India

Smart Reads May 16, 2013

May 16, 2013 1:57 pm by Amie Tsang

♦ Pharmaceutical companies are worried that the battle in India over patents will inspire other emerging economies to change their laws and make it more difficult to register or extend patents.
♦ Joshua Foust makes the liberal case for drones: “a lethal autonomous drone could actually result in fewer casualties and less harm to civilians.”
♦ The US military has seen a baffling rise in suicide numbers from 10.3 per 100,000 troops in 2002, to above 18 per 100,000 now.
♦ Gazans have a real taste for KFC and one entrepreneur has set up a business smuggling the fried chicken in from El Arish, Egypt. “Despite the blockade, KFC made it to my home”, says one satisfied customer. Read more

Tags: chicken, drones, Gaza, India, KFC, pharmaceuticals, suicide, US military
Posted in Foreign affairs, Smart Reads | Permalink

India, China and yet another border dispute

April 30, 2013 2:29 pm by Gideon Rachman

Activists of the Indian right-wing Hindu organisation Shiv Sena burn a China national flag in protest against Chinese troops moving onto disputed territory on April 25 (NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)

Activists of the Indian right-wing Hindu organisation Shiv Sena burn a Chinese flag in protest against troops moving into Indian-controlled territory on April 25 (NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)

Rising tensions with Japan are evidently not enough to keep China busy. The People’s Liberation Army has now also pitched tents in a bit of disputed territory, controlled by India, creating an embarrassing security dilemma for the Delhi government. Official India’s initial reaction has been to play the incident down. I encountered an Indian diplomat in Beijing last week, who speculated that the whole thing was probably an initiative by an over-zealous local Chinese commander – and assured me that it would all be smoothed over. But that was five days ago, now – and the Chinese are still there.

As a result, the Indian government is increasingly open to charges of weakness – or even appeasement. Brahma Chellaney, one of India’s most hawkish commentators, fumes that “China is encroaching little by little on Indian land” and accuses the government of Manmohan Singh of “bending over backward at a time of aggression”. Read more

Tags: China, India, People's Liberation Army
Posted in China, India | Permalink

Smart Reads April 30, 2013

April 30, 2013 1:48 pm by Amie Tsang

More on the Great Tax Race
♦ Luxembourg is set to share currently confidential information about multinationals’ bank accounts, showing how much it wants to shed its image as a tax haven at a time of a political and popular backlash against tax avoidance.
♦ One of the biggest hedge fund service businesses on the Cayman Islands has tried to block sweeping reforms to make the tax haven more transparent.
♦ Jeffrey Sachs writes about how austerity has exposed the threat of global tax havens: “In the new world of austerity following the 2008 crash… they are increasingly seen as a cancer on the global financial system that must be excised.”
The rest of the world
♦ Despite Dutch politics being roiled by waves of populist anger and anti-elitism, Willem-Alexander ascends to the throne amid an outpouring of popular enthusiasm – polls show support for preserving the Dutch monarchy running as high as 85 per cent.
♦ President Hamid Karzai acknowledges that the Central Intelligence Agency has been dropping off bags of cash at his office for a decade: “Not a big amount. A small amount, which has been used for various purposes.”
♦ Reuters takes a look through the confidential report prepared for the Cypriot central bank, which found that the Bank of Cyprus had been willing to invest in risky, high-yield Greek debt in its efforts to offset an erosion of its balance sheet from non-performing loans. The report also alleges that 28,000 files, containing emails from a crucial period during which the Bank of Cyprus spent billions of euros buying Greek bonds, were erased before investigators could copy them.
♦ A singer’s lament for Syria, broadcast on “Arab Idol”, has become a hit in the Arab world.
♦ Bangalore, once an advertisement for a new, confident India, is losing some of its sheen. Read more

Tags: Arab Idol, austerity, Bangalore, Bank of Cyprus, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Hamit Karzai, India, King Willem-Alexander, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Queen Beatrix, Syria, tax
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Smart Reads April 24, 2013

April 24, 2013 2:04 pm by Amie Tsang

♦ Martin Wolf argues that the UK industrial revolution shows the Reinhart-Rogoff thesis on debt is not always right.
♦ Frigide Barjot and her fellow protesters have taken the heat off Hollande as people take to the streets to protest over gay marriage rather than the state of the economy.
♦ The planting of sugar cane has exacerbated the effects of the worst drought in more than four decades in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
♦ Critics say that Nelson Mandela’s family members have been using his status for their own enrichment. Two of his grandchildren are involved in a US reality show called Being Mandela and his daughter has launched a wine business called House of Mandela.
♦ FT Alphaville take a typically irreverent look at the ‘tweet retreat’ in their Occupational Indifference series.
♦ The number of people in Britain receiving emergency food rations has more than doubled in the past year as inflation eroded incomes and government spending cuts have pushed hundreds of thousands into crisis.
♦ Jacob Heilbrunn at The National Interest examines Israel’s fraying image and the possibility that US interest in Israel’s fortune could wane: “if Israel remains stymied in dealing with the Palestinians… its predicament is likely to intensify. And the range of options for dealing with the country’s mounting problems is likely to expand toward more radical solutions.”
♦ Japanese drivers are getting televisions installed in the front of their cars. “Japanese law prohibits “staring” at a screen while driving, without saying anything about glancing at one.”
♦ The New York Times is debating the usefulness of Nato.

Tags: austerity, Carmen M Reinhart, drought, food banks, gay marriage, India, Israel, Japan, Kenneth S Rogoff, Nato, Nelson Mandela, Palestine, Smart Reads, tweet retreat, UK, US
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Smart Reads January 30, 2013

January 30, 2013 2:10 pm by Amie Tsang

The assault on the In Amenas gas facility has made the security of physical infrastructure a more urgent issue for the energy industry.
Timbuktu has taken the pressure off Hollande, but there are still worries over the open-ended nature of the French government’s commitment.
A senior police officer found guilty of carrying out the gruesome murder of a journalist 13 years ago implicated a former Ukrainian president and his aide as he was sentenced.
The Oscar-nominated film “The Gatekeepers” has captured the world’s attention, but one of the subjects of the film worries that people in Israel are not listening.
Amy Davidson explains why following Guantánamo “proceedings can be a bit like watching over someone’s shoulders when they play SimCity and forget an essential utility, causing the whole grid to crumple.”
The man who was with the Delhi rape victim has spoken about his relationship with the 23-year-old college graduate who died after the attack in December.
Dozens of men have taken to the stage in a Tokyo park to declare their love for their wives loudly in front of a national audience.
Those cute, cuddly cats all over the internet? It seems they are actually deadly killing machines.

Tags: Algeria, energy, François Hollande, Guantanamo, India, Israel, lolcats, love, Timbuktu, Tokyo, Ukraine, West Bank
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Smart Reads January 8, 2012

January 9, 2013 12:21 pm by Amie Tsang

Cracks may be appearing in Brazil’s economy, but shopping remains the lifeblood of the economy: in the past decade Brazil has added 35m people to the consuming classes and families now spend a fifth of their monthly income paying off credit card bills and loans.
The “flash mobs” in India have unnerved the government and are a turning point in India’s history of political protest — Amy Kazmin explains why in today’s Global Insight.
Cambodia has benefited from the rise in wages in China as manufacturers have shifted production there, but the surge in investment is not without problems.
A US-EU bilateral transatlantic trade deal has been a long-held dream of policy makers that seemed always out of reach, but Brussels and Washington are edging closer to formal negotiations.
High land prices in the Punjab are forcing farmers to leave India for countries like Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The Obama administration spent more on immigration enforcement last year then on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies combined.
David Graham at the Atlantic has given some thought to John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA director and the questions he is likely to face.
Despite reports from The Economist and Time Magazine about “Africa Rising”, Rick Rowden thinks Africa’s developmental prospects have been greatly exaggerated.