2508128.ece)
Ashling O’Connor in Bombay
The Times
September 22, 2007

The affluent women of Asia’s third-largest economy have finally been given access to the latest fashion news and gossip with the launch of an Indian edition of Vogue.

The launch marks Condé Nast’s entry into India, where the publisher believes there is an underserved, cash-rich consumer base and significant revenue potential in one of the world’s fastest-growing advertising markets. The magazine has an initial print run of 50,000 copies and is anticipating a readership of about 250,000.

The English-language edition bears a cover price of 100 rupees (£1.25) and will feature international and Indian fashion, travel, health, music, food, society and culture.

Most of the content will be commissioned in India, although articles could be syndicated from across Condé Nast’s stable of 120 titles. It will be edited by Priya Tanna.

The first-edition cover was shot by Patrick Demarchelier, the French-born fashion photographer who also did the first China edition in 2005.

Vogue’s launch on the sub-continent coincides with a growing international interest in Indian designers, but is late compared with its rivals. Elle, the largest-selling women’s magazine with a monthly circulation of 20,000, entered the market a decade ago. Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Seventeen and OK! also have a presence. But many foreign magazines, including Elle, are published by local partners under licensing deals because of market restrictions that existed when they launched. Although Condé Nast has had its eye on India for many years - Nicholas Coleridge, its Old Etonian managing director, has strong personal connections with the country – it did not execute an entry strategy until the Government’s decision in 2005 to allow foreign media groups to own 100 per cent of nonnews publications. Vogue India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Condé Nast International.

“It helps you invest more and you have control of the brand and its destiny,” Alex Kuruvilla, Condé Nast India’s managing director, said.

The company plans further magazine launches. The next in line are GQ and Glamour. Within three to four years, it will have five titles in India.

A glitzy launch party today, attended by the world’s fashion elite and the best of Bollywood, will give Vogue India a high-profile inauguration. But it faces challenges in a fragmented market that has seen foreign magazines struggle to attain significant circulations relative to the country’s size. Condé Nast insists the market is there for the taking. Its research shows there are about one million homes in India with an annual income of more than $100,000 (£50,000), representing the same number of women with the potential to buy high-end clothes and accessories.

With the law allowing foreign investors economic control of single-brand retailing operations, top-end fashion houses such as Dior, Chanel and LVMH are an increasingly common sight in big Indian cities. This is changing the perception that Indians need to travel abroad to buy the most desired labels.
The first edition’s advertising space – costing up to $10,000 for a premium page – was a sell-out, Mr Kuruvilla said. “Luxury brands see India as a long-term opportunity,” he added. “Jean Paul Gaultier was here recently ahead of his own launch and Gucci just opened. The timing could not have been more provident for us.”

Asia Economies To Overtake As Western World Is Unprepared (http://www.investmentmarkets.co.uk/20070921-922.html)
by Stewart Douglas
Investment Markets, UK

The more developed global economies are not doing enough to keep up with the rise of India and China as economic superpowers, which could lead to significant global economic problems, according to a speech made today by a former president of the World Bank.

The richer economies have not yet adapted to the fact that the global power shift is headed towards the emerging giants in the East, and this could bring significant problems, according to James Wolfensohn formerly of the World Bank.

He also added that China and India would succeed as the number one and two global economies in terms of wealth and size by as early as 2040, leaving traditional superpowers trailing in their wake.

China has seen significant economic growth over the last few years, strongly trumping the rate of any other global economy. With growth figures exceeding double digits for several consecutive years, analysts are forecasting that at present rate China will soon overtake the US at the top of the world economic leaderboard.

Likewise, India has seen massive growth, largely as a result of a developing services sector through outsourcing from currenty large economies like the US and Europe.

Whilst the growth is set to continue in India for the foreseeable future, some analysts are predicting that it will require clever economic management to maintain India at its current level of growth, particularly with cheap labour being their most valuable commodity at present.

However both economies are currently contending with the problems of inflation, which has called for significant interest rate hikes which could affect growth in the medium term.

Wolfensohn criticised the ‘colonial’ attitudes of Western economies to the emerging Easter powers for leaving many established economies unprepared for the ‘tectonic shift’ the global balance of power will see over the coming decades.

India buzzing with 200 million mobile users, 8.3 million users added in August (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India_buzzing_with_200_mn_mobile_users/articleshow/2391594.cms)
NEW DELHI: The country’s wireless market, the fastest growing in the world, crossed another milestone, with the subscriber base crossing the 200-million mark in August. The country added 8.31 million wireless subscribers, including GSM, CDMA and wireless in local loop (fixed) or WLL (F), in August to touch 201.29 million users, according to figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday.

India has thus met its 200-million mobile subscriber target four months ahead of schedule — the government had set the target for 2007-end — and just over a year after crossing the 100-million mark in May 2006. The target of 250 million phones in total (mobile plus fixed) is also close in sight. At the end of August, India had 241.02 million telephone subscribers, against 232.87 million at the end of July. The country’s teledensity improved slightly to 21.20% by August-end, against 20.52% by July-end, Trai data shows.

The wireline or fixedline segment stood at 39.73 million subscribers at the end of August, registering a decline of 0.16 million users during the month. Total broadband connections in the country increased by 0.09 million in August to reach 2.56 million.

According to figures released earlier by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM operators’ representative body, the country’s GSM subscriber base reached 147.7 million at the end of August. The figure, however, doesn’t include Reliance Telecom subscriber numbers as the telco is yet to release its subscriber figures.

This means that the total CDMA and WLL (F) subscribers in the country stood at about 53.59 million at the end of August. Among the wireless operators, Bharti Airtel added 2.05 million users in August, taking its subscriber base to 46.8 million. Vodafone Essar, which added 1.67 million subscribers in August, had 34.11 million users.

Fortune magazine plans India edition, close to deal with local media company (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/21/business/AS-FIN-COM-India-Fortune-Magazine.php)
NEW DELHI: Time Inc. plans to start an Indian edition of its Fortune magazine under a licensing deal with a local media company, an editor at the U.S.-based business publication said Friday.

Under Indian laws, a foreign company has to form a joint venture with a local company or give a license to one to publish news in India.

Fortune plans to bring out an Indian edition through a licensing deal with a local publishing group, Robert Friedman, the magazine's international editor, told The Associated Press.

Friedman didn't name the Indian group. He said a formal announcement will likely be made closer to a business leaders' conference Fortune is hosting in New Delhi beginning Oct. 29.

That meeting — the Fortune Global Forum — will be attended by Indian and international business executives and government officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"We would like to use the global forum to help expand Fortune's presence in India," Friedman said. "We think we are under-leveraged in India."

Currently, the magazine, published every two weeks, sells about 8,000 copies per issue in India. That number could increase 10 times with a local edition, Friedman said. Under a licensing deal, Fortune would get a royalty from its Indian partner.

Rapid globalization of the Indian economy and rising middle class incomes are driving demand for such publications as Fortune, which caters to wealthier readers interested in international investments and personal finance. Several global media companies have entered India in recent years to seize the opportunity in this segment of readers with more money to spend on leisure and business reading.


New York-based Conde Nast Publications Inc. recently introduced a local edition of fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue. Conde Nast also plans to bring Glamour, Vanity Fair and Traveler to India depending on the success of Vogue.

Magazines like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Men's Health and Maxim are already being published through joint ventures. A local edition helps these magazines compete with their Indian rivals.

A copy of Fortune currently sells for 80 rupees (US$2), four times the price of an Indian business magazine.

India Launches Incredible India@60, Largest-Ever International Branding Campaign, Appoints The NewsMarket as Media Partner (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,182481.shtml)
http://www.indiaat60.in/images/logo.jpg
NEW YORK, NY -- 09/20/07 -- Video and multimedia content made available via www.thenewsmarket.com/india will be the centerpiece of a media strategy to illustrate a historic celebration in New York City next week by the Indian government.

As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations to commemorate independence, a series of spectacular events will command center stage in New York City in what will be the largest-ever international branding campaign undertaken by the Indian authorities. The $10 million spend will see traditional advertising as well as extensive use of online video to raise awareness about India's changing image.


"We recognize that few mediums are as powerful as video to bring to life all that is exciting about India -- especially in this YouTube age," said Tarun Das, chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the key organizers of the India@60 campaign.

From September 23rd-26th, the India@60 campaign -- at http://www.indiaat60.in/ -- will treat New Yorkers to a unique visual spectacle encompassing cultural shows, conferences and food, as well as art and fashion extravaganzas. Video of these events -- including exclusive material -- will be available starting next week to journalists, bloggers and consumers globally via www.thenewsmarket.com/india.

Among the highlights will be a giant sand sculpture replica of the Taj Mahal that will be built at the Port Authority Terminal; folk and Bollywood dances in South Street Seaport and Lincoln Center; and a fashion show in Bryant Park. Buses and billboards all over the city are already announcing the campaign. The India@60 campaign is being spearheaded by the Ministry for Tourism and Culture and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a business trade group within the Ministry of Trade & Commerce.

"The Indian authorities' extensive use of video and online distribution to capture headlines and attention for this landmark event demonstrates once again India's appreciation for innovative marketing to drive brand perception and cut-through in a noisy and crowded media market," said The NewsMarket CEO and Co-Founder Shoba Purushothaman. "By leveraging the Internet's footprint and The NewsMarket's distribution platform, video from the events in New York will reach 193 countries."
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truly incredible
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Great pics Ajay,

Thanks for sharing

:cheers:

Inside out (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article2474221.ece)
Can an Ayurvedic doctor with a tamarind stick really cure one’s inner lils?

Tina Gaudoin
The Times
September 22, 2007

I have never been tempted to try an Ayurvedic treatment before. This is strange, first, because I began my career as a beauty editor and, second, because I have a fascination with all things alternative and Indian – and India is, after all, where Ayurveda began.

Ayurvedic medicine has always seemed to me to be non-specific – a blurry panacea with no direct causal links to symptoms or cures. In any case, the fact that Mrs Thatcher was a fan was reason enough for me to dismiss the entire discipline. If anyone was going to persuade me that Ayurvedic medicine worked, though, I’d been told it would be Rajeev and Suchada Marwah, the two (married) doctors in residence at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

“Do you have a specific complaint to deal with?” they asked. No, but lately I’d been aware that something was not quite right – I was off kilter. Although I wasn’t any nearer the verge of a nervous breakdown than usual, I was grumpy and tired most of the time, and prone to colds and sore throats that, after a bout of glandular fever, were becoming monthly occurrences. Could Ayurveda sort me out?

Before we begin our Ayurvedic journey, a word about the resort itself, because, readers, if you are going to go somewhere for a cure, then let it be here. The Mandarin Oriental Chiang Mai is like nowhere else – a luscious, dream-like resort created from scratch on 40 acres of Thai paddy fields. A real sense of Thai and Burmese history is evoked: ancient Thai houses have been transported here and restored, the Mandalay Palace has been re-created in painstaking detail by local craftsmen, and each set of villas built into the rice paddy has been modelled on the architecture of a particular Thai era. The two swimming pools – one Art Deco, the other a verdant infinity pool – seem always to have been there. All in all, there is a surprising air of authenticity about the place – impressive, as the resort did not exist ten years ago.

My favourite place at the MO was the spa – its magnificent entrance pavilion and wood-lined treatment rooms were built to the Marwahs’ specifications. Before Dr Suchada and I meet in the airy, marble lobby she has studied my lengthy questionnaire, in which I have answered questions as varied as whether I am cold all the time (yes), whether I am easily irritated (always) and whether I have any aches and pains (where do I begin?).

The loose translation of Ayurveda is the science of living. The process uses detoxification and purification techniques alongside herbal remedies, massage and yoga to restore the body’s outer and inner balance. Ancient texts suggest that Ayurveda originated in India 5,000 years ago. Many of the principles were co-opted by the Chinese and form the foundations of Chinese medicine.

According to Ayurveda, the body or life force is made up of five essential elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth, otherwise known as prana. These elements pair up to form three forces, or doshas: vata (air and ether), pitta (fire and water) and kapha (water and earth). Each of us has a blend of the three, with one or sometimes two predominating. In Ayurvedic terms, a diseased body carries the wrong balance of the three doshas, which can be influenced by everything from chemical pollution to stress and diet.

The job of an Ayurvedic doctor is to suggest treatments and therapies that rebalance the doshas. My body type is vata with an imbalance of pitta. “Pitta types tend to be fiery. If they are not in balance, they are impatient and argumentative,” explains Dr Suchada. She suggests calming exercises, such as yoga; a diet of non-spicy foods; frugal consumption of fruit (and never with other foods) and no fruit juice. There’s to be no caffeine or red meat either; and a couple of calming, grounding Ayurvedic treatments, one called Pottali Abhyanga which uses herbal rice compresses dipped in warm, fragrant oil to massage the body. Another, called Tok Sen, involves rhythmically tapping the body with a special stick made from the bark of the tamarind tree. Not sure I like the sound of that.

I’m deeply cynical. How can a doctor figure out the source of your problems by staring at your tongue and your eyes and studying the answers to a questionnaire? According to Dr Suchada, there’s a lot I could do differently, and she diagnoses borderline exhaustion. “You are running on empty,” she says sternly. “You need to slow down and refuel.” I bet she says that to all the girls.

I am convinced, however, by Dr Suchada’s experience. A trained GP, she took an interest in Ayurvedic remedies as a complement to Western medicine. She clearly knows what she is talking about. To counteract my cold hands and feet (I wear socks in bed even during the summer months – sexy) she suggests eating warm foods, such as soup and stews. She says my stress would be calmed by doing slow, intense yoga (in direct contradiction to the fast-paced yoga in which I normally indulge). And the worst thing I could do is run (which I do at least four times a week). Certainly, after a few days in Dr Suchada’s spa, I feel much better (who wouldn’t?) and the yoga sessions she prescribes with the resident yoga teacher are among the best I have ever experienced.

When I get home to chilly Blighty, I resolve to make a few changes to my diet – eating hot broths and eschewing the pounds of grapes, apples and bananas I normally consume. I slow down my yoga and cut back my runs to a couple of miles three times a week.

Did it work? Until I fell off the wagon during the summer months and turned to Diet Coke, yes. I had more energy, fewer colds and was generally more upbeat. Now all I need to do is find a doctor as good as Suchada in the UK. Somehow I don’t think that will be so straightforward.

Youth In India Are Most Optimistic (http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/22/india-happiness-survey-face-cx_rd_0921autofacescan02.html)
Ruth David,
FORBES, NY
09.22.07, 11:00 AM ET

When it comes to global happiness, young Indians score the highest, while Japan’s “now” generation rounds out the bottom of the list, says a new survey.

“Indian youth are strikingly more optimistic about their own future and also about the future of society. The general picture in other countries is that young people tend to be personal optimists but societal pessimists,” said Mats Lindgren, CEO and founder of Kairos Future Group. He is visiting New Delhi Friday to present the Indian findings of the survey by the Swedish group.

But even though Indians are the happiest, the numbers of those satisfied aren’t very high. “Over 50% of the young Indians are very content with their lives as a whole, which can be compared with pessimists such as the young Japanese or Germans, where only 17% and 27%, respectively, are very satisfied with their lives. This satisfaction is also reflected in optimism about tomorrow,” it found.

The survey covers 17 countries, including Italy, Russia, China and France. In India, it looked at the middle class, those who had access to the Internet, even if not at home. People between 19 and 29 were asked how satisfied they were with parameters like their job, life, family and government.

Indians’ optimism has a lot to do with their economy, just as Japan’s pessimism has a lot to do with the state of business there, said Lindgren. “Young Japanese compare their lives with those of their parents and conclude that it’s now tougher to get a job, make money.”

In France, with high unemployment rates, the reasons are similar, he said. “But it might also be a cultural influence, the general French culture is quite critical, while Indians are more happy.”

In Europe, most young people seek a good living environment above all and work-related aspects in life are relatively less important. But the priorities of Indian youth and young people in other “new economies” are different--for them, work, a good career and a position with high status are what matters.

In a culture that’s known for giving paramount importance to family, trends are changing as an increasing number of young Indians enter the workforce. “When asked about what constitutes a good life, there are many other aspects that are just as important, or even more important, than having a family and children, said Anna Kiefer, project leader for global youth and a Kairos foundation director. Living and eating well and spending time with friends receive more emphasis, she added.

With about 60% of its population under 30 years of age, the benefits of a strong economy--it grew 9.4% last fiscal year--and robust corporate growth leading to more jobs are evident among young Indians.

“I think optimistic is a better word to use than happy. Today, there are opportunities galore for young people across India. If you want a job, it’s quite likely you’ll get it,” said Aarti Wig, an investment banker in her mid-20s who works for a global bank in Mumbai.

But, as with young investment bankers anywhere in the world, Wig wasn’t too happy about her own life. “I’m a plankton in the food chain at work. I suffer from a permanent lack of sleep, lack of life, lack of love life,” she said.

Bennet Manuel, an executive at the Bangalore-based outsourcing firm Aditi Technologies, said young Indians also had it easier than their counterparts in the Western nations because of doting parents. “Unlike in the U.S., our parents pay for graduation, so most of us start work with a clean chit, with no student loans to pay. It’s easier to be happy when you don’t have to worry about debt.”

Manuel, who acknowledged the standard of life in a European or North American country is much higher than in India, argued that it’s still easier to stay in India because of the amenities. “I have someone to cook and keep my house clean. Why would I want to start doing all that by myself?”

Filthy lucre (http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/overseas/article2497982.ece)
It may be one of the most polluted cities in India, but investors are scenting a profit in Amritsar

Dean Nelson
The Sunday Times, UK
September 23, 2007

From the road, the yellow wheat fields that spread from the border with Pakistan to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar look like a Bollywood film set waiting for the dancers. It’s classic Punjabi pastoral, with turbaned farmers tilling the fertile land. The mistake is to open the car window: the black sludgy river in the foreground is an open sewer that doubles as a rubbish tip and chemical-waste dump.

Given the stench, it is few people’s vision of a place in the sun. But Britain’s Indian community detects a whiff of opportunity in the air, and is pouring its money into the area’s booming property market.

Amritsar is at the heart of the extraordinary boom that has seen the Indian economy growing at almost 10% a year – up from 3% a decade ago. The city has grown rich on the rise of call centres, IT outsourcing and textiles, and the money is beginning to flow into its property market.

“The residential property market has grown rapidly over the past two years, by an average of 60%-70% in Mumbai, 70% in Delhi, 60%-75% in Bangalore, and 95%-100% in Chennai [Madras] and Hyderabad,” says Harvesp Mehta, the national director of investments for the Indian office of the estate agency Knight Frank, which expects prices across the country to continue to rise over the next two years, albeit at a more modest rate.

Analysts expect that such growth will soon be replicated in “second-tier” destinations such as Amritsar, where Knight Frank says prices have gone up by 40%-60% over the past two years. “Some of these small cities, such as Baroda, in Gujarat, will grow by 5m people over the next 10 years,” says one British-Indian merchant banker in the City of London. “That makes them a good bet for British-Indians to invest in.”

Most of his Indian friends, he says, are hunting for “the next Bangalore” - a small Indian town with “worthless rice paddies”, he says, that became “multimillion-pound residential plots” when the city became the heart of India’s IT revolution. His picks have been in Goa and Calcutta.

There is no doubt that India needs more homes - about 20m more by 2012, according to government figures. Need is only a part of it, though; also crucial, in terms of the market, is desire. As India’s 300m-strong middle class gets richer, there is an increasing desire to escape the appalling infrastructure, the stench of the sewers, the erratic power supply and the squalid streets.

In general, the ideal property is a flat in a modern, gated community, where residents can show off the latest computerised lighting systems and wireless hi-fi, and have guaranteed electricity and water, and access to smart shops, pools and health clubs.

Happily for investors, the demand for such homes is easily outstripping supply, which is why leading western investment banks such as JP Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse have raised £500m to invest in new building projects in India.

It is also why smaller entrepreneurs are betting on cities such as Amritsar. Take Amar Sodhi, managing director of Avatar International, in London. Last week, the first 48 off-plan flats from the company’s Windsor Apartments, about a mile from Amritsar airport, went on sale, with prices starting at £39,000 for a two-bedroom, 113-square-metre flat. The properties would not look out of place in the London Docklands. Designed to suit the taste of British-based Indians, they boast “gourmet kitchens” and whirlpool baths. There is also a club with pool, spa and squash courts.

The apartments are in one of India’s worst pollution blackspots. Yet half of the first batch have been reserved by investors confident of doubling their money before the keys are handed over in 2009.

“There are 25m wealthy Sikhs around the world, and Amritsar is the home of the Golden Temple,” Sodhi says. “There are 600,000 Sikhs in Britain alone, and they like to travel to Amritsar, but good accommodation is limited.” He is particularly encouraged by the decision of the Radisson chain to build a five-star hotel next door.

Joginder Nijjar, and his wife, Nirmal, both solicitors from Walsall, agree with Sodhi’s analysis. Over the past 18 months, they have remortgaged their UK home and thrown in their life savings to invest more than £1m in residential and commercial projects in Amritsar and Delhi.

Nijjar says he had considered investing in India in the past, during visits to relatives, but was put off by fear of corruption. “You always think you’re going to get ripped off, but now there are good companies coming into the market,” he says. “I’m hoping for a rise of a couple of hundred per cent.”

Dilip Patel, 47, a knitwear manufacturer from Leicester, and his wife, Illa, signed up two years ago to buy a two-bedroom flat in the Ozone development, in Goregaon, Mumbai. They paid £60,000; similar properties are expected to go for double that when the complex is completed towards the end of next year. “Now I’m looking for another flat,” Dilip says.

British-Indians can buy under special provisions for those classed as people of Indian origin. By contrast, those without an ethnic link to the country can do so only if they have spent 182 days in the previous financial year living in India on a nontourist visa.

The rules have already been relaxed for commercial property, and there is speculation that the government could follow suit for flats and houses. In the meantime, you can get around the curbs by establishing a company in India and buying a property in its name to rent out as a holiday flat.

Free with every purchase is the unmistakable smell of the subcontinent - but Sodhi, for one, does not expect it will put off the buy-to-let investors he’s targeting. “Some of these places do stink,” he admits. “As a child, I used to get asthma in nearby Ludhiana, but today it has more Mercedes cars than anywhere in India, and some of its houses sell for £1m. The smell won’t harm the investment.”

A passage to the Indian property market

The Brigade Jasmine development, in Bangalore, has 72 semi-furnished one-bed flats ready to be moved into. Residents benefit from private club membership. From £30,000 for a 750 sq ft flat; Axiom Estates, 0845 355 1188, www.axiomestates.com

Windsor Apartments, in Amritsar, has a fitness club (with tennis courts, pool and spa), a cinema and a medical centre. Due for completion in July 2009. From £39,000 for a two-bed duplex; Avatar Investments, 0800 035 3537, www.avatar-investments.co.uk

Yes, you can outsource your homework to India (http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/22/magazines/fortune/indiatutor.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007052210)
Indian entrepreneur Krishnan Ganesh is out to prove that consumer services can be outsourced just the way business services are.

Stephanie N. Mehta,
Fortune senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Few large corporations need to be convinced of the benefits of offshore outsourcing. Many U.S. companies have fully embraced the outsourcing of customer call centers, software troubleshooting, and even medical diagnoses to workers in India and other emerging markets as a way to cut costs and take care of business when most of America is asleep.

Now, Indian entrepreneur Krishnan Ganesh is out to prove the advantages of outsourcing to a different and more skeptical audience: American parents and students.

Ganesh, 45 years old, is founder and chairman of TutorVista, an online education company that provides struggling students with 'round the clock tutors - who just happen to be scattered throughout the Indian subcontinent. For $100 a month, students get unlimited help with various subjects. The company also provides preparation for major standardized tests. All the potential pupils need is a computer and Internet connection.

Since its launch 18 months ago, the company has signed up some 2,200 students worldwide, roughly 2,000 in the U.S. That's a fraction of the students served by companies such as Educate Inc (Charts)., the parent company of Sylvan Learning Centers, or test prep giant Princeton Review.

And Ganesh himself is quick to point out perhaps the biggest challenge his company faces in trying to crack the $2.5 billion-a-year private tutoring market in the U.S.: "How do you get a parent in rural Mississippi to spend $100 a month on tutors from a company in India, of all places?" Ganesh said in an interview this week during a visit to the U.S. "Will they trust us?"

Ganesh already has earned the trust of one key constituency: the financial world. In January, TutorVista closed on a second round of financing, attracting close to $11 million from blue-chip venture funds Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital India.

Investors are no doubt impressed with Ganesh's track record. He founded his first company, a company that fixed computers and other technology for Indian corporations, at age 29. He took that company public in India, then took over as CEO of a troubled telecom joint venture of outsourcing giant Wipro (Charts) and British Telecom (Charts). He then founded one of the first call center outsourcing operations, CustomerAsset, which Indian bank ICICI acquired, and next helped launch Marketics, a data analytics firm that did work for large U.S. corporations. WNS Limited (Charts) acquired the Marketics earlier this year in a deal valued at $65 million.

Ganesh says his mission is to use local Indian resources to serve global markets. "The idea that you can create services around the world with Internet and telecom connections, that you can do virtually any service, fascinates me," he says. He says he also likes to be a pioneer in any field he pursues.

TutorVista is indeed plowing fresh territory: While Indian companies such as Wipro and InfoSys have thrived by selling services to businesses, no Indian company has built a successful consumer services company. "They all work behind an American consumer brand," he says of the Indian outsourcing giants. "There's an opportunity to create a direct consumer play from India."

In India, too, TutorVista is trying something new: its tutors all work from their own homes, not a centralized call center. This allows TutorVista to hire experts throughout India, including retired professors who are using computers for the first time thanks to their TutorVista employment.

Full time tutors with the company make about Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 a month ($299US - $349US). A typical teacher's salary might run closer to Rs 9,000 ($224US) a month, Ganesh says. All the company's tutors go through a training and certification process.

Though Ganesh likes to be first, he is hardly alone. New Delhi-based Educomp says it is looking to make an acquisition as a way into the U.S. tutoring market. Sylvan also offers online tutoring.

Whether online tutoring (outsourced or otherwise) really works is a subject of hot debate in education circles, but Ganesh insists that TutorVista essentially is democratizing one-to-one education.

Some tutors charge more than $60 an hour, putting them out of reach for most families. "At $40 to $60 an hour, you're not really measuring whether a child is learning, you're watching the clock," he says. TutorVista's all-you-can-eat plan for $100 a month certainly is more affordable, and more plans for cost-conscious customers are coming: He says the tutoring company plans to begin offering new pricing plans - including fees for one-time sessions - sometime this year.

Come together (http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9826597)
Sep 19th 2007
The Economist, UK

Can India and America make friends?

ONE commonplace both Indian and American politicians are rather fond of these days is that their two countries are “natural partners”.

The phrase encompasses two linked ideas. The first is that both are vibrant democracies (the world’s largest, by any reckoning, and the world’s oldest, as many Americans see their country). Second, both share an understandable apprehension about the astonishing rise of China, which is, of course, far from being a democracy.

Nevertheless, the long estrangement of the two countries during the cold war has made genuine partnership—natural or not—hard to attain. Last weekend several dozen politicians, officials, businessmen, journalists, academics and even a Bollywood film star gathered for a conference in Florida to discuss Indian-American relations. That they came showed both how hard leading personalities in both countries are prepared to make friends, and how big a gap there is to bridge.

They met while the agreement on civilian nuclear co-operation, which optimists on both sides have seen as the symbolic touchstone of a new amity, is under a cloud. Objections in India of both the formal opposition and the Communist allies of the ruling coalition, led by the Congress party, may actually scupper it.

There are some worries about the deal itself, particularly its impact on India’s own strategic deterrent and Indian foreign policy. But the Indian left objects most to what it symbolises: a closer relationship with the United States.

According to a survey commissioned by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Indians as a whole have quite warm feelings towards America. On a “thermometer” where 0 indicates a very unfavourable feeling, and 100 the warmest admiration, America rates 57 in India (compared with just 46 for India among Americans, for many of whom India is now best known as a hub for “outsourcing”, and hence a threat to their jobs).

Even so, with a general election in India due some time in the next 20 months, anti-Americanism remains a vote-winner. That is true not just among India’s 150m Muslims, who, like many of their co-religionists elsewhere, have been angered by American foreign policy, but on the political left. Besides Communists, many in the Congress party itself harbour an instinctive antipathy towards the superpower.

Part of this stems from one legacy of the past: a surprising shortage of academic and other non-governmental links between the two countries. Commercial ties are substantial and growing quickly, and official relations are similarly being expanded. But there remains widespread mutual ignorance. Relatively few American university courses or think-tanks focus on India, and vice versa. One American academic groused sourly at the conference that in India “American studies” courses are in fact courses in anti-Americanism.

There are, however, two reasons to expect America’s standing in India to rise. The first is the presence of some 80,000 Indian students in America. Most will return home, sooner or later, with a greater understanding of—and sympathy for—America.

Second, Indian-Americans are making their weight felt in American business, technology and politics. They have become an important constituency in their own right, and, as they have shown in the lobbying effort that accompanied negotiations on the nuclear deal, a powerful political force.

They will help raise India’s profile. It is badly needed. India’s importance is obvious to American officials, but not yet to the general public.

The Chicago Council survey found that when asked about the present and future global influence of eight big countries and the European Union, most Indians see America as the most influential both now and in 2016 (India came second). Americans agree about their own country; India, however, comes bottom, though it is expected to overtake France by 2016.

India Launches Incredible India@60, Largest-Ever International Branding Campaign, Appoints The NewsMarket as Media Partner (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,182481.shtml)
http://www.indiaat60.in/images/logo.jpg
NEW YORK, NY -- 09/20/07 -- Video and multimedia content made available via www.thenewsmarket.com/india will be the centerpiece of a media strategy to illustrate a historic celebration in New York City next week by the Indian government.

My parents went for it's inauguration at the Lincoln Center yesterday. Some of the big guys like Ahluwalia, Nandan Nilekani,Kamal Nath,Pranab Mukherji were there. Reuters,Nasdaq and other buildings @Times Square have these Incredible India ads playing for about a week. Bryant Park and South Street Seaport have been taken over for all sorts of food fests/performances etc


Tourist Bus - I saw one with tigers back in late August.
Copyright Astrovine
http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/7515/incredibleindiarp8.jpg

Some pictures from Indiaat60.in - this is Times Square
http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/8048/ny1eo8.jpg


http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/2055/ny2ii7.jpg


http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/8661/ny3da0.jpg


Some videos I uploaded from CNN-IBN

Sept22 - one day before the campaign
VXqbuR50EUo

Sept23- Day1
Uq7rBzyXLsI


Some banners from Indiaat60.in
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/5268/streetbanners2vf0.jpg

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/7539/streetbanners3xn8.jpg


more banners here (http://www.indiaat60.in/img-gal-street-banners.html)


Sangalina has uploaded some pictures from day 1 here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sangalina/)

i don't want to start another America vs. Rest of the World debate here, but i just don't see why an Indian engineer would go to Europe if he can go to US. though, Europe is a multi ethnic place, it's still not as non-racist as America. remember the Arcelor-Mittal fiasco? the PM of the country in which Arcelor is based made a public statements that he has inhibitions for the deal b/c Arcelor is European and Mittal isn't. in America, race is pretty much a no-show if you have the money. money is given more value than anything else. so, doesn't matter which ethnicity you belong to; if you have ideas and can pull up the money, then you can do what you want, of course it's gotta be legal.

I agree.

From what I hear about the UK and parts of mainland Europe, racism is very much alive and well. In the US what matters most are your education, abilities and your experience, irrespective of your national origin. For instance, the African American citizens of USA have made great strides since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At that time, around 80% of them were in the underclass. Now the underclass is around 30%, which is still too high. Indian and Chinese immigrants in the US have the highest average family income in the US, ahead of Caucasian Americans! This demonstrates that there is no discrimination (or very little) in the US.

I returned to the USA after living 23 years in Canada. Compared to the US, Canada is a horribly racist nation - they ask immigrants for Canadian qualifications and Canadian experience. If you have both, they reject you on the basis of being 'over-qualified'. Even today, if you are a non-white Canadian born and brought up in Canada, University placement officials admit that 'visible minorities' (meaning non-whites) are the most difficult to place.

Thank God that my three children (born in Canada) will have unbridled equal opportunity in the USA. God Bless America.

Ved Vedamanikam
Austin, TX

^^ Well said!

Fantastic Pics IU,

Thanks for contributing

Rgds
AB

Mittal upbeat as steelmaker hits $100bn mark (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/609d56c8-6ac2-11dc-9410-0000779fd2ac.html)
By Peter Marsh in London
The Financial Times, UK
September 24 2007

Sitting over breakfast in the conservatory of his opulent London home on Monday, Lakshmi Mittal did not let a steady downpour outside – and rain dripping through a gap in the roof – damp his spirits.

“We are the first $100bn [in market capitalisation] steel company in history,” enthused the Indian billionaire. “The fundamentals of this industry are so strong that they give us a huge number of opportunities to grow.”

Mr Mittal was discussing the prospects for Arcelor Mittal – the company formed 15 months ago through the €26.9bn ($37.9bn) take-over of Luxembourg-based Arcelor by Mittal Steel – of which he is chief executive and main owner.

Since the two companies combined to create by far the world’s biggest steel producer, shares in Arcelor Mittal have outperformed the composite price index of all the world’s listed companies by 98 per cent, giving it a market capitalisation of $109bn.

Investors’ interest in the company was boosted last month by figures showing net income for the second quarter rose to $2.7bn, an increase of 50 per cent when compared with numbers calculated as if the combined business had existed last year.

“In recent months, I’ve visited 25 Arcelor Mittal plants around the world,” said Mr Mittal. “I’ve noticed [among employees] a mood of excitement. They feel that we really are one company, not two. I’m glad to say that the sceptics who thought this merger would not work have been proved wrong.”

According to Michael Shillaker, an analyst at Credit Suisse, Mr Mittal’s optimism is backed by the hard logic of supply and demand in the steel industry.

Mr Shillaker also said he thought the sector would be affected “very little” by the credit squeeze that has gripped financial markets.

To capitalise on these conditions, Arcelor Mittal plans to spend $35bn increasing the capacity of its steel plants in the next eight years, with a particular focus on two new steel plants in India.

One country of particular interest to Mr Mittal – where Arcelor Mittal does not have any production – is Russia. He said that “as a long-term plan” he would like to build a “greenfield plant” in Russia as a way to gain a toehold there.

Arcelor Mittal has large steel operations in neighbouring Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Another nation on which Mr Mittal keeps a watchful eye is China – which is responsible for more than a third of the world’s steel capacity but where his company is relatively weak.

One problem for him is that the Chinese government has yet to approve fully a plan for Arcelor Mittal to take a minority stake in Laiwu, a steel producer in Shandong province in eastern China.

However, a second joint venture by Arcelor Mittal with another Chinese steel producer, Hunan Valin, is fully operational.

In time, Mr Mittal wants Beijing to approve plans for foreign steelmakers to take majority stakes in steel producers, allowing his company to play a bigger role in the country. “But I don’t think this is going to happen soon,” he said.

In South Africa, where Arcelor Mittal has a large steel plant, events have not gone all Mr Mittal’s way since the merger.

This month, the company was fined R691m (about $100m) by the country’s competition authority for charging “anticompetitive” prices in the domestic market.

Mr Mittal said he was disappointed by the decision, against which Arcelor Mittal would probably appeal.

“My view is that we have been charging market prices when selling steel in South Africa,” he said.

Even with this setback, Mr Mittal said Arcelor Mittal’s South African steelmaking plants would also benefit from the company’s $35bn spending plan.

“The South African economy is one of a number that look like growing substantially,” he said.

Even with the rain beating down on his leaking London conservatory, the outlook for the steel industry – at least as far as Mr Mittal is concerned – is sunny indeed.

With a 45 per cent stake in Arcelor Mittal, the world’s biggest steel company, Lakshmi Mittal’s current stake in the business is worth $45bn, or nearly 70 per cent more than at the beginning of the year.

Arcelor Mittal’s surging share price has been driven by enthusiasm for steel company stocks, which have been among the best performing on global markets over the past four years.

Arcelor Mittal – of which Mr Mittal is chief executive – has outperformed the price index of all quoted steel makers by 38 per cent since June 2006.

Mr Mittal was named this year as the world’s fifth-richest by Forbes magazine.

He believes that the industry’s good times could easily continue for the next five to 10 years, on the back of strong demand for steel in countries such as India and China.

Blockbusters for behemoths (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/cdae61a0-6ab1-11dc-9410-0000779fd2ac.html)
By Andrew Hill
The Financial Times, UK
September 24 2007

Shareholders don’t necessarily expect their chief executives to spend time reading business books. Thinking about business, yes. Doing business, definitely. But reading about it?

Picture Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, settling down for a couple of hours with Barbarians at the Gate, the 1990 classic narrative about the buy-out of RJR Nabisco. Or Lakshmi Mittal, head of ArcelorMittal, dissecting Built to Last, the Jim Collins/Jerry Porras analysis of the world’s most durable visionary companies. It sounds at best a waste of their time, at worst a dereliction of duty: “Hold the mega-merger – I’m just finishing the chapter on leadership.”

Yet a Financial Times straw poll of a range of top global executives, entrepreneurs and experts revealed that most had found at least one business book – including the books above, recommended by Mr Immelt and Mr Mittal – particularly useful, even inspiring.

Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys, the Indian IT services company, said Kenichi Ohmae’s The Mind of the Strategist had given him a “mental toolbox” with which to build a strategy. Tom Glocer, chief executive of Reuters, said Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma had had a “profound effect on my thinking around innovation” when he first read it.

True, nobody claimed to be an avid reader of business books, which most defined as books about management. A few said it had been a while since they last looked at their favourites. And a couple of participants reckoned that business books were not worth the trouble.

David Eldon, the former top Hong Kong banker, now chairman of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, said he found it more useful to hear directly from successful business people and to read the FT.

But, judging from this informal survey, it is probably no exaggeration to say that some of the best business books have had a direct influence on the growth of the world’s largest companies.

Our aim at the outset of the survey was to come up with a shortlist of five titles from which FT readers could select an all-time favourite. It seemed likely that this top five would emerge naturally from the recommendations of the business experts. No such luck. Jim Collins’ Good to Great received four mentions, but no other book got more than one each.

And there were some striking omissions. While five volumes by the late, great Peter Drucker were singled out, nobody chose The Practice of Management, which Stefan Stern, our business columnist, reckoned would be the most-cited. Another FT columnist, Michael Skapinker, missed Tom Peters’ and Robert Waterman’s flawed but influential In Search of Excellence.

And there was not a single mention for Tom Friedman’s paean to globalisation, The World is Flat, the inaugural winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005 and already one of the most cross-referenced works in business publishing history. Still, there were some thought-provoking selections. Peter Mukerjea, former chief executive of Star Group India, picked Helena Norberg-Hodge’s Ancient Futures, about the influence on Ladakhi culture of modern economic pressures.

Who would have expected to find works by Ayn Rand, the libertarian intellectual and author (an inspiration to, among others, Alan Greenspan), in the same list as The Firm by John Grisham? All were recommended by Scott Moeller of Cass Business School.

Samuel Palmisano of IBM, while admitting that “I don’t have as much time to read as I used to”, paid tribute to a former Big Blue boss, Thomas Watson Jr, who wrote Business and Its Beliefs. That was a good way of underlining the IBM legacy – although he could have gone one better and also recommended his immediate predecessor Lou Gerstner’s book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? (the choice, as it happens, of Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer).

Is there, then, a single business book that holds the secret to good management? Probably not. As Fred Kindle, chief executive of ABB, points out, even Good to Great’s much-praised assertions about what makes a high-performance company have been challenged by Philip Rosenzweig’s recently published volume, The Halo Effect. But then, as Mr Kindle, says: “If there was only one valid truth, the book about it would have been written years ago and we all would have read it.”

Black swans, Big Oil and Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan’s newly published account of his life, times and the prospects for the world economy, has won a place among the finalists of this year’s Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. The former Federal Reserve chairman’s book, The Age of Turbulence, will go up against five other titles for the £30,000 ($61,000, €43,000) award. They tackle topics as varied as immigration, sustainable energy, high finance, internet-fuelled innovation and the impact of the unforeseeable.

The finalists, selected by a panel of expert judges from a list of 15 titles, are:

● The Age of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan.

● The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s latest bestseller about how we underestimate at our peril the risk of highly improbable events.

● Immigrants, by Philippe Legrain, which argues for freer migration, one of the most emotive topics in the political and business world.

● The Last Tycoons, William D. Cohan’s no-holds-barred account of the rise of Lazard Frères, the investment bank.

● Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, an explanation of how internet-based collaboration can be harnessed to produce even more innovative content, products and services.

● Zoom, by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, which describes how Big Oil and the world’s carmakers are striving to meet the challenge of developing new fuels and technologies.

The seven judges will convene again on October 25 in London to decide which of the six titles should win the coveted prize. The award will be presented at a gala dinner that evening at the British Library, where Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of ArcelorMittal, will make the keynote speech.

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and one of the judges, praised the “excellent and diverse” shortlist and said he was expecting the debate to select a winner to be “particularly lively”.

The award aims to select the book that provides “the most compelling and enjoyable insight” into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.

Which of these is the best business book of all time?

● Good to Great, by Jim Collins

● The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker

● The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen

● Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

● The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

India 2050 (http://www.yale.edu/india/panel_2050.html)
A Grand Strategy for India Rising
September 24, 2007 — 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Grand Ballroom, Yale Club of New York City
Presented by Yale University and the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Moderator:
RICHARD C. LEVIN
President of Yale University

Panelists:
RAMACHANDRA GUHA
Historian and author of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

NANDAN NILEKANI
Co-Chairman of the Board, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

ROOPA PURUSHOTHAMAN
Director, Future Capital Research

T.N. SRINIVASAN
Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, Yale University

ERNESTO ZEDILLO
Former President of Mexico (1994 - 2000), and Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

Envision India in the year 2050. In 2007, the sixtieth anniversary year of an independent India, we posed this question to a distinguished panel of thought leaders to imagine the opportunities and the challenges ahead for India to realize its immense promise and capacity to become a global force.

Rising India is a study in contrasts. India's assets are unparalleled. It is the largest and fastest growing free market democracy in the world. It has well-developed democratic institutions, an independent judiciary, a free and independent media, and a robust civil society. A middle class of more than 400 million citizens is driving demand, competition and productivity as never before in India's history. India's youthfulness-with more than 350 million of its citizens under age of fifteen-will ensure that its workforce will expand for decades.

The problems that India must face and overcome to achieve its potential are equally daunting, and threaten to diminish its aspirations. More than one-third of the world's chronically malnourished children live in India, and average life expectancy and literacy trail those of many other developing countries. A large proportion of India's population (more than 750 million of its 1.1 billion people) live in its rural villages and do not have access to healthcare and capable primary education. Widespread environmental degradation, inadequate access to clean water, and inconsistent enforcement of environmental standards affect not only India but global environmental quality. The HIV-AIDS epidemic could disrupt India's advancement.

We have asked the panel to engage in a conversation that considers:


what India must do to leverage its advantages to continue to meet its promise;
what India can do to capitalize on its social and economic gains to more equitably address the disparities faced by its population;
what failures could prevent India from fulfilling its ambitions;
and most of all, to share their imagination and vision of India in 2050.


For additional information or to request invitations to the event, please contact George Joseph, Office of International Affairs, Yale University, at india@yale.edu.

Incredible India@60
Democracy, Diversity, Demographics & Development (http://www.yale.edu/india/)

Yale University

India Launches India@60, Largest-Ever International Branding Campaign, Appoints The NewsMarket as Media Partner (http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=772207)
Marketwire, New York

Video to Be Available Next Week on www.thenewsmarket.com/india

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - September 20, 2007) - Video and multimedia content made available via www.thenewsmarket.com/india will be the centerpiece of a media strategy to illustrate a historic celebration in New York City next week by the Indian government.

As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations to commemorate independence, a series of spectacular events will command center stage in New York City in what will be the largest-ever international branding campaign undertaken by the Indian authorities. The $10 million spend will see traditional advertising as well as extensive use of online video to raise awareness about India's changing image.

"We recognize that few mediums are as powerful as video to bring to life all that is exciting about India -- especially in this YouTube age," said Tarun Das, chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the key organizers of the India@60 campaign.

From September 23rd-26th, the India@60 campaign -- at http://www.indiaat60.in/ -- will treat New Yorkers to a unique visual spectacle encompassing cultural shows, conferences and food, as well as art and fashion extravaganzas. Video of these events -- including exclusive material -- will be available starting next week to journalists, bloggers and consumers globally via www.thenewsmarket.com/india.

Among the highlights will be a giant sand sculpture replica of the Taj Mahal that will be built at the Port Authority Terminal; folk and Bollywood dances in South Street Seaport and Lincoln Center; and a fashion show in Bryant Park. Buses and billboards all over the city are already announcing the campaign. The India@60 campaign is being spearheaded by the Ministry for Tourism and Culture and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a business trade group within the Ministry of Trade & Commerce.

"The Indian authorities' extensive use of video and online distribution to capture headlines and attention for this landmark event demonstrates once again India's appreciation for innovative marketing to drive brand perception and cut-through in a noisy and crowded media market," said The NewsMarket CEO and Co-Founder Shoba Purushothaman. "By leveraging the Internet's footprint and The NewsMarket's distribution platform, video from the events in New York will reach 193 countries."

About The NewsMarket

The NewsMarket is the online platform for corporations, governments and non-profit organizations to manage, share and exchange their video content. We have created the professional video destination at www.thenewsmarket.com connecting these content providers with over 13,000 media outlets, and the blogosphere, in 193 countries. The NewsMarket is headquartered in New York, with additional offices in Beijing, Delhi, London, San Francisco, Munich, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai. The NewsMarket: where video means business.

Incredible India@60
Democracy, Diversity, Demographics & Development (http://www.yale.edu/india/)

Yale University

:cheers:

University sponsors discussion of India (http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21494)
Caitlin Roman, Staff Reporter
Yale Daily News, CT
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

NEW YORK — When New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman looks at India and China, he sees two “six-lane superhighways.”

On China’s side of the road, Friedman explained at a panel Monday hosted by the Yale Club of New York, traffic is moving at 80 miles per hour on a nicely maintained, well-lit surface — but there’s a speed bump called political reform on the horizon that threatens to knock the wheels off China’s cars.

India’s highway, on the other hand, has a lot of potholes, and the sidewalks are cracked. Off in the distance, however, it appears to smooth out into a perfect, pothole-free stretch of asphalt. The question for India, Friedman said, is whether this is a mirage or a true oasis.

Participants in the panel, which examined India’s trajectory on the 60th anniversary of its independence, agreed with Friedman that while the country looks poised to become a major world player in the next few decades, its ascendancy is by no means assured. Though the panelists debated the specifics of what must be done to keep India on the “right” track — and what precisely the right track is — each identified areas in which India needs to make concrete improvements.

The panelists, a mix of scholars, political figures and business leaders, convened for “India 2050: A Grand Strategy for India Rising” as part of the Incredible India@60 campaign sponsored by the Indian government and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

During two hours of discussion, they named education, infrastructure, economic development and the environment as some of the most important priorities for India in the coming years.

But even as India copes with its internal challenges, its rapidly growing economy — which economist Roopa Purushothaman ’00 projected will become the third largest in the world by 2050, after China and the United States — and booming population mean the world needs to take note, panelists said.

“This is not about India in isolation, but about India becoming a global story,” said Purushothaman, the chief economist and strategist of the India-based Future Group.

On the education front, India is not doing enough to maintain the quality of its universities, Indian historian and author Ramachandra Guha said. He said the falling level of higher education in India has caused an exodus of young Indians to American universities like Yale and Harvard.

Yale President Richard Levin, who moderated the panel, said India’s decision to develop national universities in 30 states spread its resources too thin, unlike China, which has focused on seven universities.

But improving education is vital for the economy’s long-term health, panelists agreed.

Purushothaman said flaws in the current educational system prevent India from redistributing its labor force away from agriculture and into more skilled sectors, a transfer she called India’s “biggest obstacle” in the coming decades.

In terms of building up the necessary infrastructure, Purushothaman said, India lags far behind China. India’s local governments have more restrictions on their ability to tax and spend on infrastructure than China’s, she said, with the result that the people directly affected by infrastructure needs often feel powerless.

When discussing India’s high economic growth — 9.4 percent of GDP in 2006, compared to 2.9 percent GDP growth in the United States last year — the panelists engaged in a heated exchange about the reasons for India’s recent economic boom and whether foreign investment should be encouraged.

But former Mexican president and director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization Ernesto Zedillo said he thought the most important issue for the Indian economy was not foreign investment, but loosening the regulations governing Indian entrepreneurs.

“It’s not an issue of whether foreign investment is good or bad,” Zedillo said. “It’s an issue of whether the entrepreneur is really being allowed to flourish to the full extent. My answer is definitely not.”

Toward the end of the panel, Levin turned the discussion to the environment. He noted that a paradox exists in that as India modernizes, it needs to provide food, water, electricity and transportation to its rapidly growing population, which increases its contributions to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

But at the same time, Levin said, the world cannot combat global warming unless India participates in greenhouse gas-cutting schemes.

Friedman said the world would be in trouble if people in India start to emulate the high-energy consumption lifestyle of Americans, but added that no one will be able to achieve significant decreases in emissions until innovators come up with better products.

“My real message is, you cannot make a product greener without making it smarter,” Friedman said.

Amid the discussions of India’s booming economy, Guha reminded the other panelists that many observers did not expect India to survive — much less prosper — when it became independent in 1947.

“Over the last 10 years, the success story is economics,” Guha said. “The bigger success story over the long haul is democracy.”

Other panel participants included Yale economics professor T.N. Srinivasan and Infosys Technologies Ltd. co-chairman Nandan Nilekani.

Yale will host another Incredible India@60 event, a panel on “Women and Global Leadership,” on Tuesday.

Innovation 'key' to India's pharma future (http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/news/ng.asp?n=80024-dr-reddy-s-interphex-india-drug-discovery-outsourcing)
By Kirsty Barnes
In-PharmaTechnologist.com, UK
24/09/2007

The key to the future of India's pharmaceutical industry will depend on its ability to scale back its over-reliance on low-cost manufacturing and to foster innovation, with drug discovery and biosimilars presenting particular opportunities.

This was the message from Satish Reddy, managing director and chief operating officer of Dr Reddys, speaking at the recent inaugural Interphex trade show, held in Mumbai, where Outsourcing-Pharma.com was in attendance.

"Innovation has only started to happen in India over the last few years but this is what will drive the real market value for the country," he said in his keynote presentation.

India currently dominates the world's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing arena - presently almost one in two APIs are now sourced in India and the market continues to grow.

However, Reddy warned that Indian firms involved in this industry must not develop a cavalier attitude.

His concern is that the country's domination in this area is only sustainable if such companies begin to focus on innovation and transform themselves into offering more value-added drug discovery services alongside more traditional ones.

The majority of Indian API manufacturers base their business models solely on offering a low cost base, however, according to Reddy, costs for these firms are rising 30 per cent a year - logistics costs are already high, and as wages increase, the rupee appreciates and time goes by, the country's cost competitiveness will become severely dented.

Looking forward, Reddy believes biosimilars hold a "tremendous" opportunity for India to capitalise on, following in its tradition of being a generics hub. The global biologics market is tipped to grow from its current size of $60bn (€43bn) to $100bn by 2010.

"Dr Reddy's has recently developed the world's first monoclonal antibody biosimilar," he said.

Another major area that Reddy believes API manufacturers and others can realise significant value in drug discovery activities, including both research and clinical services.

"Firms need to start now in finding a way to strike a balance between making high investments in innovation to help drive future growth, while still generating short term revenue growths, in order to partake the high risk drug development market," said Reddy.

"Even though India hasn't been doing this for long, drug discovery outsourcing offers tremendous potential for growth in the Indian market, as pharma companies continue to search for ways to save money and time," he said.

Indian firms have slowly been moving up the learning curve through their dealings with multinational companies - by entering partnership and co-development arrangements and collaborative discovery deals, as well as providing some services in this field and this has put them in the position to begin to dabble more and more in this new business area.

"Drug discovery in India is on the rise - current activities currently only scratch the surface of innovation-led drug discovery potential in India," he said.

"Indian companies are beginning to build front-end capabilities to leverage their low-cost advantages and position themselves as fully vertically-integrated players."

The country still has a mountain to climb however. There is still a lack of expertise in drug discovery, with no Indian firm yet having gone through the entire drug development process from discovery to commercialisation.

In addition, there are still a lack of world class research institutes and government funding; a dearth of trained domain-specific management talent; and a shortage of leadership in science, including thought leaders and those involved in cutting-edge activities - those that are generally prefer to work in Europe or the US, he said.

Furthermore, the patent reinforcement legal system is still nascent. Only last month this very issue caused Novartis to pull millions of planned investment dollars out of India in reaction to intellectual property (IP) fears after it lost an ongoing patent dispute with the government.

Meanwhile, Reddy pointed out that most API manufacturers in India currently do no have enough critical mass - only two generate revenues over $2bn a year - and said that consolidation will also be required for future sustainability

Strengthening Asian Currencies: Buy China, Hong Kong and India (http://seekingalpha.com/article/48131-strengthening-asian-currencies-buy-china-hong-kong-and-india)
Seeking Alpha, NY
September 25, 2007

We all read about Asian currencies strengthening. Ever thought about the monetary and thus market implications of this?

1. Stronger currencies

On various occasions we have sought to explain why superpower currencies must whither.

Our bets are that for the time being, the US Fed will have to cut Fed Funds rates even more, making the dollar even less attractive than it is now.

This implies a stronger Euro: this year already it has risen by 8%.

However, who has outperformed the Euro?

2. What these imply for The Economic Time™ in Asia

Assume that the global Economic Time keeps worsening, particularly due to America and Japan remaining dead (sub. req.). That implies a slowdown in Asian export growth to America, first and foremost. Thus, price competitiveness in export markets will become a policy priority for central banks in the region.

This means that local Asian governments will seek to stem the rise in their currencies - buy issuing more of their own currency. The increased supply of local currency keeps its price on foreign exchange markets from rising too much.

This has everything to do with The Economic Clock™: by seeking to keep their local currencies from rising too much, the region's Central Banks will increase their respective excess supplies of money. And as we have maintained forever: an excess supply of money has to go into asset markets, by definition.

3. How to Make Money Off This Idea

1. Always consult with your financial adviser before doing anything!

2. Keep buying the Euro and particularly the Sterling: they will keep rising while the dollar keeps slumping.

3. Buy the stock markets which we identify in our Economic Clock as having an excess supply of money - particularly China, Hong Kong and India.

4. Remember that when exchange rates strengthen, imports get cheaper in local currency terms: the Indian is paying 10% less rupees per US dollar of import. Thus, where there is a strengthening exchange rate and an excess demand for goods - such as in the three countries we just mentioned, buy companies that are involved in the importation of goods. Such imports can range from clothes to machinery.

Seven Years in India
Images from 'Pan India'
THE TIME MAGAZINE
Narrated by Simon Robinson & Prashant Panjiar (http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2007/pan_india_multimedia/)

From Raj to the Republic (http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2176574,00.html)
Royal Festival Hall, London
Robin Denselow
Tuesday September 25, 2007
The Guardian, UK

It is understandable that any event marking 60 years of Indian independence should involve an epic series of concerts, but what was remarkable about From Raj to the Republic was that three such shows were staged back-to-back on the same day. The result was a seven-hour offering that was as magnificent as it was exhausting.

No running order was announced in advance, but the opening performance proved to be the most exhilarating of the day. Dr L Subramaniam is one of the finest exponents of the Carnatic classical music of southern India, which has appropriated western instruments such as his choice, the violin. A quiet-looking man, he sat cross-legged as he played, starting with drifting, exquisitely relaxed passages, and then moving to playful, or rapid-fire virtuoso improvisational sections in which he swapped solos with his son Ambi, another fine violinist.

The next lengthy performance came from a singer who was introduced as "a rebel genius and enigma". Kishori Amonkar, from the northern Hindustani tradition, gradually improvised around repeated phrases until she began to expand into rapid-fire vocal flurries, driven on by sturdy violin and tablas.

Finally came the most celebrated Indian dynasty of all. In recent years, Anoushka Shankar has taken a more prominent role than her father at their joint appearances, but this time it was different. Looking like a pop star with her cropped black hair, she briefly demonstrated her driving sitar style before introducing her father, who played for a full hour. Ravi Shankar turned 87 this year, and looked worryingly frail until he started playing, but his delicacy of touch and enthusiasm are unchanged.

Merger with Hero of India ensures safety of TSC jobs (http://www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.1675678.0.merger_with_hero_of_india_ensures_safety_of_tsc_jobs.php)
DAVID BLACK
The Herald, UK

TSC, the Scottish-owned contact centre company, has merged with an Indian call centre group in a £40m deal that will safeguard jobs and see the TSC management team lead the new company onto the global stage.

The new partner is Hero Ites, part of the Hero Group, the $4.18bn Indian conglomerate controlled by the Munjal family, whose operations span steel, car components and bicycles, product design, information technology services, finance and insurance.

As well as taking over the running of the new company, to be known as TSC Hero, the TSC management team will retain investment in the business.

Ken Hills, TSC chief executive, said: "Let me make this clear. This is not about taking UK jobs to India. On the contrary, TSC's clients have all made positive decisions to locate their operations in the UK - whilst searching for additional services which compliment existing arrangements.

"Now we will be able to offer a greater offshore capability which will actually be part of the company and managed by the TSC team."

The merger will, however, see the departure of LDC, the mid-market private equity arm of Lloyds TSB Group which backed the business in 2003 with a significant equity investment.

LDC's involvement saw TSC increase its workforce from 2000 to 3000, the majority in Scotland and also in Yorkshire's Dearne Valley. Turnover was also boosted, from £29m to £60m.

Today, TSC, which was founded in Bute in 1994, has among its clients Vodafone, T-Mobile, Hewlett-Packard, HBOS and HSBC.

David Ewing, TSC chief operating officer, said: "This is a great example of a private equity backed business creating significant numbers of jobs in the UK.

"However, the new arrangements bring even more financial muscle and will allow TSC Hero to compete on a global basis.

"It gives us access to facilities and capital that will let us turn a successful Scottish business into a global one.

"The new company will provide the support for TSC Hero to win new business at home, and internationally. This will ensure the future of the business, strengthen job security and create further opportunities based on these international capabilities."

The giant Hero Group's existing contact centre operation is based in Gurgaon, near Delhi, and will take the new organisation to more than 3500 seats providing services to the US, Australia and the UK.

The deal represents the latest of five exits made by LDC so far this year, which have included the £160m sale of Jamella Group, trading under the ghd brand of hairstyling products, to Montagu Private Equity, and the £410m sale of property services company Apollo Group to Bank of Scotland Corporate.

LDC has made a total of 11 investments so far in 2007, including the £100m management buy-out of British Salt from US Salt Holdings, and the £40m management buy-out of Direct Group, a provider of business process outsourcing services to the insurance sector.

Do the hippies still run Goa? (http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/india/article2505155.ece)
Is the hippie dream still alive in Goa, or has everyone else ruined it? Nick Rufford goes in search of the Sixties

Nick Rufford
The Sunday Times, UK
September 23, 2007

Streets clogged with rickshaws, beggars on the pavement, tuberculosis – there’s only so much you can take of London.

Then you have to go away somewhere and decompress – ideally, in a Robinson Crusoe setting where the sun shines all the time and you can survive on a few pounds a day.

Somewhere, in fact, like Goa.

The former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India must have seemed like heaven on earth to the weary hippie travellers who arrived in the 1960s. It was inhabited by laid-back, hospitable locals and blessed with sandy beaches as white as laundered sheets. After the perils of the overland trip, it didn’t matter if their Magic Bus broke down or they ran out of money; it was the excuse they needed to hang around for another month or three and delay the journey home.

“Like 1960s San Francisco, only hotter,” said one traveller I’d met while en route to interview the Dalai Lama in the 1990s. A magical place, then, buzzing with full-moon parties, psychedelic drugs and trance.

So, earlier this year, I finally booked my tickets and dusted down my rucksack – confident that it would hold enough for 10 days’ travel (“Don’t bother with a suitcase,” I was told. “You can take everything in carry-on luggage and buy everything you need in Goa for a few rupees”). It was only then that I began to realise how much things have changed.

First of all, there was the checklist. I needed a visa to get into India (half a day at the Indian embassy), vaccinations for hepatitis A, typhoid, meningitis, tetanus and polio, and a course of malaria tablets (£120 in total). I needed sterile syringe needles,in case I got bitten or scratched by a mammal and had to be treated at a local hospital. (A warning: my needles were confiscated at check-in, the inevitable consequence of having no hold luggage.)

Then there was the business of getting there. Nowadays, it’s a 12-hour flight to Goa (including transfer time) via Mumbai (Bombay); or, if you prefer, nine hours on a charter. Admittedly, it’s a mere moment compared with the six weeks or more that travellers spent on the ramshackle buses that trundled from Victoria coach station through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. But it’s no longer just the intrepid few making the journey. Now there are 1.5m visitors a year to Goa – more than its indigenous population of 1.3m. Roughly 250 charter flights leave from Britain alone during the tourist season, most of them filled with visitors from Newcastle, Manchester and London, drawn by £299-all-in offers and magazine articles with headlines such as Goan Have Fun and Give It a Goa.

I took the Mumbai option – which wasn’t much better – and wound up in Calangute, Goa’s commercial heart and its most popular package destination. Unfortunately, if the 1960s vibe is still there, it’s buried somewhere under the hundreds of tons of concrete that have gone into package hotels, nightclubs and shops selling tie-dyed shirts and sandals. If the bars served San Miguel instead of Kingfisher, Calangute would be hard to distinguish from the Spanish costas.

I quickly moved on, towards Palolem beach, one of the nicest and least spoilt spots in Goa, according to my guidebook. To get there, you drive for 2½ hours down the NH17 Goa-Bombay highway from Panjim, over the Zuari River, effectively the border between north and south Goa. Cargo ships loaded with manganese ore snake their way to Vasco da Gama, Goa’s harbour. The road stretches through rich, green fields to the vanishing point on the horizon. In the distance, hidden amid the betel, pepper and spice plantations, are gold-topped Hindu temples.

It looked promising after Calangute, but Palolem beach is no longer the postcard-perfect destination it once was. You may remember it from the opening scenes of the film The Bourne Supremacy. Jason Bourne looks for somewhere “off the grid” to hide from the CIA, and ends up at Palolem. What you don’t see in the film is the vast InterContinental hotel (where the cast and crew stayed) and the mini-city of coco-huts. One traveller I met blamed the “Lonely Planet effect” – thousands of visitors reading the same recommendation. “They should rename them Crowded Planet guides,” he said grumpily.

It was becoming clear that in order to enjoy Goa as it once was, you have to choose your destination carefully – serendipity is no longer an option, unless you have weeks to spare. That means a careful search on the internet before you go, or seeking recommendations from old Goa hands. The Lemon Tree, at Candolim, is an old Portuguese villa, now a five-star hotel with restored decor and private pool. It charges about £120 for a double room – a lot more than a hippie could afford, but a reasonable price to pay for the privacy it offers. The sheltered gardens are near the beach and not too far from Souza Lobo, a restaurant boasting India’s finest curries.

Other pockets of tranquillity include the Casa Baga, on Baga beach, a tiny 11-room hotel with a Balinese feel and a teak-decked roof terrace where you can watch the sun go down over the Arabian Sea.

But, really, to witness Goa in anything like its original pristine state – long, empty beaches, a scattering of coco-huts, a few fishermen’s boats pulled up on the sand – you have to track north towards a stretch of beaches across the mouth of the Chapora, Goa’s other great river. To get there, you pass Anjuna beach, where the original hippies settled. It’s still the epicentre of rave culture – a colourful, energetic place, but choked with bars playing Indian techno and bargain-hunters buying tom-toms and cheesecloth clothes.

Not until you reach Morjim beach does the atmosphere really begin to change. Morjim is also known as “turtle beach”, because the southern end is a sanctuary for rare olive ridley turtles. They once nested right along Goa’s coast, but increased tourism and pollution threatened River them with extinction. Locals who once sold the eggs are now paid to protect the creatures.

Panjim Accommodation is available at Britto’s guesthouse and Naga cottages (“air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned a speciality”).

Mandrem Beach, further north, is quieter still. Apart from a few elderly beachcombers, there was nobody else around, and the guesthouses all had vacancy signs. From here on north, you can discover the kind of peace and solitude that made those early travellers to Goa never want to leave. Querim beach, at the northern tip of Goa, is nothing but untouched sand and a couple of shacks.

After four sweaty days of travelling, this was where my Goan experience began. I settled down on a hammock that seemed to belong to nobody, slung in the shade between a couple of palms. I had a pile of books, bought for a few rupees from a book exchange by the side of the road. The only sound was the surf and the occasional thud of falling coconuts. A speck in the distance got closer; it took half an hour before the boy got close enough for me to read the sign on the rickety cart he was pushing – “Himalaya Ice Cream”. “Cool, man,” he said when I bought one and gave him a tip. Finally, Goa was beginning to chill out.

— Nick Rufford travelled as a guest of Somak Holidays and Virgin Atlantic

Ask our expert: Kerala or the Maldives? (http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/holiday_type/spas_and_lifestyle/article2491031.ece)
Miranda Allard advises a reader and her daughter on whether to spa in Kerala or the Maldives

Miranda Allard
Times OnlineSeptember 19, 2007

My 31-year-old daughter and I would like a week-long visit to a spa next February in either Kerala or the Maldives. We would like somewhere not too isolated (so we can venture out in the evening) and somewhere known for its good food. Have you any suggestions? Rosie Penna, UK

Times Online spa expert, Miranda Allard responds: Kerala and the Maldives could not be more different!

The Maldives are staggeringly beautiful islands with white coral sands and heavenly aqua blue water and there are some seriously wonderful spas to be found. However, as each resort is an island in itself there is nowhere to wander off to in the evenings and all meals can only be taken in one of the resort restaurants. If good food is important then you really do need to go to one of the more upmarket resorts. Due to lack of arable land most produce beyond fish and coconuts is imported into the islands - you definitely get what you pay for and it’s not cheap!

The spas on the luxury island resorts are extremely good with a philosophy of “East meets West” thereby offering a treatment menu to suit all. Budget is not mentioned in your question. Island Hideaway, Soneva Fushi and Coco Palm are three I would recommend though the first two are pricey. Both Island Hideaway and Soneva Fushi are large islands by Maldivian standards and offer a bit more space with bikes to use as transport. Coco Palm is less expensive but still very popular and all three can be reached by seaplane offering a sensational start and finish to the holiday.

Kerala on the other hand is India. Most spas are purely Ayurveda centres and if local culture and a traditional Indian spa experience is what you are after then this is the place. The Southern country is famous for its waterways and there is certainly more to explore when not in the spa. The beaches are large and open but not in the same league as the Maldives – this is ocean rather than coral reef waters.

International food is not always good but there are many local restaurants with excellent spicy dishes to try. Taj Green Cove Resort sounds like a serious option for you. The hotel is wonderful, the spa also offers international and Western treatments as well as Ayurveda and you can walk to nearby shops and restaurants. To be nearer the waterways Kumarakom Lake Resort is better positioned for small barge nature excursions through the jungle while still offering a great spa holiday.

Miranda Allard runs SpaContacts.com which features a limited selection of spas invited by her to join

I disagree. As a westerner, I think the vast majority has no problem with a nuclear India. After all it's a progressive modernizing democracy. We share the same values.


India is stable, responsible and totally trustworthy by virtually all Westerners.

Its true.
What the west doesnt like is authoritarian states getting tooled up.And as were democracies our leaders views more or less have to mirror our views.I've not met anyone who has a problem with India modernising in any way it decides.
Poeple are wary of China, mostly not becuause their smarter than us , but becuase they're a not a democracy.And ditto for pakistan

India: All write, that's enough (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/II27Df01.html)
MUMBAI - A British literary agent complained of warehouses now being needed to store unread manuscripts from Indian authors written in English. A slight exaggeration, maybe, but more Indians than ever before are tapping at computer keyboards to sell stories.

Shruti Debi, editor of New Delhi-based publisher Picador India, agrees the country is experiencing a deluge of writers in English, saying, "The warehouse is probably a bursting inbox."

The Internet, Debi informed Asia Times Online, has fed this word flood to publishers. "Contact-us addresses are on websites searched through Google, so it's not difficult or expensive, to inundate [us] with words. In an earlier generation, the physical challenges, the sheer geography would have been a hindrance or deterrent."

Manuscript warehouses or not, Indian publishers in English have come of age. This month, leading publisher Penguin celebrated two decades of business in India, the country with the world's largest population of people who can speak English.

Penguin opened shop in India with seven titles in 1987, but currently has more than 2,000 titles. Penguin India, Asia's largest English-language publisher, declared that it is targeting US$50 million sales this year.

From Mulk Raj Anand, R K Narayan, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, and Vikram Seth to Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra, India has its fair share of successful resident or, more usually, non-resident writers of English fiction.

Dean Mahomed (1759-1851) may not be too familiar to the nominating committee for the Nobel literature prize, but he is credited as being the first Indian author in English, as well as opening the first Indian restaurant outside India (in England).

The unassuming R K Narayan (1906-2001) lived to be one of the finest Indian writers in English, with his honest, delightful novels set in the fictitious southern Indian town of Malgudi and narrated in simple English spiced with his special sardonic brand of humor. He is probably the only Indian author in English whose novels were translated into a hit Hindi movie (Guide) and a prime-time television serial (Malgudi Days).

Ever since Vikram Seth (Suitable Boy, Golden Gate) and Arundhati Roy (God of Small Things) lit the world's literary marquee in the past two decades, and more recently the massive sales of J K Rowling's Harry Potter series in India (170,000 copies of Deathly Hallows sold in the first 12 hours of its calibrated July 21 release), signing a big-bucks book deal fires hopes among India's English-fiction writing hopefuls.

"There is a batch of new authors debuting, like Aravind Adiga, Tishani Doshi, Neel Mukherjee," said Picador's Shruti Debi. "Their first novels will come out next year, and having seen some of the manuscripts, the buzz and excitement [over Indian authors in English] is justified. Besides, Arundhati Roy's second novel is imminent, as are new novels by Amit Chaudhuri and Amitav Ghosh."

Visitors to India often comment on the high quality of English spoken among professionals in the country, but there thrives also a charming street version of the language that Penguin has celebrated by publishing this year the world's first dictionary of "Indlish", or English with Indian colors. A favorite Indlish example in Mumbai is "cutting chai", a half-glass of tea sold by street vendors.

India deeply absorbing English (the language in law courts, and the language in which the country's constitution is written) owes its spread to the freedom struggle against British rule, with leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru not only using English to communicate with people in other parts of the country, but also prolifically writing books, essays and letters in simple, clear English. Promoting use of clear English has even become a business in India (see Let us make this perfectly clear, Asia Times Online, December 21, 2006).

A geographical English divide also clearly exists, with northern India less enthusiastically embracing the language than southern India, which has become the primary base for the business-outsourcing industry. In Chennai, for instance, bus conductors quote fares in English, even to locals. More shop signboards in English are visible in the south than in the north.

"India has a unique position in the English-speaking world," David Crystal, a linguistics professor, wrote in The Guardian Weekly in Britain. "It is a linguistic bridge between the major first-language dialects of the world, such as British and American English, and the major foreign-language varieties, such as those emerging in China and Japan."

But life isn't easy for Indian authors in English. Thanks to the flourishing English media, six-figure (rupee; ie more than $2,500) monthly salaries are on tap in TV journalism, and five-figure salaries in the print media. But the average English-language book deal could be worth $1,500, and is usually less for non-fiction books.

Publishers aren't famous either for playing straight with royalties. A recent biographer of legendary Indian cricketer Prince K S Ranjitsinhji told this correspondent that publishers are rarely accurate with figures of copies sold.

Some enterprising publishers glibly "pay" authors with "free" copies of their own books. But such problems are no problems for India's best-seller hopefuls, never mind if their manuscript is destined for bookshelves or warehouses for the unread.

"Energy" - MIT hosts conference on 'Emergent India' (http://www.exduco.net/news.php?id=2348)
Sarah H. Wright
exduco.net, Italy
2007-09-26

Thirty experts on energy, education, industry, finance and urban design discussed India's economic growth, the foreseeable difficulties in sustaining and widening it, and its rising national energy needs in "Emergent India: An Engagement With MIT," a daylong conference held in Bartos Theater on Sept. 21.

Dean of Engineering Subra Suresh, opening the event, characterized it as an opportunity to reinforce and reinvigorate the 100-year history of ties between MIT and India--the first Indian alumnus of MIT graduated in 1907--and to explore future collaborations.

Adi Godrej (S.B., S.M. '63), chairman of the Godrej Group, an influential industrial conglomerate based in Mumbai, India, served as the morning keynote speaker. He noted his management studies at MIT helped him modernize and systematize the management structures in the Godrej Group, a century-old family business.

According to Godrej, capitalism is working as an efficient fuel for India, the world's fourth-largest economy: Bombay airport runs smoothly thanks to a public-private partnership, and steady service-sector employment, especially in IT, is expanding the middle class and driving private consumption as well as commercial and residential construction.

Godrej pointed to mobile telephony as a symbol of India's economic growth--7 million cell phones are sold there each month--and of its potential for wider social equality, essential if that growth is to be sustained.

"The sun doesn't shine equally on India: The western half of the country receives more investment than the eastern, and that geographical divide needs to be corrected. The biggest bottleneck is education. We have the largest illiterate population in the world, and the private sector should join in addressing this as it has other problems," he said.

Researchers specializing in energy, industry and public health echoed Godrej's views, with several conjuring a dire imaginary Venn diagram in which poverty, pollution and educational deficits overlap.

"Energy and India: Looking Into the Future," a panel moderated by Sanjoy Mitter, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, set the conceptual Venn overlap in a global context, with India as an urgent but hardly isolated case.

"India faces a perfect storm of energy challenges, and we will need a multiplicity of solutions to solve the problem. These are good opportunities for partnerships and for global collaboration," said Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems and director of the MIT Energy Initiative.

The elements of India's perfect storm include the anticipated tripling of its energy demands by 2050; the probability of disruptions in oil transportation and supply; and the mounting environmental problems caused by carbon dioxide (among other pollutants), Moniz said.

Moniz noted that solving the world's energy problems is a central concern for MIT: While developing nations may face India's perfect storm directly, no nation is immune from global climate change and impending energy crises.

Gregory Stephanopoulos, Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering, focused on processes to convert biomass to biofuel and urged the audience to consider visionary approaches.

Three issues are central to framing any picture of India's--and the world's--future use of biofuels, he said. There must be sufficient biomass and efficient bio-refineries to generate fuel supply; there must be alternative means of transporting the fuels, as in pipelines; and there must be investment in human infrastructure as well as engineering and distribution, Stephanopoulos said.

Charles Cooney, professor of chemistry and biochemical engineering, praised the MIT Deshpande Center's model of selecting research, directing projects and forging connections between researchers and the marketplace as a guide to building international teams for addressing energy problems.

(Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, CEO of Sycamore Networks and founder of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovations, gave the event's closing address.)

The panel, "Microfinance, Primary Education and Health: Understanding Poverty," gave a view from the ground of difficulties in meeting Godrej's goal of correcting inequities among India's 1 billion people.

Abhijit Banerjee, professor of economics, described how application of large-scale randomized experiments to measure the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in India revealed the workings of a public health disaster in one Indian district. The experiments, conducted by MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Laboratory (J-PAL), illuminated the morbid interplay among low immunization rates, high absentee rates among doctors and nurses, and unpredictable clinic hours.

Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development, applying the J-PAL method to measure primary education programs, discovered the toll of teacher absenteeism and remote school administrators.

Nachiket Mor, deputy managing director of ICICI Bank (formerly the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India), discussed strategies to widen access to credit and the importance of understanding household finances.

Panelists on "Competitiveness in Indian Industry" agreed generally that India resembles China in its shift from a low- to a high-tech work force and in its approach to faculty teaching loads: In both countries, faculty have very heavy teaching loads, which take time from research and slow industrial development.

Discussants included Steve Eppinger, deputy dean and professor at MIT Sloan; Yasheng Huang, associate professor of management; Shekhar Chowdhury, director of the Indian Institute of Management, and S.P. Kothari, Gordon Y Billard Professor of Accounting.

Adele Naude Santos, dean of the School of Architecture, led the presentations on the role of design and urban planning in India. Panelists included Rahul Malhotra, professor of architecture; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, associate professor of urban studies and planning; and Bish Sanyal, professor of urban planning.

Sanyal urged conference participants to view India's challenges as more universal than unique: The future of the world is already here.

"Emergent India: An Engagement With MIT" was organized by the MIT-India Program, the Office of the Provost, and the foreign languages and literatures section.

Moving on up in the outsourcing world (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070926.IBASIA26/TPStory/Business)
MARCUS GEE
Globe & Mail, Canada
September 26, 2007

When most people think of outsourcing, they picture a young Indian in a cubicle in Bangalore talking to a guy in Flin Flon, Man., whose computer is on the fritz. But the outsourcing business is changing. In the hurry-up world of globalized trade and commerce, the image of the chatty Indian in a cubicle farm is fading even before it has a proper chance to become a cliché.

Call centres kicked off the Indian outsourcing boom and they still bring billions into the Indian economy. The industry had revenues of $39.6-billion (U.S.) in the year that ended March 31, up a third from the year before. Other basic services such as software coding, payroll management and tech support continue to be the curry and naan of the outsourcing industry, providing more than half the revenues of booming Indian companies such as Wipro and Infosys.

But there's a problem: Indian wages are rising and other countries like Vietnam and the Philippines are competing with India for traditional outsourcing services (if that's the right term in an industry that barely existed 15 years ago). To meet the competition, the Indian outsourcing leaders are going upscale, moving into more sophisticated services with higher margins.

Wipro has gone from software coding to software development. Instead of just troubleshooting for company IT departments in Seattle or Halifax, it now offers to take charge of the company's entire IT system. Infosys has a thriving consulting business that advises companies on how to manage themselves better in a globalizing world. Hard-charging firms such as HCL Technologies, meanwhile, are helping companies with complex tasks such as business transformation and infrastructure management.

The trend reflects the industry's realization that succeeding at outsourcing means more than just a race to the bottom, in which the winner is the one who moves fastest to the next low-wage location. Indian outsourcers have to compete not just with each other, but with Western giants such as IBM and Accenture that are going head-to-head with them in India and around the world. The winner will be the one who provides not just cheap services, but performance and quality.

Over time, the outsourcers hope to move from cheap providers of basic back office services to becoming partners in the growth of their client firms. Under this model, an outsourcer that developed a breakthrough form of airline ticketing software for, say, Air Canada, might get a share in the company's enhanced revenues. Already, some outsourcers are moving from big, fixed, multiyear contracts to "gains-sharing" models that allow them to profit from the client's improved performance.

As they move up, outsourcing firms are also moving out - out of India, that is. While the bulk of their employees are still in India, where the sector employs 1.6 million people and indirectly supports six million others, leading outsourcers are diversifying geographically. Tata Consultancy Service, a branch of the giant Tata Group, has operations in Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and even Canada. Wipro has opened in Canada, Portugal, Romania and Saudi Arabia.

In what The New York Times called "a poetic reflection" of the trend, Wipro recently opened a software development centre in Atlanta that will eventually employ 500 people. Like an American multinational scouting for Third World locations for its factories, Wipro let it be known it was also considering opening centres in two "less-developed" states, Idaho and Virginia. So turn the tables of economic power.

The Times calls the trend the "outsourcing of outsourcing." Instead of seeing rivals best them by opening competing outsourcing operations in Morocco, Vietnam or the Czech Republic, Indian firms are opening offices in other developing countries themselves, beating competitors to the punch.

At first, most of the staff in these overseas offices are usually Indian, but Wipro says it aims to raise the number of local employees to one-third, from the current one-tenth, over the coming three years. It's not at all far-fetched that a Canadian firm with an Anglo-German parent might outsource its IT functions to a firm in Bangalore, India, which then sends the actual work to a Czech-Indian team of computer engineers in Prague. That's globalization for you, and outsourcing firms are at its vanguard.

Yet another reason to like Indian equities (http://www.asianinvestor.net/article.aspx?CIaNID=61940)
By Douglas Johnson
Asian Investor, Hong Kong
27 September 2007

Connecting worker remittances with the case for investment in South Asia.

“Why bother with India?”

After all, said my London colleague in late August, its near-term fundamentals are hardly inspiring, including a current account deficit and equity market overvaluation. The price gains we’ve seen in Indian equities – at least since registering challenging valuation readings in late 2006 – might well be attributed to the “madness of crowds,” he declared.

And yet, a few days later, another view arrived from Dubai. My driver there, the ever-professional Rashid, called me in New York to remind me that he’d be visiting his family in Kerala, India, from the end of September to the beginning of November. When I noted that his visit didn’t entirely coincide with Ramadan, he explained that he needed extra time to work on building his small house.

What was the significance of this tiny piece of evidence of heightened economic activity? We propose that there’s a core issue missing from the debate about India as an investment target: the role of foreign-worker remittances. We refer to the money that skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers send home to the subcontinent. This phenomenon provides a surprising degree of support for stories that too many global investors ignore because of their distant view of local market dynamics.

The remittance issue is not only relevant to India, but also to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and often-overlooked Nepal. It’s among the reasons why an asset allocation decision to “buy on any dip” may make sense region-wide, especially for the secular investor, whether public- or private equity-oriented.

South Asia: Global remittance leader

The World Bank estimates that India is the world’s single largest recipient of foreign-worker remittances, at $27 billion in 2006. Fold in the numbers for Pakistan and Bangladesh at approximately $6 billion each, Sri Lanka at almost $3 billion, and Nepal at nearly $2 billion, and we sum up one of the largest cross-border capital flows in the developing world.

Moreover, experts argue that recorded numbers here are wildly understated because they don’t include transfers through informal channels, such as the hawala network of honor-system money brokers. Another common means of value transfer in this sphere, gold jewellery, is typically categorized as an import rather than a remittance. Countless residual benefits of these remittances aren’t captured fully in government statistics, either, including effects such as likely improvements in financial system infrastructure.

Relative to the size of GDP within each regional economy, the remittance flows to India and Pakistan are comparatively small at 3% and 4%, respectively, based on recorded data. For perspective, however, the US military budget is of similar size relative to total US output. The figures for India and Pakistan also are in line with the data for Mexico, suggesting the numbers elsewhere on the subcontinent are truly burgeoning.

Dilip Ratha of the World Bank suggests that total remittances (both recorded and unrecorded) may be larger than official development assistance, foreign direct investment, or even private portfolio capital flows.

We know that remittances are counter-cyclical, help to finance education and health, and reduce poverty. But we don’t entirely understand their overall impact on economic growth, in part because of the presumed debilitating role of emigration on the origin country. Ratha has suggested that remittance flows can be securitized, noting that banks in Egypt, Kazakhstan and Turkey have raised long-term financing this way.

A mechanism needs to be found to take advantage of the rising inflows of foreign-worker remittances across South Asia, which the World Bank estimates have risen 17% annually for the past five years – and that doesn’t account for unofficial flows. These are not abstract notions; in Kerala alone, remittances are estimated to be seven times the size of the annual state budget.

Not all of South Asia’s remittances come from the Middle East, but the region is assuredly the dominant provider. The GCC nations may now be the world’s largest source of remittances. Back in 1990, in the wake of the economic boom supported by $22/barrel oil, Saudi Arabia was generating greater remittance outflows than the United States. With the oil price averaging $62 this year, it’s fair to conclude that not just Saudi Arabia, but the overall GCC region is generating unprecedented volumes of remittances, including both recorded and unrecorded flows.

Economic and investment implications

Presumably many exited the game of speculating in emerging markets in the wake of the Asian currency crisis. Assuming that near-term volatility is manageable, we see at least two long-term economic implications of the remittance backdrop for portfolio investors. These further support the asset allocation play into the region.

In our view, these inflows support local economic activity and act as an antidote to higher oil prices.

The global verdict on the growth impact of remittances may be inconclusive, but the results are more readily determined in South Asia, given the sheer volume of inflows. In Pakistan, for one, recorded remittances of about $6 billion in 2006 were roughly twice the amount of money spent on public and private health care. If we fold in unrecorded remittances, the number may approach, if not exceed, the annual value of textile exports, the largest tradable sector, at about $11 billion. Impacts are realized both secularly through heightened investment and cyclically through increased consumption.

Traditionally, higher oil prices link with inflation and therefore higher interest rates, leading to reduced economic activity. Yet research on the topic indicates that remittances have an important multiplier effect on the recipient economy, in part through the implied extension of credit associated with such remittances. Accordingly, it is no foregone conclusion that higher oil prices will have a net drag on the region, although we must acknowledge that South Asia is heavily dependent on crude imports.

We highlight some specific investment ideas, which merit further analysis than the surface-scratching here:

Bolster the gold price. Remittance data is notoriously understated because recorded statistics fail to identify the “hand carry” portion. This typically manifests itself in the hard business of gold jewelry throughout the Middle East. Dubai, of course, has one of the largest gold souks in the world. The actual gold trading volumes may be massive, driven in part by the perceived, if not real, high cost of electronic transfers. We think this may be an overlooked reason for the relatively close price movements between gold and oil over the past several years. Assuming robust oil prices, we argue this under-appreciated relationship may continue to be sustained.

Lend support to selected industrial sectors. Market specialists may be well-served by brushing off their earnings models and double-checking any assessment of consumer-oriented or financial stocks, especially of those companies that serve niche markets. We’re curious, for instance, about the potential for earnings contribution that roaming charges might hold for some local mobile service providers. Enterprises in household durables and related furnishings are also worth a second look. Certainly any financial institution with a growing remittance-service business merits further investigation. There may be a range of players here as price competitiveness in the wire transfer business suggests volume opportunities.

We like the once-a-cycle opportunity afforded by South Asia. We recognize that foreign-worker remittances serve as a key engine for activity on the subcontinent, and we believe these flows ought to command more attention.

Remittances are one (currently misunderstood) reason to buy the South Asian story on any near-term weakness. That fact that India, despite its fundamental challenges, held up as well as it did during the early stages of the subprime fallout suggests that many investors are prepared to argue the same.

Douglas Clark Johnson is CEO and chief investment strategist of Calyx Financial in New York

Evangelist Digby's passage to India (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2177788,00.html)
The former CBI chief is still lobbying for business but now on a global stage

Larry Elliott, economics editor
The Guardian, UK
Thursday September 27, 2007

"The good thing," says the ex-pat executive from the UK company sipping tea in the drawing room of the British High Commissioner in New Delhi, "is that this is a country where you don't have to pay. But you have to be prepared to wait and wait and wait."

Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham spots a monkey flitting across the lush lawns as he listens to the pros and cons of doing business in the country second only to China as an emerging market: no need for bribes but the patience of a saint as the bureaucracy inherited from the British grinds towards a decision.

On his first overseas trip since being appointed surprisingly - some would say controversially - to "bang the drum" for Britain in the global marketplace, Jones promises to get Gordon Brown to lobby his counterpart, Manmohan Singh, on next year's visit to the sub-continent. His three priorities for exporters, Jones says, are to speed the decision-making process for Britain's energy exploration sector, open the way for banks and insurance companies and ensure that a slug of the $300bn India is devoting to a much-needed improvement of its infrastructure over the next 10 years goes to UK engineers, architects, consultants and those expert in piecing together public-private deals.

Hard sell

He also has the task of doing the hard sell as a location for Indian inward investment into the UK, extolling Britain's flexible labour market and lack of protectionism. "We don't care what colour you are, what creed you are, what you believe. We don't care if we can't pronounce your name. If you've got money and skills we're happy to have you."

Lord Jones has quite a task on his hands. Britain's trade deficit, for example, is running at around £200m a day, and although India is set to grow by almost 10% this year, like China it accounts for a paltry 1% of UK exports. Yet, unlike most of his predecessors, Jones demonstrably gets a kick out of talking to business. His strength as director-general of the employers' organisation, the CBI, was to spend a lot of time touring the country finding out what his members wanted and then lobbying hard in Whitehall. His new job is more of the same, only with air miles.

"When I was called in to see Gordon Brown he said that for years I had been saying that the job of trade promotion minister should be given to someone who was not a career politician trying to climb the greasy pole but someone who knew about business, and that this was my chance to do just that.

"He said that he wanted me to do nothing else but promote Britain abroad and did I want to call my wife to talk about it. I said that I didn't want to call my wife," said the man who has taken a pay cut from £1.25m to £81,000 a year. "I wanted to call my bank manager."

He says he will devote two years to raising the profile of British business around the world with a demanding schedule that will see him make one long-haul visit, one short-haul visit and one UK visit each month.

His job is to run UK trade and investment. Most of his budget will be spent in the 30 or so countries that count as the UK's big trading partners, although he stresses that he still wants to "wave the union jack" in every small nation around the world. "But am I going to maximise my investment in key markets? Yes, I am."

India is seen as one of those key markets, and after the US has the biggest UKTI presence with 76 staff in nine offices. It may be money well spent. Harpal Singh, a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry and chief executive of a generic drugs company, said the relationship between London and New Delhi had changed in its nature and substance in recent years. In part, he added, that was due to India's faster growth, accelerating from 1% a year when it was the empire's jewel in the crown in the last half-century of British rule. The economy grew at 3% in the 1960s and 1970s, 5-6% after the liberalisation of the early 1990s and is poised to emulate China's double-digit expansion.

Britain, Singh said, was poised to do well as a result of its relaxed attitude towards outsourcing, the City's position post 9/11 as "the financial capital of the world" and the fact that Indian companies see Britain - just as Japanese firms did two decades ago - as a beachhead for the European market.

Jones agrees. "It is virtually certain that India will become the equal of China in the global wealth stakes within the next generation," he said.

Unflattering

Not every member of the party was thrilled when Lord Jones - Sir Digby Jones as was - agreed to take the Labour whip in the House of Lords (although not to be a card-carrying member). As the head of the CBI, he said some unflattering things about unions - dubbing them increasingly irrelevant in the globalised world. Some in the party were of the view that Brown's big-tent policy was all very well but that there wasn't a tent big enough to contain the new peer.

Jones admits that he was quite relieved to have a reason not to be in Bournemouth this week, but says the best way to deal with the criticism is to bring jobs to Britain through inward investment and secure export deals for UK firms abroad. "Britain has to pay its way in the world," he said on a train journey from the Punjabi town of Chandigarh to Delhi. "I can add value by not being a member of the party. The biggest constituency we have in this job is business and business does not want party politics; it wants to see things that are good for the country."

India leads South Asia's jump in business reform (http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/285802/cs/1/)
Malaysia Sun
Thursday 27th September, 2007

Led by India, South Asia picked up the pace of regulatory reform over the last year to become the second-fastest reforming region in the world, according to the World Bank's 'Doing Business 2008' report.

Now on par with the speed of reform in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), South Asia last year ranked lowest on the rate of reform. This year, two-thirds of its countries had at least one reform, said the annual report brought out jointly with the International Finance Corporation - the private sector arm of the bank.

India was considered the top reformer worldwide in trading across borders as it rose 12 places on the ease of doing business and made the reform of business regulation a policy objective.

Bhutan and Sri Lanka are the other top reformers in South Asia this year. Bhutan introduced the country's first fundamental labour protections. Sri Lanka made it easier to start a business and to trade across borders.

Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business. The top-ranking countries in South Asia are Maldives (60) and Pakistan (76). India improved its ranking to 120th this year-achieving a bigger gain than China, which rose by nine places to 83rd.

'The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most,' said Michael Klein, World Bank and IFC vice president for financial and private sector development. 'Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming-regardless of their starting point,' he added.

Large emerging markets are reforming fast: China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Egypt all improved in the ease of doing business. The report also finds that thanks to regulatory reform, more businesses are starting up.

India is now setting the standard for reform in South Asia, with an explicit policy objective to become a leading business-friendly economy, the report said.

Besides making it easier to trade across borders, India increased access to credit by expanding credit bureau coverage to individuals as well as businesses.

It also introduced an electronic registry for security rights granted by companies.

The report shows that the time to obtain a business license in India ranges from 159 days in Bhubaneshwar to 522 in Ranchi. The time to register property ranges from 35 days in Hyderabad to 155 in Calcutta.

If the top score among Indian cities in each of the 'Doing Business 2008' indicators were used for the country as a whole, India would rise 55 places in the aggregate country rankings. The Indian government is using this information to plan further reform, the report said.

The report also finds that higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees. 'The benefits of increased regulatory reform are especially large for women,' said Melissa Johns, an author of the report.

'Women often face regulations that may be aimed at protecting them. But the effect is counterproductive, forcing women into the informal sector, where they lose out on job security and social benefits,' she said.

'Doing Business 2008' ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business. The top 25 in the overall rankings are, in order, Singapore, New Zealand, the US, Hong Kong, Denmark, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Estonia, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Austria.

The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.

The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Since 2003, 'Doing Business' has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms around the world.

Worldwide the top 10 reformers are, in order, Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. In all, 200 reforms in 98 economies were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.

em, a lot of message of india.

Digby Jones urges end to India bureaucracy (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article2544019.ece)
Trade and Investment minister says barriers must be dropped for relationship between UK and India to flourish

Ashling O'Connor in Bombay
Times Online
September 27, 2007

Britain yesterday launched a new push into India as Digby Jones, the trade and investment minister, urged the Indian government to dismantle more bureaucratic barriers to entry for the bilateral relationship to flourish.

With a war chest of £1 million a year, against a previous budget of £75,000, the UK India Business Council - renamed and with a new chief executive - is tasked to improve opportunities for British companies in the world's fastest growing economy after China as well as attracting inward investment.

India is reporting annual GDP growth of more than 9 per cent and is becoming an increasingly active investor in Britain, but it still accounts for just 1 per cent of UK exports.

Lord Jones of Birmingham, on his first mission since his appointment by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to promote ‘brand Britain’ globally, said the opportunities for UK companies were still severely curtailed.

The former head of the Confederation of British industry cited the "ridiculous" rule that allows only 12 branch licences to be issued each year in India to the entire foreign banking industry.

"One British bank said it would open 100 branches in rural India, which would get more low income people engaged in banking, and applied for permission months ago," he said. "They haven't heard anything."

After a four-day visit taking in Delhi, Chandigarh, Poona and Bombay, Lord Jones said many British companies he had talked to, in the oil and gas sector in particular, had an inclination "not to bother" pitching for contracts in India.

"They're saying the issuing of the licence is fine but allowing them to implement it is taking an absolute age," he said. "If they're middle tier companies that costs a lot of money."

Lord Jones lobbied H R Bhardwaj, India's law minister, to speed the liberalisation of the legal and financial services sector - a potential reform that is being used by Kamal Nath, India's commerce minister, as a bargaining chip in protracted trade talks to force global blocs including Europe to drop distorting agricultural subsidies.

The opening of the "value-added" services sector to foreign investment would help British companies in their bid to be part of India's $350bn infrastructure upgrade.

"If you get the money men in, they will want to bring their lawyers and advisors with them. At the moment the vested interest within the legal profession in India is stopping that happening," he said. “It has got to open up to competition. India will be the better for it.”

Lord Jones, who took a pay cut from £1.25m to £81,000 to answer the prime minister’s call, claims he is different from previous trade ministers because he has no interest in climbing the "greasy pole" of career politics. He says he can also immediately challenge on points of business without “having to write to people and wait weeks."

His pledge to do one long haul, one European and one regional trip a month will see him return to India with Mr Brown in January. He plans three visits to the US in the next year.

The UK India Business Council was previously called the Indo-British Partnership. Its chief executive is Sharon Bamford, formerly chief executive of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.

India 120 out of 178.Note for all is woes pakistan was 76.Though how they rank it higher than China i can only guess.

India 120 out of 178.Note for all is woes pakistan was 76.Though how they rank it higher than China i can only guess.

No doubt India is behind several nations in terms of ease of doing business. Afterall, given our experiences with East India company one can understand government's apprehensions. But, this is no clean-chit to the bench warming, gutkha chewing babus.

Autopian Vision (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666271,00.html)
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/1023/gbsmallcarsts6.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)
Robots at Tata's factory in Pune, India weld together the mid-priced Indica sedans in an undated publicity photograph.

By SIMON ROBINSON / NEW DELHI
TIME MAGAZINE
Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007

If you want to get a sense of the potential of India's car industry, count the country's motorbikes. Buzzing along Mumbai's crowded highways, standing outside modest homes in rural villages or packed into the parking lots of Bangalore software firms, motorbikes and scooters currently outsell passenger cars more than 6 to 1. As the country's booming economy pulls millions of people into the middle class, the first vehicle most people buy has two wheels, not four.

That may be about to change. Around the middle of next year, Indian automobile manufacturer Tata Motors intends to launch a new model that will be so inexpensive, the company hopes it will trigger a revolution in car ownership, not just in India but throughout the developing world. The planned vehicle is called the "One-Lakh Car" because, Tata says, the rear-engine, 600-cc, four-door sedan will cost a lakh, or 100,000 rupees. At current exchange rates, the sticker price would be the equivalent of about $2,500. That's $3,000 less than India's current cheapest new car and on a par with the costliest motorbikes.

When Tata first suggested an ultra-cheap car a few years ago, other manufacturers scoffed, saying the project was a pipe dream. But if Tata lures away even 10% of the 6.5 million Indians who buy motorbikes every year, not only will it have a hit on its hands, it also will have expanded India's car market by more than half. Competitors aren't willing to cede that kind of market share without a fight. Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault-Nissan, recently announced that his company was looking at building a $3,000 car in India. Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Maruti Udyog (the Indian division of Japanese manufacturer Suzuki), Toyota and Volkswagen are also working on low-cost cars, though none of them have promised anything quite as cheap as $3,000.

Carmakers aren't just targeting India. Tata Motors has plans to export its econobox to Southeast Asia and Africa. Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors' parent company, Tata Group, believes his company can eventually sell as many as 1 million cheap cars a year worldwide. That may be a realistic assessment. Globally, up to 3.7 million such vehicles could be sold annually within the next few years, mostly in fast-growing markets like Brazil, China, India and Russia, says Abdul Majeed, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chennai (formerly Madras). "It's all about affordability and fuel efficiency," says Majeed. "The very cheap car is a trend big manufacturers can't miss out on."

This trend is spreading to some surprising places. When French carmaker Renault introduced the midsize Logan in 2004, it expected to sell the bulk of the basic sedans in Eastern Europe. But the Logan, which Renault builds in Romania and Russia and costs as little as $7,200--about 40% less than rival sedans--quickly took off in wealthier Western Europe as well. The car now sells in more than 50 countries, and Renault is struggling to meet demand. "Our aim is to produce the most affordable car in its segment, and because we're doing that well, we're starting to see more affluent buyers and families buying Logans as their second and third cars," says Sylvain Bilaine, managing director of Renault India, where the model launched earlier this year.

Building ultra-cheap cars is possible in large part because of low manufacturing costs in developing countries. Tata and other Indian automakers estimate that their engineering costs alone are about half what they would be in Europe or the U.S. At the same time, Tata has tapped the skills of Italy's Fiat, with which it has a joint venture in India, and of engine designers from Britain's West Midlands region, some of whom had been jobless after closures in Britain's auto industry over the past few years. Indian producers are relentless cost cutters. Many, including Tata, buy parts through Internet auctions to get the best price. Industry analysts speculate that the One-Lakh Car may revolutionize assembly, with some parts glued together rather than welded or bolted. Even so, Tata officials acknowledge that profit margins will be slim. The company is counting on high sales volume to generate significant earnings and create brand loyalty among customers, who will probably trade up to more profitable models in the future.

The company has yet to release a name for the car. "We should remove this perception of something that's going to be a dinky car," says Ravi Kant, managing director of Tata Motors. "It's a regular, wholesome car that will be a joy to drive, and of course it will have very good fuel efficiency." Will that be enough to convince India's aspiring classes? Tata expects at the outset to sell 20,000 of these cars a month in India, in part because consumers will see them as sa