Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

French Toast to India’s Defence

While Sarkozy and his Aides may claim that The Much Awaited India Visit is more of a Leisure Trip than the Usual Strategic Trip of Premiers, One cannot refute France’s Hawk-Like Attempt to do an Obamanomics as far as Business is Concerned. And India Should Support That, Anyway!

There is a lot in common between US President Barack Obama and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy as far as their state visit to India is concerned. Both of them are apparently at their career’s ebb. While Obama is struggling with approval rating below 50%, and has suffered a major set back in the mid-term election, the case of French premier is no different. Sarkozy’s current popularity rating is at a record low (as per Ifop opinion polls for Journal da Dimanche, Sarkozy has equalled his predecessor Jacques Chirac for the most unpopular president since 1958) and if the latest reports are any indicator, then he is currently embroiled in a potentially career ending corruption scandal. All these after having pushed through the pension reform in the teeth of furious street opposition – much akin to his American counterpart who managed to push through his signature healthcare bill ObamaCare. And of course, both Obama and Sarkozy are dear friends. By design or by default, India happens to be their soul searching destination amidst all the trying circumstances back home. ‘Soul-searching destination’ only for the layman; the fact is that in a hyper-competitive and economically integrated world, neither the US nor France would like to miss out on opportunities of profiting that India has to offer – a whopping $112 billion (India’s budget for military procurement) over the next 6 years.

The economic environments prevailing in both the countries make the respective state visit to India all the more important. The national debt of France is projected to be equal to 84.2% of its GDP (the French GDP is approximately $2.55 trillion) and its industrial production is already in the negative terrain, unemployment is currently pegged at 9.8% – these statistic coupled with the fact that Sarkozy would like to get himself re-elected in 2012 and be in command of the Élysée Palace (much like Barack Obama would like to remain in total control of the White House post 2012 presidential elections) make it all the more imperative for the unpopular Sarkozy to attempt to re-brand his government. What better an opportunity than India (Chindia, if we’re permitted – as per Chinese President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to France wherein contracts worth $20 billion were signed, it is but apparent that both the countries have buried the hatchet and have definitely patched up their erstwhile strained relations) which aims to increase its defence budget from 2% to 3% of GDP, and thereby grab a pie of this huge investment and present it to the almost moribund French industrial sector.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Smell the coffee

Corruption needs the killer dose

The reputation of Indian politicians and bureaucrats on corruption is truly impeccable. In fact, Indian citizens have reason enough to assume that there are hidden skeletons in every cupboard and dark corners in every lair.

And if a person like Meera Shankar, India’s ambassador to US, attempts to speak up and throw some light, what else can we say other than “Welcome”! Meera Shankar’s diligent complaint to the PMO about huge sums of bribe paid to officials in Indian government establishments by US companies is creditworthy. The same cannot obviously be said of the silence over the letter from the PMO for eight months (curiously broken after the assembly election results came in).

Meera Shankar has cited the report filed by the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which names companies that have allegedly made illegal payments to Indian officials over the years. Most shockingly, it pulls the Indian defence forces into the scrutiny as well. York International Corporation, with their products of heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration, had paid-off $1,32,500 to Indian Navy between 2000 and 2006 to secure 215 orders. A US industrial valve manufacturing company Mario Cavino of Control Company’s Inc., has pleaded guilty of paying $1 million to electricity boards of four countries, including the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. Dow Chemicals has paid $200,000 to Nocil Crop Protection Ltd., including an illegal payment of $39,700 to the officials of Central Insecticides Board. Other cases of bribery include $11,800 to Sales Tax Officials, $3,700 to Excise officials and $1,500 to Customs officials.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Where the hell?

Tell us please, where is recession?

On the eve of February 2009, we can’t help but wonder where the hell [or, ‘in heavens’, for those light listeners] is the damn recession we were told to watch out for like crazy by the US, in specific, by the National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER]! The NBER is, according to their own words, “the nation’s leading nonprofit economic research organization; sixteen of the 31 American Nobel Prize winners in Economics and six of the past Chairmen of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers have been researchers at the NBER.” The NBER claims they are “dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works.” Allow us to exemplify how well they’ve worked towards the same in the past few quarters.

Before you decide we’re insensible, allow us to clarify. Is the world under a slowdown? Yes. But a recession? Umm... We stuck to the standard seat-of-the-pants thumb rule used by economists for defining recession, which states that a recession ‘happens’ when there persists two quarters running of negative growth [in real GDP] from the previous quarterly figure.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Monday, November 26, 2012

US OFFICIAL LIST OF TERRORISTS: AND AN ANALYSIS OF WHY YOUR NAME COULD FEATURE THERE

January 20, 2009, Bush leaves the White House; but before that, he ‘updates’ the ‘official’ US terrorists list

The key points of the resolution, as stated in a policy paper of CATO Institute by James A. Dorn, states that if Unocal gets taken over, this “would result in the strategic assets of Unocal Corporation being preferentially allocated to China by the Chinese government.” That then “would weaken the ability of the US to influence the oil and gas supplies of the Nation through companies that must adhere to United States laws.” The CNOOC deal therefore threatens “to impair the national security,” and “the President should initiate immediately a thorough review of the proposed acquisition, merger, or takeover.” From Dubai Ports to Singapore’s Temasek, all investments by foreign countries have faced similar opposition in the US.

Clearly, when the US drains out oil from Iraq, then it’s not a problem the Pope should worry about, but if some other country goes in for a legal acquisition of a powerful US company, then Nostradamus inferences are redrawn to ensure that such moves are nipped even before the bud is born. If Iran is the latest to face the brunt of Mr.Bush’s rottweiler-like attitude – who wants the world to stop trading with Iran completely – what is not often told is the fact that there are several Israeli companies, like Medent [quoting Steve Rodan, Jerusalem Post Service] who do brisk business running up to hundreds of millions of dollars at the same time with Iran.

Bush might be leaving on January 20, 2009; but has ensured that NCTC stays in absolutely safe hands. The current NCTC Director, Michael E Leiter, is pretty well qualified. One hears that just a few handful of years back, Mr. ‘well qualified’ Leiter served as the Dy General Counsel and Assistant Director of the US President’s Commission on “US Intelligence Capabilities Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction!” Gotcha Elvis!!! Rock on!!!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

 
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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

WORKER SAFETY: COAL MINES

The shocking Chinese coal mines

China’s fatality rate per million tonnes of coal production was reported half a decade back to be 3,824. Compare this to the 0.1 figure in the US and even Australia, top coal manufacturers.

In 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao made commitments to improve the safety standards. Eventually, in the same year, he passed an order to close down any coal mine with an annual output of less than 90,000 tonnes. Shanxi’s coal mines still continue haphazardly. This year, the new Shanxi governor commissioned that by 2011, the number of coal mines will be reduced by 1500 (to 1000) and by 2015 to 800. The claim is that any shaft with an annual output of less than 300,000 tonnes will be closed and taken over by the government. Are the Chinese true to their word? Well, the coal dependent Shanxi’s economy shrank by 4.4% in the first half of the current year compared to the same period last year (and it is the only province in China to have experienced that). One hopes other provinces are next in line...



 
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Friday, October 19, 2012

Crunched to death!

The financial crisis brought the world to its feet!

The foundation stone of the current financial crisis was definitely laid during the prior boom period, which lasted between 1996 to early 2005. Financial institutions like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch et al, were enthusiastic enough to run after the lucrative sub-prime market and create an artificial buying power for borrowers. Giving no importance to financial due diligence, the lenders were quick to introduce new, riskier products with insufficient asset value as collateral. As a matter of fact, the total amount of mortgage-backed security issued tripled to $7.3 trillion and the securitised share of sub-prime mortgages increased from 54% to 75%; all thanks to the booming ‘credit derivative market’ which made risk transfer easy. The low interest rate further encouraged Americans to opt for housing loans or mortgages. But when home prices in the US began to decline in 2006-07, mortgage delinquencies rose and securities backed by sub-prime mortgages (which were widely-held by financial institutions), lost most of their value. Later on, when this housing bubble busted, three out of the five largest investment banks (once the cynosures of Wall Street) of US, failed, triggering instability in the global financial system. This resulted in a decline of capital for many banks, thus creating a credit crunch.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Monday, August 20, 2012

Why US sanctions are useless

With China around, US sanctions against Iran, N.Korea and Sudan are useless; US has to get China on its side to force a solution

There are some uncanny commonalities between Kim Jong-il, Ahmadinejad and Omar al- Bashir! All three heads of states have been in the international spotlight for the wrong reasons; and all three care two hoots about US sanctions because of their magnanimous trade associations with China, a country that deals with any country it wishes to, despite any sanctions against those countries. China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, Iran is the second largest supplier of oil to China, and China is N.Korea’s largest investor and trading partner. Unless US gets China on its side, none of these countries will care to sit down on the discussion desk.

In a secret visit to China in May 2010, Kim apparently came with a begging bowl for finance, food and fuel – and in return vowed to reignite dormant international nuclear disarmament talks, which were hosted by Beijing and shunned by Pyongyang for over a year. In February 2010, US and Canada achieved a valuable ceasefire between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels. The bitter and bloody conflict, which claimed 3,00,000 lives and compelled 2.7 million people to become refugees in the last 7 years, has hopefully finally ended under US pressure and Chinese goading. If the US wants the slippery Omar al-Bashir – Sudanese President indicted by International Court of Justice for war crimes – to stick to his agreement, they have to use China to enforce the same. And if US wishes Iran too to start cooperating, China’s the answer.

Not that this absolves China of its past – China has regularly supplied arms to Bashir and to Iran; and has even played a major role in North Korea and Pakistan’s nuclear bomb development. But then, those horses have already bolted.


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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Scrutiny-LATIN AMERICA: CHARISMATIC CONUNDRUM

Latin American states are led by Iconic Leaders who last The Short term, while North America is led by Democratically elected leaders through strong Institutional structures, which last the long term. Time enough for South American nations to gain from institutionalising Governance Structures than depend on individuals

But this has created problems for them too. Latin American states have always struggled to find their rightful successors. Thus, even though many assumed rightly that Raul Castro would be the successor to his elder brother in Cuba, there were ambiguities and speculations after Raul’s health problems in 2006.

The story is quite different in case of United States. While South America was led by popular leaders, North America was always led by leaders elected through the institution of democracy. Thus, US succeeded in establishing stronger institutions rather than just leaders. In US, leaders are held accountable unlike in Latin America, where leaders have emerged and stood above institutions. More importantly, when power is institutionalised rather than individualised, there is always a replacement/successor in place of the premier.

That is why Latin American states have a higher probability of facing trouble during transfer of power. This also gives enough reasons for states like North Korea as well as Russia to be concerned. North Korea was ruled and led by Kim Jong II since the 1980s. His authoritative and dictatorial command didn’t create many options as successors. Similarly, Russia has been run by Vladimir Putin since the 1990s. Even though Medvedev is virtually leading the state, actual power is still in the hands of Putin. In such a situation, if Putin were to vanish from the scene, it will invite political crisis.

These states can learn from China’s example as well. A communist state, China – rather than run on the whims of an individual – is being run by the Communist Party of China since 1949, which has a clearly defined planning process. This gives China stability as well as flexibility in leadership change and transfer of power within members of the ruling party and national leadership.


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