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Apple's 5% smartphone market share in India lags behind Sony at 9% and Samsung at 40% for 4th quarter 2012, according to Canalys. India is expected to become the third largest market for smartphones after China and the U.S. A major problem for Apple is India's multilayered distribution network, says Apple CEO Cook. Government rules require Apple to source 30% of parts in India to be able to open its own store network. Apple is also working on lower priced smartphones for the Indian market closer to Samsung's starting price of $111 for Galaxy smartphones in India.

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Unemployment rate in urban areas of India decrease for the fourth consecutive quarter to 7.6% in the April to June quarter of 2022. It is now lower than the pre-pandemic level.  Employment growth continued in July and August, as shown in the Global Purchasing Managers Indices for the Manufacturing and Services sectors. The Finance Ministry say what is at work are the reflection of "increasing effectiveness of income support and targeted subsidies provided by the government, creation of jobs from elevated levels of public sector capital expenditures, and general rise in employment levels."  Added to this are the foreign direct investment flows being the fifth largest among a "defined set of developed and developing economies," and the increase in exports.

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Pakistan's GDP growth is expected to be 4% in 2012, an increase from 2% in 2011. Foreign exchange reserves are up to $18 billion. Repayments in 2015 to the IMF will be a quarter of the payment in 2012, says Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. Tax collections are up 24% for the first 9 months of the fiscal year 2012. Remittances from Pakistanis aborad are up 21% to $9.7 billion and exports up 5.5% over the $25 billion exports for 2011. In an WSJ op-ed, April 16, 2012, Michael Boskin,who helped negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement for the elder President Bush, says it is time for a free trade agreement between India and Pakistan. Shaikh says he expects to see trade with India up from the insignifcant levels of $2.7 billion in 2012 to $10 billion by 2015. Boskin sees the potential for trade at $50 billion based on trade models. This would help change the landscape in the South Asian region after decades of neglect, strife and conflicts and is long overdue to benefit the billion people on the subcontinent....

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A look back through Lyrarc at how rainforest deforestation was taking place in 2007 and amazing UN pictures of maps of Borneo island for 2000, 2005, 2020 showing how deforestation was taking out most of Borneo's rainforest by 2020. This is a call to action from Lyrarc after the pledge of Brazil, Russia, China, India, US, Indonesia to stop deforestation at the COP26 Glasgow.  This report from Surabaya, Indonesia, by Tom Wright, in the July 3, 2007, Wall Street Journal WSJ shows how this was extensive deforestation of one of the few remaining rainforests on the planet earth was taking place and is a must read for everyone. The links show work by a British ecologist journalist who fought hard to prevent continued deforestation in Sarawak, Malaysia, where she grew up as a child when her father was a colonial period police officer in that region. She could see the disappearing canopy in the rainforest and her protests were carried out from the outside.  ...

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States in America's Deep South have a much lower rate of people having taken one shot of vaccination, in the 30-40% range by May 2021. This report says states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and others in the South are at risk of seeing a new wave of the coronavirus  because people will spend more time in airconditioned spaces in the summer. In contrast to the north with cold winters and indoor heated spaces people in the southern states can spend more time outdoors because of the warmer weather in winter. This may have protected southerners during the winter and spring months. This may reverse with more time spent in airconditioned indoor spaces in close proximity where the coronavirus infections can increase. This report comes as new reports show the Indian coronavirus variant becoming more prevalent in the UK and other countries. This variant spreads about 50% more rapidly than an earlier UK variant, say experts. Another analysis in The Times of London shows that the imperceptible rise phase of the new coronavirus variants is the most dangerous part of the coronavirus as it dulls the sense of danger in the population that makes it take notice and prepare countermeasures early enough. India is an example of how this can happen as the sudden rise actually started with a first imperceptible increase in March and early April 2021 that changed into a rapid escalation of the virus in the population by May 2021. The vaccinations give a strong sense of confidence, however the vaccination rates vary widely state by state in the US. ...

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Gill Siraj in Test Series against England in June-July 2025. Gill's batting record next only to Don Bradman's legendary batting record. The resilience of the Indian team was tested throughout the five Test matches losing at Headingley to come back with a 336 run win at Edgbaston, losing at Lord's by 22 runs to comeback to win at the Oval in London by 7 runs.

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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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A sharp increase in capital expenditure for infrastructure projects of 35% in the Indian Budget for 2021-22 over the prior year. The fiscal deficit will be at 6.8% in the coming year.

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The Indian newspaper "The Hindu," said in its editorial that India's Supreme Court's decision in February 2012- declaring the giving of telecom licenses by the government without holding a public auction "arbitrary and unconstitutional" -was a lesson for other industries where unscruplous behaviour also prevails. The behaviour of the government in not investigating the issue of telecom licenses was described as severely hurting its credibility. The Asian Age in an editorial welcomed the decision as bringing in more money for the government in a public auction for the telecom licenses to help reduce the government's budget deficit. The Indian Express criticized the 4 month deadline for implementing the ruling. The Economic Times looked at it differently, saying the ruling will increase the telecom industry's capital costs and lead to delays in upgradation and raising of telecom prices.

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The U.S. ranked first in an annual survey of executives rating places with favorable prospects for foreign direct investment. The survey by consulting firm A.T. Kearney has questions for executives of 302 large companies, all with sales above $500 million, about how likely they are to invest in countries over 2013-2015. It was done in October and November of 2012. On a scale of 0 to 3, the U.S. scored 2.09, China 2.02, Brazil 1.97, Canada 1.86, India 1.85, followed closely by Australia and Germany at 1.83 and the UK at 1.81. Mexico and Singapore are at No. 9 and 10 with 1.77. The survey shows the U.S., and Mexico gaining, China and India slipping, and English speaking countries UK, Australia and Singapore, as part of the 6 that are English speaking of the top 10 countries. Brazil's hosting of the Olympics and World Cup helped it maintain its position. The emerging market countries performance has slipped further since the survey, including Brazil, and the U.S. has made further gains in investor sentiment. The unrest among young people in Turkey, India, China, and Brazil as seen in street protests and credit financed booms may have further affected investor sentiment. The increase in natural gas production, revival of the midwestern economies, and a recovering housing market have boosted the U.S. economic prospects compared to emerging markets and the eurozone....

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The new Noida International Airport, Asia's largest when completed in 2024, will be a model for connectivity with connections to high speed rail, bullet trains. It will also be developed as an export hub for the country to provide needed logistics for India as a manufacturing hub in the new world supply chain. As part of the Master Plan for Gati Shakti it will be integrated into the development of the country as a whole over the next two decades.

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A study published by UNICEF shows that of 55 countries only three showed increase in popular perception of the importance of children's vaccines- India, China and Mexico. The Vaccine Confidence Project is conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study says a total of 67 million children missed out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021 the years of the pandemic, vaccination coverage decreased in 112 countries, and much backsliding in vaccination happened that needs to be corrected.

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This Indian religious festival draws tens of millions every day to ancient cities Prayagraj, Nashik, Hardwar, Ujjain, on sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Shipra. It happens every 6 years as half Kumbh. The Mela or gathering in 2025 is in Prayagraj on the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati river waters where they meet. It is the Maha or great Kumbh Mela that happens once in 144 years. Much preparation went into the gathering by the Indian government and some estimates of the total over 45 days are 600 million religious devotees seeking a bath in the holy river. 

BBC News shows different aspects of this Kumbh Mela religious gathering in Prayagraj, India. For the first time millions of people have come to India from all over the world for this Mela or gathering for Lord Shiva. Today is Maha Shivarathri, the day of Lord Shiva.

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What a change DJT's first 100 Days and actions on immigration and tariffs , Ukraine and Russia, have made in China's and World relations in Asia, and in Europe - all for the better, significantly better relations worldwide.  China has worked out a peace settlement in Ladakh frontier with India. It has come together in Tokyo with Japanese prime minister Ishiba and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding hands, and South Korea joining, all three nations vowing to remember history and work together. In Europe Russia is being brought back into the community of nations for big power cooperation with the US after 3 years of war in Ukraine. And Germany has removed its constitutional brake on spending that frees up $1 trillion in funding for infrastructure to replace much of its rail and other infrastructure built in 1900. One would not know this reading the NYT on democracy or the WSJ on tariffs or the Washington Post on assault on federal workforce, or the Atlantic, Politico, DW.com or FR24, Der Spiegel, nor Le Monde, much of the world media slanted on way or another. One does not hear about military exercises so often as the world realizes that so called large economies China, Germany, Japan and India all depend on American goodwill and willingness to give rather than take for most of the post war period since 1950. For the last 6 years in the latter half of the Trump administration and the 4 years of the Biden administration during the pandemic relations between China and the US deteriorated and China first retreated into its own then opened up a bit. The initial idea that it could manage the DJT trade actions evaporated as Biden continued the DJT first round of tariffs. Now Navarro, Lighhizer, and his deputy Jamieson are all back advising DJT for anew round of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for not stopping fentanyl flows.  In 2022 in eastern Ladakh China's PLA had a big standoff with Indian forces in eastern Ladakh at Galwan and Pangong Lake. The Quad was active with Australia India and the US in Indo Pacific and China conducted military exercises close to Taiwan.      ...

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Of 20 pictures of Shinzo Abe shown in this photo gallery in the WSJ the ones by Kashiyama of Abe on his knees at Iwo Jima recovering remains from the battle in World War II, and by Numata of a safety drill with children in Chiba perfecture where he is seen seated on the ground peeking through metal bars with children, are a must see. Shinzo Abe who led Japan through the 2000-2020 period came from a politically privileged family, but went much beyond that- building relationships with leaders such as Narendra Modi in India and nurturing the India relationship in an act of immense foresight, encouraging an independent minded policy yet working with the US, and defending Japan's position in Asia yet continuing to foster the trade relationship with China and seeking better relations with Russia.  Leaders of US, EU, Germany, France, India, Russia and China, personally felt the loss of Abe in the words they chose to describe the loss. India declared a day of national mourning, showing how far Abe had carried Japan's relationship with India and the number of visits he made to India. ...

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A revolution is taking place in the lives of rural families in India. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission put forward by the prime minister clean drinking water from tap water will reach every family in India. It was launched on Aug 15, 2019 and plans to do this by 2024. The impact is huge. Out of 180 million rural families only 33 million families have clean drinking water from tap water in the country. Clean water brings life to the countryside and access through individual tap water connection brings a revolution to people's lives in a country of 1.2 billion people. This report in the Economic Times tells us what most of us do not know that with the growth in population from about 300 million after independence in 1947 to 1.2 billion today and the drought conditions in parts of the country, the per capita water availability has fallen sharply today. Dropping from 5000 cubic metres of water per capita in India in 1951 to 1545 cubic metres of water in 2011.  The infrastructure capital to be invested is 3.5 trillion rupees or $ 50 billion. $50 billion in cement, pipes, construction, pumps, equipment, wages, conservation, skill building, knowledge in water management to revive the rural economy. Hit hard by coronavirus it boosts the rural economy. The infrastructure project could be a model for other Asian, African and Latin American countries.  Cholera and other water borne diseases can never be eliminated without clean drinking water from tap water for all families in India. It means so much during this pandemic.  ...

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China's prime minister Li Keqiang visited India in May 2013 with a trade delegation to improve trade ties with india. Trade between India and China is growing rapidly, with the growth in imports of telecommunications and power equipment, and consumer manufactured goods. Trade was at $76 billion in the year ending March 31, 2012 and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2015, making China the largest exporter of goods to India, according to Indian government data. The trade is lopsided with India's trade deficit increasing by 42% to about $40 billion in the last fiscal year. India is seeking improved access for its information technology and pharmaceutical companies to the Chinese market to correct the imbalance.

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Is a Win-Win possible for the US/Israel and Iran possible with the US/Israel strikes and operations started March 1, 2026. Not just for the American and Israeli people, but for the people of the Arab countries and for the people of Iran, and for the people of Russia. Greg Ip in the WSJ, Marc Thiessen in the NYT, and Bret Stephens of the NYT have looked at this in this way and offer an alternative view of what might happen, even though the tendency of the WSJ and the Washington Post is to be skeptical and the NYT with an opposition to all things DJT offering pessimistic version. First, all the anticolonial writings that were read by Khamanei in Moshaad are no longer the case as the US is no longer acting to secure some benefit to itself as the British and French colonial powers did for themselves or their oil companies in pre1960's Iran. Second the US truly wants to learn the lessons of 30 years of troubles in the region at every level of the DJT administration which is to extend a true olive branch to the subdued foe as it did to Germany and Japan under generals Eisenhower and McArthur. Third moderates in Iran could emerge as in Germany ( Adenauer) and in Japan Shigeru Yoshida who worked to adopt the 1947 Japanese Constitution under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Behind the student protests and now national protests there is a realization in Iran that living perpetually under sanctions is not the way to live, that it can increase oil production, get investment in its industry, and raise standards of living, by doing something different. That nuclear weapons development, supporting movements overseas, perpetual conflicts with Arab states, these things have been tried and are not working. That this is the last chance to build a prosperous Iran before fossil fuels are replaced by renewable energy over 10-15 years and which will make it that much harder to modernize and develop Iran for the benefit of Iran's future 110 million people. The gap with India will only widen as India catches up with China, the way China caught up with Japan. It is better to accept that these anticolonial writings that emerged from decolonizing Arab North Africa applied to the British and the French, and that the world is a different place today as the Indians and the Chinese have realized modernizing ancient societies with ancient religions is possible with the help of the Americans and the Europeans, working with the Americans and the Europeans. Theodore Roosevelt says in his Autobiography that one should be careful to judge people as the best have some negative aspects and the worst have some positive aspects, an experience he described in his dealings with progressives and those who opposed changes. Adenauer and Yoshida had contacts and dealings with earlier governments defeated in the war, but wanted to search for an entirely different path for rebuilding their countries having learned from experience. A thoughtful moderate Iranian outcome is possible as happened in Germany and Japan and which is beginning to develop in Venezuela.   ...

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Shyam Sunder Jyani, professor of sociology in Rajasthan, India's driest state, fights desertification by personally funding the planting of 2.5 million tree saplings. He ha been doing this for the last 15 years. In June 2021 his project Familial Forestry won the Land for Life Award of the UN Convention to Fight Desertification. Jyani goes from village to village teaching people how to nurture trees to make the landscape hospitable. This is a land in Rajasthan state where summer temperatures can reach 45 degrees Celsius or 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Ashwini Bhide, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation's managing director has provided extraordinary leadership to the organization building India's most advanced Metro. Here she describes the new island concept incorporated in the rail platforms. About 1.7 million passengers will use this line daily, the Colaba-Bandra- Seepz Metro line.She says at each station 20,000 square metres of space has been created with this innovative island concept. There are 26 stations that are part of the Metro 3 line. Phase 1 begins by December 2023 from BKC to Aarey.

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This bridge in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir is at an height of 359 metres, the tallest bridge in the world. It is expected to open by January 2024. Vande Bharat will run across the bridge and Vande Metro trains between Jammu and Srinagar, cutting travel time between the two cities to 3.5 hours. About 28,000 tons of steel went into building the arch of the bridge. Himalayan tunnels need a horse shoe shape of curvature, an elliptical shape that prevents loose soil from causing landslides. India is only now building the kind of infrastructure the region needs as most of this region remains isolated compared to countries in Europe. This is true of Nepal and much of the Himalayan region. The level of infrastructure building is taking on a new pace and vigor as more roads, highways and bridges are being built in the Indian Himalayan states under the Modi administration. This will increase the economic activity in the region giving new life to agriculture and industry in the region, raising incomes and providing a better life for the people in these states. This comes as the region is being connected for access to tap water, electricity, mobility, banking in all villages and towns.  ...

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The free food rations programs with 5 kilograms of wheat or rice to 800 million Indians during the pandemic is one of the extraordinary accomplishments of the Modi administration. It has been extended till the end of 2022. Both Finance Minister Sitharaman and prime minister Modi have shown extraordinary empathy for the common man during the pandemic and India's program of wheat rice and vegetables is unprecedented in world history for its scale and efficency. The scene of Nirmala Sitharaman at a vegetable market in Mylapore today is only one aspect of the contact day to day with ordinary Indians and their problems that marks the Mann Ki Baat radio program of Modi and of Sitharaman herself as she tackles the work of the finance ministry with the last person in the line uppermost in mind.

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AP/NORC poll March 2023 shows 7 out of 10 adults in the US feel that the US is spending too much on development assistance when the budget for USAID is $40 billion. In general Republican administrations prefer foreign aid to be adminstered by the State Department not a separate agency. USAID was setup during the Cold War with the Soviet Union by president John F. Kennedy in 1961. Today it adminsters programs for HIV/Aids and for pandemics, health programs that can be done through the State Department. Attitudes have shifted following the pandemic with 9 out of 10 Republicans opposed to foreign aid through USAID. Some of the criticism is that it funds bureaucrats favorite programs. The actual impact is now uncertain in the developing of an economy. For example Sri Lanka benefits more from aid and development assistance from neighbor India than from programs of USAID as it tackles the current economic crisis following the pandemic. India pulling together the aid through IMF for Sri Lanka, and the investment in energy from India is way more important than the small USAID programs.  ...

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China follows Japan in the proportion of its elderly population at a similar juncture in its development. A paper from Japan's Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry pointed out that the proportion of child and elderly populations in China as of 2020 was similar to Japan's in 1990. China reached that inflection point faster with fertility rate falling from 2.74 to 1.28 in a 4 decade period, while Japan's fell from 1.75 to 1.29. That paper also shows India's proportion of child and elderly population in 2020 was similar to China's in 1980 when its economic boom took off. The overconcentration of supply chain in China is now being addressed by business in US and Europe after the pandemic showed its weakness. Prime minister Modi says this overconcentration has hurt even and balanced development worldwide.

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For the largest electorate in the world India is relying entirely on electronic voting machines. It is massive - 970 million voters over several phases in different regions taking place in May 2024. The Election Commission is monitoring the election and India's Supreme Court gives it's ruling to protect the democratic process. It is unlike anything in the world. It all started in 1945 with the negotiations begun by Labour's Attlee government - the most successful British government of the 20th century, Clement Attlee's government created the Bank of England and the NHS, and brought freedom to India and started decolonization in European empires. A new Constitution was written by 1947 with the guidance of Gandhiji (Mohandas Gandhi) who led the struggle for Hind Swaraj in 1905. The democratic process was established with elections that elected Nehru, a series of coaltiion governments and since 2014 a government focused on Vikshit Bharat, modernization similar to Japan and China that is taking place in India. Already 250 million people have been lifted out of poverty. And free food rations have ended hunger in India, Swacch Bharat has made sanitation modern and available everywhere, water and gas connections are now down to the last household to fulfill Gandhi's dream of reaching the last person in the line. Solar and renewable energy are being undertaken, along with fast modern transportation and cost effective digital connections. A target is set for 2047 for Vikshit Bharat. ...