Yesterday Pakistan became the first South Asian nation to adopt daylight - saving time, pushing clocks forward by one hour. The three-month experiment although aimed, as elsewhere, at cutting energy costs by taking advantage of long summer days, will create chronological confusion in Asia, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Consider this: Pakistan lies west of India and is usually half an hour (yes, half an hour) behind its political archrival. But by winding its clocks forward today, Pakistan is now half an hour ahead of India, whose time remains unchanged. The situation seems a little absurd, like California being ahead of Utah.

Or take India and its little neighbor Bangladesh. Imagine India as a friendly country with its arm slung over Bangladesh’s shoulder. The hand on the shoulder is India’s northeast corner, a sizable chunk of territory connected to the rest of India by a thin arm of land.

Now, a Bangladeshi who crosses his country’s western border finds himself in India, whose time is set to half an hour behind Bangladesh. So far, so good. But if he goes in the opposite direction, across the eastern frontier, he finds himself in India yet again, and still has to turn his watch back 30 minutes, even though the sun will rise earlier than it did when he was at home.

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Jet Airways finally publically announced their special introductory Mumbai-Shanghai fares on Friday. They will fly between the two commecial capitals for RMB 3680 (US$527) + tax only if you buy the ticket between 16th-31st May and fly between 15th June- 15th July. �The introductory ticket has a one month validity.

Not to be outdone, Air India, India’s little Maharaja, has reacted to its new competition. Air India promptly cut Mumbai-Shanghai fares to RMB 3230 (US$462) + tax. The offer is valid for a fortnight, from June 15th - 30th.

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In addition to competing for natural resources in Africa, India and China have now set their sights on mobile phone subscribers. Leading mobile companies in both China and India - China Mobile and �Bharti Airtel are fiercely trying to acquire Africa’s MTN Group Ltd, the continent’s biggest mobile-phone operator, China Knowledge reported.

China and India have often been compared as the rest of the world adjusts to the presence of new economic powers, but rarely have representatives of the two nations competed head to head on a deal. China�s government-controlled entities have invested and lent billions of dollars to African countries in recent years, while private companies in India have concentrated more on shopping outside the nation�s borders.

According to MTN’s statement to its shareholders, it has started to negotiate with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile-phone carrier, on the acquisition. But analysts believed China Mobile as well as China Telecom will probably become the two strongest competitors against Bharti Airtel. “There are many phone operators in Africa,” Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile’s president told reporters in Hong Kong. The Beijing-based parent company of China Mobile Ltd. “hasn’t participated in the bidding” for MTN Group Ltd.,�Wang added, who didn’t say whether the Chinese company is interested in making an offer later, reported Bloomberg.

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The�quest for natural gas has brought age old enemies India and Pakistan to seek an agreement, allowing a pipeline from Iran to bring energy to Pakistan and India.”I am very optimistic about the IPI (Iran, Pakistan, India) pipeline as it would go a along way in meeting India�s energy requirements in the long run,� Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora�told The Hindu on Sunday. The US$7.4 billion�, 2,700-km-long pipeline is scheduled to be completed by 2011 and would initially carry 600 million cubic metres of gas per day.

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If its not politicians and huge trade volumes that bond countries in Asia, its got to�be films.

After 43 years of not a single Pakistani film being screened in India, Shoaib Mansoor directed �Khuda Kay Liye� (�In the Name of God�) was released to rave reviews in India. Its the first Pakistani film to have crossed the border since the India-Pakistan war in 1965, when Pakistani films were banned in India.�

The effect has been a cultural two-way mirror dividing the countries, with Pakistan able to observe India (or a gaudier Bollywood version of India), but with Indians unable to see beyond their own frontiers.

The film�gives many Indians their first glimpse of Pakistan.� In a New York Times interview after the first screening of his film in India, Mansoor said �They had very surprising ideas about Pakistan. They asked: �Do you have taxis there?� �Can women drive?� �Are women allowed to go to university?��Besides the initial shock of Pakistans development, the viewers were also amazed by the unexpected beauty of Pakistani houses�

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Indian football has just recieved a shot in the arm. After pouring in millions of dollars into European clubs and more recently into Chinese football clubs, Chelsea, one of the Premier League giants is playing center field with India.

“Our credentials are well known in the area of grassroots development and if we can find a way of working together in India as well, there is a real opportunity of making Vision India come true as partners,” Peter Kenyon, Chief Executive, Chelsea football Club told AFP.

India and China are two of seven pilot countries in the Vision Asia development project, along with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Oman, and Vietnam.

Under the Indian program, Chelsea could be involved in developmental projects in Manipur, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where the AFC’s Vision India project has already been launched.

It is also likely to send instructors to India for coaching young footballers at the school level, and hold workshops for clubs on all aspects of the game, including dealing with the media and the commercial aspects.

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More than a century after Mahatma Gandhi went to South Africa, and a decade after China began to woo the rich continent for its natural resources, foreseeing the need for energy, India is following suit. The India-Africa Forum Summit, to be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh will begin tomorrow.

The meet is being attended by Heads of States of 14 African nations, who have the mandate of the entire continent as they have been chosen by the 54-nation African Union itself, the Hindu reported.

During the two-day summit India is likely to announce technology transfers and duty cuts for certain imports from Africa and assistance in developmental projects while striving to tap the immense mineral resources in that continent.

An Action Plan for furthering cooperation in areas like environment, health, education, energy and mining will be issued at the Summit, which could form a precursor for broader India-Africa Summit.

The Summit is also expected to issue a Declaration that will address broader areas of cooperation and “common views” on regional and international issues, including fight against terrorism, climate change and WTO negotiations.

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With many thanks to the Economist and their senior editor for Asia, Anjelika Bardalai, we republish�her presentation slides from the recent 13th Business Roundtable with the Government of India, held March 25-26 in New Delhi.

According to Ms. Bardalai, growth is set to slow to 7.5 percent throughout 2008/9. However, as was noted in our meetings with Indian Finance Minister�P. Chidambaram, this is still an impressive figure and the second highest globally after China, even during a potential U.S. downturn.

The presentation is an effective summary of the situation that we reported on during our meetings with the�Indian finance and commerce ministers�last week, confirming our own views on the likely trends based on current fundamentals.�India looks strong.

To download the slides, please click here.

FINALLY!! there’s relief for frequent flyers between Mumbai and Shanghai! No longer will passengers have to wait at unearthly hours at airports during stop overs, or suffer 12 hour journeys, for�an otherwise 7 hour flight. After two days of negotiations in New Delhi, Jet�announced it would�start flying the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route from May 4th. Insiders also�say there is a strong possibility�Jet will�soon start flying Mumbai-Beijing as well. Air India, which currently only flies to Shanghai is also expected to start flying to Beijing and Guang Zhou soon. India currently operates four flights to Chinese cities. China operates 18 flights to India. �

On Thursday, negotiations between Indian and Chinese aviation authorities concluded that airlines of both sides can fly on to a maximum of two cities each in three regions. While India asked for Canada-US; Australia-New Zealand and Asia. China has asked for � Africa, Middle-East (including Gulf) and Europe � as the three regions for its carriers.

A month ago 2point6billion.com, had reported that the deal would be signed, sealed and stamped in Jet’s favour in a month (http://www.2point6billion.com/2008/02/18/jet-setgo/)

The much awaited direct flights are expected to boost economy and cultural ties between the two silk route nations. Trade between India and China has only ballooned from the begining of this century. During the year 2000-01, the bilateral trade volume was barely US $ 2 billion. This increased to US $ 11.3 billion in 2004-05, current bilateral trade stands at an excess of US $ 15 billion. Since 1997-98, Indo-China trade has registered a growth of 260% i.e., average yearly growth of around 33%.

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The third ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) hosted by India commenced on March 3, 2008 in New Delhi. Although SAARC - The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, comprising India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan�and Pakistan, hasn’t had the desired impact that NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) has made, changes are clearly in the pipeline.

Business Line spoke to the Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, on a range of issues that have hobbled this grouping from achieving tangible gains. Ramesh had visited Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and is due to visit Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan before end-June 2008.

“India�s globalisation is incomplete without closer engagement in South Asia. India cannot do bypass surgery on South Asia-this notion in India that we can be a global player and couple our economy with the American economy bypassing our own neighbours - we can�t couple with America and decouple from South Asia - is not possible. We need to understand that the foundation of our globalisation rests on closer regional cooperation in goods, services and, most importantly, in investments,” Ramesh said.

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