China’s trade with India is growing faster than its trade with any other country. By 2015, both nations are expected to increase bilateral trade to become each others largest trading partners. China is already India’s largest trading partner, while India is one of China’s largest trading partners following Japan and the U.S.

China-India trade hit a record US$29 billion during the first half of 2008, growing at 69 percent year on year.  Sino-India trade clocked US$38.6 billion in 2007, trade sources told the Financial Express.

While India is known to import more from China than she exports to the middle kingdom, trade experts believe bilateral trade is on track. Sino-India trade is expected to reach US$60 billion by 2010, a target set by both Prime Ministers in 2005.

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As the dust settles on the Mumbai terror attacks its time to look at the larger picture, dig through the layers of diplomacy, uncover where years of history, ideology and finance went wrong and strive to solve the problem without aimlessly pointing fingers. Its been established that its not a Mumbai problem, the city was just a soft target and in all probability the present Pakistani government had nothing to do with the attacks but what hangs in the future is how the newly elected Pakistani and U.S. governments, work with an Indian government that’s fighting to stay in power for the next five years.

Analyzing what would probably be the three countries greatest test in foreign policy in recent times, Paul Kapur, a faculty affiliate at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and an expert on international security in South Asia, diagnoses events of the past week on a global scale and how he expects the situation to unfold.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Luxury Italian brand Versace expects Asia to overtake their US market, reigning second place in terms of revenue and investment, after Europe. Hoping that the financial crisis will not dampen consumer sentiments in Asia, Versace CEO Giancarlo Di Risio told the Wall Street Journal in Beijing on Wednesday, “Our plan for Asia [was] set two years ago,… We are sticking with that plan….By 2009 [Asia] will be our second largest market after Europe.”

The company plans to invest 45 million euros (US$56.5 million) to strengthen its presence in Asia and is opening 11 new stores this year — nine in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China, and two in Europe, including a home furnishings store in Milan.

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Some are for Obama, others McCain. Who wants which?

It’s not really our job here to cover U.S. politics, however, given that the American elections do have an impact on future policies, trade, disputes, on all countries globally, we’d like to share with you a fascinating piece, courtesy of the Guardian which details the political position, and desired candidates of several countries, and key among them the Asian and Central Asian capitals of Beijing: “America is going down while China is rising up;” Kabul: “Whoever wins must bring a new leadership;” Moscow: “We don’t beg from the west any more;” and Lahore: “McCain understands the Pakistan reality better,” amongst others.

It’s a great, insightful piece and you can find it on their website here.

Its a Friday and we’ve read weeks of depressing Asian news - the food crisis isn’t over yet, the monsoon has left death and destruction in its path, inflation has hit a 2-3 year high and now to top it all, Asia seems to be buckling under the Wall Street crash. At a time when nothing seems to going right in the world, we turn to alcohol, more refreshingly Beer.

Beer is not just a thirst quencher in Asia, its not just guzzled after work in dark bars by brawny men, instead its a fine accompaniment to Asian cuisine, its a flavorful drink to sip while rafting down the Mekong, listening to monks drone their scriptures.

Most Asian countries have their indigenous beers. Voted as Time magazine’s best Asian beer in 2004, BeerLao, with it’s an arrestingly crisp brew, tops the list for many Asian beer connoisseurs. However, Singha from Thailand, Kingfisher from India, Tsingtao from China, Kirin and Sapporo from Japan, Taiwan beer from Taiwan, 333 and Bia Saigon from Cambodia, Angkor from Laos, San Miguel from the Philippines and Tiger from Singapore too have a large patronage. (more…)

Lofty skyscrapers are sprouting out of the earth almost everyday in emerging Asia and investment funds are hoping to fill the gap created by Indian and Chinese developers dearth of funds. Just recently, JP Morgan and AMP Capital Investors, announced infrastructure investment funds of US$1 billion and US$810 million respectively. Primary markets for these funds are cities in India and China, with a secondary focus on South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Across emerging markets (EM), a boom in infrastructure building is underway. In power and water, property, ports and airports and beyond, emerging markets governments and private sector players are deploying unprecedented amounts of capital to upgrade the emerging world. We forecast a total of US$21.7 trillion in infrastructure spending in EM over the next decade, with Asia representing 67% of this total (China expected to make up 43% of spending and India 13%), Morgan Stanley mentioned in a recent report on Emerging Markets Infrastructure.

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India’s Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee is curently on a four day good will visit to China. Admist talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi over border issues, Mukherjee inaugurated the Consulate General of India in Guangzhou city and expressed interest in visiting the earthquake hit Sichuan province before returning to India on Friday.

Although Mukherjee’s meet with Premiere Wen Jiabao was called off,�he will�hold talks with Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping�today. Xi, was appointed to be Vice-President in March and is tipped to be Hu’s successor when he completes his second term in 2012.

Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi accepted his invitation and agreed to visit New Delhi later this year. Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese parliament, is also scheduled to visit India this year.

According to Xinhua news agency, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has hailed the comprehensive development of the China-India relationship, saying it was ‘at the best period of development in history’, and faced ‘important strategic opportunities’.

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The National geographic recently ran a quantitative consumer study of 14,000 consumers in 14 countries asking them about such behavior as energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability, and knowledge of environmental issues.

This survey resulted in the “Greendex” a scientifically derived sustainable consumption index of actual consumer behavior and material lifestyles across 14 countries. While India and Brazil topped the list due to their relatively lower environmental impact from housing, low meat consumption and above-average performance on transportation and food, China came in fourth.

In India, 40 percent of the respondants prefer to repair things rather than replace them. 33 percent live close to places they need to go to on a daily basis, 47 percent are willing to pay more now for energy-saving appliances than pay more for them in the future, 84 percent eat locally grown products, 72 percent never eat beef and 76 percent never eat pork, while 17% always bicycle.

Almost on par with India, Bicycle friendly China lags behind due to its massive use of coal for home heating. The survey says that one-third of the Chinese population repairs broken goods, and a majority of them use public transportation. Even as the Chinese cycle less, and their demand for luxury cars rises, they express and above-average preference for avoiding enviromentally un-friendly products.

After being smuggled onto Asian shores, for the past few months, Apple’s iphone is finally officially coming to four Asian countries - Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia, Singapore’s Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and Apple told Reuters. Entering the these highly charged markets will enable Apple to surpass its sales goal of 10 million units by the end of 2008.

While Vodafone and Bharti Airtel will carry the phone in India, the world’s fastest-growing wireless market, SingTel unit Optus will offer the iPhone in Australia, and Globe Telecom will be the Philippine partner. SingTel owns more than 30 percent of Bharti Airtel and also owns a majority of Optus and Globe Telecom.

An Apple spokeswoman said the iPhone would make its debut in those countries “later this year,” and declined to comment on plans to bring the iPhone to Japan and China.

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�HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

People gather to watch a lion dance performance during Chinese new year in Kolkata’s Chinatown. Kolkata in east India boasts the country’s largest Chinese population. Indians and Chinese together brought in the year of the Earth rat.

The year of the golden Pig which finished yesterday was truely a golden period for China’s superpowered growth. In 2007, the economy grew by 11.3%, the fastest rate in 13 years, stock prices on the main Shanghai bourses hit a record high of 6,000 having risen six fold in two years, foreign exchange reserves surged over $1.4 trillion thanks to booming exports and PetroChina became the planets most valuable company�- one of five Chinese firms in the world top 10.

In contrast, the year of the Earth rat starts with more expectations as the west looks to China to anchor it against recession. Inflation is at a 10 year high, share prices have fallen 25% from their peak last year, export growth is under pressure from a rising currency and the coldest winter for half a century has paralysed large parts of Central and Southern China. ~ lets just hope the worst is already behind us and the Olympics later this year bring China and all our readers a lot of warmth, wealth and happiness.