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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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Home prices are surging in Australia in 2015, with home prices in Sydney up about 39% since June 2012, according to CoreLogic RP Data. As a multiple of annual income home prices in Sydney are at 9.8, Melbourne 8.7, and Wollongong near Sydney 7.5, compared to 6.1 for New York and 8.5 for London, according to a 2015 affordability survey by Demographia. Australia's surging home prices are happening just as the mining boom that powered its economy is winding down and unemployment is up to 6.1%. Interest rates are down to 2.25%, and low interest rates with speculative purchases are likely to fuel the market up further, say experts. About 40% of home loans approved in Feb. 2015 were to investors, increasing from 31% in 2009, according to official data. According to Australia's Reserve Bank the wealthiest 40% of the population have 75% of the debt. This surge when the economy is feeling the effects of the slowdown in China, and the rest of the world is cutting down on debt, puts Australia in uncertain territory....

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Consumer lending went down by 1.7% in October 2009 according to Federal Reserve data. A WSJ analysis of Fed data shows corporate and consumer credit markets have shrunk by 7% or $1.5 trillion in the 2 years through early November 2009. And ont he other hand the Treasury debt outstanding has gone up quickjly by 40% as the governmet tries to finance large deficits. The market for every type pf bond has recovered from the crisis, and money is going into the markets, but this does not mean more money is flowing into the economy. The tighter lending results in consumers and businesses more reluctant to hire and invest. Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of Pacific Inestment Management Company says this means the US econom will grow at 1.5% to 2% ayear compared to the 3% growth that is typical for healthy growth. Says Erian: "the idea that we have reset to where we came from is false. It is abumpy journeyto anew destination with significant long-term effects."

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Of Amazon's third quarter profit of $15.3 billion profit $5.7 billion was from the retail delivery business, 60% of it or $9.2 billion was from its cloud services and AI business. The retail business held up with more efficient delivery and logistics growing at 9% for the quarter. 

Amazon had 1.55 million employees up 3%. It's investing capital expenses were $21.8 billion up 88% as it invests heavily in data centers to power AI and will soon launch low orbit earth satellites to provide internet services to areas off the grid.

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In parts of Mexico sugary softdrinks are easier to access than clean tap water, says this report in DW.com. This is a problem that existed in Mexico for many years. Amy Guthrie in the WSJ August 28, 2013, described the problem in -Health Problem over Soda Flares in Mexico- which was shown in Lyrarc.com in 2013, showing the US, Chile, Mexico and Argentina with high consumption of sugary softdrinks and high rates of diseases related to this. Mexico's government has made efforts to increase awareness about the risks and dangers of overuse and Bloomberg philanthropy has made efforts to increase awareness. Yet the problem has persisted. The risks are high for countries such as India, China, Vietnam. One ad in Mexico City subways showed 20 ounce sugary softdrink bottle and asked "Would you take 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar?" Mexico passed the US in countries with high obesity rate over 100 million people in 2013. Higher all cause mortality was shown in a European study of 451,000 people for people drinking more than 2 glasses of sweetened softdrinks a day, with data collected between 1992-2000 and supporting public health campaigns limiting the use of such sweetened softdrinks. ...

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To reduce its reliance on China for nickel supplies and secure the supply chain LG Energy Solution has signed a $9 billion deal in Indonesia that sources nickel supplies in Indonesia and produces the EV batteries in Indonesia. The deal was signed with Indonesia's mining company Antam and Indonesia Battery Corporation. Indonesia is the largest producer of nickel with 21 million tonnes of reserves according to US Geological Survey data. The entire process will now be done in Indonesia- smelting and refining nickel, manufacturing precursors, cathode materials and cells, and assembling finished products. LG Energy Solutions is also working with Hyundai Group to build a $1.1 billion battery manufacturing plant 65 kilometres southeast of Jakarta. At this time most of the materials for EV batteries are processed in China and about 11% of the world's production of Nickel comes from Russia.  China's Amperex the world's top battery maker also has signed up with Indonesia's Antam mining company for a similar $6 billion project. For LG Energy Solutions the second largest battery maker the stable supply of raw materials and reduced dependence on China and Russia is becoming important with the situation in Ukraine.     ...

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Chinese leaders including Xi Jinping have frowned on the accumulation of wealth and the IPO pay day, says this report in the WSJ. The largely unregulated company Alibaba in its role as a financial business, its complex ownership structure, and practices, have met with skepticism from China's financial regulators. They see the financial operations of Alibaba and its businesses as operating with little financial oversight and the state having to assume risks if something failed. The company's business model of payments app Alipay, mutual fund, voluminous data collection, operations as small loan provider to half a billion people, are seen by Chinese leaders and president Xi as posing unknown and unclear risks when not properly regulated. Commercial banks are subject to  tough regulations and capital requirements that Alibaba has avoided. State owned banks supply Alibaba with majority of the funding and take on most of the risk even though Alibaba makes profit from the transactions, is the perception of regulators. China's export model and manufacturing have enable it to create the banking capital on which such internet business models have thrived. In a world where supply chains are being redone, and following the pandemic, there are questions about how businesses that were created in the period before the pandemic should operate in a different environment. ...

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Oxford University Wellbeing Research Center has developed Happiness score using Gallup surveys. US score No.10 ranking among 143 countries for older adults over 60 years. Yet it drops off steeply for young people to 62nd of 143 countries. The situation is the same in Canada and to a lesser extent in the European Union. Overall the US dropped out of the top 20 countries  falling from 15th to 23rd. The report is based on Gallup World poll surveys from 2021 to 2023. Young females recording even lower. Normally it starts with youth doing better and higher then in a U curve dropping all the way down during a midlife crisis in 30's and 40's age before rising again for older adults wi have experienced the vicissitudes of life. The US data contradicts this. Why? Jan De Neve of Oxford Wellbeing Center says it could be from social media use and growing health and income disparities. The pandemic also played a role- beginning college or a career in a pandemic was just not the way to start. Housing prices, cost of living, loneliness epidemic, misinformation and social media negative effects add to this. At the same time there is an increase in benevolence among younger people aware of the situation they face and looking for ways to mitigate this. ...

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The Hindu's Piyush Pandey describes the fire sale of assets that is planned as the Reserve Bank of India pushes forward with the effort to clean up the balance sheets of Indian banks. Indian banks have an estimated 5 lakh crore of bad loans. Separately Crisil ratings agency cited the bad loans in the banking system as a hurdle that must be cleared for India to make the necessary investments in infrastructure in the next five year period 2018-2022. The Hindu's own review shows a startling amount of debt in the ten largest corporate business groups in India-  500,000 crore of debt to the banks. Anil Ambani's group alone owes 121,000 crores to the banks, with some of the businesses not able to service the debt. Canadian pension funds, Nippon Life Insurance and other foreign companies are taking stakes in business as this process takes place. The Mukesh Amani Group alone has increased the debt load as a result of the 150,000 crore rupees spent on Reliance Jio. Other investments that have led to losses is the steel business of Tata Group in Britain, which is down to zero value, says the Hindu. This report gives details of the fire sale for the other leading companies in India. ...

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November 2012 inflation data for Japan is expected to show a more than 1% increase from the prior year month. The Bank of Japan's target for inflation is 2%. In addition a planned increase in the sales tax from 5 to 8% is expected to reduce consumer demand in 2014. This will require more action from the Bank of Japan to push prices higher.

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Changes in the patent laws and the efforts by the tech and pharmaceutical industries to contest the changes. The changes would have limited the length of applications and the number of claims written, and the possibility of adding more data to support applications. The Patent Office which is financed by user fees has a $200 million shortfall, and there is asizable backlog of applications.

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This video shows Dr. Birx explaining the three Phases for reopening the U.S. economy. Each state's governor would decide when a state thinks it is safe to move to the first phase. States which have not been affected much and fewer cases in the western part of the U.S. such as Idaho, North Dakota, Iowa could open earlier. Texas could start in May. California would have to do more testing before it starts Phase 1. New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts, would come later because of the severity of the crisis. Each phase criteria are carefully set out and parameters set down for social distancing rules to be followed, number of people, locations, how offices open, how stores open, how hospitals open. Germany and the U.S. have set out detailed guidelines and phases. A state in the U.S. could even move back in phases if data shows it is doing badly. Hotspots would continue to be tracked and resources shifted from the federal government quickly to these new hotspots now that medical supplies, medical personnel and other shortages such as testing are being aggressively addressed. ...

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The deputy chief medical officer, Dr. Jenny Harries, asks people in Britain to limit themselves to what is sensible and not what is possible, to use common sense, so that reopening works. The Housing Secretary, Mr. Jenrick says the room for maneouvre is limited with the reproduction R ratio for Britain at somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9. There is also a lag period for data making it so that the current situation is not known. Germany's after reopening is now estimated by Robert Koch Institute at 1.14 so that there is some shift to be expected as the opening happens, the idea being to limit this to around the 1.0 figure. Britain reopens cautiously and in  in a patchy way with primary schools reopened, and people from different households allowed to meet in groups of six as long as they stay 2 metres apart. Outdoor markets and car showrooms are also reopening. Also stated is the need to be sensitive to geography as areas such as London which were hit early and with severity are now better off than areas in the north of England. ...

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With coronavirus spread out over wide parts of each country and with so many people infected it is very difficult to do the contact tracing and isolation that was tried during the first wave. In Germany during the first wave efforts for contact tracing and isolation worked reasonably well. During the second wave in November things have changed. In Germany authorites do not know in November where 75% of the people testing positive for coronavirus got it. In Spain this figure is 93% for the last week of October. In France and Italy it is at 80%. In New York it is over 50%. Other problems are the increasing number of cases where the coronavirus is spread in an home setting, the lack of restaurant data collected on who visits, and the delay in getting test results. In Germany frequently people say they cannot remember where they were. Researchers from the German version of the FBI, the Pasteur Institute in France and the Koch Institute in Germany are getting involved in November to understand in what settings the virus spreads most. ...

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Most questions about the vaccines from Oxford, Pfizer and Moderna are answered in this Q&A in The Times.  The Oxford vaccine is the only vaccine that is being provided at cost to the public at a cost of 4 pounds, Pfizer using German technology at 15 pounds and Moderna from Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 28 pounds. The Oxford vaccine can be stored in a fridge, the others use mRNA technology of messenger RNA which requires ultra low temperature storage. Astra Zeneca could have handled the trials and methodology for results in a better way. As the two trials one that produced results of 62% and the other results of 90% cannot be combined to give results of 70% but are two distinct and separate trials. However too much emphasis has been placed on the vaccine, as other prevention measures remain important for 2021. Other vaccines are being developed in Britain with new technology and in India by ICMR which are in trials stage and about which not enough is known. The Russian and Chinese vaccines have not released detailed data limiting their use around the world. ...

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Kurczewski test drives aNano LX around the test drive track near the Tata Pimpri factory, and on city streets. He thinks the pickup is good for Indian city streets. The four speed manual transmission makes changing gears abreeze. The 0.6 liter engine is half the size of the Toyota Yaris or the Honda Fit. Acceleration is slow 30 seconds to reach 60mph, but in Indian traffic this works fine. Visibility is excellent. No exterior passenger side mirror, no radio, and luggage goes in from inside the car, all deisgned to keep costs down. THere is Airconditioning in the LX which accounts for half of Nano orders so far and goes for $3800. Three point safety belts, but no air bags. A Nano Europa with improvements to meet European safety and emission standards and air bags will be intorduced to Europe in 2011, and asimilar car also intoroduced to the USA by 2011 possibly at Chrysler-FIat dealers.

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According to Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, 6.1 million Hispanic children lived in poverty in 2010. The poverty line is defined as a family of four living on $22,314. Of the total poor children in 2010, 37.3% were Hispanic, 30.5% white, and 26.6% black. Hispanics were hit hard by the 2008-2009 recession because many are employed in construction and the hospitality industries or blue collar jobs. A majority of the Hispanic children were born in the U.S. 4.1 million have immigrant parents and 2.0 million have U.S. born parents. Of the total U.S. population Latinos are 16%, yet they comprise 23% of all the children in the country. With a quarter of America's children being Latino -and with these numbers expected to grow in coming years because of higher birth rates- the fact that many of these children are less likely to get a college education or acquire technical skills because of poverty levels, has serious implications for America's future competitiveness.

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Brazil faces a debt crisis in 2015-2016. Between 2010 and 2015 foreign debt of local governments and Brazilian firms increased from $100 billion to $250 billion, and dollar debt in local currency from 210 billion reas to 655 billion reas, according to Bank of International Settlements data. State banking institutions BNDES and Caixa Economica Federal financed 35% of loans in 2010, by 2015 this increased to 55%. Subsidized loans at 5.5% by BNDES to firms make Brazilian banking a fiscal operation, requiring additional funding. Petrobras increased debt issuance enormously during this period, and now needs government support as its debt is now one notch above junk status. Interest payments on Brazil's debt is 6% of GDP in 2014. Public sector debt is 66% of GDP, and credit to the private sector is 55% of GDP up from 25% in 2005. It will take Brazil years to recover from a huge borrowing binge.

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A sharp increase in imports leads to a growing trade deficit affecting the outlook for the Pakistan rupee. The central bank allowed the currency to devalue by 3% in the last week. The IMF has called for a weaker Pakistan rupee to narrow the trade deficit. The Pakistan rupee stands at about 109 rupees to 1 U.S. dollar, according to Thomson Reuters data. Experts say it is overvalued by about 25%. Pakistan gets about $20 billion in remittances from overseas for 2016, about 7% of GDP, and the central bank has now reversed an earlier policy of intervening in currency markets to prop up the rupee. A lower value for the rupee is now seen as good for economic growth.

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CBID or Cai Business Indepth is a new English language service covering financial news and analysis. The company's website is www.cbid.com. An advertising campaign will start this week, and a number of other products such as industry reports economic data is expected. CBID has hired 30 reporters. David Legg, Managing Director of Europe and Asia for the Gerson Lehrman Group, helps connect country and industry expert providers with investors.

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Vodafone is selling off the minority stakes it acquired in mobile phone operators around the world. This is part of the strategy of CEO Colao, to focus on growing businesses such as mobile data, and on focussing on offering a wider array of services in markets of Europe, India and Africa. Vodafone also owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, which has not paid dividends for 5 years as a result of debt.

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Just one scheme by a Dallas doctor, Dr. Jacques Roy, cost Medicare $350 million over 5 years. HHS data analysis showed Dr. Roy approved 500 times the number of patients normally approved per physician for home health care services- he approved 5000 instead of 100. A case in 2011 resulted in charges against 115 doctors, nurses and company managers, in 9 cities leading to $240 million in false billings.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve policy in March 2015 changes to take out the phrase about being "patient" on future interest rate increases. At the same time Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen points to the 2% target rate for inflation and the stronger dollar making it harder to reach that target. The Fed will take a data driven approach looking at all the relevant information before making its decision, says Yellen.