Join us for a Webinar on October 13

With more than 900 million consumers, the continent of Africa is one of the world's fastest growing markets. In Africa Rising, Vijay Mahajan reveals this remarkable marketplace as a continent with massive needs and surprising buying power.

Crossing thousands of miles across the continent, he shares the lessons that Africa's businesses have learned about succeeding on the continent...shows how global companies are succeeding despite Africa's unique political, economic, and resource challenges...introduces local entrepreneurs and foreign investors who are building a remarkable spectrum of profitable and sustainable business opportunities even in the most challenging locations...reveals how India and China are staking out huge positions throughout Africa...and shows the power of the Diaspora in driving investment and development.

Vijay Mahajan holds the John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. Mahajan is author or editor of nine books including his recent books on the developing countries, The 86% Solution and Africa Rising. He is one of the world's most widely cited researchers in business and economics and has been invited by more than 100 universities and research institutions worldwide for research presentations. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies and delivered executive development programs globally.

The only cost is the long distance phone call to dial in.

Title: Africa Rising: Around the World in Asian Days
Date:Monday, October 13, 2008
Time:11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/94744186 7

China and India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, by Alka Acharya. New Delhi: Haranand Publications, 2008.

This book is about the politics of India-China bilateral engagement since 1996. It argues that the India- China relationship has been in the main determined and forged by the political processes, and that a resolution of the critical outstanding problems will emerge from a conscious exercise of political wisdom and statesmanship on the part of the two leaderships. Will Asia be big enough to accommodate the regional and global aspects of both China and India? While the bilateral relationship is marked by contradictions and divergences, there are also increasing points of convergence as India and China move from bilateral deadlock to fashioning a global agenda.

Rise of the Asian Giants: Dragon-Elephant Tango, Ed. by Patricia Uberoi

While the rise of China has long been an accepted fact of international economic and political relations, the latter-day rise of India as an economic power has provoked intense global interest in the question of what the emergence of the two together portends for the rest of the world. This book presents a Chinese assessment of how China and India see themselves each in relation to the other, focusing on their shared and divergent experiences of modernization and economic reform and the ramifications thereof in respect of each country's role in global affairs. Eschewing the geo-political idiom of competition and rivalry between emerging Asian giants, the book seeks to understand the parallel, complementary, convergent and divergent development experiences from a more self-consciously geo-civilizational perspective, contextualizing developments in both the short-term framework of independent nationhood, against the more immediate background of nationalist and anti-imperialist struggles, and in the long durée of shared, continental histories.

Substantive chapters focus on the agrarian sector, where both countries face similarly acute problems of enhancing productivity and bettering the lives of huge rural populations; on industry, where China has long established herself as the 'factory of the world' while India has seen substantial expansion only in the service sector; and on the Information and Communication Technology industries, where India's achievements have attracted world attention and where China and India have achieved a certain complementarity in hardware and software production respectively. These experiences are the basis for the realization of the ideal of 'Chindia' in the new Asian century.

Studio Clout proudly introduces:

::DINESH SHARMA::
OPENING RECEPTION
September 27, 2008 7-10pm

Born in India in 1944, Dinesh holds a Masters degree from the University of Meerut as well as a PhD. He is a professor of Fine Arts at Meerut University and a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts, New Delhi.

Dinesh takes his inspiration from the natural surroundings of the desert state of Rajasthan. This princely Indian state is well known for its tribal folks, their bright clothing, jewelry and nomadic lifestyle. He combines the traditional Indian miniature paintings with everyday life of these people.

Solo exhibitions: NY, NJ, New Delhi, Zagreb, Belgrade, UK and France.

Studio Clout
144 Walker Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30313
404-688-2787
www.studioclout.com

Asian Investors Concerned On Fate Of U.S. Bailout (Forbes, Sep 25)
Asian stocks mostly headed downward on Thursday, responding guardedly to President Bush's warning that the entire U.S. economy is in danger if the Congress refuses to pass the emergency bailout plan for the financial sector promptly. With worries rising that the $700 billion package to sop up banks' illiquid assets may be delayed and that it might not be a cure-all for what ails the global economy, the U.S. dollar fell and short-term government debt prices climbed.

U.S.-India nuclear deal gets boost in Congress (Reuters, Sep 25)
The odds of the U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement being approved by the U.S. Congress improved on Thursday when a key lawmaker embraced a bill to end the three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman introduced a bill to approve the deal identical to Senate legislation, dropping his own competing version and eliminating any need to reconcile the two.

India, Pakistan Pledge More Peace Talks (newsVOA.com, Sep 25)
The meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York was the first between Pakistan's new President Asif Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Relations between the longtime rival nations have been particularly strained after India accused Pakistan's intelligence services of participating in the July bombing of its embassy in Kabul.

China's latest manned rocket mission to include spacewalk (Los Angeles Times, Sep 25)
China is scheduled today to launch its most ambitious space mission, including the program's first spacewalk, as this increasingly confident nation stakes a claim on the heavens while impressing people on Earth. The Shenzhou 7 is slated to blast off from the Jiuquan launch pad in Gansu province this evening, with the walk scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Friday, ground operations head Cui Jijun said, state media reported.

South Africa: Why the ANC Toppled Mbeki (allAfrica.com, Sep 25)
Thabo Mbeki, the man who has ruled South Africa since 1999, has resigned. This follows a call from his party, the ruling African National Congress, ANC, Saturday, September 20, for him to step down. The decision was reached during a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the party. Announcing the decision, ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, said, curtly, that the NEC had "decided to recall the President of the Republic before his term of office expires." The decision, according to Mantashe, was to "heal the rifts" which have rocked the party recently.

Wharton: The Upside of Global Energy Scarcity (The Street.com, Sep 25)
Rising energy demand from China and India has unleashed a worldwide race to secure access to scarce fossil fuel resources, a more difficult proposition with the emergence of national oil companies in the resource-owning countries. While Western companies will likely feel the pain of increasing energy costs, there is a potential upside to global energy scarcity, according to experts from Wharton and The Boston Consulting Group: Renewable and nuclear energy present huge opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs, underscored by concern over a global stalemate surrounding curbs on carbon-dioxide emissions.

Chavez eyes closer China energy ties (Gulf Times, Sep 24)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday unveiled early plans for two new refinery projects in China, kicking off a visit to the energy-hungry nation that could aggravate stormy ties with top oil user the US. Fiery leftist Chavez paid tribute to China's autocratic late leader Mao Zedong minutes after stepping onto Chinese soil, and said he hoped to build a joint tanker fleet and nearly double oil exports to the world's number two consumer next year. "We are talking about three refineries, to bring our crude, which is heavy, and process it here in China," he told journalists beside his official plane. "We are also working on a project to construct a joint Chinese- Venezuelan oil fleet."

Suzlon to invest $5bn in wind farms (The Financial Times, Sep 25)
The founder of Suzlon Energy, one of the world's biggest makers of wind turbines, is to invest $5bn over the next five years in building and acquiring wind farms. Tulsi Tanti will make the investment, funded partly through $3.5bn of debt, through Suzlon Green Power, a sister company to the turbine maker, owned by him and his family. The investment is one of the biggest to date in the wind market. The money will be spent on building about 3,500 megawatts of wind generation capacity in China and India.

China is long term uranium client: BHP (The Australian, Sep 24)
BHP Billiton is positioning itself to supply China with uranium for decades as the country ramps up its nuclear plant program. Chief executive Marius Kloppers said nuclear energy would play a bigger role in China going forward and the country was gearing up for a bigger build program as it developed its nuclear program. "That will take a couple of years, but clearly we are positioning the company to, from our side, participate in that over decades, not just a couple of years," Mr Kloppers said in a DVD sent to shareholders. (AAP)

Kenya embraces training as it takes road to ICT glory (Business Daily, Sep 25)
The training of the first batch of "softwarepreneurs" is set to start next month as Kenya tries to become a software hub. In the last budget, ICT got Sh1.6 billion to " to facilitate SMEs growth, expand business incubation to support over 100 additional enterprises and create 100 software development enterprises," according to then Finance minister Amos Kimunya. "We settled on Kamtech Associates Pvt Ltd mid last year because it recently set up a software development centre in China, a model we want to replicate in Kenya," said Prof Tom Ogada, the organisation's director.

China Mobile Requests Handicapped iPhone for Chinese Market (Power Age.org, Sep 26)
If Apple and China Mobile have been a long time in negotiating the iPhone for the Chinese marketplace, this may be a good reason why. According to the South China Morning Post, wireless carrier China Mobile has requested that Apple deliver an iPhone with Wi-Fi and 3G technology disabled. The paper cited a Daiwa Institute of Research analyst as stating that Beijing has not yet approved handsets with such features and that long-time manufacturing partner Foxconn is now awaiting authorization to begin shipping models to China Mobile.

Pepsico to extend partnership with India's farm sector (The Hindu, Sep 26)
Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi on Thursday said her company will extend its partnership with Indian agriculture by covering 10,000 acres and 50,000 farmers by 2011. This will make Pepsico the largest corporate partner of Indian farmers, she said here after giving away ASPEE Foundation's Awards to noteworthy farmers from different parts of the country.

Gulf states covet Asian farms (Asia Times, Sep 26)
Once committed largely to perceived safe-haven investments in the United States, Gulf nations are now looking to send their petrodollar surpluses towards a more exotic global destination: Southeast Asian farmland. Last month, two high-level Kuwaiti delegations toured Southeast Asia's food-producing countryside, looking to invest in agricultural lands and agro-business partnerships on a contract farming basis. Those visits came amid similar regional overtures from other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

EU limits imported Chinese food (BBC, Sep 25)
The European Commission is imposing a ban on EU imports of Chinese baby food that contains any traces of milk, while other Chinese food will undergo tests. The measures come amid a health scare over milk products contaminated in China with the chemical melamine. It has caused several deaths there. The commission says all imported products from China containing more than 15% milk powder will be tested.

China Milk sees no sales impact from milk scandal (Reuters, Sep 26)
Singapore-listed China Milk Products said on Friday it did not expect its sales of raw milk to be affected by the tainted milk powder scandal that has led to bans on China-made milk products around the world. The China-based seller of raw milk said its milk contained no additives and, given a shortage of quality dairy cows in China, added it was cautiously optimistic that it could continue securing orders from current customers. "Although the Group expects that there may eventually be some consolidation and/or adjustments in the milk production industry in China, the Group believes that there is still sufficient underlying consumer demand for dairy products in China," the firm said in a statement.

Indian manufacturing unaffected by financial crisis (Reuters India, September 22)
India's manufacturing sector is not too worried about the global financial crisis as yet, though consumer goods has been affected to some extent, officials said on Monday.

Enhancing manufacturing skills in India - 7th Manufacturing Summit (The Machinist, September 24)
The second day of the 7th Manufacturing Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Mumbai yesterday began with a stimulating discussion on ways to address the challenge of enhancing manufacturing skills in India.

Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing Announces $8.1 Million in New Solar Module Contracts (CNN, September 24)
Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing USA, Inc., a U.S.-based China manufacturing company specializing in products for customers in the solar energy, aerospace, wireless telecommunications, medical equipment and automotive industries, today announced that its solar division, AmeriSolar, has signed $8.1 million in new solar module contracts, with approximately $4 million from a new customer and $4.1 million from an existing customer.

GM to Spend $370 Million on Chevy Volt Engine Plant in Michigan (Bloomberg.com, September 25)
General Motors Corp., working to boost output of 4- cylinder engines for small cars, is investing $370 million to build a factory in Michigan to supply its Chevrolet Volt plug-in and Cruze compact. The 552,000 square-foot factory in Flint will be completed in 2010, retaining 300 jobs, GM said today in a statement. The Detroit-based automaker will assemble conventional and turbocharged versions of its 1.4-liter engine.

Honda Cautious About India Growth (Wall Street Journal, September 26)
As Honda Motor Co. inaugurated the first phase of operations at its new plant in India on Friday, it said it would delay opening the entire plant by at least six months as it grows more cautious about prospects for growth in the Indian market. "The economy is actually slowing down now," said Masahario Takedagawa, who heads Honda's operations in India, explaining the decision. The $230 million plant in Rajasthan, first announced in 2007, was scheduled to open in 2009 as the manufacturing center for a new small car for India, the Jazz. Now, it is unlikely to open until at least mid-2010. Honda had projected initial production capacity of 60,000 units at the new plant in the first year, bringing its total production capacity in India to 160,000.

I ndia to be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases by year-end (The Economic Times, September 26)
Global yearly carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and manufacturing cement have shot up to 8.5 billion tonnes by 2007, from 6.1 billion tonnes in 1992. But the source of emissions has shifted dramatically to developing countries like China and India, according to the US Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL). "The most recent estimates suggest that India passed Japan in 2002, China became the largest emitter in 2006, and India is poised to pass Russia to become the third largest emitter, probably this year," said Gregg Marland of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division.

India should play a major role in climate change: Miliband (The Business Standard, September 24)
Britain has said it wants India to play a major global role on the issue of climate change, similar to its active participation in peace keeping.



Thailand, China to study Andaman Sea climate change (Radio Australia, September 25)
Thailand and China will launch a three-year study of climatic changes in the Andaman Sea so that they can better predict monsoon patterns.

China takes concrete measures to deal with climate change and air pollution (The People's Daily, September 24)
China has been taking concrete measures to deal with climate change, air pollution and energy efficiency issues, says Chen Changhong, professor and director of Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences and Atmospheric Environment Institute in an interview with People's Daily Online reporter in Stockholm recently.

Sustainable development challenges and CSR activities in India (CSR Asia, September 24)
With glaciers receding, a major water crisis, greenhouse gas emissions growing with GDP and looming food shortages, India is beginning to experience some of the severe negative impacts of climate change and environmental destruction.

Wal-Mart Signs Collective Contracts With Chinese Employees (China CSR, September 24)
All the 108 retail outlets of Wal-Mart in China have now signed collective contracts with their labor unions.

'India, China will lead the world with innovations' (Silicon India, September 24)
Rising economic powers India and China have been surprising the world by their quickest economic growth and other achievements. These two Asian nations hold tremendous potential as centers of innovation - a fact that has escaped the attention of the rest of the world, says Ravi Ramamurti, Director of the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration.

China the only bright spot in mixed market (The Financial Times, September 25)
Chinese shares rose to a three-week high on Thursday, standing out amid cautious sentiment elsewhere, as parent companies continued to buy back shares of their listed subsidiaries.

Is Innovation India's Next Big Thing? (Information Week, September 23)
People tend to think of lower-cost IT services -- and not "innovation" -- when Indian outsourcer Wipro Technologies' name is mentioned. So, it may come as a surprise that $1 billion, or about a quarter of Wipro's revenue last year, was generated through R&D services -- including designing semiconductors, automobile parts, and a variety of electronic devices. Looking ahead, Wipro says those R&D services will become an even bigger chunk of the company's business.

U.S. man charged with exporting space data to China (Reuters, September 24)
A physicist from Virginia was arrested on Wednesday on charges of illegally exporting space launch technical data and services to China and offering bribes to Chinese government officials, the Justice Department said. It said Shu Quan-Sheng, 68, a native of China who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested by FBI agents. Shu, president, secretary and treasurer of AMAC International, a high-tech company in Newport News, Virginia, is charged with unlawfully exporting defense items in violation of the arms export control law. Department officials said Shu has been involved in China's effort to upgrade its space exploration and satellite technology capabilities.

Health care not a political problem in India (IT Examiner, September 25)
India is making developmental news almost every day, but when it comes to health care the country shies away. Only five percent of its total GDP (gross domestic product) is used on health care. Unlike developed countries like US, UK, Australia, health care in India is not a political issue.

China quality chief quits over milk scandal (International Business Times, September 22)
The head of China's quality watchdog is reported to have resigned Monday over the tainted baby milk scandal, according CNN China.

Deadly hand of officials in China (The Australian, Sep 25)
Commentary by John Lee. The tainted milk scandal in China - with four deaths and at least 54,000 children ill - exposes a glaring contradiction about Chinese civil society: despite having more public officials per capita than any other country in Asia, enforcement of its rules and regulations has been getting worse. During the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907), there was one official for every 2927 people. During the more recent Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), there was one official for every 299 people. Today, there is one official for every 37 people. Chinese bureaucracies certainly cannot complain about being understaffed.

Estonia concluded maritime transport agreement with China (The Baltic Course, September 25)
The Estonian-Chinese maritime transport agreement will, in the opinion of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, create opportunities for Estonia becoming a regional distribution centre, writes EPL Online.

India-US to jointly explore opportunities in public transport (The Hindu, September 22)
India expects to learn a lot from United States about projects taken in field of public transport there in light of similar projects being executed in Indian cities.

International Contributors Editorial Board
RJ Paulsick - Co-Editor
Roxanne Russell - Co-Editor
Geoff Hiscock - Australia
Harsha Harjani - Hong Kong
Dr. Nilay Yajnik - India
Farhad Mirzaei - Iran
Ajay Sharma - Netherlands
Melissa Steinmetz - UK
Dr. Daney Jackson - USA
Dr. John R. McIntyre - USA
Dr. Sudhanva Char - Academic Resources
Shree Pandya - Engaging Youth
Laurel Askue - Environment & Conservation
Christopher Chan - Intellectual Property