IPSO India Initiative Launch: India Conference

Interconnected Future: India and Georgia
Georgia Center for Continuing Education
Save the Date: April 2 & 3, 2009

This two-day event includes the India Conference that will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens. A special lecture sponsored by the College of Public Health on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 6 pm will kick off the conference at the Paul D. Coverdell Center. On Friday, April 3, 2009 the conference will run from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, including a keynote and luncheon speaker, followed by a cultural performance and a reception. The conference will cover four areas: political, economic, educational, and cultural aspects of India and how they relate to Georgia. Specific objectives of the conference include: a focus on foreign investment in Georgia from Indian firms and Indo-American business relations for economic development as well as educational partnerships for UGA and Indian institutions of higher education.

Click here for more conference information

Emerald Group Publishing Ltd is pleased to offer ICA Institute readers free access to its journal Journal of Knowledge-based Innovation in China during March.

China is undergoing a fast transformation from the world's manufacturer to a leading player in the field of knowledge-based innovation. Published in association with the China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT), the Journal of Knowledge-based Innovation in China (JKIC) responds to the lack of scholarly publications with a Chinese perspective on this field of study. JKIC publishes research that addresses emerging or developed innovative practices in modern China, and how innovation is feeding into the country's rapidly growing knowledge economy. This includes critical analyses which are informed by an appreciation of the complexity of the National Innovation System (NIS) and of regional and sectoral diversity.

To access the journal visit http://www.emeraldinsight.com/jkic.htm , see the table of contents and - when prompted - enter the following:

Username: ICAinstitute
Password: emerald

For more information on the journal, please contact the Publisher, Victoria Buttigieg, at vbuttigieg@emeraldinsight.com

Call for Papers
3rd China Goes Global Conference
September 30 - October 2, 2009
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
www.chinagoesglobal.org

Overview
This century has been dubbed the Chinese Century. But will the naming of this Century be congruent with the country's performance in the global political economy? As part of a series of conferences on the topic China Goes Global, held at Harvard Kennedy School and Rollins College, we issue a new call for papers on the globalization of China and Chinese companies, focusing on the following broad questions:
1. What are the social, political and economic influences of China's globalization?
2. How will China's globalization effect the business environment of firms in developed and emerging countries?
3. Will China really replace the US economic, political and business leadership in the 21st Century?
4. What are the factors associated with China's emerging global economic prowess?
5. Can Western political/economic models and theories help explain China's current trajectory, either on a macro or a micro level?

Important Dates
Deadline for Submission: May 15, 2009
Paper acceptance/rejection: July 1, 2009
Revised paper submission: August 15, 2009
Registration Fee
Please note that all presenters and participants must register to attend the conference. The early bird registration fee of USD 495 is due on July 5, 2009, and the regular registration fee of USD 595 is due on August 15, 2009. The registration fee includes refreshments, lunches, reception, conference dinner, and a copy of the book China Rules: Globalization and Political Transformation (Palgrave McMillan, 2009). Conference registration does not include accommodation or travel costs.

Organizational Committee
Dr. Ilan Alon, Petters Professor, Director Rollins China Center, Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, Asia Programs Visiting Scholar, Harvard University
Dr. Julian Chang, Executive Director, Asia Programs, Ash Institute, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Dr. Marc Fetscherin, Assistant Professor, Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, Asia Programs Visiting Scholar, Harvard University
Dr. Christoph Lattemann, Assistant Professor of Corporate Governance & E-Commerce, University of Potsdam, Asia Programs Visiting Scholar, Harvard University
Dr. John R. McIntyre, Professor, Director of Georgia Tech CIBER, Georgia Institute of Technology

For more information, visit the conference website http://www.chinagoesglobal.org/

Association for India's Atlanta Chapter presents

Cricket for India 2009

Teams of 9 Players: Make your own team or register individually!
Venue: Terrell Mill Park, Marietta, GA
Date: April 4, 5 & 11
Time: 8am- 6pm
$25 per person

Register online today

China and the Dollar (The Wall Street Journal, Mar 26)
As if the dollar didn't have enough problems, Timothy Geithner took China's bait yesterday and said he was "quite open" to its suggestion this week to displace the greenback with an "international reserve currency." The dollar promptly fell and stocks followed, before the Treasury Secretary re-emerged to say "the dollar remains the world's dominant reserve currency. I think that's likely to continue for a long time." Mr. Geithner is learning on the job, and yesterday's lesson is that it isn't smart to fool with currency markets when you are already tempting fate with a gigantic U.S. reflation. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are flooding the world with dollars to break the recession, and the world is rightly getting nervous. The solution floated by Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan -- an increased role for the International Monetary Fund -- isn't desirable. But his warning about the dangers of dollar weakness and exchange-rate instability is still worth heeding.

Indian mkt borrowing $47 bln in Apr-Sept (Forbes.com, Mar 26)
India will sell 2.4 trillion rupees ($47.4 billion) of federal bonds in the first six months of the 2009/10 fiscal year starting April 1, Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla said on Thursday.

China's Zhou Says Economy Recovers on Decisive Action (Bloomberg, Mar 26)
People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said the world's third-largest economy is recovering and contrasted his government's "decisive" action with delays in other countries. "Leading indicators are pointing to recovery of economic growth," Zhou said in an article on the central bank's Web site today. The government "has taken prompt, decisive and effective policy measures, demonstrating its superior system advantage when it comes to making vital policy decisions," he said.

Re faces strong resistance at 50 (The Hindu Business Line, Mar 26)
The Federal Reserve's announcement that it intended to infuse over $1 trillion into the US financial system sent the dollar reeling downward on March 18, causing a sharp appreciation of other currencies. Rupee too gained over 2 per cent against the dollar in the two days following the announcement. Benign stance by foreign institutional investors, who have ploughed in about $326 million in stocks over the last five sessions, also aided the Indian currency. However, deteriorating outlook for Asian economies following the 49 per cent decline in Japanese exports in the month of February has pulled the rupee lower towards 51 again. Rupee forwards traded on the Non-Deliverable Forward market indicate a bearish bias in the Indian currency. 1-month rupee forwards were trading at 51.2 while 3-month forwards were trading at 51.9 on Tuesday.

GE Wins Natural-Gas Contract in China (The Wall Street Journal, Mar 25)
General Electric Co. said it has won a $300 million contract to supply compression equipment for the second phase of a natural-gas pipeline across China. GE Oil & Gas executives say the West-to-East pipeline is one of the largest ongoing gas pipelines in the world and, when completed in the next six years, will stretch roughly 20,000 kilometers through 13 provinces and bring $600 million in revenue to GE. The second phase will extend 8,700 kilometers, 2,000 kilometers longer than the Great Wall, and bringing natural gas to 400 million Chinese residents by the end of 2011. The pipeline is being built by PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in China, and will use 28 GE turbo compressors.

Could Gas bounty headed for Bengal in 2012 (The Times of India, Mar 26)
The city may finally get rid of the monster called automobile pollution after a wait of just three more years. The country's leading oil giants Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Gas Authority of India Limited (Gail) are confident of bringing West Bengal within the central gas grid' by March 2012. This will bring in CNG, cut out LPG shortage and leave no excuse for owners of polluting vehicles to dodge the green fuel switch.

China oil exec sheds light on fuel pricing rules (Reuters, Mar 25)
China will adjust domestic fuel prices when international oil prices rise or fall more than 4 percent within 22 straight working days, an oil executive was quoted as saying, in the first glimpse of the government's opaque pricing scheme introduced in December.

GAIL to be split; new co to be listed (The Economic Times, Mar 26)
GAIL India, the country's flagship natural gas company, will spin off its marketing business into a separate firm from April 1 to comply with the policy guidelines outlined by the petroleum regulator. GAIL India will remain a gas transmission company and will construct cross-country pipelines to transport gas, while GAIL Gas (GGL) will carry out marketing business. GGL will be listed on the domestic bourses soon.

Outrage in aftermath of China's YouTube censorship (ZDNet, Mar 25)
As of Monday, YouTube is unavailable in China, an unexplained move apparently made in response to the existence of a video of Chinese soldiers beating Tibetan monks, says the BBC. Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, responded that: China's actions fail to live up to international norms. China's apparent blocking of YouTube is at odds with the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression. Anytime a country limits or takes down content online , it must be forthright and specific about its actions and do so only in narrowly defined circumstances consistent with international human rights and the rule of law. Google declined to criticize China, saying only: "We don't know the reason for the block and are working to restore access to users in China as quickly as possible," in the words of spokesperson Scott Rubin.

Nokia Siemens Completes 2nd Phase Of China Mobile 3G Network (The Wall Street Journal, Mar 26)
Nokia Siemens said Thursday the second phase of China Mobile TD-SCDMA implementation has been completed ahead of schedule. MAIN FACTS:
- One of first vendors to complete phase two deployment of China Mobile's 3G network, based on TD-SCDMA technology
- NSN has been working closely with China Mobile subsidiaries Fujian Mobile, Henan Mobile, Jiangxi Mobile and Hainan Mobile to deploy high quality TD-SCDMA networks.

iPhone Coming to China Finally? (Techtree, Mar 25)
While China has been in the forefront in the manufacture of iPhone spoofs and thousands of wannabe iPhone devices, it is ironical that the country still does not have the iPhone officially on sale yet. This situation, however, might change very soon. Sharp-eyed visitors to China Unicom's website have managed to spot a very unusual phone model on display on their website recently. Apparently, the iPhone was listed on the homepage for a while. This might signify two things: an impending iPhone launch in the country or a goof up. As for the first probability, well, it is possible that China Unicom wanted to give users a teaser to start the iPhone rumor mills going - a successful marketing strategy indeed.

Does Nokia's Investment In Obopay Impact India's Mobile Payments Market? (Media Nama, Mar 26)
Obopay, the US and India based Mobile payments company has raised an undisclosed amount from Nokia, for a minority stake; FT reports that that the investment is around $70 million. Teppo Paavola, VP and head of Corporate Business Development at Nokia has joined Obopays board. Obopay intends to use the money to enhance their global presence, but no specifics are mentioned. What is interesting about this investment is that it is Nokia, and not its investment company that has put in the money.

India's Edible Oil Stockpiles May Triple on Duty-Free Imports (Bloomberg.com, Mar 26)
Supplies of vegetable oil in India, the world's biggest buyer after China, may increase as importers take benefit of duty free purchases of palm and soybean oils, likely hurting domestic oilseed prices. Edible oil stockpiles may triple to as much as 1.5 million tons in the year to Oct. 31, said Davish Jain, president of the Central Organization for Oil Industry and Trade, the country's biggest group of oilseed processors and traders.

India chana futures flat; guar up on export demand (Reuters India, Mar 26)
India chana futures were flat on Thursday afternoon as rising arrivals at spot markets and higher output estimates offset concerns that rainfall in major producer Rajasthan may hurt the standing crop, analysts said. "Arrival pressure is keeping chana prices under check. But there is huge difference in prices of chana and other pulses like tur and urad and it will push up prices once arrivals erode," said Prem Kogta, a large importer based in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.

Tata Tea to Jointly Buy Russia Tea Distributor (The Wall Street Journal, Mar 26)
India's Tata Tea Ltd. and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD, said Thursday they have agreed to jointly acquire a 51% stake in Russian coffee and tea distributor Grand. Tata Tea will buy a 33.2% stake in Grand through an overseas unit, while EBRD will acquire 17.8%, the Indian company said in a notice to the country's stock exchanges.

UN, China sign $30 million agricultural deal (Taiwan News, Mar 25)
A U.N. food agency says it has signed a $30 million (22 million euros) cooperation deal with China to boost agriculture production in developing countries. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday that under the three-year deal, China will provide experts for technical assistance and training, as well as seeds, pesticides and equipment. The agency said the agreement, focusing on Africa but also including other regions, was signed Tuesday in Beijing. According to the agency, China has sent around 700 experts to developing countries over the past four years.

Rio Tinto has a Plan B if China bid fails (The Australian, Mar 27)
RIO Tinto has admitted working on a Plan B to address its debt burden should its controversial $US19.5 billion ($28 billion) alliance with Chinalco fail. Chief financial officer Guy Elliott said yesterday Rio Tinto expected the deal to go through but said the company could also sell shares, bonds, assets, reschedule debt or combine the four options under an alternative plan to pay down its debt. "We have plans in the eventuality that either the various governments or the shareholders prevent the deal going through," Mr Elliott said at a mining conference in Singapore. "What I can assure you is we have a Plan B, from the ways that I've described, in good preparation."

Shanghai Launches Steel Futures Market (MetalMiner, Mar 25)
The timing could be said to stink as China launched it's first steel futures contract last week on a trial basis with transactions to go live on the March 27th according to CNBC. The market price has dropped dramatically since last year but more importantly so has tonnage and with it the industry's confidence - two key ingredients in generating volume for the new contracts. The futures contracts will be for steel wire and steel reinforcing bars and will differ from existing forward contracts in that they will only cover these two materials and will be for strict units of quantity and standardized grades from approved sources, as distinct from the well developed forward market which covers a wide range of materials traded on the over-the-counter market.

SAIL expects up to 10 pc growth in sales (The Hindu, Mar 25)
The country's largest steel producer SAIL expects to clock up to 10 per cent more sales in the present month compared to the year-ago period on improved demand from sectors like construction and automobile. "We had a sales growth of about 9-10 per cent in February. We expect the same for March as steel demand has improved from sectors including construction, auto, pipes and tubes," SAIL Chairman S.K. Roongta said.

Safeguard duty imposed on aluminium items (Business Standard, Mar 25)
The government today imposed safeguard duty on import of some aluminium and chemical products. The move was carried out in a bid to protect the domestic industry from surge in import of these items from countries like China.

India, US to maintain dialogue on climate change (The Hindu, Mar 26)
India and the US have agreed to continue their high level dialogue on climate change in the run up to the Copenhagen conference to evolve a new global regime on the issue. The agreement came as Prime Minister's Manmohan Singh's Special Envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, on Wednesday concluded the first high-level interaction with Obama administration on climate change and related matters.

New Gaming Console Zeebo Is Launched (Softpedia, Mar 24)
This year's Game Developers Conference has seen an event that might be considered, a few years into the future, as the start of a new era in videogaming. John Rizzo, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Zeebo, and Mike Yuen, who is a senior director with Qualcomm, have announced the launch of a new gaming console called Zeebo, targeted specifically at the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China (also known as BRIC). The potential customer base for the Zeebo is estimated at 800 million people only in the four countries.

Obama stem cell policy may benefit India (Indian Express, Mar 26)
"The future impact that I see of the reversal of the Bush administration policy on embryonic stem cell research is active collaborations since federal funding will be available in abundance," says Dr Satish Totey, chief scientific officer of India's first full fledged stem cell products company, the Bangalore-headquartered Stempeutics.

Indian health crusader wins Stockholm water prize (Reuters, Mar 25)
A man who has fought for almost four decades to improve sanitation in India's slums and villages was awarded the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize on Wednesday. The Stockholm International Water Institute noted in particular Bindeshwar Pathak's campaig against manual "scavenging" of human waste -- a practice where people, often children, clear out excrement from open pits using buckets. Many die from disease contracted in this work.

China's Private Airlines Succumb to Competition They Created (Bloomberg.com, Mar 26)
China's private airlines created competition for state-controlled carriers, just as the government wanted. Now, they are the ones suffering from it. United Eagle Airlines Co., the first private carrier to win government approval, agreed to a takeover by a state-controlled airline last week. East Star Airlines also halted flights two days after rejecting a bid from Air China Ltd.'s state-owned parent. From December, Okay Airways grounded passenger planes for more than a month because of a management dispute. Private airlines "are no longer a threat," said Zhou Chi, chairman of government-controlled Shanghai Airlines Co. "They are all in trouble themselves."

IBM To Power Smart Train System In China (Information Week, Mar 25)
Big Blue announced Wednesday that Guangzhou Metro Corp. will use its technology and services to improve its rapid transit system in China. GZ Metro serves more than 2 million passengers daily. IBM will help GZ Metro manage all of its IT and physical assets, including four commuter lines, 60 stations, and about 72 track miles.

India's Nano, Driving Like a (National) Dream (The Washington Post, Mar 24)
The mini-car is the brainchild of one of India's top industrialists, Ratan Tata, who had a dream to move millions of Indian families off their two-wheelers and into a safer, all-weather alternative. Many auto experts here have likened the Nano to the Henry Ford Model T that revolutionized American life a century ago. The down payment for a Nano is about $70.

Auto Boom: Cars Flood China's Jam-Packed City Streets (Fox News, Mar 25)
HANGZHOU, China - Once a country of bicycles, China is fast becoming a nation of cars. Every day some 1,500 newly registered vehicles hit Beijing's already congested streets - more than 500,000 a year in that city alone. The result is a gridlock that makes getting anywhere an undertaking, and traveling during rush hour a mission impossible.

International Contributors Editorial Board
RJ Paulsick - Co-Editor
Roxanne Russell - Co-Editor
Geoff Hiscock - Australia
Priya Roy- China (Shanghai)
Harsha Harjani - Hong Kong
Dr. Nilay Yajnik - India
Farhad Mirzaei - Iran
Asha Hemrajani- Singapore
Melissa Steinmetz - UK
Dr. Daney Jackson - USA
Dr. Sudhanva Char - Academic Resources
Shree Pandya - Engaging Youth
Laurel Askue - Environment & Conservation
Christopher Chan - Intellectual Property