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05/10/2012

* India successfully test-fires nuclear-capable Dhanush missile

India is continuing to increase its missile capabilities. It is not clear whether these are being developed for defensive or offensive purposes.

Times of India: “India successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush on Friday from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast, an official said.

in this file photo, Dhanush, the naval version of the Prithvi missile, is launched from a ship. Photo courtesy: DRDO

The missile was fired somewhere between Puri and Visakhapatnam as part of training exercise of the Indian Navy.

“The test was successful,” Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told IANS.

With a pay-load capacity of 500 kg, Dhanush is a naval version of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi. It is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads and can strike targets in the range of 350 km.

With its ability to hit targets on the sea as well as on shore, the missile gives the Indian Navy the capability to strike enemy targets with great precision.

The test of Dhanush comes a day after the Indian armed forces successfully test-fired nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi-II from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, about 230 km from here.

Prithvi is India’s first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.”

via India successfully test-fires nuclear-capable Dhanush missile – The Times of India.

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04/10/2012

* IPR awareness rises in China: experts

As China increases its own Intellectual Property and the number of registered and granted patents, it is in its own self-interest to take IPR and copyright more seriously than it has hither to.  This is good news for all innovators whether Western or Eastern.

Xinhua: “An increasing number of patents and trademark registrations is boosting social awareness of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China, which will change the way that the world’s second-largest economy grows, experts said.

The number of trademark registration applications reached 1.42 million in 2011, a sharp rise from the 19,000 applications submitted in 1983, when the country’s trademark law took effect, a national news magazine Outlook Weekly reported.

“The increasing number of patents will be conducive to IPR awareness in China,” said Prof. Liu Chuntian at Renmin University.

Liu said IPR protection is a basic tenet of the modern market economy, adding that China should carry out top-down reforms to further improve IPR regulations and laws.

The government’s previous efforts to protect IPR include a strategic guideline published in 2008 that set a goal of making substantial progress in creation, application, protection and management of IPR by 2020.

China has only 21 of the world’s top 500 brands, despite a large number of patents and trademark applications, the report said, adding that China’s performance in IPR does not match the size of its economy.

However, home-grown technologies, including the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE telecommunications interfaces, and emerging hi-tech giants, such as Huawei and ZTE, indicate that China is starting to improve its capacity to innovate, the report said.”

via IPR awareness rises in China: experts – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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04/10/2012

* Chinese gov’t to strengthen int’l cooperation on cyber issues

Xinhua: “The Chinese government will continue to strengthen international cooperation on cyber issues, and work with all countries to build an open and secure cyberspace, said an official here on Thursday at the ongoing Budapest conference on cyberspace.

Given the many challenges presented ahead, Huang Huikang, legal advisor and Director-General of the Department of Treaty and Law to China’s foreign ministry emphasized the importance of cooperation across the entire international community.

Although cyberspace is virtual, it needs rules and norms to follow, Huang said. China holds that the United Nations, as the most universal and representative international organization, is the best forum for elaboration of international norms and rules in cyberspace, he added.

Huang said China proposes that the following principles be observed in strengthening international cooperation on internet related issues.

The first, he said, concerned cyber sovereignty. He said that cyber sovereignty is the natural extension of state sovereignty into cyberspace and should be respected and upheld.

“Every country is entitled to formulate its policies and laws in light of its history, traditions, culture, language and customs, and manage the internet accordingly,” he said.

The second concerned the free flow of information, which he called a “double edged sword,” adding that it was no excuse for the “illegal and irresponsible information rampant on the internet,” which threatened national security, social orders and the lawful rights of people.

Huang also called for peaceful use of cyberspace, equitable development, and international cooperation, noting that all countries were equally entitled to share in the management of critical Internet resources. He proposed that international cooperation could be initiated in areas where there were common needs, such as in combating cybercrime and enhancing cyber security.

There are 540 million internet users in China now, making it the world’s top user quantitatively. But only 40 percent of the Chinese people had access to the internet. In 2011, e-commerce in China amounted to 930 billion U.S. dollars, or 12.5 percent of its annual gross domestic product.”

via Chinese gov’t to strengthen int’l cooperation on cyber issues: official – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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03/10/2012

* Lenovo to open PC production plant in US

Maybe reverse-offshoring – at least for manufacturing – is for real?  we will keep watching out for such news.

IET Magazine: “Lenovo will open its first PC production plant in the United States with operations expected to begin in 2013.

Lenovo's laptop PCs are displayed at an electronic shop

The Whitsett, North Carolina, facility will manufacture Think-branded laptop and desktop PCs, tablets and servers aimed at the US market, Lenovo said in a statement this week.

Lenovo, the world’s number two PC maker, did not provide any investment figures but said it would create 115 jobs.

Over the past two years, Lenovo has invested in new plants and manufacturing joint ventures in China, Brazil and now the US to produce PCs and mobile Internet devices such as smartphones, it said.

Analysts have said Lenovo is set to overtake Hewlett Packard later this year as the world’s largest PC maker.”

via Lenovo to open PC production plant in US – E & T Magazine.

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Posted in China alert, Economics, Reverse off-shoring | 2 Comments »

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03/10/2012

* India minister Chidambaram promises more reforms

After months of inaction, India is starting to make economic reforms again, despite the widespread protests from both opposition parties and retailers. Perhaps, the government realises it has no option given the prolonged severe economic slowdown in India.

BBC: “India’s finance minister has promised more reforms after it opened up its retail sector to foreign supermarket chains and cut diesel subsidies.

P Chidambaram also told the BBC that it was unfair to single India out for corruption, but said more was being done to tackle the problem.

Mr Chidambaram is one of the most important figures in the government.

The government is facing criticism of the reforms it announced last month to try to boost the slowing economy.

Opponents say the measures, which include opening up India’s massive retail sector to competition from foreign supermarkets, will hurt the poor.

Last month, the government also announced a 14% rise in the price of diesel, which is heavily subsidised in India, and reduced the subsidy on cooking gas cylinders.

But some economists and large investors say the government is not going far enough, and warn that India still faces the threat of a credit rating downgrade.

In a BBC interview on Wednesday, Mr Chidambaram promised more reforms to come.

He also said that the government was doing more about accusations of corruption.

Asked if he had ever accepted a bribe himself, the minister denied it.

But corruption remains one of the issues troubling many would-be investors, both Indian and foreign.

And after months of apparent paralysis, with the government unable to get any major legislation passed, it still has a lot to prove.

via BBC News – India minister Chidambaram promises more reforms.

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03/10/2012

* China firm sues Obama over blocked US wind farm deal

Is the Obama ban a military-defensive one or an economic-protectionist one?  Maybe the US law courts will be able to decide.

BBC: “A Chinese-owned firm in the US is suing President Barack Obama after he blocked a wind farm deal on national security grounds.

California wind farm, file picture

Ralls Corp, a private firm, acquired four wind farm projects near a US naval facility in Oregon earlier this year.

Mr Obama signed the order blocking the deal last week. The lawsuit alleges the US government overstepped its authority.

It is the first foreign investment to be blocked in the US for 22 years.

The block on the wind farms comes just weeks ahead of November’s US presidential election.

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua said “China-bashing” in order “to woo some blue-collar voters” was the reason for the decision.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Martin Patience

BBC News, Beijing

Mr Obama has been criticised by the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, for not taking a tough enough line with China over trade and investment practices.

Indeed, Mr Romney has said he will label China as a “currency manipulator” if he is elected.

US politicians have long alleged that China keeps its currency artificially low giving its exports an unfair advantage and, in turn, costing the US jobs. That is denied by Beijing.

But many Chinese officials are now used to the four-year election cycle when increasingly China has become the whipping boy.

One official who worked at the Chinese embassy in Washington told me that the heated rhetoric is not taken too seriously in Beijing.

While the US election is being followed in China, the focus here is the country’s own once-in-a-decade leadership transition, which will get under way next month.

The move forced Ralls Corp to divest its stake in the projects, which were located near restricted airspace used by the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility.

Ralls Corp’s complaint, filed on Monday, alleged that the US president had “acted in an unlawful and unauthorised manner”.

The firm, owned by two Chinese nationals, said in its suit that Mr Obama failed to adhere to the law to treat Ralls Corp on equal terms. The court documents were made public on Tuesday.

Issuing the order last week, the White House said: “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Ralls Corporation… might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.””

via BBC News – China firm sues Obama over blocked US wind farm deal.

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Posted in China alert, Economics, Politics, Protectionism | Leave a Comment »

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02/10/2012

* China to build more high-speed railways

When these plans have been implemented, China will be the only country to have separate passenger and freight lines. That, in theory, should speed up both types of traffic.

China Daily: “China is aiming to build separate passenger and freight networks within its railway system, one of the world’s busiest. It may come true on some bustling lines in 2015, when a high-speed passenger transport network is expected to become fully operational.

According to a five-year plan on China’s transport system recently approved by the State Council, China’s cabinet, China will create a high-speed railway backbone network featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines by the end of 2015.

The Ministry of Railways said that the total milage of high-speed railway will reach some 18,000 km by then.

China’s high-speed lines, which should have an average speed of over 200 km per hour, stood at 6,894 km in August, fewer than last year as a speed cut was executed after the Wenzhou accident, according to the ministry.

Railway expert Wang Mengshu said that as new high-speed lines open, transportation capacity will be released from conventional lines, which will gradually turn into freight lines.

“Putting passenger and freight on separate tracks will greatly increase traffic volume,” said Wang, also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. “The plan indicates that China will continue to develop high-speed trains to address its transportation bottleneck.”

The plan is long-awaited as China’s high-speed railway development has been set back by the Wenzhou collision last July that left 40 dead.

The crash seriously dented China’s enthusiasm for high-speed rail. China halted work on new lines and conducted nationwide safety checks. A total of 54 people, including minister-level officials, were punished following the accident. Local railway bureaus and stations have been ordered to improve train scheduling and management, as well as conduct more intensive work safety training.

A railway ministry report released in July says that signaling and lightning diffusion equipment has been checked and reinforced at more than 1,000 railway stations.

The changes were in response to the two major causes of the Wenzhou accident, management failure and faulty signaling equipment.

via China to build more high-speed railways |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

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02/10/2012

* ‘Murder attempt’ on Golden Temple raid General Brar

It would seem that 28 years is not long enough for those directly affected by Operation Bluestar to forgive and forget.  That’s assuming the four suspects were indeed separatist-Sikhs bent on revenge.

BBC: “Police in London say the stabbing of the Indian general who led the 1984 raid on Sikhism’s holiest shrine was attempted murder.

File photo Lt-Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar (left) and senior army officers at the site of the Operation Blue Star in 1984

Lt-Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar was stabbed in the neck by four men with beards on Sunday night. He is out of hospital.

Hundreds died when troops flushed Sikh separatist militants out of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in Punjab state.

The 78-year-old is thought still to be a target for extremist Sikhs, but the identity of his attackers is unclear.

Lt-Gen Brar, himself a Sikh, was one of the architects of Operation Bluestar, which removed armed Sikh militants fighting for an independent homeland of Khalistan from the temple.

According to the Indian government, the operation left about 400 people, including 87 soldiers, dead.

Sikhs groups contest this figure, saying the number of casualties was several times higher.

via BBC News – ‘Murder attempt’ on Golden Temple raid General Brar.

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01/10/2012

* China has most microbloggers in the world: report

This report confirms what we have been observing for the last several months that Chinese microbloggers are being taken seriously by the Chinese authorities. This is really a continuation of the ancient petition system whereby any citizen can appeal directly to the emperor for redress. Since travelling to Beijing may be costly and time consuming, microblogging may be the 21st century alternative if the authorities are actually going to listen and do something about the grievance.  This report indicates that this is happening.

Xinhua: “China has the world’s largest number of microbloggers, said a latest report on the country’s new media development.

File:Sina Weibo.svg

The report, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press annually, quoted the China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC), which said that about 274 million Chinese people had microblog accounts as of June this year.

The number of microbloggers increased sharply from about 63 million in 2010, said the report issued by a team of social sciences experts headed by Yin Yungong, director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Microblogging has become an important channel for Chinese people to express themselves, particularly about public issues, it said.

It has also become an easy and low-cost communication channel between the government and citizens, the report said. At Sina Weibo, a leading microblogging service, 18,132 accounts have been registered by the Party and government departments and officials as of last October.

Social networks like microblogging have begun to set the agenda of public opinions and affected public emotions in some incidents, like the high-speed train crash near Wenzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang Province, in July last year, the report said.

Governments have realized the influence of social networks and put more effort in working with them, it said.

Research by the report’s authors from July to December last year showed that the authorities responded to about 71.9 percent of issues that were widely discussed by microbloggers and 50.4 percent were within 24 hours.”

via China has most microbloggers in the world: report – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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Posted in China alert, Good news, Petition, Politics, social media, Technology | Leave a Comment »

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01/10/2012

* Dalits see smallest rise in wages

One day in the distant future, India may turn its back on the Aryan invented caste system of which the Dalit is the lowest caste. In fact it is even lower than that as it is actually outside of the caste categories. Until then, inequalities will continue and a large percentage of the Indian population will not contribute to the national economy to the extent that they have the potential to do.

We know that in theory, the caste system is not supposed to be applied. We also know about the positive discrimination that central government and the education system applies. But until the common man and woman on the street decide that the caste system is centuries out of date and to be shunned, news items like the one below will continue.

Times of India: “Dalits have once again lost out, this time on wages in rural areas. A first-of-its-kind data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revealed that during the last eight years – between April, 2004 and March, 2012 – the daily wages of cobblers in rural areas rose by 95%, the worst show among the 17 categories listed by the government’s Labour Bureau. The all-India data compiled recently is, however, limited to wages paid to male workers.

Similarly, sweepers, who are also dalits, saw wages rise 109% to Rs 106 a day last March compared to a tad less than Rs 51 when the UPA came to power in mid-2004.

When it comes to actual wages, they remained the second worst paid after herdsmen, who were the only category earning less than Rs 100 a day till March. In terms of growth, sweepers managed to marginally pip blacksmith, whose wages jumped 108% and saw the second slowest rise.

Where the wages have really boomed is in farm-related activities with winnowing and picking topping the charts with a growth of 169% and 158%, respectively. Unlike cobblers or sweepers, in rural areas wages for unskilled workers also shot up 153% to Rs 151 a day.

What may come as a surprise to many is that the wage increase in the top three segments — winnowing, picking and unskilled labour — was more rapid that the rise in per capita income during this period.

According to Central Statistics Office, per capita income at current prices was estimated at Rs 24,143 in 2004-05, which went up 151% to Rs 60,603 in 2011-12. In terms of daily income, the rise was Rs 66 in 2004-05 to Rs 166.

via Dalits see smallest rise in wages – The Times of India.

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