Geoff Hiscock, presenter in the ICA Institute's Global Virtual Seminar Series, Tap into Chindia, has just released a new book: India Store Wars: Retail Revolution and the Battle for the Next 500 Million Shoppers.

With a population fast approaching 1.2 billion and an economy that will likely double in size by 2015, India is destined to become one of the largest consumer markets in the world. In the coming decade, as many as 500 million people, newly released from living on or just above the poverty line, will start to buy goods and services in significant quantities for the first time in their lives. How and where will these people spend their money? India Store Wars explores the tensions at play as the next 500 million consumers gradually work their way up from the bottom of the pyramid.

Ahimsa Center at California State Polytechnic University invites you to a major international conference Rediscovering Gandhian Wisdom: Building a Peaceful Future, to be held in the Los Angeles area, October 17-19, 2008.

The conference will focus on many issues that should be of great interest to business professionals, e.g. ethics in economics and business, corporate social responsibility, education, poverty and development, sustainability, law and justice, leadership, etc.

Luminaries who will speak at the conference include:
Samdhong Rinpoche­-the prime minister of Tibet government-in-exile, and a devoted Gandhi scholar.
Bernard Lafayette Jr.­-a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Charles R. DiSalvo -a law professor who is doing a book on Gandhi's career as a lawyer in the formative years of his public life; and
Rajmohan Gandhi -- a grandson and biographer of the Mahatma.
James O'Toole - a leading thinker on Business Ethics, CSR and Leadership.

Link for the conference web site is as follows:
http://www.csupomona. edu/~ahimsacenter/conference/conference_08.shtml

China's tallest tower aims to take Shanghai higher (AFP, Aug 29)
The dizziness strikes within the first steps onto the world's highest public walkway as the view of fast-changing Shanghai unfolds from more than 100 storeys up. China's tallest building, the 492-metre (1,614-foot) Shanghai World Financial Centre, opens to the public on Saturday with the aim of providing unparalleled views of the city. The 1.4-billion-dollar bottle opener-shaped skyscraper, which took 14 years to build, is the latest testament to Shanghai's -- and China's -- growing financial might.

India's Economic Miracle Loses Some Zest (Forbes, Aug 29)
With Western consumers tightening their belts, companies still in budget-cutting mode and inflation raging, the Indian economy was bound to slow from its spectacular pace of recent times. New Delhi's Central Statistical Office revealed Friday that India's economic growth slowed to 7.9% annually in the April-June quarter, down from 9.2% in the second quarter last year and easing off from the previous quarter's 8.8%. This is the first time India has recorded GDP growth lower than 8% in nine quarters, since December 2004.

Global expansion of Indian MNCs a challenge (SiliconIndia, Aug 28)
The rapid global growth of India-based multinationals and the increasing employee mobility are compelling companies to address policy issues on international assignments, according to a study by Mercer. The report titled 'Expatriate Management Survey : India' is based on contributions from 40 of the largest corporations in India and addresses India-specific nuances and practices as these companies send employees on international assignments.

Beijing ranks as largest Olympic push for Coke (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug 26)
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. wrapped up its largest Olympic effort ever this week. Coke estimates these Olympics helped it make more than a half-billion consumer connections in the country.

Zimbabwe: China on Massive Investment in Country (All Africa.com, Aug 29)
China is embarking on massive investment in Zimbabwe's mining, agriculture and aviation sectors as part of its efforts to assist the country and further strengthen relations between the two countries, Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Yuan Nansheng has said. He said China, through the Sino-Africa Co-operation, continues to help Zimbabwe in these sectors which are key to the development of the country.

India rebuffed on nuclear sale pact (The Australian Newspaper, Aug 25)
Attempts were under way last night to rescue the radical nuclear pact between Delhi and Washington after the key 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group refused to lift a 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India.The NSG, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, convened for two days to discuss a US draft proposal "on a statement on civil nuclear co-operation with India" but failed to rubberstamp the deal. Officials in New Delhi yesterday described the NSG's failure - which saw almost half the cartel's membership raise "objections and concerns" - as "very surprising indeed" and conceded the deal was approaching its "most serious break point to date".

China's CNOOC to invest 6.6 bln dlrs in oil refining: report (AFP, Aug 29)
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the nation's third largest oil producer, will spend 6.6 billion dollars to nearly double the capacity of a major refinery project, state media said Friday. CNOOC plans to boost its oil refinery in Huizhou, a city in south China's Guangdong province, to 22 million tonnes a year by 2015 from the present 12 million, the China Daily said.

Iraq Signs Oil Deal With China Worth Up to $3 Billion (New York Times, Aug 28)
In the first major oil deal Iraq has made with a foreign country since 2003, the Iraqi government and the China National Petroleum Corporation have signed a contract in Beijing that could be worth up to $3 billion, Iraqi officials said Thursday. Under the new contract, which must still be approved by Iraq's cabinet, the Chinese company will provide technical advisers, oil workers and equipment to help develop the Ahdab oil field southeast of Baghdad, according to Assim Jihad, a spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry. If the deal is approved, work could begin on the oil field within a few months, Mr. Jihad said.

China Telecom First-Half Profit Declined 8.2% (The Wall Street Journal, Aug 29)
China Telecom Corp. posted an 8.2% drop in first-half net profit as its users continued to migrate to mobile-service providers. China Telecom Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu said he expects the company's earnings to remain under pressure in the short term as its fixed-line subscriber base continues to shrink and its foray into mobile services requires significant investment. The company, which is listed in Hong Kong and New York, reported a net profit of 12.63 billion yuan (US$1.85 billion), down from 13.76 billion yuan a year earlier.

Software industry looking at Lucknow as next IT hub (Silicon India, Aug 29)
The software industry's apex lobby group is looking at Lucknow as a future information technology (IT) hub, an industry official said Thursday. The software lobby - the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) - and the Lucknow-based Association of Knowledge Workers (AKW) will jointly organise a national conference here Saturday to discuss how the Uttar Pradesh capital could be developed into an IT hub.

Mobile phone sales rise 12% to 305m in Q2/2008 (Semiconductor Today, Aug 28)
Sales of mobile phones neared 305 million units in second-quarter 2008, up 11.8% on second-quarter 2007, according to market research firm Gartner Inc's report "Dataquest Insight: Market Share for Mobile Devices, 2Q08". Sales in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America recovered slightly after a difficult start. Western Europe reached close to 42 million units, while North America surpassed 44 million units.

Government to expand mobile phone services in rural areas (SiliconIndia, Aug 28)
The government Wednesday said it will soon launch the second phase of mobile phone expansion, covering about 200,000 villages. "With this, mobile services will cover all habitats with population of 500, and about 11,000 additional towers will be installed under the scheme," the Department of Telecom said here in a statement.

India may produce record rice this year (The Economic Times, Aug 29)
India's rice production in this agriculture year may breach the record output of 96.43 million tons in the last year on the back of increased acreage even as floods in some producing areas have hit the kharif crop, a top government official said today. "Rice production will surely touch record this year on the back of the areas sown and the overall crop condition as of now, even though floods in some producing regions have hit the crop," Secretary in the Department of Agricultural Research (DARE) Mangala Rai said. Rai said maize production deficit in Bihar, caused by the floods, can also be bridged if farmers use single-cross hybrid (high quality) seeds in a big way, thereby raising the productivity level by about 50 per cent. Moreover, the sowing areas under rabi maize in the state are also large, he added.

Chinese official urges more support to help farmers lift incomes (China View, Aug 28)
A top Chinese agriculture official on Thursday called for more technological and financial support for the rest of the year to help farmers increase their incomes. Measures should be taken to promote the comprehensive development of the agricultural sector, said Sun Zhengcai, Minister of Agriculture. More efforts would be given to exploit agricultural potential to boost grain production, Sun said in a report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Can India be a hub for luxury manufacturing? (Live Mint, August 28)
Encouraged by the growing disposable incomes in India, foreign luxury goods manufacturers are hoping that the country could be their new hub for production. But can that be a reality any time soon?

China Manufacturing Set to Roar Past U.S. (NewsMax, August 26)
The manufacturing dominance that the United States has held for the past century may be coming to an end. According to Global Insights, last year the U.S. was still easily in the top spot, accounting for a fifth of the total. China, meanwhile ranked second with 13.2 percent. Now the company's estimates show that next year China will account for 17 percent of manufacturing output, and the U.S. will make up 16 percent.

Siemens commences new manufacturing facility in Aurangabad (RTT News, August 28)
Siemens on Thursday said it has commenced operations at its ultra-modern High Voltage Instrument Transformer factory at Waluj, Aurangabad. The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is the ninth factory of Siemens in Maharashtra and the sixth such factory worldwide. Set up at an investment of Rs.25 crore, the unit will cater to the growing domestic and global markets. The factory has an installed capacity of 3,000 Instrument Transformers a year, and the capacity is amenable for expansion.

SEZs can make India global manufacturing hub: PwC (Zee News India, August 26)
Special economic zones can help India become a global manufacturing hub and the government should provide hassle-free regulatory and fiscal environment to entrepreneurs, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report has said.

Australian Treasurer approves China's Rio Tinto stake (The Australian Newspaper, August 25)
Australian Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has given approval for the Chinese government-owned mining giant Chinalco to acquire up to 11 per cent of the Rio Tinto group in the first high-profile test of the Rudd Government's stance on more than $30 billion of Chinese foreign investment bids. The Treasurer's foreign investment approval has the potential to complicate BHP Billiton's hostile $170 billion takeover bid for Rio, the world's third- largest mining group. Chinalco is 100 per cent owned by the Chinese Government.

Indian firms must gear up to tackle climate change (The Times of India, August 28)
Indian firms must combat climate change by measuring their carbon footprints now and in the foreseeable future, and take preventive steps, says a report by the KPMG and CII released said.

Climate change necessitates concerted action by industry: Report (The Economic Times, August 27)
Given the rapid increase in the rate at which the world is approaching the estimated safe limits of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the air and the inadequacy of action till date, the pressure on businesses to act is expected to increase further in the future. And in order to be able to effectively mitigate the risks posed by climate change and to take advantage of the opportunities likely to be presented, Indian businesses need to take structured, concerted action now, says a KPMG and CII joint report on climate change.

The U.S. and China: Common Ground on Climate (Yale Environment 360, Aug 18)
The crackdown on dissent surrounding the Beijing Olympics has been a reminder of China's lingering authoritarianism. Yet for all our differences, the U.S. and China - the world's two largest emitters of carbon dioxide - have no choice but to work together to tackle climate change.

Pepsico China Builds New Rural Library (China CSR, August 28)
Pepsico China has donated CNY200,000 to Guang'an, Sichuan, which is the hometown of Deng Xiaoping, for 20 Pepsico Rural Libraries. The CNY200,000 will go to 20 different villages for the construction of libraries with books and audio-visual materials on planting and breeding technologies, grassroots democracy, rural commerce and entertainment.

Tata Group spends around Rs 1,000 crore towards CSR (The Economic Times, August 26)
Known for its philanthropic activities, one of the country's most respected business houses - the Tata Group - spends Rs 800-1,000 crore a year on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Wipro Wins Intel Global Innovation Award (Market Watch, August 28)
Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services announced that it has won the prestigious Intel Global Innovation Award for Storage at the Intel Developer Forum 2008 in San Francisco.

Not just made in China, designed there too (The Financial Times, August 28)
China's desire to give its home-grown design and engineering students the skills to compete in the global market received a boost in March, when Autodesk launched a student design community for the country. The design innovation technology company has created a web portal in co-operation with the ministry of education that offers students from several of China's universities free downloads of the latest digital design tools for specialities related to architecture, building and mechanical engineering.

Caterpillar R & D center set for China (Chicago Tribune, August 28)
Caterpillar Inc., citing China's "remarkable" economic growth, said Wednesday that it intends to establish a new research and development center at the site of its rapidly expanding manufacturing campus in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi.

Study Shows Traditional Chinese Medicine Of Qigong Therapy As A Potential Complementary Treatment For Patients Suffering From Osteoarthritis (Medical News Today, August 28)
Qigong therapy, a form of traditional Chinese medical practice, appears to be a potential complementary treatment for osteoarthritis dependent upon the capability of the healer, according to a study conducted at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey by Kevin Chen, PhD, MPH, and Dr. Adam Perlman, MPH, FACP.

Why is logistics sector on a high growth path? (Commodity Online, August 28)
India's logistics sector attracted investments worth Rs. 23,200 crore in first half of 2008, according to a study by Assocham. It outclassed some of the major sectors including aviation (Rs 20,890 cr), metals and mining (Rs 8500 cr) and consumer durables (Rs 6000 cr) among others.

Publisher: L. Roxanne Russell
Primary Contributing Editor: RJ Paulsick
Editor of Academic Resources: Dr. S.V. Char
International Contributors Editorial Board: To be Announced in September 2008