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!

India's foreign secretary leaves for China Sunday (Thaindian, Apr 18)
India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will leave for Beijing Sunday to participate in a meeting of senior officials of the Group of Five (G-5) countries. The G-5 includes India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. They are known as the "outreach countries" and are invited when the world's richest and most developed countries, the G-8, meet. They are also the fastest developing economies in the world.

Olympic Torch Reaches Jakarta; Rudd Warns Protesters (Bloomberg, Apr 22)
The Beijing Olympic Games torch relay was completed without major incident in a stadium in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, today as Australia warned that police will crack down on violent protests during the Canberra leg later this week.

Chile moots FTA, India apprehensive (The Hindu, Apr 22)
Chile on Tuesday offered a platform for India to access Latin American markets but New Delhi appeared not forthcoming on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). "Chile can be a platform for India in Latin America as we have all the necessary required infrastructure -- roads, ports, buildings, telecommunication -- for operating business into the entire Latin America," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet she said after hosting a ceremonial welcome to President Pratibha Patil at the imposing La Moneda palace.

Opinion
China, India can rewrite Asia-Africa unity story (China Daily, Apr 22)
While we followed the progress of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay earlier this month, the first India-Africa Summit was held with great fanfare on April 8-9 in India's capital, New Delhi. Heads of state from 14 African countries, including South Africa, Algeria, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania, attended the inaugural gathering. They passed two documents of vital importance - the New Delhi Declaration and the Framework Agreement on India-Africa Cooperation - that will pave the way for the future development of India-Africa relations.

Emerging Market Oil Use Exceeds U.S. as Prices Rise (Bloomberg, Apr 21)
Traffic jams in Beijing and humming air conditioners in Dubai are replacing U.S. highways and suburbs as the driver of global oil prices. China, India, Russia and the Middle East for the first time will consume more crude oil than the U.S., burning 20.67 million barrels a day this year, an increase of 4.4 percent, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. U.S. demand will contract 2 percent to 20.38 million barrels daily, the IEA says.

Nigeria: Why FG Accepted India, China Oil Deal (AllAfrica, Apr 17)
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has declared that the Federal Government accepted the oil deal by Indian and Chinese firms, to build more refineries in the country. The deal was also to ensure capacity utilisation in meeting existing demands of petroleum products in the country.

India ready to join Turkmenistan pipeline project this week (The Economic Times, Apr 22)
India is set to join US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project this week, even as it rejoins talks on a rival project from Iran. "We are going to Islamabad at an invitation of Asian Development Bank to attend the Steering Committee meeting of TAP project. The talks scheduled for April 23-24 will see India joining the project," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters here.

China key to Indian IT growth (Silicon.com, Apr 21)
hina will be a key part of Indian outsourcing giant Satyam's plans to create 15,000 new jobs worldwide and grow revenue to $2.69bn this year. China will take centre stage for this growth, with Satyam planning to boost its 1,000-strong employee base there to 10,000 and to increase the number of development centres in the country from the five it currently owns.

West wooing Bollywood like never before (Hindustan Times, Apr 18)
Bollywood spells big money these days. The Western world's perception of the Hindi film industry has changed completely over the past decade. Today it recognises the worth of this Rs 100-billion ($2.5 bn) industry firmly set on fast-track growth.Representatives of film entities or government bodies from different countries seek meetings with Bollywood trade organisations every other day. They come to Mumbai either to sign co-production agreements with Bollywood producers or invite them to shoot their movies in their countries.

Budget users rein in China Mobile (BBC, Apr 22)
China Mobile's profit growth has fallen slightly short of expectations after it expanded in less affluent rural areas. The biggest mobile phone operator in China said profit between January and March rose to 24.1bn yuan ($3.4bn; �2.2bn), up 37.2% on the previous year.

Rice shortage threatens Asia (UPI, Apr 22)
Three billion people in Asia are the rice guzzlers of the world and they are facing a supply shortage. Production at about 420 million tons a year has been static for the past four years. In this period about 100 million additional mouths have been added, which are putting a dent in the supply-demand chain.

India to Grow Record Rice, Wheat, Curbing Inflation (Bloomberg, Apr 22)
India, the world's second-biggest grower of rice and wheat, may harvest record crops after adequate rainfall and sunshine boosted yields, helping the government tame inflation that's near a three-year high.

Speculators fuel bubble in global food costs (The Guardian, Apr 20)
Speculative investors have created an unsustainable bubble in international food markets, say economists, exacerbating the sharp rise in prices that has led to riots around the world. Jim O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said rising demand from emerging countries, such as Brazil, India, China and Russia, explained some, but not all, of the price surge, which has seen the cost of wheat double in 12 months. 'I see so much focus on food, and it seems to be so trendy in the investment world,' O'Neill told The Observer.

US firm launches new bearings manufacturing plant in India (The Economic Times, April 16)
Eyeing the growing Indian mining, energy and heavy industries, US-based bearings maker Timken on Wednesday announced the launch of its new bearing manufacturing plant at Mahindra World City Special Economic Zone (SEZ) here. Timken President and Chief Executive Officer James W Griffith told newspersons that the economic boom and rapid infrastructure development in the region had prompted the company to establish, Timken India Manufacturing Private Limited, at a cost of US Dollar 25 million.

Mitsubishi Motors to Boost Manufacturing in Chinese City (The Wall Street Journal, April 21)
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is aiming to nearly double manufacturing capacity of a powertrain unit here to 420,000 engines a year by 2010, as part of the company's strategy to make Shenyang a global supply center of small engines. Construction workers are rushing to finish a second plant in the engine company's manufacturing facilities in an industrial park south of this northeastern Chinese city.

Fuchs Lubricants to set up manufacturing plant (The Economic Times, April 20)
Fuchs Lubricants, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuchs Petrolub Germany, on Sunday said it is setting up a manufacturing plant in Maharashtra at an investment of $10 million for making lubricating oils, greases and specialities.

China tooling up as integral cog in the worldwide auto industry (The People's Daily, April 21)
Today's global automotive industry is an increasingly complex and intertwined by its very nature. Several factors are driving both vehicle producing and vehicle consuming nations closer together everyday. These include stiffening emission standards, the rise of global integrated vehicle manufacturers and new export possibilities as incomes grow. Others include the importance of technology to meet consumer expectations and regulatory challenges while seeking to communize components and structures to raise economies of scale and lower fixed costs.

Bush wants India, China fully in new climate change regime (Thaindian News, April 20)
President George W. Bush has told another visiting leader that a new international regime on climate change is not going to work without the full participation of fast-growing countries like India and China. "How can you possibly have an international agreement that's effective unless countries like China and India are not [sic] full participants," he said at a joint press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at Camp David presidential retreat Saturday.

India Rejects Emissions-Control Plan Supported by Japan, U.S. (Bloomberg, April 21)
India rejected a proposal to replace national limits on carbon-dioxide pollution with targets for individual industries, taking sides against Japan and the U.S. in how to curb global warming. "There can't be an imposition of industry-wide norms on a global basis,"Shyam Saran, special envoy for the Indian prime minister on climate change, told businessmen in Mumbai today, according to the copy of the speech obtained after it was made.

California's Top Environment Official in China (Environment News Agency, April 20)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent the head of the California Environmental Protection Agency to Beijing to participate in events that support China's efforts to address climate change. Cal/EPA Secretary Linda Adams says she arrived in Beijing today to hazy skies, "the Sun actually darkened by dirty air." "But I was told that today the air is actually considered moderately good," said Adams in a blog she is writing to document her six day visit to China.

Good green house (The Times of India, April 21)
The city is preparing to celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday but the government is worried that several energy efficient concepts that it has been trying to promote are yet to catch up with Delhiites. One major area where not much progress has been made is the concept of green buildings. While the government has undertaken some projects on its own, there are not more than a handful of private individuals who might even be aware of the practices.

In China, Hybrids Are Tough Sell (The Wall Street Journal, April 21)
At the Beijing auto show this week, companies are showing off their latest environmentally friendly technologies, including hybrid engines, electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles. But there is little chance such innovations will help reduce the environmental fallout of the car-buying boom sweeping across China and other emerging markets like Russia and India soon.

ArcelorMittal to spend Rs 2400 crore for CSR programmes (The Hindu, April 20)
The world's largest steel-maker ArcelorMittal would spend about Rs 2,400 crore towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, including resettlement and rehabilitation in India where it was setting up two giant greenfield projects. "We will spend $ 600 million towards the CSR programmes in Orissa and Jharkhand where the company is setting up two mega steel plants of 12 MTPA capacity each," ArcelorMittal Vice-President (CSR), Remi Boyer told PTI.

China: Olympic Flame Turns Up Heat on Sponsors (Human Rights Watch, April 17)
With fewer than four months remaining until the start of the Beijing Games, corporate sponsors of the Olympics risk lasting damage to their brands if they do not live up to their professed standards of corporate social responsibility by speaking out about the deteriorating human rights situation in China, Human Rights Watch said today. "Shareholders and consumers who care about human rights should not let Olympic corporate sponsors off the hook," said Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch's Business and Human Rights Program. "Their silence on abuses in the run-up to the Beijing Games makes their claims to support human rights especially disingenuous."

A year of innovation, competition, consolidation Milestone deal (The People's Daily, April 21)
SAIC Motor Corp, the top Chinese vehicle producer, clinched a landmark merger deal with Nanjing Automobile Corp in December, the biggest consolidation in the country's fragmented auto industry. According to the agreement, SAIC's publicly traded unit, SAIC Motor Co Ltd, bought Nanjing Automobile Corp's entire vehicle and core component manufacturing assets for almost 2.1 billion yuan. Nanjing Automobile also injected all other components, services and trade assets into Donghua Company, its existing joint venture with parent SAIC. In return, Nanjing Automobile holds 320 million shares of SAIC Motor Co Ltd, the listed arm, and a 25 percent stake in Donghua.

Fill spaces with innovation (The Economic Times, April 21)
It's now official. The world's largest economy, the US, is fast slipping into recession. Although, the severity and the tenure of this slowdown are both still in the realm of guesswork, what's certain is that the impact will surely be felt in all economies across the world, including India. However, while the seriousness of the shock waves is still being assessed, it seems almost certain that Indian businesses will have to gird up for slightly tougher times and prepare to create some strategies to counter the deceleration.

Wen: China's health care reform focuses on public service (China Daily, April 15)
China's health care reform plan will focus on the public health service, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao here Tuesday. Through the reform plan, the country will ensure the non-profit nature of its public medical service, and speed up building a health insurance network in both urban and rural areas, improve the public health service and set up a state catalog, production and distribution of basic medicines, Wen said at a meeting held by the State Council.

IT is crucial to drug discovery (The Hindu, April 21)
People say IT and pharmaceuticals are sectors with a lot of similarities. Human capital is important, companies generally have entrepreneurial roots, export-focussed so on and so forth. Can pharma help IT? Or, is IT better equipped to help pharma? For the moment, it looks the latter is a more of a reality. At least, that's how an expert feels.

Max India in talks with health insurers (Sify, April 21)
Max India Ltd will soon add health insurance to its company's portfolio of life insurance, healthcare, speciality packaging products, clinical trials and medical training. It is in talks with a few global players in the segment for a possible tie-up.

China completes road tunnel under Yangtze River (Reuters India, April 20)
China has completed a road tunnel beneath the Yangtze River in the central city of Wuhan, marking the first such project on the river, known for having its waters controlled by the Three Gorges Dam.

Big Benz dream comes true (China Daily, April 21)
China's first "one-child" generation is literally the driving force behind the country's thriving auto market, but in the early 1980s, most of their parents were still striving for a Feige (Flying Pigeon) bicycle as the ultimate in personal transportation. "At that time, owning a bicycle was still a luxury for Chinese. With a salary of less than 50 yuan ($7.14) per month, nobody dared to dream of someday owning cars costing hundreds of thousands yuan," says a Mercedes-Benz owner who purchased an E-Class sedan in 2005.

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