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About 600 US and European company brands are leaving Russia. This report in the WSJ shows how ordinary Russians are coping with jobs in limbo. Many of these companies are continuing to pay employees but jobs remain uncertain. This includes companies like Sweden's IKEA that are popular in Russia. As western sanctions make operating difficult companies future is uncertain. This is creating anti-Western sentiment particularly in the rural areas which use mostly Russian made products and which are Putin's main source of support. Even Russians who question the attacks on Ukraine are skeptical how the withdrawal of these companies helps find a solution for Ukraine. This is happening even as the errors made by 4 term German chancellor of increasing the dependence of Germany on Russian energy supplies from 36% during Putin's annexation of Crimea to 55% today are becoming abundantly clear.That makes an energy embargo on Russia difficult for Europe, with German business saying this would be "catastrophic" because it is unprepared even though this alone provides about $1 billion a day to Putin's Russia. Meanwhile EU and other western leaders call attention to India's drawing 1-2% of its energy supplies from Russia even though one month of Indian imports is equal to just one afternoon of European oil and gas imports from Russia. India has done more than Merkel's Germany to meet the need for humanitarian vaccine assistance for the poor countries of Asia and Africa, Middle East, and is now engaged in meeting the needs of the world for foodgrains after the fallout from an Ukraine crisis that is a result of emboldening of Russia from Merkel's policies.  ...

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Shehbaz Sharif 70,  is the younger brother of a three term prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. He ran Punjab province, the country's largest state when his brother was prime minister. In this way he brings substantial experience to the problems of the economy that now face many developing economies such as Pakistan.  First on the agenda is to normalize relations with the US, rebuild ties with India, and restart negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan faces severe inflation of 14% and devaluing currency that makes imports costlier as the foreign currency reserves have dropped to alarming levels of $24 billion when annual import needs are at about $56 billion. This has a direct impact on cost of living, standards of living and on industry. Shehbaz Sharif understands the situation and has said restoring the economy "will take effort, effort and more effort." A similar statement has been made by Mr. Modi in Hindi "sab ka viokas, sab ka prayas" which also mean effort, effort and more effort, which all of South Asia and Bay of Bengal, and South East Asian countries needs considering the impact of Covid pandemic, and now inflation from the war in Europe hitting food supplies. The situation is grim in other parts of South Asia- in Myanmar, in Sri Lanka, in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia. The popular sentiment is also shifting as seen in the Indian part of the old British Punjab province. Mostly Sikh this part of old Punjab state in India made a complete change bringing in a new party Aadmi to improve the economy and provide good governance. In this situation all governments are expected to deliver on good governance and the economy.   ...

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India under the leadership of prime minister Modi hosting the G20 meeting of world leaders may have for the world passed the test of the ages on November 16, 2023. On that day the G20 with China, India, (and Russia's Lavrov), and the US issued the statement saying-  "The use of threat of using nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today's era must not be of war." The words "Today's era must not be of war," were words Modi had stated repeatedly to the Russian president.  In dire situations that it can be conceived that small nuclear weapons with half the destructive capacity as Hiroshima bomb that could be put on a small missile could be used is a new threat. Hennigan in the NYT reports that as Ukrainian forces moved towards Kharkiv and other Russian held territory and were seen as a threat to Russian held Crimea, on October 23, 2023 the Russian minister of defense Sergei Shoigu, contacted the Defense ministers of US, Britain, France and Turkey about Ukrainian fighters it believed planning to launch a dirty bomb -a conventional explosive wrapped in radioactive material- on their own territory to frame Moscow. Hennigan in this NYT report says US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and Jt. Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, held 3 phone calls in 4 days during this time around October 23, 2023, with their Russian counterparts. By November 16 Indian prime minister Modi and Chinese president Xi had their discussions with the Russian president to prevent accidental nuclear escalation. ...

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What does fast growth in the world's fastest growing economy, that is a key part of America's and the European Union's and Japan's supply chain look like. It is based on people inclusive development called Sab Ka Vikas Sab ke Saath, Gandhiji's idea of the last person in the line ever present and watchful of the task at hand. This Powerpoint of the blueprint of the Indian Budget  for 2024-25 from Nirmala Sitharaman and the Finance Ministry shows a visual of what the growth looks like for the farm, industrial, housing, health, education and other sectors of the economy. It is a journey just beginning under Vikshit Bharat with a target date of the 100th  anniversary of independence 2047. Here one can see the target of increasing capital expenditures for infrastructure and various development schemes by 11.1%. GST (one tax one country) tax revenues are expected to increase by around 12% which support this budget. Strengthening financial sector to bring investment back on track after the pandemic is one of the support pillars, so is deepening and widening tax base through the GST a uniform federal tax for the whole country. Another pillar is proactive inflation management- the story of how India tackled the cost of energy by accessing from different suppliers at the best price is told this week in Feb 2024 in the WSJ. Foreign Minister Jaishankar told the Munich Security Conference with Blinken and Baerbock in the panel that India with 1.4 billion people's future at stake should be seen as done the right thing, the smart thing. Inflation has been kept at about 5%, and key economic growth projected at 7-8% over the next decade with goal of becoming the third largest economy in the world. ...

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Does a 10% reduction in tariffs on China with the October 30 2025 agreement- made in Busan South Korea at APEC meetings- make a difference for companies relocating from China? It only does for smaller companies who are stuck with Chinese sources. Larger American companies prefer to diversify their supply chain and continue to relocate part of their factories to Vietnam, India and other countries knowing that the tariffs game will end up with allies EU, Japan and India in the 10-15% tariff range as a concession to US for putting up with trade disadvantages and job losses 2000-2025. China's will still be at 47% in comparison and the fentanyl issue causing serious questions to be asked by the American people which have not been grasped in China or even in the US by companies and politicians.   Does it affect the urgency and general shift out of China? The fentanyl issue is unlikely to change and it is likely to do lasting damage to China's credibility to a degree that it not clearly understood in China, and even not fully grasped even in the US today because of the sheer size of the number dead- more young Americans dead from fentanyl than in the Korean, Vietnam and First World Wars combined. Other issues are technology that has been transferred without a proper assessment of the importance to national security, the need to shift the manufacturing base back home that US industries have inadvertently and carelessly shifted to China in the disastrous Bush and Obama years 2000-2016, and for the jobs, the wages, and cost of living concerns when supply chains are outside one's control. This article asks the question about tariffs on India and Brazil as being contradictory and showing a lack of consistency in tariffs. India is compared to China with India facing a 50% tariff because of Russian oil purchases, and Brazil a 100% tariff related to treatment of former president Bolsonaro even though US has a trade surplus with Brazil. One expects that at some point India and the US will come to an agreement that lowers the tariffs in a way that was done with the European Union to bring it closer to 10%. China's tariff to be sure is still around 47% dropping from 57% a concession for rare earths and for the upcoming elections and economic concerns not because of policy intent which has not changed on  strong action for fentanyl which is also part of the Appeal to the People in the DJT base.   ...

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A new state government in Bihar state, India, takes shape with Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister and 2 Deputy CM's from the BJP party. Bihar is the second largest state in India after Uttar Pradesh, with Maharashtra the third, West Bengal fourth making up the top four by population each with over 100 million people. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat make up the top 7 states each of these three with about 75 million population. Rapid economic development depends on state governments working with the federal government on investment, technologies and effective governance. Gujarat and Maharashtra form an industrial core for India with investment increasing in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh which forms the rural interior in the Ganges plains. In contrast to China where industrial development is state driven led by the CCP in a centralized form embedded in the complete authority of the central government, India has to achieve this through the democratic process based on delivery of infrastructure projects and standards of living. Much of this depends on the combined effort of federal and state governments ,with seven of these eight states having this coordinated effort in 2024, at a time when foreign investment in the economy is increasing rapidly to diversify global supply chains. This provides an opportunity for India to change from a developing economy to an advanced industrial economy in stages by 2030 and 2040. ...

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Do you ever wonder how Japan keeps it streets so clean. There are no litter bins or street sweepers to be seen. This report in the BBC News looks at Japan's cleanliness ethic starting from school days for children growing up with the idea that clean is what you make happen with your own two hands and a broom. That is all it takes and a sense of personal responsibility infused into the culture from school days as children.  For 12 years of school life from elementary school to high school cleaning the school is part of the school routine for students. The social consciousness was developed in this way and children as they grow up learn to take pride in their cleanliness and in the cleanliness of their surroundings. This carries over to cleaning up the neighborhood.  In India's Swachh Clean India campaign their are street clean sweepers in addition to people themselves taking on the job of cleaning. This is ok for public facilities like railway stations underbridges and other public facilities, but for neighborhoods and schools making cleaning a part of the routine in schools is a good idea that needs to be universally adopted as part of Swachh India, Clean India campaign. This also holds true for all Asian and Latin American, African nations which could learn from the keeping the country clean efforts of Japan and more recently India. As India shows not having done this well before is no reason for discouragement, getting started and keeping it going, building public awareness and support is the key. This is particularly true for developing countries because it is easier to prevent illness and disease by increasing levels of hygiene and sanitation, saving hundreds of millions of dollars for large countries like India and Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, for days and productivity lost. It also pushes countries to the next stage of development faster through infrastructure development and quality of public services, quality of life.    ...

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A surge in demand for robotic vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, washing machines and other appliances are taking the place of the many maids and servants employed in Indian middle class homes. India has over 8.5 million coronavirus cases and most high rise apartment building communities restrict the entry of outsiders. The new trend is for more appliances in every middle class household to take over the work of many maids and household help that were once seen as less costly than appliances but now are seen as a blessing. The risks of catching coronavirus from household help that goes back to their villages for breaks are too great for many families.

As jobs shrink in household help many  new jobs could be created for a large new household appliance industry and in the other jobs in retail distribution of appliances and transport.  

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The ruling party LDP's defense committee has decided Japan needs to strike North Korean missiles on the ground. There is a growing consensus on this. Another consensus is developing over the issue of protecting the Senkaku islands adminstered by Japan and claimed by China. 

Earlier in 2020 T12 missiles with 100 kilometres range were deployed on Miyako island between Kyushu and Taiwan. Now these missiles range will be increased to 300 kilometres to reach the Senkaku islands. China has sent patrol planes and ships near the Senkaku islands. Other cruise missile range is planned for 1000 kilometres as Japan Self Defense Forces expand their capabilities to take on more of the responsibility for defending the Japanese islands. In alliance with India and Australia this capability is being expanded to the entire Indian Ocean region to counter an expansionist China.

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The Biden administration and Taiwan are accelerating the development of supply chain in India to tackle a chip shortage worldwide. Taiwan seeks to come up with an early agreement with India on tariff reductions for semiconductor components. The $7.5 billion plant investment would provide 5G electronics chips as well as automobile chips. India is studying various plant locations and 50% financial support after 2023 is planned with tax breaks and financial incentives.

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Either China or India was going to at some point develop the Brahmaputra river known as Tsangpo in Tibet where it starts for hydroenergy. It turns out that the modernization of China preceding India's by 20 years and the occupation of Tibet in 1950 has put China in the position of developing this river with a huge dam. The Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states of India is the same river that is called Tsangpo in Tibet when since 1000 China had little physical contact with the region greatly remote from Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. The Brahmaputra in its Tsangpo stretch of the river in Tibetan region originates at lake Mansarovar and Mount Kailas and on a map can be seen as very close to Guwahati, Assam and distant thousands of miles from Beijing. The dam will include 5 hydropower stations, produce 300 billion kilowatt hours and cost $170 billion. Two decades of rapid growth in China supported by the US with technology and capital have given China the capital needed for this type of scale of investment in renewable hydro energy. It will produce as much energy as the UK used in 2024. ...

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Abrams and De Acosta, Bellman of the WSJ look at growth and modernization in India in comparison with China and other countries. GDP per capita would take 10 years to reach the stage at which spending power of the people equals that in China today. At one point in 1980 China and South Korea were closer in GDP per capita than India. It is only now that India is accelerating towards the scale and depth of modernization done in China.  India's growth rate of over 7% is likely to surge after some of the problems in bad loans in the banking sector are cleared up. A wave of technological advances would help accelerate growth. Ease of doing business and foreign investment are on upward trend, for absorbing new technology from advanced countries. A shift to very low prices for data use with rapid development of 4G services is one of the recent achievements. Manufacturing growth remains a challenge to be tackled to create the jobs needed.  Revamping tax structures such as GST and shifting the economy towards use of electronic cash has increased revenues needed to invest in infrastructure, health and education.  As much of the potential for future growth comes from people at the lower income levels, improving social indicators such as sanitation, cleanliness, farmer incomes, universal bank accounts, universal access to health care, are steps that lay the foundation for the future. ...

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This year 2025 is the 75th year since the invasion of Tibet by Communist China under Mao in 1950, and the 66th year since the uprising in Lhasa in 1959. The new book by Tibet Dalai Lama will be out in March 2025- Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle With China for My Land and My People.  The Dalai Lama calls for preserving Tibet's Buddhist civilization and culture within China. Bringing China's borders to the borders of India was a serious mistake as the mountains of Tibet and Nepal acted as a buffer zone between China and India. The invasion was a result of seeing India as India under a colonial power the British and independent India still run in 1950 under a system modeled on Britain- what Mao fought against since the 1920's.  In 2025 India has emerged as distinctly Indian and China has emerged from the 1950's communist state into a market economy state. The old colonial period systems no longer exist and only a reversion to the old Buddhist periods since the 5th century in terms of borders makes sense. The Tibet invasion after millenium in which Tibet had relations with Nepal, China and India has created other issues in this region. In the centuries before the colonial powers entered Asia in the 15th century, the Portuguese, Dutch and the British, there was contact, commerce and other relations between India, Nepal, Tibet and China. The earliest contacts were with Bodhidharma prince from from India going to China through these Tibetan mountains to convert China to Buddhism in about the 6th century AD. China reverting to its Buddhist culture is a serious possibility because it is so intertwined with a sense of being Chinese and the culture of China. And with this the borders of times past.   ...

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During Singh's term in office 2004-2014 economic changes of a new type and with new leadership were taking place in state of Gujarat in western India under chief minister Narendra Modi similar to that of New York state under Governor Franklin Roosevelt before FDR assumed office as president in 1932. Modi of the same party as Singh's predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata party, added a new set of skills and confidence in industrial development for the state model in Gujarat to be adopted for the whole of India, when he won the national elections in 2014. Vajpayee and Modi were different from the politicians in India in 1947-2000, pushing Modernization, Nationhood, and corruption free effective government. Manmohan Singh was prime minister during a period of transition in India 2005-2014 from the socialist economy to the market economy. As head of the central bank and finance minister he earlier initiated the changes when India's reserves had dropped to record low levels by 1991. His biometric data initiatives and other actions kept the Indian economic initiatives in place that wold provide the base from which another prime minister Modi could launch India on a new trajectory for transforming the country into an industrialized nation. During Singh's term in office 2004-2014 economic changes of a new type and with new leadership were taking place in state of Gujarat in western India under chief minister Narendra Modi. Modi of the same party as Singh's predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata party, added a new set of skills and confidence in industrial development for the state model in Gujarat to be adopted for the whole of India, when he won the elections in 2014. Vajpayee and Modi were different from the politicians in India in 1947-2000, pushing Modernization, Nationhood, and corruption free effective government. ...

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Finance Minister Sitharaman says India's economic image and its macroeconomic fundamentals are not affected by the withdrawal of the Adani FPO. In the last 2 days alone she said, foreign exchange reserves had increased by $8 billion. She said Securities and Exchange Board of India has the authority and ability to see to it that "markets are regulated in prime condition."

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In a first Vietjet Air will connect Hyderabad, India to Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam by November 2022. Direct flights will also be set up from Ahmedabad and Bengaluru to Vietnam.

This will build the connectivity for business and tourism as the new supply chain is set up by the US and EU in Asia with Vietnam and India.

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India's central bank, the RBI, said inflation is expected to moderate to 7% by March 2012. RBI's economic growth forecast for India was lowered to below 7.6% for 2012.

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Tech is not going to fix this, say software experts from tech companies. Google and Apple's efforts in coming up with an app have fizzled out, says this report in thee WSJ. Has the U.S. lost precious time in waiting for an app by tech companies to be developed, instead of doing what India and Britain have done. India introduced its own app Aarogya Setu app from the Indian government. Britain had the National Health Service develop its app. India acted quickly. Is an app needed or essential? Germany decided that contact tracing based on Asian country experience was mainly about human contact tracers with skills to make the phone calls. All they needed was a centralized database on a computer and a phone. Germany set up teams at offices in each district in Germany and quickly plodded ahead even if all the offices were not fully staffed. In fact a third of the offices needed more people and resources. Yet the speed of action is something like 80 to 90% of the contact tracing effort when the team has the skill set to call. This is because clusters of infections do not wait - they spread. There is simply no time to waste. The German effort has produced the best results so far of any country of this size- Germany has 85 million people. The reproduction ratio is at 1.13 and Germany remains vigilant. It is the first country to reopen in Europe, and is methodically doing the right actions, much that the world can and should learn from. Contact tracing teams worked round the clock in the early days, they are still hard at work today, using their human skills to talk to people and find out who they were in contact with, calling the contacts in turn, at each step working to isolate where needed with followup calls from the state health departments. ...

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Jawaharlal Nehru was leader of the party under Gandhiji which fought for independence in the 1930's. Under the India Act of 1935 India was given the opportunity to setup state assemblies and free elections  for local self-rule that prepared for eventual Dominion status similar to Canada and Australia. Rab Butler as India Secretary fought hard to get it passed through the British parliament. See Rab Butler in the adjoining articles gist. This is very important as none of what happened in 1947 the task of writing a new Constitution and a Constituent Assembly to do this for India would  have been possible without India Act of 1935- the initial training for elections and assemblies. Some good work was done for example in Tamilnadu Chief Minister Kamaraj under Nehru changed that southern state with progress in education, health, and industry over 15 years 1950 to 1964. By the seventies to the 2010 period the progress ran into serious problems first with one party followed by weak coalitions that led to poor governance, corruption and economic progress stalled. After the experience of China's modernization India is attempting a similar effort with Vision 2047 for modernization of infrasructure and development in speed and scale with one difference- the legacy of Rab Butler who no one knows about in India and forgotten in Britain, the simple document Hind Swaraj written on a British steamship from South Africa to England in 1912 by Gandhiji that asked Indians to self-reflect on their part in letting the British in "who made the Company Sardar?", the post 1950's leadership of Sardar Patel who like Rab Butler was also forgotten till 2014, Jawaharlal Nehru who won a third term in 1962 but was followed by a series of weak governments unable to steer economic progress of scale similar to China or Japan, Lal Bahadur Shastri cut short like JFK, and Narendra Modi who is bringing to the task the hard work and discipline that made it possible for first Japan and then China to modernize infrastructure and emerge as dominant manufacturing nations. Like Japan and China India with its own stumbling periods is making its way in the world today. Both Shastri and Modi are in the direct tradition of their Master, Gandhiji, in the words of Shastri "hard work is equal to prayer." ...

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One consequence of the change in climate change policy is addressing the unaffordability crisis for cars. It would reduce the price of cars by about $2400. It removes the tighter emissions standards of the Biden administration giving automakers some relief. Price of car had surge under the Biden administration. As gas prices are brought down this is an effort to bring down car prices. How does this affect global emissions? Diana Roth from the DJT Transportation Department says- "It's gone to China, where it's made in a dirtier way. So to say that we're reducing global emissions by ending energy intensive manufacturing in some countries, then having it go to China and India, where it's made in a dirtier way, does not reduce global emissions." This suggests it is not necessarily true that global emissions that affect climate change are reduced when the US by itself alone cuts emissions and this then saves lives in a significant way. That does not offer the complete picture. And the current approach under DJT is to temporarily give affordability and cost of living priorities equal consideration for policy an approach accepted by the Biden administration. ...