India alert | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

05/03/2014

BBC News – India names general election dates

India’s general election will take place in nine phases in April and May, the Election Commission has announced.

A BJP rally in Assam, India

Polling to elect a new Lok Sabha, or lower house, will be held from 7 April to 12 May. Votes will be counted on 16 May.

With some 814 million eligible voters, India’s election will be the largest the world has seen.

The ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will be battling a host of smaller parties.

Leaders of 11 regional parties have formed a Third Front against the Congress and the BJP.

A new anti-corruption Aam Aadmi (Common Man’s) Party (AAP), which made a spectacular debut in recent polls in the capital Delhi, will also contest the elections.

Continue reading the main story

POLLING DAYS

7 April – 2 states, 6 constituencies

9 April – 5 states, 7 constituencies

10 April – 14 states, 92 constituencies

12 April – 3 states, 5 constituencies

17 April – 13 states, 142 constituencies

24 April – 12 states, 117 constituencies

30 April – 9 states, 89 constituencies

7 May – 7 states, 64 constituencies

12 May – 3 states, 41 constituencies

Counting of votes – 16 May

Election Commission of India

If no single party wins a clear majority, smaller parties could play a crucial role.

India’s lower house has 543 elected seats and any party or a coalition needs a minimum of 272 MPs to form a government.

via BBC News – India names general election dates.

Posted in Elections, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Aam Aadmi, Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, constituencies, Delhi, Election Commission, India, Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Member of Parliament

04/03/2014

India Plans to Manufacture Equipment at Solar Park as Glut Eases – Businessweek

India plans to add solar-equipment manufacturing capacity at a new park in Andhra Pradesh state, saying demand from plants under construction will help the industry recover from a glut of panels.

Solar Energy Corp. of India, the state-run company spearheading the industry’s development, signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corp. for a solar park in the state that will have 1,000 megawatts of power capacity, as well as factories to produce modules and cells, Rajendra Nimje, managing director of SECI, said in an interview.

The plans come as panel prices appear to be bottoming out after falling more than 60 percent in two years amid a global supply glut. Local manufacturers, such as Indosolar Ltd. (ISLR), Moser Baer India Ltd. and Websol Energy System (WESL) Ltd., who idled about half of their 1,000 megawatts of production capacity, will get fresh orders as new projects are built, Nimje said.

via India Plans to Manufacture Equipment at Solar Park as Glut Eases – Businessweek.

Posted in Economics, India alert, solar power | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corp., Andhra Pradesh state, India, Moser Baer, Photovoltaic power station, power capacity, Rajendra Nimje, Solar Energy, Solar Energy Corp, solar park, Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, Watt

04/03/2014

Singh to Neighbors: To Boost Trade, Build More Highways to India – India Real Time – WSJ

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed state leaders from South and South East Asia in Myanmar today to emphasize the need to improve trade ties by building highways connecting India and its neighbors.

Mr. Singh is on a two-day visit to the neighboring country for an economic meeting called the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation [BIMSTEC] Summit.

Addressing an audience including the leaders of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand, Mr. Singh said he would like to “improve physical connectivity” with a highway that will connect India to Myanmar and Thailand and with more maritime links with Myanmar. “And even as we develop physical infrastructure, we should simultaneously start developing the supporting architecture of rules and regulations to facilitate cross-country movements,” he said. He arrived yesterday in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw.

via Singh to Neighbors: To Boost Trade, Build More Highways to India – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, GeoPolitics, India alert, Politics, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bangladesh, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, Bhutan, India, indian prime minister manmohan singh, manmohan singh, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand

04/03/2014

India and Pakistan ramp up aid as they jostle for influence in Kabul | Reuters

India’s most important message for Afghanistan is that it is not leaving, and it is backing that message with the biggest aid package it has ever given another country.

Afghans work at a new parliament building constructed by an Indian project in Kabul November 26, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

Indian diplomats insist the message is meant as reassurance for allies in Afghanistan nervous about waning international support as NATO withdraws its troops. Yet it could equally have been chosen to send a warning to India’s arch-rival, Pakistan.

The nuclear-armed neighbors both want to secure influence in Kabul after foreign combat forces leave this year, and both are using aid as part of their strategy.

India’s $2 billion aid package includes several big projects, including a white marble parliament in Kabul that is rising up next to the blasted ruins of the old king’s palace.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rockier. Afghan President Hamid Karzai regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting Taliban militants, and has curtly made clear he cares more about security than Pakistani aid.

Some Afghans fear that the regional rivalry might drag their country into a proxy war.

“This is a very sensitive situation. Both are powerful, important allies,” said Senator Arifullah Pashtoon, chairman of Afghanistan’s foreign relations committee.

“India is our friend. But Pakistan is our twin.”

With the NATO withdrawal looming, Afghanistan has increasingly sought Indian military assistance, while Pakistani offers of military help have largely been snubbed.

India, wary of antagonizing Pakistan, has refused to supply lethal equipment but that may change after Indian elections due by May. For now, New Delhi relies on soft power.

via India and Pakistan ramp up aid as they jostle for influence in Kabul | Reuters.

Posted in Economics, GeoPolitics, India alert, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, India, Indian Armed Forces, Kabul, NATO, New Delhi, Pakistan

03/03/2014

* India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ

Disappointing growth in the September-December quarter means India’s economy will likely fall short of even its reduced target for the year.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation last month projected gross domestic product growth of 4.9% for the fiscal year ending March 31. Until then, the Finance Ministry had been predicting growth of 5% or slightly more — down from a forecast of6.4% earlier in the year.

Data Friday showed India’s economy grew 4.7% in the three months to December, after expanding 4.8% and 4.4% in the first two quarters of the fiscal year. That means the economy would have to grow 5.7% in the current quarter – highly unlikely — to hit the full-year mark of 4.9%.

“The economy appears to be at a standstill, both in terms of investments and consumption,” said Anjali Verma, a Mumbai-based economist at brokerage PhillipCapital. “The numbers have been very tepid, and it’s unlikely we’ll see much improvement soon.”

Some economists already are writing off this quarter, as corporate and government decision makers are expected to delay big projects until after national elections that must take place by the end of May.

Businesses are essentially in a holding pattern until they know the next government’s economic policies.

via India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, GDP, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Anjali Verma, Asia, December, Economy of India, Finance Ministry, Fiscal year, Gross domestic product, India, India’s economy, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, mumbai

03/03/2014

India to investigate suspected kickbacks in Rolls-Royce deal | Reuters

India’s defence ministry said on Monday it had ordered a bribery investigation over state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited‘s (HAL) purchase of jet engines from Britain’s Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.L) in a deal worth at least $1.2 billion.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top crime-fighting agency, will look into more than 5 billion rupees ($80 million) in alleged kickbacks in the deal that was signed in 2011, a ministry official told Reuters.

No comment was immediately available from Rolls-Royce’s office in India.

Suspicions of corruption in India’s defense procurement program have for years delayed the modernization of the armed forces of the world’s most populous nation that continue to rely heavily on outdated Soviet-designed equipment.

The air force has been dogged by a series of crashes of its Russian-built MiG fighter jets, while an accident aboard a Soviet-made submarine that killed two officers last week led the navy’s chief of staff to resign.

India’s Congress party-led government is keen to be seen as tough on graft before parliamentary elections due by May. The party, lagging in the polls, has faced rising public anger over a string of corruption scandals in its current term.

The probe into the HAL deal follows the arrest in Britain last month of Indian-born businessman Sudhir Choudhrie and his son in a bribery investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into Rolls-Royce’s dealings in China and Indonesia.

Both men denied any wrongdoing and have been released on bail, their spokesman said last month.

via India to investigate suspected kickbacks in Rolls-Royce deal | Reuters.

Posted in corruption, Economics, India alert, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Central Bureau of Investigation, China, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India, Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Serious Fraud Office, Sudhir Choudhrie

02/03/2014

India Wants to Build Its Own Chips to Satisfy Electronics Demand – Businessweek

India’s IT services companies are tops in outsourcing, with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS:IN) and Infosys (INFY) competing globally with IBM (IBM) and Accenture (ACN). The cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad are well established as research centers for such multinationals as Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), and Intel (INTC).

Pedestrians pass in front of smartphone wholesale outlets at Gaffar Market in New Delhi on April 9, 2013

But when it comes to hardware, India is behind. In 2013 it imported $33.5 billion worth of electronics, from semiconductors to smartphones. That’s more than it spent on any imports except oil and gold. With India’s large and growing middle class buying more digital devices, the reliance on imported semiconductors and other hardware is likely to increase. By next year, according to market analysts Frost & Sullivan, such imports will top $42 billion. “Our manufacturing has not kept pace with our consumption,” says PVG Menon, president of the Indian Electronic & Semiconductor Association. India does some assembly of TVs, mobile phones, computers, and set-top boxes.

The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is trying to address this technology gap. The Indian cabinet on Feb. 14 approved plans for two semiconductor manufacturing projects, requiring an investment of $10.2 billion, with IBM, Geneva-based STMicroelectronics (STM:FP), and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor (TSEM:IT) taking part.

via India Wants to Build Its Own Chips to Satisfy Electronics Demand – Businessweek.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Manufacturing, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Accenture, General Electric, IBM, India, Infosys, Intel, manmohan singh, Microsoft, Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, Tata Consultancy Services

02/03/2014

The Right to Inherit Isn’t Working for Indian Women, Says U.N. Study – India Real Time – WSJ

As their husbands, fathers, and brothers migrate to cities in search of work, women across India have become the backbone of the country’s agricultural sector. Nearly 80% of all rural women in India labor in the fields.

A study released Sunday by United Nations Women India and Landesa, a U.S.-headquartered nonprofit working to improve land rights for women and men, found that despite their time spent working in orchards, cotton fields, and rice paddies, and changes to inheritance laws, women rarely inherit the land that has sustained them and that they have sustained.

In 2005, the government of India amended its inheritance laws to ensure daughters enjoyed equal rights to inherit their parent’s land and property. But the law seems to be having little impact.

The survey of more than 1,400 women and 360 men in agricultural districts with large numbers of women farmers in three Indian states, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, found that just one in eight women whose parents own agricultural land inherit any of it.

This has significance far beyond intra-family squabbles over divvying up the family fortune. It is fundamental to India’s rural development and progress on a host of development indicators.

Simply, if women farm the land but don’t own it, they are little more than migrant laborers tilling fields owned by others. Without legal control over the land, or any documentation that they have rights to the ground they farm, they can’t access institutional credit, such as bank loans. Nor can they take advantage of agricultural extension programs, such as government offers of subsidized seeds and fertilizers. All of this stymies agricultural development.

It also limits agricultural production. This doesn’t just mean women have fewer tools for climbing out of poverty, it can also mean that their children are stuck there too: Researchers have found that women simply direct more of their income than men towards their children’s education and nutrition, which in turn lowers child mortality and helps reduce diseases of poverty.

The 2005, Hindu Succession Amendment Act giving sons and daughters equal rights to inheriting family land and property was heralded as an important step forward for India’s women.

The study published Sunday, is the first substantial evaluation of the impact of that amendment and indicates that many women have yet to benefit from the legal changes.

via The Right to Inherit Isn’t Working for Indian Women, Says U.N. Study – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in agriculture, Economics, India alert, inheritance | Leave a Comment »

Tags: agricultural development, agricultural land, agricultural sector, agriculture, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, India, inheritance laws, Land law, Landesa, Madhya Pradesh, rural women in India labor, United Nations Women India and Landesa, Women in India

28/02/2014

India, the Best Customer for America’s Defense Industry – Businessweek

Once again, Indians are mourning after a tragedy aboard one of the navy’s submarines. After an accident on the INS Sindhuratna filled the vessel with smoke yesterday, two officers with severe burns died and seven other sailors suffering from smoke inhalation had to be flown to safety. Last year, an explosion aboard another Indian sub left 18 sailors dead. Shortly after Wednesday’s incident, Indian Navy Chief of Staff D.K. Joshi resigned, effective immediately.

Indian commandos from the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police (JKAP) at the Sheeri training center, near Srinagar, on Feb. 24

Wednesday’s accident comes at a bad time for India’s embattled government. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress Party, facing a string of corruption scandals as well as a lackluster economy, will probably lose in the upcoming national elections due by May. The leader of the largest opposition party, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is a Hindu nationalist who argues that Singh hasn’t been tough enough, especially toward the country’s assertive neighbor to the north—China.

In his first major speech as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader last September, he accused the Congress-led government of not doing enough to protect India’s borders. “Unless there is a capable government, patriotic government, there cannot be any guarantee of security,” Modi said. Over the weekend, Modi criticized what he called China’s “expansionary mindset.”

via India, the Best Customer for America’s Defense Industry – Businessweek.

Posted in India alert, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, congress party, India, indian navy, indian prime minister manmohan singh, INS Sindhuratna, manmohan singh, Narendra Modi, smoke inhalation, United States

28/02/2014

* Report Details India’s Worst Recent Human Rights Abuses – India Real Time – WSJ

Abuses by the police and security forces including extrajudicial killings, torture and rape, as well as corruption at all levels of government, are the most significant human rights problems in India, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Congress and published by the State Department this week.

The world’s largest democracy is also dogged by separatist violence, life-threatening prison conditions, sex trafficking of children and an atmosphere of impunity resulting from the overburdened judicial system, the “India 2013 Human Rights Report” said.

The 68-page document, released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to mark the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out a timeline of recent human rights abuses by the police, bureaucrats and security forces.

The U.S. report found continuing allegations that the police raped women, including while in police custody. Tribal girls were gang-raped in government hostels, and 48,338 child-rape cases were recorded from 2001 to 2011, the authors said.

“Some rape victims were afraid to come forward and report the crime due to social stigma and possible acts of retribution, compounded by lack of oversight and accountability, especially if the perpetrator was a police officer or other official,” they added.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives state governments the right to declare any state a “disturbed area,” allowing security forces to fire on any person to maintain law and order and to arrest anyone without informing the detainee of the reason for doing so, was also a cause for concern, according to the report. The law gives security forces immunity from civilian prosecution in regions where it operates.

A government-commissioned report on changes needed to the law after the gang rape of a young woman in Delhi in Dec. 2012 had said the AFSPA was being used to legitimize “impunity for systematic or isolated sexual violence in the process of internal security duties” and needed to be reviewed. The government had taken no action in this direction during 2013, according to the authors of the human rights report.

They also provided evidence of a complaint long-held by Indians: that corruption exists at all levels of government and leads to a denial ofjustice.

Nonprofit organizations, the report said, had noted that bribes typically were paid to expedite services, such as police protection, school admission, water supply, or government assistance.

“The CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] registered 583 cases of corruption between the months of January and November,” of last year the report said.

via Report Details India’s Worst Recent Human Rights Abuses – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Human rights, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: AFSPA, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Central Bureau of Investigation, Delhi, Human rights, human rights abuses, India, John Kerry, security forces

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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BBC News – India names general election dates

India Plans to Manufacture Equipment at Solar Park as Glut Eases – Businessweek

Singh to Neighbors: To Boost Trade, Build More Highways to India – India Real Time – WSJ

India and Pakistan ramp up aid as they jostle for influence in Kabul | Reuters

* India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ

India Wants to Build Its Own Chips to Satisfy Electronics Demand – Businessweek

The Right to Inherit Isn’t Working for Indian Women, Says U.N. Study – India Real Time – WSJ

India, the Best Customer for America’s Defense Industry – Businessweek

* Report Details India’s Worst Recent Human Rights Abuses – India Real Time – WSJ

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