The prestigeous Capital Club in Beijing on Wednesday night was host to a talk on developing trade routes between India and China by Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Senior Partner of Dezan Shira & Associates. Attended by members of the Indian, German and US consulates as well as people interested in the rise of India and China, the talk covered how centuries ago the two countries were linked by common trade routes streaching from as far as Shanghai in the east to Alexandria in North Africa, spanning the modern day countries of China, India, Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Iran.
Skipping to the present, with improved trade, air, road, sea and rail links between India and China, the visit of Sonia Gandhi and the imminent state visit of Dr Manmohan Singh, the opening up of the infamous Nathula Pass, all narrowing the distance between India and China, Chris Devonshire-Ellis pointed out how south west china was gradually re-integrating with South East Asia signaling the re-birth of the region. As a result of the growth and a more integrated South East Asia, he further highlighted opportunities in the infrastructure, transportation, logistics warehousing, hotels and tousism industries.

Taxi drivers they say are a good baraometer of the pulse of a city. Having just arrived in Beijing, I struck up conversation with my taxi driver to see what he knew of India. Almost immediately his face lit up & he said ‘Li zhi’!!, looking at my confused face he started singing the song Awaara hoon mein…., a 1951 super hit hindi song starring the former super star Raj kapoor - but in Chinese!! Recognising the tune so familiar to my ears i figured that Li Zhi was Raj Kapoor’s chinese name and almost immediately, all comminication hurdles fell apart. Bollywood was our great unifier! Being one of the first foreign films that the chinese were exposed to, Awaara and Bollywood is still big in China with conterfeit Hindi DVD’s available on every street corner, and colourful song and dance sequences and drama still captivating chinese audiences. Besides, films of yore being popular amongst the chinese, more recently Aamir Khan’s Lagaan, a film based on cricket, a sport completely ailen to the Chinese, was subtitled, dubbed and released in theatres across china. Serials such as Karishma Kapoor’s debut serial - ‘Karishma Miracles of Destiny’ are also attracting chinese eyeballs on primetime local Tv channels. 

Numbers:(”110″,”22″,”Million”)

Numbers:(”.606″,”1.606″,”%”)

CHINA’S DEVELOPING TRADE ROUTES WITH INDIA

Wednesday, November 28th, Capital Club Beijing, 6:30pm

In this third session of this highly popular series, and in the middle of two top level visits by Indian leaders to China, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Senior Partner of Dezan Shira & Associates will examine the implications of Sonia Gandhi’s meetings last month with Hu Jintao, the Tri-Lateral meetings India held with China and Russia in Harbin, and the forthcoming January State visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, to Beijing. Also to be discussed, as the two countries seek closer economic and trading ties, are the re-emergence of some of the old trade routes between China and India, including details of new direct flight paths, sea port connections and overland routes now being re-forged between these two Asian giants, and an introduction of the cities to be affected by this re-opening of trade, which is set to quadruple by 2009.

Spaces are limited so please book urgently: lidia.sakarapani@thecapitalclub.com

Few days back we were discussing the pace with which Indians and Chinese are getting richer today and the differences in the have and have nots.Hence I thought of writing this article, an example that’s in stark contrast to big industrial empires that rule in Mumbai and on the initiatives of the state to improve the infrastructure and the well being of its people.

Today I am on DHARAVI, routinely referred to as “Asia’s largest slum” Which is actually not the case. Today Karachi’s Orangi Township has surpassed Dharavi.
 
Recollect dailies stating that Mexico City’s Neza-Chalco-Itza barrio has four times as many people. 
   
If the day was quit clear and you were landing at Mumbai international airport, you would not miss, the slummers, spread over an area of 175 hectares! Dharavi, an economic unit, in its own, has over a million souls residing therein {18,000 people crowd into a single acre (0.4 hectare)}

Until the 19th century, this area was a mangrove swamp inhabited by Koli fishermen. When the swamp got filled (depriving the fisherman of livelihood) and later when the transformation of the island city of Mumbai city began thus providing newly drained marshes as space for new communities to move in. Hundreds of thousands came from Uttar Pradesh (north India), to work in textile industries. The Kumbhars came from Gujarat, north west part of India, to set up a colony of potters. Tamils, from the south, began to open tanneries. And what was the result: The state not having enough accommodation for the people , resulted in what exists today.

There is scarcity of every kind there. From housing, water supply- forget clean water, electricity and toilet facilities. The environments cant just be imagined by people like you and me …But then the statistics below also reveal the importance of the area in the economics of Mumbai:

-There have been textile and pottery industries, traditionally, and an increasingly large recycling industry. There are an estimated 15,000 single-room factories, manufacturing various things. You name it and Dharavi makes it. (more…)

Kajrare- A very famous Indian (Hindi) song having the best stars in it  -Amitabh, his son Abhishek with wife (recently married) and favorite lady of the World Ashwariya Rai (Chinese men adore here) all dancing together in this video but hold on, not on Karjrare. Some dude has changed the song with a Chinese one and have had his version put on YouTube!

Here’s the video. Enjoy for its pretty funny. I don’t quite understand the lyrics but Chinese colleagues said the singer is talking about what strengths men should carry. Wished he had put a better match in his creativity to make some Chinese dance too.

Numbers:(”7″,”14″)

Source- Mercer, the lowest ranked Asian market is India with higher taxes.

If you have been following our Comparator, you would know the statistics. The two have actually been making it quite difficult to fight global warming by increasing their dependence on coal.

Extracts from Standard & Poor’s report:

The extent to which these rapidly developing nations will be able to shift away from coal-fired generation toward low-carbon energy investments is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Rob Morrison, head of the financial services company CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, had this to say

A critical challenge to sustainable growth for India and China is both countries’ dependence on oil imports and coal, and a corresponding lack of initiatives to push for nonpolluting, renewable energy. One of the big issues is–growth at what price? Both countries are very dependent on imports for their energy requirements. So rising global prices are a key issue for them. Among the big economies of the region, we are the most bullish (esp. on banking, construction and real estate stocks) on India, adding that while China is attractive in the long-term, valuations are “excessive” at present. In India, prices have run up, but earnings have also expanded–averaging 25% to 27%, average earnings to continue to grow faster than 20% for the next fiscal year.

What do you think?

1. Is it high time that they be doing something to cure the situation and do you have some suggestions/alternatives
2. Are they somewhere correct in saying that the developed nations should be handling the situation first then they would…
 

 The Asian stock markets have made many rich globally and brought them down too. But then India & China has had some recent up’s that’s made & making many millionaires to billionaires.

Would you like to know some richest Indians who together value $180 billion!

1. Lakshmi Mittal, President of the Board of Directors of Arcelor Mittal, No. 1 again, worth $51 billion

2. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, $49 billion. Courtesy the bull run in the stock market last month net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion making him the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett. This video shows who was in the top ten list in the world, before Mukesh passed these guys.

Then watch this video that speaks of the rankings of Mukesh and others in the month of September, 07. The lady shown at the end of the video is Nita, wife of Mukesh who looks after the social and charitable arm of Reliance Industries.

3. Anil Ambani, Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -  $45 billion (Brother of Mukesh)

4. Kushal Pal Singh, Chairman, DL F Group, worth $35 billion after the listing of his flagship DLF and is also now the world’s richest real estate developer

The interesting point is that the four 4 together are worth more than 40 richest Chinese combined.

Now talking about Indian cities: lets have a look to see where the wealth lies:

The reports show that Mumbai and Delhi have topped the list. While there are 23 billionaires from Mumbai, Delhi has around 12. Pune and Bangalore has six billionaires each.

(more…)