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.

Indian and Chinese food is cherished all over…so much so that there are new restaurants being opened for their lovers worldwide. Just heard of two fine dining places breaking new grounds in Louisville and guess what they have plenty in store for you.

One of them is Royal India- this is turning out to be the hottest in town and has had reviews of being the topper so far as Indian food goes and gets its credits for the following reasons:
( & these could be tips for entrepreneurs looking at restaurants as the next venture !)

a. a wide selection of familiar Northern Indian dishes
b. the only place in town where you can find the taste of South India
c. attractively decorated with pale green walls and bright paintings of Indian villages along with attractive mahogany chairs
d. Indian music- playing quietly in the background- this reminds me of the Taj Pavilion in Beijing
e. a crazy selection of main dishes — 46 meatful dinners and 16 vegetarian choices

Lets now see what’s brought the Chinese one (called as Red Pepper Chinese Cuisine) the limelight it has:

a. Chinese-American as well as “authentic Chinese” menu
b. wide selection of more than 100 familiar dishes
c. excellent Chinese green tea
d. a skilled Sichuanese chef- from Chicago’s Chinatown

So if you want to try out the Cumin lamb, a West China specialty, or the Dosa, Idli & Sambhar with the coconut Chutney (first picture) from south India, you know where you need to head out when in Louisville.

Where do you think do the Multinationals look if they want to keep getting those dollars rolled in 24/7. It’s our two favorite nations on everyone’s “hit and hot list”.

To explain further we could talk about General Electric (GE) and its current move:

In China, GE appears to be making headway: The country is now one of the company’s largest foreign markets, with $5.4 billion in revenues last year, a nearly 4 times increase since 2001. GE has 12,000 employees in China and 23 joint ventures with Chinese firms

Presently the entire GE’s global businesses has a presence in India. Its revenues in India are close to US $ 1.7 billion. Employment across India exceeds 13,000.

By 2010, GE hopes its India business to improve to $8 billion - 16 per cent of the projected turnover of $50 billion from the emerging markets. Here is what the GE Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt had to say on the sales prospects in India and China:

“

China is a centrally planned economy where there’s the prospect of large contracts, sold often through government organisations. We’re getting sales of $5bn-6bn a year in China and this is expanding fast. What we need to do in the next few years in China is go in a direction that you might label “downmarket”. By this I mean that at present we get a lot of sales in China by selling large projects such as big medical scanners. In healthcare, we probably sell $800m-$900m of systems such as these in China, along with related healthcare services. But we could probably double the total sales [in healthcare in China] if we had a bigger range of smaller, cheaper products that we could sell more widely. In India, GE’s sales are about half those in China. The economy here is driven by a buoyant entrepreneurial culture. The government doesn’t really add anything, apart from bureaucracy. So in approaching the business of selling there you have to use a different style to doing the same thing in China.”

His comments recently :

“The fastest growing countries for us are the emerging economies including China, India, Russia and Latin America….

Read here to know more on what GE Head has to say.

GE is securing its own light from China and India and so is the rest of the world.  C&I just needs to relax and keep encashing those FDI cheques as the world seems to be taking care of them for in turn securing themselves.

Both nations are growing and prospering. But then there are always two sides of a coin. We all generally just talk about the goody - goody things happening in them. How much a poor gets affected by the positives that benefit a rich are often ignored. They pay the price.

No we not here to talk about rich vs. poor widening gaps in emerging economies. Growth in C&I (I would like to avoid repeating “China and India” every time, so C&I for short) is the buzzword. I share here the impact of rapid economic growth in C&I on food inflation with this audio clip from VOA’s Asia News Center in Hong Kong which talks about how the rising middle class in the two nations with their high incomes and improving consumption patterns impacts the food prices making them highly volatile.

An excerpt from the clip

“….In August, China’s inflation rate hit its highest level in more than a decade, with food prices up more than 18 percent from a year earlier. Officials in India are concerned about costlier food, despite its relatively stable inflation rate…”

Let’s see how the Indian and Chinese markets performed the last two days:

Sensex, BSE’s Benchmark Index surged to 789 points on Tuesday- the max in a single day to close at 18,280 points. It was the energy and telecommunication companies that led the rise, and we know its Reliance.

Watch its live graph here

Yesterday, the Sensex ended up 2% per cent at a record close of 18,658.25 after hitting a lifetime high of 18,703.67 during trade. 19,000 is not far away.

Head of research at Techno Shares & Stock said

“The market does look poised to touch 19,000. This is purely a liquidity play, which many of us have not seen in several years and this madness will continue till the liquidity lasts, and I would not be surprised if we witness a fall of 1,500 points in a day.”

In China, it was shares of banks, steel and winemakers that have soared the markets
The Shanghai Composite Index gained 23.13 point to 5,715.89 on Tuesday while next day it gained 55.57 points, or 1 percent, to 5,771.46.

The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.6 per cent to 1,551.19 on Tuesday while it fell 0.5 percent to 1,543.79 yesterday. 

One of the Officals of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), an Indian Company, said

“Growth remains strong in India. While emerging markets overall are doing well, India and China have outperformed the rest. Foreign funds have no option but to get into emerging markets.”

We will get you a weekly round up of the markets performance. Keep logged on. Also if you would like us to start a conversion on a subject of your interest, write to us.

Its soon gonna be time that the world starts thinking of new business models for no longer can just one be the king!

Whether you are in the States, the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Oceania, or Europe, a product that China makes is in majority of the stores. Today we wear and carry the world factory with us as none can presently manage the sale price as well as the Chinese have done so far.

In Dubai, UAE, I chatted with a few friends in the business line (with China) who said that we just can’t compete with them. One of the friends in the textile industry had this to say

“ they have eaten up our market, even the loading/unloading charges are included in their total costs”.

Then when everyone including Indians began to think that: that’s that, and its Chinese or no one else, we saw the duopolists rising and the businesses worldwide shouting: India you are next one! But why….

India is becoming the next big choice as lower costs are driving the trend. Labor in China earns about 300 USD a month while in India its 60 USD a month. I wouldn’t go to China if I were to outsource my manufacturing.

According to Capgemini, Europe’s largest computer consultancy,

there’s a very keen interest in moving more manufacturing to India

. These guys conducted a survey of 340 mainly Fortune 500 global manufacturing companies and was amazed to know that India would be a Challenger to China in the next 3-5 years while on its way to be a world factory too.

If we look at the respondents’ plans for the coming years, manufacturing will become the number one activity to be off-shored to India. “What surprised us was when we asked about their plans for the next three or four years, they said outsourcing manufacturing (to India) was a higher priority than outsourcing back office work,”

However the concerns from India are : its sad infrastructure as regards manufacturing and supply chain are concerned. Wonder if that’s possible in the next 2-3 years. Yup, 5 years it should be. There’s lots for India to catch up: power supply and roads and airports are major obstacles. And India is working on it seeing the opportunities in its stride. Capgemini’s official said: India is building like hell, improving its infrastructure, so a lot of suppliers would like to be there.

I would like to know what you think:

1. Will India be able to beat China?

2. What gestation period should we expect India to take to catch up with China and be equally known in manufacturing outsourcing as for IT and business process outsourcing activities 

3. Should China start worrying?
 

We have discussed a lot individually on India and China as emerging markets and on Chindia as a combo but today we talk about the aspect of other Asian markets that are enchasing high returns as well.

There’s Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines that’s making big bucks thanks to momentum amongst India and China. Do you think you could ignore them?

We share with you this impressive write up on the subject. Following are a few lines from it.

But what about the smaller markets around China and India? Many have growing economies and impressive returns. “Asia is emerging from a 10-year cyclical downturn that featured a collapse in domestic investment at both government and company levels,” says Edmund Harriss, co-manager of the Guinness Atkinson China & Hong Kong Fund

Read the complete article here and share with us what you think could be your next station.