India and China neighbors although they are, the two countries still don’t see eye to eye on all issues political or economic. Today, even though economists may celebrate the increasing trade between the two nations, its still comparatively very small and India and China both need to reach across the lofty Himalayas to cement ties.

Of late the border issue has been thrown up again with China classifying it as ‘a very sensitive issue’ and India forming human chains on the borders to keep China out. The picture alongside demarcates the disputed areas at the border. Unfortunately, the land dispute between India and China is steeped in history and will probably never be solved. However, we need to look into our past to find solutions into the future.

The following is a chronology of events by NDTV marking Indo-China relations since India’s independence until 2002 when Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited India. Six MOUs were signed in New Delhi then to enhance cooperation in Science and Technology, outer space, tourism, phytosanitary measures and supply of hydrological data relating to the Brahmaputra river between India and China.

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An interesting article from the Economist explains and analyses the various reasons behind the runaway inflation in the world. It warns not to repeat the mistakes of the past, while trying to find solutions to the future. Excerpts from the article are below….

EVEN as America’s economy teeters on the brink of recession and many European economies are slowing, central bankers in rich countries fear rising inflation. Yet the risks they face are smaller than those in emerging economies, where inflation has risen far more over the past year to its highest for nine years. There are also an alarming number of similarities between developing economies today and developed economies in the early 1970s, when the Great Inflation took off. Are the young upstarts heading for trouble? 

China’s official rate of consumer-price inflation is at a 12-year high of 8.5 percent, up from 3 percent a year ago. Russia’s has leapt from 8percent to over 14 percent. Most Gulf oil producers also have double-digit rates. India’s wholesale-price inflation rate (the Reserve Bank’s preferred measure) is 7.8 percent, a four-year high. Indonesian inflation, already 9 percent, is likely to reach 12 percent next month, when the government is expected to raise the price of subsidised fuel by 25-30 percent………..

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Long before Oxford, Harvard or MIT ever made their mark on the global academic stage, Nalanda University in Bihar, (north-east India) attracted students from across Asia. Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, and surviving until 1197, Nalanda, meaning Giver of knowledge in Sanskrit was one of the first great universities in recorded history. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.

The university was an architectural and environmental masterpiece. It had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the university’s heyday and providing accommodations for 2,000 professors. Nalanda was also the most global university of its time, attracting pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.

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Economics may have shaped the Asia of today but politics are forging its tomorrow, says Bill Emmott, the former editor of The Economist, in ‘Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade’ a striking new book that predicts a dangerous power struggle between China, Japan and India.

Emmott explains to the Times Online that prosperity is not an automatic stabilizer. “Economic growth is a process, not a destination,” he writes. History has not been abolished or forgotten. War is not inevitable but neither is it inconceivable. The rise of China threatens Japan. The revival of Japan challenges China. The arrival of India as an economic and political actor creates a balancing power. All the while, titanic forces reshape global trade and wealth.

Excerpts from the book, also available on Times Online say Rivals is clever and concise. It opens with a look at the power game in Asia and goes on to examine the three countries in turn. It restores Japan to the trinity of big powers in Asia. It weighs up the opportunities offered by China against its primitive political system. It examines the claims of India to first-rate status but says “not yet”.

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Melting Himalayan glaciers, which perennially feed the Ganges and Yangtze, India and China’s main rivers may soon dry up in summer, leading to drastic food shortages at a time when prices and populations are growing unanimously. China and India are the world’s leading producers of both wheat and rice, humanity’s food staples. In the Ganges, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, this loss of dry-season flow will shrink harvests.

“In a world where grain prices have recently climbed to record highs, with no relief in sight, any disruption of the wheat or rice harvests due to water shortages in these two leading grain producers will greatly affect not only people living there but consumers everywhere,” the Times of India quoted Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute as saying.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that Himalayan glaciers are receding rapidly and that many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, it warned, the Ganges could become a seasonal river, flowing during the rainy season but not during the summer dry season when irrigation water needs are greatest.

Moreover, Brown said, in both of these countries, food prices will likely rise and grain consumption per person can be expected to fall. In India, where just over 40 per cent of all children under five years of age are underweight and undernourished, “hunger will intensify and child mortality will likely climb.”

The Ganga is the largest source of surface water irrigation in India and the leading source of water for the 407 million people living in the Gangetic Basin, a population larger than any other single country other than China. The Yellow River and Yangtze basin hold a similar position in China.

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Kamal Nath, India’s Minister of Commerce provides his comments on how to maintain India’s growth and what lies ahead.

The full interview with Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Senior Partner, Dezan Shira & Associates in Delhi

Kamal Nath is the third of the big three of Indian foreign politics – after Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Chidambaram, who we interviewed yesterday, and Kamal Nath, the charismatic and globe trotting Minister of Commerce. Together, these men represent the unified force of a resurgent India, united in views and passion for the country, and amongst the most recognizable Indian politicians around the world, these are globe trotting reformists, determined to battle the negativity of coalition politics and underpin India’s long awaited position at the high table of world trade. In this frank discussion, Mr. Nath touched on many issues, but especially the desire to get government out of the way and allow the private sector to flourish.

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India’s Finance Minister lays down his reasoning India will escape a US recession, plus comments of Indian Government Corruption.

The full interview with Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Senior Partner, Dezan Shira & Associates in Delhi

Meeting with India’s Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, is always a lesson in elocution and delivery. One year ago, when we last met him in our annual series of meetings with Indian Ministers in Delhi, he was shy, somewhat reserved, yet bullish. India was doing well, with growth rates at a consistent level of between 7-9% looking sustainable, and the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, stating to us that as long as India could keep such growth rates, it could afford it’s massive redevelopment, infrastructure and rural expenditure needed to lift the country into a true democracy with all people able to share in it’s wealth. “As long as those rates are sustainable” both the PM and Mr. Chidambaram chorused, “India’s continued development is assumed”.

Just a year on, we are faced with a different set of issues that could impact upon the Indian, and quite possibly, other emerging market economies, especially that of China. The US sub-prime crisis has dried up liquidity and seen money vanish. The US dollar is approaching record lows. The price of gas has just exceeded USD100 a barrel, respected international financial institutions are going bankrupt, and the prices of commodities in foods and metals have doubled and tripled. A year on, it’s not just a matter of India bullishness. A large blot has appeared on the landscape.

Sitting down with Mr. Chidambaram we had just one question to ask in our hour long discussion: “Can India escape a potential US recession ?”

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In an age of practicality, nations aren’t purchasing blessings

Recent events in Tibet and the ethnic Tibetan parts of Western China this past couple of weeks have lead to much press about the China-Dalai Lama conflict and the apparent struggle for control of the region. It’s a complicated issue, fraught with deceit, mystique, sadness and an apparent inability to see towards a solution. Perhaps, however, when a solution is already to hand, it is no longer necessary to search for it.

The question of Tibet goes way back, to the middle ages, and the Mongolians. A rejuvenated Altun Khan, a direct relative of Genghis and Kublai Khan, reuniting the Mongolian empire following the death of Genghis and a factional Mongol war amongst its territories, was reclaiming parts of its Empire lost.

Tibet, always at risk from invasion from Mongols at the time, had bought off an invasion and retained autonomy by agreeing to provide blessings and salutations to Mongolian kings (khans) over the preceding centuries. Accepting Buddhism as being the closest thing to Mongolia’s own shamanistic beliefs, the Mongolian Khans, who ruled much of China at this point, where all too happy to be officially ‘anointed’ by the spiritual leader of the religion, adding a divine acknowledgement of their right to rule.

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Yesterday, i went to a popular bookstore to ask for Tarun Khanna’s book - Billions of entrepreneurs - How India and China are reshaping their futures and yours - it was totally sold out! The man at the counter said that there had been a massive demand for the book. I gave him a wry smile, the huge demand for the book and India’s huge interest in what lies behind the bamboo curtain meant to me that it was going to be an India and China century and not an India Vs China century. It also meant that my move from India to China 2 years ago to understand how the two economies together can complement eachother, thereby adding more to the world at large was a wise decision. The world was headed in the right direction.
Authored by the Harvard Business School professor of Indian origin, reviews of the book say that it talks of tales of how global companies have navigated their wares successfully into India and China. Through real life examples it gives impetetus to other companies in how to weave their way into these two very different markets. Khanna contrasts the two economies in the areas of technology, healthcare, movie making, oil, banking and agriculture, all the way comparing not contrasting one against the other, showing how the two actually complement one another - representing a balanced picture. He explains to the world, who have until now looked at India and China through the same lens, how different the two economies, cultures, governments and managers in each country are.

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 While reports done by various bodies, independant or governmental differ in blaming India or China as the more polluting country, the quality of our air, water and soil continues to deteriorate. It might be a population problem or the fact that we are developing countries and that pollution is a by-product, nonetheless to the common citizen it seems like little is being done to create a better world for gen next.
A recent story by the Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lets_Work_Together/articleshow/2716049.cms
talks about enviroment challenges and the road ahead. While comparing Beijing and New Delhi, the article points a finger at all the avtaars of pollution - plastics, people and poaching. The story also highlights steps taken by the government and international agencies - the recent MoU signed between India and China during Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit in the areas of co-operation in land resource management, scientific research and development projects, sustainable development in agriculture and the civilian use of nuclear energy. It also includes efforts taken by the International Eneregy Agency and the US based world-watch institute.

Additionally, the article covers Dr Manmohan Singh’s diplomatic response to the debatable topic, should developing countries cut pollution levels as much as developed countries who have already polluted the enviroment during their developmental phase?