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About Us
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The ICA Institute
is a non-profit research institute working to
foster research and dissemination of
knowledge on the rise of China and India and
their impact on global markets, global
resources and geopolitics of the world. The
ICA Institute's mission is to generate new
perspectives on the role of market and
resource driven economic development. ICA
Institute fosters interaction and dialogue
between academic scholars, industry leaders
and policy makers on the impact of emerging
economies in general and China and India in
particular. Specifically, The ICA Institute is
positioned to be a catalyst between faculty
and students in International Business and
industry leaders and managers.
www.icainstitute.org
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Headlines
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Fear of renewed recession in America is overblown
(The Economist | Aug 12)
SELDOM does the United States look at Europe with economic envy. The past few weeks, however, have been one of those rare phases. Concern about America's stumbling recovery has been rising, just as anxieties about the euro area's economy have faded. The dollar is the weakling among rich-world currencies (see article). But Americans should take a little heart: it is too soon to despair about their economy. And Europeans should show a little caution: it is too soon to be sure that theirs is firmly back on its feet.
China Tightens Phone Rules
(Strait Times | Sep 1)
BEIJING - CHINESE mobile telephone users must register
their personal details to buy phone numbers under a rule that comes into
force from on Wednesday, in what the government calls an attack on spam
but some see as a blow to privacy.The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says
residents buying numbers for mobile phones must now show their ID cards,
and foreigners must produce their passports, with buyers limited to a
maximum of 18 numbers.
Will China's Economic Growth Slow Down?
(Beijing Review | Jul 13)
The speed of economic growth in China will slow down, according to Ha Jiming, chief economist at China International Capital Corp. Ltd. Both the world and Chinese economies will languish for quite some time, Ha said recently at a seminar at the School of Economics under Renmin University of China.
India warns on slowdown in capital flows
(Financial Times | Jul 23)
Growing risk aversion among investors is slowing foreign capital flows to emerging markets such as India, potentially choking inflows needed to fund the nation's widening current account deficit, India's central bank said. Capital flows during the global economic downturn of 2008/09 were insufficient to cover the current account deficit. However, the RBI's internal forecasts show that this fiscal year, the country would have enough to cover the current account deficit provided the global economy does not deteriorate.
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Policy
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Turning Shanghai into a Global Financial Hub
(Knowledge@Wharton | Jul 29)
Shanghai is anything but shy about sharing its plans to become a top-tier international financial center (IFC) by 2020. That was made more than clear with the unveiling in May of the Bund Bull statue in the city's former business and commercial district. The Shanghai Stock Exchange statue not only pays homage to its Wall Street iconic counterpart (both were designed by Italian-American Arturo Di Modica), but also is a reflection of the city's desire to challenge the financial dominance of not only New York, and London as well.
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Capital Markets
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Microfinancing spreads beyond India's grassroots
(Financial Times | Jul 20)
Indian microlending was originally pioneered by cautious, non-profit grassroots organisations with strong charitable or community service focuses. But the sector's recent growth spurt has been propelled mainly by a newer breed of younger, more aggressive profit-orientated companies, such as SKS, backed by specialised private equity funds like Lok Capital, Sequoia and others that see huge market potential in the 65 per cent of Indians without access to regular banking services.
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Environment | Climate Change
America's climate policy
(The Economist | Jul 29)
America is the largest per-person emitter of carbon dioxide among the world's big economies, and the second-largest emitter overall. If the risks of global damage through climate change are to be reduced, America's emissions need to come under some sort of control, both because of what they do to the climate and because of the message such control would send to the world's other large emitters-and in particular to China, the largest.
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Education
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America's stubbornly high unemployment rate
(The Economist | Aug 26)
AMERICANS are used to thinking of their job market as lithe and supple. Employment snaps back quickly after recessions. Workers routinely shuttle between industries and cities to wherever jobs are abundant. But in the past decade, the labour market has resembled an ageing athlete. Each new injury is more painful and takes longer to heal. More than a year into the current economic recovery the unemployment rate remains stuck close to 10%, raising concerns about the kind of sclerosis that continental Europe suffered in the 1980s.
China: Education for the Future
(Beijing Review | Jul 23)
"Education in China just cultivates tools to make GDP, which is not beneficial for the healthy growth of children," economist Mao Yushi said in the Yangcheng Evening News. "China's test-oriented education and lack of innovation discourages the cultivation of Nobel Prize winners." Reform in senior high school will include offering elective courses, providing opportunities for students to conduct research, encouraging students to take part in community service, and meeting the needs of students with different talents and potential.
Global suitors woo new IITs
(Hindustan Times | Aug 6)
Germany and Australia have joined a growing number of developed nations
keen to tie up with the new Indian Institutes of Technology that have
opened in the last two years.
Both have formally told the Indian government their universities would
like to collaborate with the new IITs. The reason is
clear: the developed world is looking at India both for
trained technical manpower and as a potential research hub
Multinationals Feel the Heat of Worker Dissatisfaction in India
(Knowledge@Wharton | Jul 29)
"Workers say their demands are realistic. Employers say those demands are unrealistic. [This happens] in every context in every country. There's nothing new about these disputes. Ultimately, these disputes are settled by power. If employees have the power, as they tend to in tight labor markets, these demands become realistic; when employers have the power, as when unemployment is higher, those demands prove to be unrealistic."
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Entertainment
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Meiyang Chang to make a Bollywood film on Tibet
(Inchin Closer | Aug 20)
Third generation Chinese born and raised in India Meiyang Chang is making his mark in Bollywood. Probably the only actor of mainland Chinese descent in Bollywood, Meiyan Chang's debut film Badmaash Company with co-actors Shahid Kapoor and Anoushka Sharma won him accolades from Rajkumar Hirani and Salman Khan. He has now signed on a second film based on the China-Tibet conflict.
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Industry
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 India's Online Booksellers Try to Write a New Chapter
(Knowledge@Wharton | Jul 29)
The Indian book market is valued at around US$2.6 billion, according to a Technopack Advisors report of 2008. "Less than 1% of [India's] US$2 billion book industry comes from the online segment, so the potential of the Internet is huge...Growing evidence suggests that book e-tailing will eventually trump retailing. The advantages are many: potentially infinite shelf space, no real estate costs, an absence of the personnel and infrastructure expenses involved with running a physical store, lower prices and no inter-state taxes. And the best part: easy scalability.
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Technology
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Saturation of mobile phone markets in South East Asia
(The Economist | Aug 19)
Mobile-phone firms have shown they can make profits from the poor. But can they persuade them to upgrade to smart-phones or cough up money for data services? This sounds like a stretch in Indonesia, where subscribers spend only $5 a month on mobile-phone services, one-tenth of the American average.
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Opinion
 How America Benefits from Economic Engagement with India
(India-US World Affairs Institute, Inc.)
This study is a comprehensive analysis of America's economic engagement with India for the period 2004 to 2009. It covers India's foreign direct investments into the United States and U.S. exports to India, as well as an assessment of their impacts on the American economy. Also included in the study are the economic impacts Indian Americans are having in the United States. It presents a case for even stronger business ties between the United States and India, which will benefit the United States (and India) especially with regard to jobs, the Number One policy issue in Washington and the Number One livelihood issue on Main Street America today.
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 India's New Opportunities and Challenges
(Knowledge @ @wharton | Aug 26)
Companies in India, both of Indian origin and multinationals, are not only making products that cater to the specific needs of Indian consumers, but are also introducing new products in markets across the world. Ravi Kant, vice chairman of Tata Motors, said that the Tata Nano car was originally developed for the Indian market. But now the company is exploring opportunities to introduce the vehicle to consumers in Europe and the United States.
On your marks, get set, go . . .
(360 degrees | Aug 3)
Key takeaways for business after Prime Minister David Cameron's State visit to India:
1. British business needs to globalise its outlook if it wants to grow.
2. The foreseeable future belongs to Asia.
3. There is intent to put India at the centre of the UK's foreign and economic policies...
India's tortoise must turn on the speed
(Financial Times | Jul 28)
When Indians talk about China, many fall back on what is essentially a tortoise-and-hare rendering of their relative performance. The story goes something like this: "Sure, China has its 30-year record of double-digit growth, its gleaming skyscrapers and its eight-lane superhighways. But India has the 'soft architecture', the democracy,
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Sincerely,
ICA Institute
Please send your comments/suggestions to prashant.das@icainstitute.org
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