26/01/2012
Over the last six days at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, bigotry, intolerance and censorship has dominated everything, both formal and informal.
This is because of a book The Satanic Verses banned by a Muslim fatwa in 1988, and the planned appearance of Salman Rushdie, the author. Fanatics threatened violence if Rushdie came to Jaipur and police intelligence suggested that assassins were planned to kill Rushdie.
What with corruption high in the public’s mind, the failure to guarantee free speech, esp at a literary festival does not bode well for democracy in India.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monisha-rajesh/salman-rushdies-jaipur_b_1232218.html
Posted in India alert, Social & cultural |
Leave a Comment »
24/01/2012
31/01/12 update: Indian Express – “In the wake of protests by Tibetans in Sichuan province over self-immolations by monks, China has tightened its control over Buddhist temples and monasteries in Tibet and is taking steps to prevent “trouble-makers” from entering the region.
“The official Chinese media also defended the recent police firing on Tibetan demonstrators as “justified response and accused “Dharmashala” of instigating protests, without directly naming the Dalai Lama.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/china-raises-security-to-contain-tibet-protests/906045/
24/01/12: Many demonstrators were injured and one shot dead when Chinese police fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Luhuo, which is known in Tibetan as Draggo and located in westernmost Sichuan Province, near the border with Tibet.
It was the second reported shooting of Tibetan protesters this month. The previous one, on Jan. 14, in which two people were reported wounded, took place in Aba, also located in Sichuan Province and 100 miles northeast of Luhuo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/world/asia/deadly-new-violence-reported-in-restive-tibetan-area-of-western-china.html?hp
Posted in China alert, Freedom, Politics |
Leave a Comment »
23/01/2012
Chow Tai Fook is a Hong Kong based jeweller with revenues 50% higher than Tiffany’s. It has 1,500 outlets in China, mainly in second tier and third tier cities. It IPOed 10% of its shares 6 weeks ago which puts the value of the company at around $20bn.
With Chinese New Year here (Year of the Dragon), jewellery purchases are expected to be high and Chow Tai Fook hopes to gain some of that.
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/01/03/getting-to-know-chow-tai-fook/
Posted in Affluence, China alert, Economics |
Leave a Comment »
23/01/2012
Piramal Healthcare is mulling a string of small-ticket acquisitions in the UK biotechnology sector, eyeing early-stage businesses in drug discovery, anaesthetics and contract manufacturing, said Ajay Piramal, head of the Indian pharmaceutical firm.
Piramal, whose company sold its generic drug business to Abbott Laboratories in 2010 for $3.7bn and also has access to debt facilities worth $2bn, told The Timesthat the planned takeovers in the UK and Europe are aimed at strengthening the firm’s drug research unit.
http://www.efinancialnews.com/digest/2012-01-23/indian-pharma-major-prepares-usd-5-billion-war-chest-for-overseas-acquisitions?mod=otherarticles_digests
Posted in Economics, India alert |
Leave a Comment »
21/01/2012
This is not new news, but I only came across it a few days ago on TED.com
Hans Rosling, world health expert and professor waxes lyrically on Asia’s growth illustrated by his unique graphics.
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_asia_s_rise_how_and_when.html
Posted in China alert, Chindia Alert, Economics, Good news, India alert |
Leave a Comment »
21/01/2012
India’s Supreme Court ruled that India had no jurisdction over Vodafones purchase of Hutchison Essar mobile from Hutchison Whampoa, after a 4-year battle. The government was claiming £3bn in tax revenue.
On the face of it, India lost. But analysts say this has reassured international business that India is, once again, a safe place to invest in. Together with the current low market value many global companies may take the opportunity to re-evaluate their options in India.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-21/vodafone-s-india-tax-ruling-clears-way-for-17-6-billion-ipo.html
Posted in Economics, India alert |
Leave a Comment »
20/01/2012
On 16 January, the Chinese government allowed a non-governmental organisation to lodge a suit concerning the probably causes of cancer in a village due to industrial pollution. This is the first such case and breaks new ground.
The reasons could be; a loosing up of court procedure in the face of increasing anger at industrial pollution bighting lives; an attempt at making owners of factories causing pollution to realise that not only the law is against them, but now non-governmental organisations can take up the cause of the little man in the village and, finally, it makes good press in the run up to leadership changes later in the year.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=china-cancer-village-tests-law-versus-pollution
Posted in China alert, Good news, Law suit, Pollution |
Leave a Comment »
20/01/2012
Global warming threatens China’s march to prosperity by reducing crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods, says the Chinese government’s latest “Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change”.
China is the world’s second biggest economy after the US and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution, now ahead of the US.
Global warming caused and exacerbated by greenhouse gases from industry, transport and changing land-use poses a long-term threat to China’s prosperity, health and food production, says the report. With China’s economy likely to overtake the United States’ in 20 or 30 years, that has dire consequences.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/18/us-china-climate-idUSTRE80H06J20120118
Posted in China alert, Climate change, Ecology, Good news, Pollution |
4 Comments »
20/01/2012
A Chinese sovereign wealth fund has invested c£1bn for 8.7% in the water utility that serves London, in what is the fund’s first UK acquisition following talks with British politicians.
The deal follows a visit to China this week by George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has been urging Chinese investors to inject money into British infrastructure projects.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7b19ca2e-42c0-11e1-b756-00144feab49a.html#axzz1k0uBCqhC
Mr Osborne also made progress in persuading China to use London as the first non-Chinese centre in collaboration with Hong Kong for trading in the Renminbi (RMB). China, of course is keen on diversifying from its vast investment in the slowly declining US dollar into tangible assets; as well as to establish, in time, the RMB as an alternate global currency; especially as, for the time being the Euro is heading nowhere.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2104536,00.html
Posted in China alert, Economics, Investment in tangibles |
Leave a Comment »
19/01/2012
India has introduced a game Angry Brides loosely based on the hugely popular Angry Birds. This game is in reaction to the illegal (since early 1950s) yet largely practised dowry system. Here, the player throws all kinds of common household objects to dislodge the green pigs (symbolic of husbands?). Given that the pig is considered a dirty animal by Muslims and Hindus alike, the symbolism is indeed strong! The root cause is that the dowry system is harse on the poor. Some 8,000 women cases of dowry-related deaths in 2010.
http://kotaku.com/5876726/indian-brides-are-angry-about-illegal-marriage-dowries
Posted in Illegal practices, India alert, Inequalities, Obsolete practices, Social & cultural |
Leave a Comment »
