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Nature Conservancy reports that trees planted in cities reduce particulate matter by between 7% and 24%.  Particulate matter are microscopic particles we breathe in when there is polluted air from automobiles, factories, or smoking. The cooling effect is about 2 degrees centigrade or 3.6 degrees fahrenheit. Outdoor air pollution causes asthma and other lung diseases, and led to premature deaths of about 3 million people in 2012, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Hospitalization from high pollution levels is another major problem, especially in poor and middle income nations, such as Brazil, Mexico, India, China and Indonesia. Air Flow should be considered when planting trees in congested urban areas. Cities in the west also benefit from tree planting, and London has benefitted from the park spaces and tree planting.

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Tourism is recovering in Kashmir as the violence in Kashmir is fading gradually with sporadic incidents, with a new democratically elected civilian coalition government in Pakistan which may not be interested in supporting violent factions inside Kashmir. 450,000 tourists visited Kashmir in 2007 but only 25,000 foreign tourists. The state is investing in golf courses in Kashmir to make Kashmir a golfer's destination for tourists from Europe, the Middle East and the USA. This shows that the mood there is changing and a new wind is blowing.

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Dow's 679 point drop on Thursday October 9, 2008, investors lose $8.4 trillion of wealth, which is sure to impact consumption spending coming after a steep drop in house prices and loss of trillions in home values. This will affect countries dependent on exports like emerging markets from Russia, China, Brazil and India to other countries around the world as the US imports less energy, less soyabeans, less from the manufacturing locations in China. This means cutting growth in Brazil, India and China as well as in the US and Europe.

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CTS Corp of Elkhart, Indiana supplies accelerator asemblies to Toyota. It is now designing a new pedal to stringent specifications from Toyota. These pedals are manufactured at aplant near Toronto. CTS also supplies parts to Honda Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company, and says only 3% of its business is from Toyota. It mainly builds auto sensors and components.

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Mr. Pascal Soriot of Astra Zeneca says his company has signed agreements for production of 2 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University. He says manufacturing is starting now because "we want it to be as fast as possible." One of the deals is with Serum Institute of India, the other is with Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for $750 million for CEPI and GAVI organizations which he supports. Mr. Soriot says the licensing agreement with Serum Institute is to supply one billion doses for low and middle income countries, with 400 million doses ready by end of 2020. He says Astra Zeneca is building supply chains across the world and so far has secured manufacturing capacity for 2 billion doses of the vaccine. Mr Soriot tells BBC that manufacturing vaccines on this scale is not an easy thing to do. He says that Astra Zeneca will not make a profit in production of these Oxford University developed vaccines. The U.S. has secured 300 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, and the UK 100 million doses.   ...

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The Indian economy grows at 6.3% in the third quarter of 2017. The demonetization, and new GST tax plan, had slowed the economic growth to 5.7% in the second quarter of 2017. Higher economic growth is important to generate the jobs needed as 10 million young people join the workforce each year. The Modi government responded to the slowdown by accelerating spending on infrastructure- a $100 billion spending plan on roads and highways, and $32 billion cash infusion for state run banks with the effort to clean up the bad loans in the banking system. 

Elections in prime minister Modi's home state of Gujarat are coming up and this will give some indication of voter sentiment in 2017. The Pew Research Survey in 2017 shows Modi's personal popularity is high and continues to bolster the government's prospects.

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India food supply distribution network involves farmers selling to wholesalers who sell to retailers with about 12.8 million small retailers with shops reaching consumers. Millions of farmers with small plots need workers to harvest their crops. Mechanization of farms is not as widespread as needed, and labour is used instead of forklift trucks in handling of agricultural produce to be loaded onto trucks. And millions of these retailers need workers to pickup the food supplies (wheat, rice, pulse and vegetables). The virus has scared off a lot of laborers needed for this supply system to work from farms to shops. The government is maintaining the basic supplies of wheat, rice and pulses at this time. It has given free rice and wheat where needed and distributed wheat and rice at minimal cost to the public. Yet the system is facing bottlenecks of labor and more needs to be done to maintain smooth flow of supplies. The mechanization of agriculture and distribution is sorely lacking at this time.     ...

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Kashmiri shawl weavers were mostly women. Mechanization has pushed many from earning their livelihoods from the shawl industry. New ways are being found to revive the older shawl weaving methods and give Kashmiri women an opportunity to work and be financially independent. A lot can be learned from the French who have a thriving industry using hand weaving with new technology and marketing techniques for hand woven fabrics using new designs. Some of these French companies could actually collaborate with Kashmiri makers to relaunch this industry in a new way and employ many women in making shawls and other specialty fabric designs. This manufacture would also command higher prices in a niche market segment in India and in world markets.

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See the World Economic Outlook November 2007 which talks about this phenomenon in Chapter 5 on the moderating influences in the global economic cycle, the drop in volatility in the global economy, and the expansion of the economy being across most countries in the global economy. Is this a period or a phase the global economy is going through as most emerging economies and developing countries are improving living standards and developing infrastructure, or will it last for several decades with broad sustained economic growth and foreign trade. Some smaller crises are to be expected for example the stock bubbles in China and India(?) will pop if this bubble phenomena continues in these countries. The pressures for expression of public opinion and environmental degradation in China are further challenges and at some point China's development might slow to a more sustainable longer term rate. Will India then pick up as it urbanizes and develops its manufacturing industry?

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Wang Yi, a senior adviser for China's decarbonization strategy and 5 year plan has this to say about China's approach to climate change. Yi says it is more important to focus on what actions are to be taken between now and 2030. Here he says China has outlined concrete steps that it will take that the world media has not covered in its coverage of COP26 Glasgow. Yi says China is making changes to its entire system not only its energy sector, across the whole society and the economy. Yet he says "nobody knows this." The working guidance document for carbon control China has put out says it will peak coal consumption by 2025.  Yi says it is unfair to ask China to close all coal powered plants, saying that if these plants with a life of 10 years were closed now who will pay for stranded assets and who will hire the laid off workers. He called attention to western nations failure to provide climate finance to China, India and developing countries. And he called attention to the the plans that by 2030 Chinese investment is to have 1200 gigawatts of installed solar and wind energy, more than the entire installed electricity capacity of the US. He says we are all in the same boat yet in different cabins, with some living in bigger space and consuming too much. ...

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On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti here is the podcast of President Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of State Cordell Hull's speech on July 23, 1942 that you can hear from the US National Archives.  Roosevelt in his letter of reply to Mohandas Gandhi's letter on July 1, 1942 one month before the launch of the Quit India Movement asking for help to achieve Hind Swaraj said- "I am enclosing a copy of an address of July 23 by the Secretary of State, made with my complete approval, which illustrates the attitude of this government.

Roosevelt wrote back to Gandhi that "I am sure that you will agree that the United States has consistently striven for an supported policies of fair dealing, of fair play, and of all related principles looking towards the creation of harmonious relations between nations."

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This article from the John Hopkins University experts in Chinese investment in Africa say the charges that China was setting up debt levels for African countries beyond sustainability levels set by IMF are not founded except in a few instances. Only in Congo, Zambia and Djibouti does China account for over half of public debt, says the report. This comes as criticism is mounting about African countries being burdened with debt from Chinese financing of projects and loans.

In 17 countries identified as vulnerable including Ethiopia and Cameroon, China was the largest creditor but yet more than half of the debt was held by western banks and other lenders. In Mozambique it was Credit Suisse bank. In other words China is not preying intentionally to put countries into financial distress from debt buildup.

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Now that congestion pricing plan is halted, the New York Subway system that has suffered from decades of neglect and disinvestment languishes in crisis. The NYT says it is hanging by a thread in this report. Compare this with the Tokyo subway or subways in Taiwan, China,  or other countries and one realizes how much damage years of disinvestment driven by Reagan/Friedman economic theory can do. Where Asian countries are investing in infrastructure, eight years after Republican Trump called for attention to infrastructure but failed to invest, and four years after the trillion dollar infrastructure program of president Biden, NY subway remains neglected. Ana Ley tells us what a difficult time it is for New Yorkers. After decades of neglect new subways are going up even in places such as Mumbai, India. How much longer must New Yorkers wait for government to partner with private industry for the NY subway system to be rebuilt, in the state that is where the Erie Canal was built in the nineteenth century in the first wave of the Industrial Revolution? The Erie Canal was built in 7 years for $7 million as navigable waterway with locks for elevation of 350 miles from the Hudson River at Albany to Buffalo and Lake Erie. It opened up the vast hinterland and granary of New York state and connected it to New York City, from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes. ...

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A whole series of efforts will come together to cut logistics cost for businesses from 14% to a small percentage. PM Modi says the policy aims to expedite last mile delivery to save time and money. Gati Shakti Plan will address some of the infrastructure gaps. "National Logistics Policy helps in making the support system modern," says Modi. The government is using technology to support logistics in new ways, Faceless assessment has started in customs and e-way bills and FASTag are bringing efficiency to the logistics sector. Drones are being used.  Sagarmala Project to connect ports and dedicated freight corridors is starting to improve logistics connectivity and systematic infrastructure development work. Modi said the world has accepted the production linked incentive scheme PLI announced by the government for boosting domestic manufacturing. Put together this puts India in a position to become one of the top three economies in the world from the situation today of being in the top five. ...

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The Brazilian economy is growing too fast, and this pace not only won't be sustained, but it has signs of serious trouble ahead. The Brazilian economy grew at an estimated annualized pace of 10% in the last 6 months and generated 962,000 jobs between Jan-April of 2010. Growth in 2010 is expected to be 7%. The jump in growth is partly the result of the stimulus measures of the Lula government. But a consensus of experts is that Brazil still saves too little, has not invested enough in infrastructure,and its economy has the potential of 5% sustainable growth each year. The central bank has increased interest rates - increase of 0.75% in April 2010, and economists in Brazil think the rate will go up to 13% in 2011. About $10 billion in cuts in spending have been announced but they are cuts to an already growing budget approved by Congress, so in reality it will only slow the increase in spending. Public debt is at 42.7% of GDP. Real interest rates have fallen from close to 20% in 2003 to between 5-10%. Costs per unit of labor are increasing at about half the rate of real wages according to a finance official. The National Development Bank or BNDES played a role in helping the economy with subsidized loans when the financial markets ran into trouble. It has expanded lending by 50%, with money from the Treasury of 180 billion reais. Some of the measures of the Lula government has reduced the skewed income distribution Brazil, and in doing so has increased consumer demand. Meeting high consumer demand, and meeting the need for commodities like soyabeans and metals from China, has boosted growth in Brazil to twice the sustainable rate and it is now at a par with China and India. But this places Brazil too dependent on the boom in Chinese demand, especially as the stimulus in China slows and the property bubble threatens China's economy. See links to China. A new President after the upcoming Presidential election will have to tackle the high interest rates in 2011, lower commodity prices, and the need for better infrastructure, and make the adjustment to a sustainable pace of growth....

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Did you know that SUV's are the second largest source of emissions after Power. We hear a lot about aviation which is much smaller but little about SUV's in the impact on climate change. SUV's make up about 40% of cars in Britain, and higher in the U.S. at 43%, 40% worldwide an astounding sixfold increase from 32 million to 200 million since 2010. People may even be driving an SUV and talking a lot about climate change.

Any savings from electric cars expected to grow from 2 million to 20 million by 2030  will be offset by more SUV's on the road. This is the view of the International Energy Agency in its recent report. Again all the talk about electric cars as a way to address climate change misses what is really happening in automobiles. Even in China the SUV's make up 42% of sales, and in India 30%. It is more profitable to make SUV's and they are harder to electrify adding 25% to energy consumed compared to cars. 

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It is important to know the cause of 0.3% contraction in first quarter 2025 for US economy. It is says WSJ because of a 5% hit from net exports, the difference between exports and imports, as importers rushed to import more before a tariff deadline. Imports by the US increased by 42% in first quarter 2025. Some include MIchigan Governor Whitmer who supports the tariffs as a way to take back America's industrial base, build factories in the US, say the uncertainty of the way tariffs were implemented is damaging confidence in the economy. For instance could the US have excluded the EU, Japan, UK, India as allies, and focused on China.  The problem with that approach is that it would single out China. It means other nations Japan, South Korea, Germany are not investing in the US, also have used trade for unfair advantage, are not called out. This would put China in an odd position. It is better to call out all who benefited from unfair advantage including China, Germany, Japan South Korea, Taiwan, because this has more credibility, giving all a honest and fair picture that they could then look at themselves in the mirror and correct. In the short run it looks messy, the tariff methods look erratic and back and forth increasing tariffs is also messy and unruy. Yet when every major trading nation knows deep inside that US is only saying it like it is asking only for fairness in trade, it will lead it to negotiate a fair trade agreement with US. ...

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The U.S. under president Trump ends the 18 year long war with an agreement signed in Qatar between the U.S. and the Taliban. The Taliban are required to fight all forms of terrorism in Afghanistan as part of the agreement. In the first phase of the withdrawal of American troops, a third of the 12,000 American troops will be withdrawn with a similar reduction of NATO forces. This ends a costly war that cost about 1 trillion dollars and acted as a distraction from major problems in America such as aging infrastructure, and problems related to health, education and other services. President Trump was clear about his perception of America's role during a New Delhi news conference. America could not act in a police role for other states and regions, he said.

President Trump has secured support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and India for the agreement to bring peace to the region.

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Oil prices in the U.S. drop to $55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and $65 a barrel for Brent crude price. Earlier expectation of the impact of reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil shrinking global oil supplies have been reversed with increased production from Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.S.

Another new development that caused this reversal in sentiment is that the Trump administration granted waivers to some buyers of Iranian crude oil. The U.S. trade dispute with China has also added to this with lower growth forecasts. Unlike in previous years OPEC or Saudi Arabia cannot by itself shrink global supplies with production cuts. The U.S. and Russian output also plays a significant part.

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Michael Atherton calls Jasprit Bumrah "absolutely fantastic" for his bowling in the First Cricket Test vs Australia at Perth 2024. After being bowled out for 150 rus in the first innings India went on to score over 500 runs in the second innings to beat Australia by 295 runs. The turnaround was amazing.

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Bide meets British prime minister Starmer in Wasnhington as Britain is ready to approve use of its long range missile systems inside Russia. This comes as Russia is about to gain control of the Donetsk region. Republicans other than Mr. Trump and his supporters are for stronger support to Ukraine following US policy of opposing invasion to achieve military goals since 1900 against the Japanese in China and the Vietnam War was fought on the same basis in the 1960's considering the South Vietnamese state as an independent republic, just  invaded by the north, by North Vietnam, just as the US had done in the Korean War between North and South Korea. In the Vietnam War nationalism played apart with the Vietnamese nationalism prevailing by 1970. Russians see Kiev as the origin of the Russian State in the 9th century, and eastern region of Donetsk as Russian if western Ukraine seeks to join NATO and EU. Britain has opposed Russia since 1750 as it saw Russia as the threat to an Empire it was building in South Asia, in India that financially supported its Empire worldwide for 200 years till about 1950. Britain engaged in the Crimean War against Russia so that along with the French it could control Turkey and its Ottoman states in the Arab Middle East under the guise of trade. This effort was pushed back by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920's when he founded the modern state of Turkey in Ankara. ...

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India needs to develop a better bond market to finance $1 trillion in infrastructure in the next 5 years.