Recordings from the Tap into Chindia Global Virtual Seminar Series are now available at the ICA Institute Store.

A great set of resources for you, your colleagues and students- recordings from this series offer important insight on business topics in India and China from top thought leaders and practitioners. These CDs will automatically play the audio and screen presentations from the original webinars on your computer.

Available now:

Dr. Jagdish Sheth's
Rise of Chindia: The Next Largest Consumer Markets
Rise of Chindia: Q&A Session

Dr. Camille Schuster's
Adapting Business Practices for India & China

Suresh Sharma's
Strategic Sourcing in India, China & America

Each webinar recording is only $20 toward our ongoing non-profit efforts.

More recordings from the series will be available soon!

China, India to lead Apac growth despite inflation (The Financial Express, Apr 8)
Despite being hit by inflation, China will lead Asia-Pacific countries in economic growth in 2008, followed by India, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

India opens tourist office in Beijing (People's Daily Online, Apr 8)
The grand opening of the India Tourist Bureau in Beijing was held in Beijing on April 7; and was co-hosted by India's Tourism Culture ministry and the Indian Embassy in China. The theme of the ceremony was:"Incredible India."


India to cut tariffs, give development funds to Africa (Monsters and Critics, Apr 8)
The first India-Africa Summit began in New Delhi on Tuesday with India announcing preferential market access to exports from 34 least-developed African countries and doubling its financial aid to the continent.

Opinion

Africa: Is China the Greedy Tiger It's Often Portrayed to Be? (allAfrica, Apr 7)
Open any newspaper and you would get the impression that the African continent, and much of the rest of the world, is in the process of being "devoured" by China.Phrases such as the "new scramble for Africa", "voracious", "ravenous" or "insatiable" appetite for natural resources are typical descriptors used to characterise China's engagement with Africa.

China gets energy issues down on paper (Asia Times, Apr 9)
The long-anticipated plan for structural reforms to the Chinese energy sector through the merger of a ministries, commissions and departments to form an energy super-ministry or super-commission passed, with some tweaks to satisfy the powerful vested interests that dominate the sector.


India, Turkmenistan to work on gas (UPI, Apr 7)
India and Turkmenistan signed a memorandum of understanding on a pipeline that will carry gas from Turkmenistan to India. "The pipeline between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will be a weighty contribution to the positive cooperation on this continent," Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said.


China will double renewables consumption by 2010 (Greenbang, Apr 8)
Like Marty McFly and Sam Beckett, China is doing a little bit of time travel, unveiling a plan for renewable energy that covers 2006 to 2010. While you might be wondering what's the point of presenting a plan that covers two years that are already dead and gone, let's press ahead regardless.


US embarking on global energy ties with India (The Economic Times, Apr 3)
Undaunted by the Indo-US civil nuclear deal getting stuck in political imbroglio, the US on Thursday said it is embarking on new areas of global energy cooperation with India, while Washington favours transfer of clean technologies to other countries.

China marches into outsourcing (LA Times, Apr 8)
In the foothills of Yuelu Mountain here, a young Mao Tse-tung found inspiration in nature for his political aspirations. Today, Communist Party officials have a different vision for this area: a valley of global outsourcing firms. One of them, Beijing-based Chinasoft International Ltd., is recruiting hundreds of workers to process medical bills and health insurance claims. Its target customers: U.S. doctors.


China Looks Set for Telecom Industry Restructuring (BusinessWeek, Apr 4)
Rumors of a restructuring build as the massive mainland industry eagerly awaits the debut of a homegrown 3G mobile standard.

Mobile Services Boom in India (BusinessWeek, Apr 4)
Indians are using their cell phones-some 300 million have subscriptions, vs. only 30 million PCs-as a "one-stop shop" for everything from e-mailing to banking.

Analysis

IT Scaling New Heights (CXO Today, Apr 8)
Today, all the developments are based on technology; be it social, economy or education. The Indian IT department has a policy, whereby IT is used as a tool for raising the living standards, and enriching the lives of people by implementing educational technology that fosters employment generation.


China stands to gain much from 3G market (China Daily, Apr 8)
China's telecom industry will undergo a reshuffle in the near future as the government is expected to release the long-awaited license for third generation (3G) technology and restructure the major wireless and fixed-line carriers later this year or next year.

Better Living In India, China Pushing Global Food Prices: World Bank (News Post India, Apr 3)
World food prices are likely to continue to increase in the near future, a World Bank South Asia expert warns, attributing this phenomenon to rising standards of living in countries like China and India. Increased use of food crops for bio-fuels and animal feeds, and increased oil and fertiliser prices are other factors, Shanta Devarajan, World Bank's chief economist for South Asia said here Wednesday.


Rich nations seek action on rising food prices (International Herald Tribune, Apr 7)
Development ministers from wealthy nations called Sunday for action to confront soaring food prices, which they said hurt developing nations as well as efforts by donors to help them. Ministers from the Group of 8 industrialized nations said that development assistance needed to be strengthened, and partnership increased between traditional donors and new donors, like emerging Asian countries.


Upheaval from rice crisis parallels turmoil in credit markets (Business Report April 8)
From Cairo to New Delhi to Shanghai, the run on rice is threatening to disrupt worldwide food supplies as much as the scarcity of confidence on Wall Street earlier this year roiled credit markets. China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global rice exports, curbed sales this year; Indonesia said it might do the same. Investigators in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer, raided warehouses last month to crack down on hoarding.

China's Dongfang plans base in Kolkata (The Economic Times, Apr 7)
China's largest power equipment manufacturer Dongfang Electric (DEC), which is in the process of setting up a service centre in Kolkata, may build a power equipment manufacturing base in India. If plans materialise, this would be DEC's first manufacturing unit outside China. With the Indian power sector on a massive expansion mode, the country is facing huge power equipment shortage with Bhel struggling hard to stick to supply schedules.

China and India driving world metal demand (UPI, April 9)
Demand for copper, zinc, aluminum, nickel and all other nonferrous metals has scaled new heights in the last four years. Prices have sky-rocketed and traders are turning in huge profits. This demand for 12 years has been driven by China and now also, in the last four years, by India. India's economy is expanding at 9 percent per year, putting a strain on supply and demand. Copper has seen a five-fold price increase from US$0.75 a pound in 2003 to $3.75 a pound in February, 2008. Zinc, which was $0.40 a pound in 2003, now sells at $1.70 a pound. Nickel prices have escalated six fold. The same is true of other metals. In comparison, hot rolled steel, which is the backbone of all industrial and construction activity, has only doubled in price from about US$340 a ton in 2003 to about $700 a ton in 2008. Only specialty steel prices have risen much higher. The reason is that iron ore is abundant, and most countries have built steel mills of their own. Nonferrous metal ores are scarcer; hence producers can cut production and wait for shortages to develop, followed by price increases.

Taiwan Machinery Sector Rocked by Surging Raw Material Prices in 2007 (CENS.com, April 7)
With sky-high oil prices and hence metal ore extraction and refining costs also climbing alongside last year, the machinery industry in Taiwan was generally upset by such rocketing prices, while the unfavorable scenario is expected to continue in 2008, according to a research report prepared by the Industry & Technology Intelligence Services Office (ITIS) under the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ITIS report shows that the domestic machinery manufacturing industry has had to counter by raising their quotations in the wake of sharp price hikes in such raw materials as steel and cast iron-as the average selling prices for such ingredients last year exceeded their historic highs in 2004.

Bangkok Climate Change talks might still benefit all (American Chronicle, April 7)
According to UN conference delegates, the most contentious issue in the Bangkok climate change follow-up talks was Japan�s introduction of a �bottom-up sect oral approach� proposal, which received support from major industrialized countries like the US, Canada and Australia but was turned down by developing countries, including China, India and Brazil. The irony is all these countries form the first and second tier of the global polluters list being either fully industrialized power houses or emerging lead developing economies. Nevertheless, China, India and Brazil have been championing the interests of the developing countries since the Bali Meet in January 2008, and have a strong G-77 lobby that the U.S believes threatens G-8 countries� economic production.

Rudd wants to talk climate with China (news.com.au, April 8)
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has put climate change high on the agenda of his China trip by having Climate Change Minister Penny Wong join him in Beijing. Senator Wong left today for the Chinese capital ahead of Mr Rudd's arrival tomorrow on the last leg of his world tour. The climate change minister said Australia's trade role as an exporter of commodities to China offered a unique chance for them to cooperate on emissions reduction. "We know that collaboration on issues such as carbon capture and storage are issues which are of interest to Australia and are of deep interest to China," Senator Wong said. She said Australia could also help nudge China towards being part of a new global greenhouse agreement.

Protecting right to health in India (UPI Asia Online, April 9)
April 7 is celebrated as World Health Day. This year's theme adopted by the World Health Organization is the need to protect health from the adverse effects of climate change. India is an example of this phenomenon. A glance at statistics concerning the protection and promotion of health in the country makes this evident. India, the second most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 1.1 billion people, spends very little on government-sponsored healthcare facilities in comparison to other Asian countries.

Health tourism in India: Remarkable strides (The Moderate Voice, April 5)
India has not only pipped China to become Asia's most popular destination for conducting clinical trials, but also emerged as a favourite country attracting a large number of medical tourists from the world, according to a high-level 10-month long study by India's Planning Commission. "The report said while a heart bypass surgery would cost a patient $6,000 in India, the same surgery would cost the person $7,894 in Thailand, $10,417 in Singapore, $23,938 in the US and $19,700 in Britain. A cosmetic surgery would cost $3,500 in Thailand, $20,000 in the US and $10,000 in Britain. But the same surgery would cost only $2,000 in India, the report said.

Prescription for success: China TV series to feature traditional medicine (China View, April 2)
A TV series based upon the lives of a legendary family of traditional Chinese medical doctors will be aired starting in June. The program, "The Great Medication", depicts nearly 200 years in the lives of the Yun family in Luoyang, central Henan Province, from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945). "I am so impressed by traditional medical practices, and I believe that we should pay more attention to promoting our own medical culture," said Xu Fan, a well-known actress who played the heroine of the series. For Wu Ziniu, the director, the series has another profound meaning. "The Korean TV series 'Dae Changgen' brought Korean food and medical culture to Chinese people and made a real hit on the small screen. I think it is time for us to introduce our culture to people at home and abroad."

Logistics technology: ARC report says global WMS market to hit $1.8 billion by 2012 (Logistics Management, April 8)
A recent report from supply chain consultancy ARC Advisory Group notes that the global Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) market is expected to expand at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.5 percent over the next five years. The new report, entitled "Warehouse Management System Worldwide Outlook," stated that the global WMS market was nearly $1.3 billion in 2007 and is projected to exceed $1.8 billion by 2012. In terms of WMS offerings that are driving growth in the global marketplace, part of the growth is sustained by WMS that are driven by a modern architecture, such as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. SaaS systems can handle quick upgrades that do not take a lot of time and provide shippers with adaptability and flexibility. But he added there are also WMS's that are not functionally rich that are basic systems and very inexpensive, which are driving "huge growth" in Eastern Europe, China, and India.

Life at the dock in Grand Canal (China View, April 8)
Built 2,400 years ago, the Grand Canal linking Beijing and Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, was the country's most important transport link, and was used to ship grains and goods between the south and the north. At a time when there were no trains or highways, it served to connect the whole of China.

Publisher: L. Roxanne Russell
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