21st century superleader: China, India, or US? (Cleveland Indy Media Center, Jun 14)
Which nation is to become leader for 21st century, China, US, or India? Are China, India able to move ahead of global financial crisis as next leaders? China moves ahead of India for now, but will China take the lead soon? Are the emerging giants able to beat the US and Europe in the 21st century? Get intense, provocative discussions and analysis on Chinese and Indian politics, finance, management, history and economy.

EU, U.S. to File Suit Against China (Wall Street Journal, Jun 12)
The European Union and the U.S. will jointly file suit against China at the World Trade Organization this month in a bid to stop the Asian giant from hoarding key minerals and to set a precedent for other big producers of raw materials, people familiar with the issue said Thursday. For more than two years, China has been using tariffs on exports to keep important industrial ingredients like zinc, tin and silicon for use at home. At the same time, Beijing has aggressively bought up large quantities of minerals from resource-rich African countries.

IKEA drops investment plans in India worth $1bn (The Times of India, Jun 11)
The iconic $ 31-billion Scandinavian home products giant, IKEA, has put on hold its plans to set up 25 showrooms across the country for an investment of around $ 1 billion. In an internal communication this week, IKEA told its stakeholders that Indian investment rules do not encourage it to go ahead with its investment plans - at least not in the near future.

India Industrial Output Up 1.4% (Wall Street Journal, Jun 12)
India's industrial output grew in April, defying forecasts for a contraction, as recent rounds of fiscal and monetary measures spurred local demand and helped blunt the impact of a slump in exports.

China's new IPO rules takes effect (People's Daily Online, Jun 11)
Under the new rules, stock subscribers need to use either the online or off-line subscription system, but not both, to purchase new stocks. Institutional investors used to enjoy the privilege of subscribing through both systems, while retail investors could use only the off-line system. Three revisions were made to the draft to follow public advices that the commission deemed reasonable.

Outsourcing agriculture (Ethiopian News, Jun 7)
It's estimated that China will send 1 million farm workers to Ethiopia and other countries in Africa this year. It's part of a growing trend of countries outsourcing their food production.

India-US launch education venture (Hindustan Times, Jun 12)
After his predecessor Arjun Singh's resistance to a law for foreign education providers, new Human Reso-urce Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday stressed for better partnership with foreign educational institutions to ensure better-trained Indian workforce for the global job market. Announcing the setting up of a Joint Working Group on education with United States, Sibal, however, said fly-by-night operators would not be tolerated. With Sibal at the helm, the foreign education providers' Bill may finally see the light of day.

US climate envoy: China seeks top US technology (AP, Jun 11)
An understanding between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest polluters, is essential for the talks to succeed in crafting a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That agreement, which expires in 2012, calls on 37 industrial countries to cut emissions by a total of 5 percent from 1990 levels but made no demands on developing countries. The U.S. has made it clear that China must be part of a new climate package, and that without China there's no deal.

Global warming: India, China unite against West (The Times of India, Jun 13)
The 'Chindia' partnership was a key element that bound a group of 37 developing nations including Brazil and South Africa, which submitted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol with figures of average greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets that the group feels should be undertaken by the Annex I (or the original polluter) countries.

India Steel Output, Demand to Grow (Wall Street Journal, Jun 9)
India's steel production during April-May, the first two months of the current financial year, rose 2.4% on year to 9.24 million metric tons, while consumption in the same period rose 5.9% on year to 8.22 million tons, federal Steel Secretary P.K.Rastogi said.

Apple iPhone Still Looking For Place In China (Wall Street Journal, Jun 12)
Chinese consumers are unlikely to pay a premium for Apple products, where its brand doesn't hold the cachet it does in countries like the U.S. and Japan. Apple's iPod music player accounts for less than 8% of the Chinese market for media players; its Macintosh line of personal computers, less than 1% of the computer market. A host of regulatory and cultural issues also bode poorly for the iPhone's China prospects. Chinese telephone regulators require the phone's Wi-Fi function - a key feature - to be turned off. Of course, the iPhone will likely find an audience in China if it hits the market. Though it isn't sold via legitimate channels, an estimated one million iPhones already circulate on the Chinese black market, according to various estimates.

EU, U.S. to File Suit Against China (VOA News, Jun 12)
General Motors entered the Indian market in 2003, and sold nearly 66,000 cars last year - up 10 percent over the previous year. That is still way behind the market leader, Maruti Suzuki, which sells more than 10 times that number. General Motors, however, is hoping to expand its footprint in India. Last year, the company commissioned a new plant with a capacity to produce 140,000 cars. It says it is confident of raising funds for its expansion, and has no plans to reduce its 40,000-strong staff in India.

El-Erian Says Summit Shows `Rebalancing' as BRICS Buy IMF Bonds (Bloomberg.com, Jun 12)
Brazil and Russia joined China this week in saying they would shift some $70 billion of reserves into multicurrency bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund. While the moves aren't an effort to "topple the dollar," according to Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd., they increase the relevance of the four largest emerging economies, which account for only 6 percent of the MSCI AC World Index.

You Can Still Buy China and India (Forbes, Jun 11)
The India Fund ( IFN - news - people ), at ETF fund which tracks, of course, India is up 79.2% since the start of 2009. The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 ( FXI - news - people ) ETF is up 39.4% in that time; the SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East and Africa ETF is up 23.4%; and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Indes--covering the entire emerging markets waterfront--is up 37.8%. The Standard & Poor's 500, by contrast, is up 5.4%.

The Independent: Renminbi on the way to being the world's most important currency (Cityscape Intelligence, Jun 11)
Several things have come together in the past few days which highlight the inherent fragility of the dollar's position. In the spring, during that period of blue funk, US Treasury assets were regarded as the prime global investment. As confidence has returned, two things have happened. One is that the focus has shifted to other currencies, notably sterling. Yesterday the pound was trading at just under $1.65, about halfway back from its bottom of below $1.38 earlier this year and the $2 level it was at in July last year. (Against the euro the pound was above EUR1.17, the highest it has been this year.) That is partly a change in perception about sterling: the growing evidence that though the UK economy may not come up much this year, it may have stopped going down. But it also reflects a return to normality: people appreciate that while holding non-dollar currencies carries risks, holding the dollar carries risks too.

Overseas Indians may shift focus to real estate market (The Peninsula On-line, Jun 11)
With the market sentiment buoyant over the prospects of a stable and investment-friendly government at the Centre and a distinct exchange rate advantage, overseas Indians may once again turn their attention to the rapidly-recovering real estate market in India. Real Estate Mutual Funds (REMFs) are the Indian avatar of the international REITs platform, adapted to the existing Indian mutual funds platform. The asset management company (AMC) invests in a range of real estate assets around the country and creates a fund based on those assets. Investors can buy shares in those funds, which are traded on a daily basis on stock exchanges. The value of the shares depends on the value of the underlying real estate assets.

International Contributors Editorial Board
Prashant Das - 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