Archive for July, 2014

08/07/2014

India to be 3rd largest economy next to China by 2030: PwC – daily.bhaskar.com

India is set to become the third largest economy in the world by 2030, according to latest estimates by a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report.

 

The London-headquartered accountancy giant said the rapid rise of the Indian economy with its young workforce would push it up from being the 10th largest economy in 2013 to the third largest by 2030, pushing the UK back into sixth place.

 

 

 

“In the longer run, other emerging markets may overtake the UK, but only India looks set to do so before 2030 according to our latest projections,” PwC said in its latest economic outlook.

 

China, the world’s second largest economy, is expected to close the gap with America by 2030, while Mexico is predicted to be the 10th largest economy by 2030, above Canada and Italy, both G7 nations.

 

Only a couple of years ago there were forecasts that Britain would rapidly become a second-class economic power and would need to defer to the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the near future.

 

China has ranked above Japan for a decade as the world’s second-biggest economy.

By some calculations Brazil leapfrogged the UK in 2012, with Russia and India close behind.

Britain’s fall was partly related to the costs of the banking crisis and the recession that followed, coupled with a sharp decline in the exchange rate, which knocked about a quarter off the country’s value in relation to its main rivals.

 

But since the beginning of last year the economy has recovered all the lost ground from the recession and banks have begun lending again.

 

The pound has bounced back from about US$ 1.40 in 2009 to US$ 1.71 today.

 

Brazil, by contrast, has suffered a rocky couple of years that have slowed GDP growth and pushed down the value of the real.

 

Russia will close the gap on the top eight, but its reliance on the oil and gas industry for growth and its rapidly ageing population will prevent it jumping up the table as quickly as previously thought.

 

Only India will move ahead of the UK by 2030, though it will be sharing a projected GDP of US$ 6.1 trillion among more than 1.5 billion people, only half as much again as the UK’s predicted output of US$ 4 trillionn, produced by a population less than a 20th the size.

via India to be 3rd largest economy next to China by 2030: PwC – daily.bhaskar.com.

08/07/2014

Chinese ‘customers’ at IKEA?

Do have alook at these actual photos: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chinese+asleep+IKEA,+2014&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=E-67U4HSDoHX7AadmYGQCg&ved=0CB8QsAQ&biw=1360&bih=850

Ikea Shenzhen China

Ikea Shenzhen China (Photo credit: dcmaster)

And from: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1300942/ikea-last-cracks-china-market-success-has-meant-adapting-local-ways?page=all

“On a recent Saturday afternoon, Ikea‘s flagship mainland store – one of the world’s largest – is abuzz with people. Walkways guiding visitors from one showroom to the next feel more congested than the road outside, and almost all 660 seats in the canteen are occupied. Yet the lines to the cashiers are refreshingly short – most are not here to shop.

The store is gripped by a kind of anarchy that would rarely be seen, or tolerated, in its country of origin. There are picnickers everywhere – their tea flasks and plastic bags of snacks lining the showroom tables. Young lovers pose for “selfies” in mock-up apartments they do not live in. Toddlers in split pants play on model furniture with their naked parts coming in contact with all surfaces.

On a king-size bed in the middle of the largest showroom, a little boy wakes from a nap next to his (also sleeping) grandmother. When the old woman casually helps the boy urinate into an empty water bottle, dripping liquid liberally on the grey mattress under his feet, most passers-by seem not to mind or even notice. The exception is a young woman who elbows her disinterested boyfriend: “Look, he’s peeing into a bottle!”

Most endemic, however, is the sleeping. After a few, rare clear days, the city’s notorious heavy smog has returned, and is made worse by a sticky, dusty heat wave striking northern China. Weeks earlier, a photo of people napping in a Shanghai shopping centre to escape the searing heat went viral, but in the capital, it is Ikea’s cool, conditioned air that is salvation for tens of thousands of its inhabitants.

The bedroom and living room sections on the store’s third floor are the most popular. Virtually every surface is occupied by visitors appearing very much at home. Older people read newspapers or drink tea; younger visitors cuddle or play with their phones. Most, however, are sound asleep.”

 

04/07/2014

BBC News – Indian PM Narendra Modi on maiden Kashmir visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his first visit to Indian-administered Kashmir amidst a protest shutdown called by separatist groups.

PM Modi flags off the first train from Katra

Mr Modi inaugurated a railway line in the Jammu region before travelling to Kashmir Valley to launch a hydro-power station and chair a security meeting.

Security is tight in the region and checkpoints have been set up to ensure the visit passes off peacefully.

Kashmir has been in the grip of an anti-India insurgency since 1989.

In recent years violence has abated from its peak in the 1990s, but the causes of the insurgency are still far from resolved.

Mr Modi arrived in Jammu on Friday morning from where he flew by a helicopter to Katra town where he flagged off a new train to Delhi.

Katra is the base camp for the Hindu pilgrimage centre of Vaishno Devi and the train will providing a direct link with Delhi.

Millions of pilgrims visit the shrine every year and railway officials say they expect the train will be popular with them.

Meanwhile, the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley is shut down in response to calls from separatist groups to protest against Mr Modi’s visit.

In the state capital, Srinagar, shops, businesses, offices, schools and banks are closed and there is little traffic on the roads in most parts of the valley.

Mr Modi will later fly to Uri town in north Kashmir to inaugurate a hydro electrical project.

via BBC News – Indian PM Narendra Modi on maiden Kashmir visit.

04/07/2014

Budget 2014: Wishlist from healthcare sector | India Insight

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has its work cut out if it wants to transform the country’s health system and provide a universal health insurance programme.

India has just 0.7 doctors per 1,000 people, and 80 percent of this workforce is in urban areas serving 30 percent of the population, according to industry lobby group NATHEALTH.

Less than 25 percent of the population has access to any form of health insurance. And India’s public and private expenditure on health is around 4 percent of its GDP, the lowest among BRICS countries.

India is seeing a rise in lifestyle diseases and is on its way to become the world’s diabetes capital with more than 60 million diabetics, a number that the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) estimates will cross 85 million in 2030, or nearly 8 percent of the population today.

India Insight spoke to stakeholders in the healthcare sector about their wishlist for the budget. Edited excerpts:

Dr. Jitendra B. Patel, President, Indian Medical Association

“Impetus has to be given to preventive aspect of treatment. Safe drinking water and sanitation are the two important things which are to be addressed immediately. Primary care should be given more budget than secondary care. For a developing country like India, corporate culture is not going to help the people. We have to serve the poor people.

“Also, the ratio of doctors must increase. For that, more and more medical colleges are the need of the hour.”

via Budget 2014: Wishlist from healthcare sector | India Insight.

03/07/2014

Keys to Successful Reform in India – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, won a decisive mandate from an electorate yearning for effective leadership. His government’s first budget due out next week will be an important indicator of how forcefully Mr. Modi intends to translate this mandate into actions to put India’s economy back on track.

Of course, despite his clear mandate, Mr. Modi will not have a free hand to impose reforms by decree. He is constrained by a democratic system of government and accountability to the electorate. Hence, both the strategy and the specifics of reform will be crucial to making the program a success.

A key priority is to signal greater fiscal discipline. High levels of public deficits and debt, exacerbated by wasteful subsidies and an inefficient tax system, have created many market distortions and contributed to high inflation. Populist sops have also reduced resources available for expenditure on infrastructure, education and other areas that could boost long-term productivity.

 

The government needs to commit to long-term fiscal discipline. It should move aggressively to reduce fuel subsidies, implement a goods and services tax, and step up the pace of privatization of state enterprises. These measures would not only improve the fiscal position of the government but also enhance overall economic efficiency by shifting the focus away from purely redistributive policies.

It will also be helpful to signal that the government will not look for easy targets, such as foreign firms, to raise revenues by changing the rules whenever convenient. Policy certainty is as important for domestic investors as it is for foreign ones.

via Keys to Successful Reform in India – India Real Time – WSJ.

03/07/2014

China services sector booms in June, suggest economy steadying | Reuters

Activity in China’s services sector expanded at its fastest pace in 15 months in June, a private survey showed on Thursday, reinforcing signs that the broader economy is stabilizing.

A worker wipes sweat on his forehead next a man taking a nap on a bench, in Beijing June 23, 2014.  REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

The services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) compiled by HSBC/Markit rebounded to 53.1 in June from 50.7 in May, well above the 50-point level that demarcates expansion in activity from contraction.

“The expansion in the service sector reinforces the recovery seen in the manufacturing sector, and signaled a broad-based improvement over the month,” said Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC.

via China services sector booms in June, suggest economy steadying | Reuters.

01/07/2014

A dramatic decline in suicides: Back from the edge | The Economist

IN THE 1990s China had one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Young rural women in particular were killing themselves at an alarming rate. In recent years, however, China’s suicides have declined to among the lowest rates in the world.

In 2002 the Lancet, a British medical journal, said there were 23.2 suicides per 100,000 people annually from 1995 to 1999. This year a report by a group of researchers from the University of Hong Kong found that had declined to an average annual rate of 9.8 per 100,000 for the years 2009-11, a 58% drop.

Paul Yip, director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong and a co-author of the recent study, says no country has ever achieved such a rapid decline in suicides. And yet, experts say, China has done it without a significant improvement in mental-health services—and without any national publicity effort to lower suicides.

The most dramatic shift has been in the figures for rural women under 35. Their suicide rate appears to have dropped by as much as 90%. The Lancet study in 2002 estimated 37.8 per 100,000 of this age group committed suicide annually in 1995-99. The new study says this declined to just over three per 100,000 in 2011. Another study of suicides, covering 20 years in one province, Shandong, found a decline of 95% among rural women under 35, to 2.6 suicides per 100,000 in 2010—and a 68% drop in suicides among all rural women.

Scholars suspect that the number of suicides is underreported in official figures (the official suicide rate nationally was 6.9 per 100,000 in 2012) and they make adjustments for that in their calculations. But in several studies, as well as in official data, the long-term decline in suicides has been marked across the spectrum, in rural and urban areas and among men and women from almost all age groups. The only notable exception is the suicide rate among the elderly, which declined overall but has crept back up in recent years, a worrying trend in a rapidly ageing society.

Two intertwined social forces are driving the reduction: migration and the rise of an urban middle class. Moving to the cities to work, even if to be treated as second-class citizens when they get there, has been the salvation of many rural young women, liberating them from parental pressures, bad marriages, overbearing mothers-in-law and other stresses of poor, rural life. Migrants have also distanced themselves from the easiest form of rural suicide, swallowing pesticides, the chosen method in nearly 60% of rural cases, and often done impulsively. The reduction in toxicity of pesticides has helped as well.

Jing Jun, a sociologist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, notes that the increase in migration to the cities fits with the decline in rural suicides (see chart). Since rural dwellers accounted for most suicides, so the national rate has fallen, too. In 20 years, as the population went from mostly rural to more than half urban, the official national suicide rate dropped by 63%.

Suicides among urban residents are also dropping, suggesting other causes, too. Chinese newspapers frequently carry dramatic photos of suicidal people being rescued from window ledges and rooftops (like the woman in our picture). But the University of Hong Kong researchers found that urban suicides had dropped to 5.3 per 100,000 between 2002 and 2011, a fall of 59%. The simplest explanation is that, in spite of concerns about pollution, food safety and property prices, living standards and general satisfaction with urban life have gone up. Mr Jing also believes that, as in the countryside, the atomisation of extended families has reduced the family conflicts that can lead to suicides.

via A dramatic decline in suicides: Back from the edge | The Economist.

01/07/2014

Samsung’s China Labor Problems Persist – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Samsung Electronics Co.’s latest sustainability report, published Monday, is a rare look inside the operations of the company. Among the takeaways: Samsung is still struggling with poor labor conditions at its Chinese suppliers.

A third-party audit of 100 of Samsung’s suppliers in China last year showed that 59 failed to provide sufficient safety equipment, like earplugs and protective goggles, or did not monitor workers to ensure they were using such equipment, according to the report.

The report lists a series of other problems found by the audit, including issues related to wages and benefits and emergency preparedness. The audit also found that a majority of the suppliers do not comply with China’s legally permitted overtime hours. Samsung said it has demanded its suppliers address all the violations found by the report.

The results follow a vow made by Samsung in 2012 that it would address unfair labor practices at its Chinese suppliers, including overwork and denial of basic labor rights. On multiple occasions, the company has been accused by New York-based non-profit organization China Labor Watch of malpractice at some factories that do work for Samsung.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Samsung said: “We have adopted a multi-year, multifaceted supplier management plan since 2012 to address the findings of internal and independent audits of Samsung supplier companies in China.”

“If any suppliers are found to have not made progress, Samsung will constantly call for corrective actions to ensure the issue is resolved in the shortest time possible,” it said.

Maintaining a safe and fair working environment for its staff and those of its suppliers around the globe has been a growing challenge for the world’s largest maker of smartphones, TVs and memory-chips. The company has come under scrutiny over related issues not only in China but also in Brazil and at home in South Korea.

via Samsung’s China Labor Problems Persist – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

01/07/2014

Army chief Bikram Singh to begin rare China visit tomorrow – The Times of India

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh r...

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh received by Director for General Staff Duties Sanjeev Chopra (Photo credit: UN Women Asia & the Pacific)

Operationalisation of a new border defence agreement to deal with recurring troop incursions along the LAC besides improving defence ties, is expected to top the agenda of General Bikram Singh as he starts a rare visit by an Indian Army chief to China from tomorrow.

“Currently India and China maintain exchanges and cooperation at various levels. This is very significant for the two countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said here today.

“The visit you mentioned will be an important event in military to military exchanges between China and India,” he said commenting on Singh’s visit at a media briefing.

“We wish full success of this visit so that the mutual trust between the two armies can be enhanced,” he said.

To deal with tensions arising out of the incursions by both sides, India and China signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) last year.

Singh’s visit was aimed at implementing a number of steps incorporated by BDCA on the ground, officials said.

The Indian Army chief’s four-day visit is taking place after a gap of nine years.

via Army chief Bikram Singh to begin rare China visit tomorrow – The Times of India.

01/07/2014

BBC News – English explodes in India – and it’s not just Hinglish

Anyone who travels beyond Delhi and Mumbai to India’s provincial cities will notice English words cropping up increasingly in Hindi conversation. While some of these terms fell out of use in the UK decades ago, others are familiar, but used in bold new ways.

Indian sigh: Spirtual Walk

Picture the scene. I’m chatting to a young man named Yuvraj Singh. He’s a college student in the Indian city of Dehra Dun. We’re talking in Hindi. But every so often there’s an English word. It’s Hindi, Hindi, Hindi, and then suddenly an English word or phrase is dropped in: “job”, “love story” or “adjust”.

What should we make of this? It’s not that Hindi lacks equivalent words. He could have said the Hindi “kaam” instead of “job”. Why mention the English words? And what’s Yuvraj speaking? Is it Hindi, English, an amalgam “Hinglish“, or something else?

In 1886 Henry Yule and Arthur Burnell published Hobson-Jobson, a guide to words from Indian languages that had passed into English.

You can search through it for references to the origins of words such as “shampoo” and “bungalow”. But now many Indian citizens are using English words in the course of talking Hindi – or Tamil, or Bengali etcetera.

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Sometimes you hear English swear words where you would least expect them.

There are some good reasons for the explosion of English words. They are sometimes badges of honour in a society intent on becoming modern. Even if you don’t speak English fluently, you might be able to use the odd word to impress your neighbour.

I was travelling on a train out of Delhi once and a young girl dropped her ice cream on the carriage floor. Her mother turned round and reminded her of what she evidently thought was an appropriate English word: “Say ‘shit!’ Say ‘shit’!” she said strictly. You won’t hear that on the 08:15 to Paddington.

via BBC News – English explodes in India – and it’s not just Hinglish.

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