New York Times (May 22)
With nearly 400 million voters registered, the European Parliament elections “are second only to India’s in size.” Yet low turnout may result in the election of “fringe parties whose ultimate goal is to dismantle the very union they’re supposed to be serving.” This would be regrettable. “The problems that Europe has endured in the past five years demonstrate that the need for European unity is greater than ever, and despite what the nationalists and populists argue, these elections matter all the more.”
Tags: Elections, EU, Europe, Fringe, India, Nationalists, Parliament, Populists, Registered, Turnout, Union, Voters
Wall Street Journal (May 18)
“Indians put their faith in a party promising economic opportunity and better governance over the traditional Indian formula of welfarism, patronage, corruption and hostility to foreign competition. Mr. Modi will be the first Prime Minister to govern without a coalition in nearly 30 years, and he has a rare mandate to enact market-opening reforms.”
Tags: Coalition, Corruption, Foreign competition, Governance, India, Mandate, Modi, Opportunity, Patronage, Prime minister, Reforms, Traditional
Institutional Investor (May 15)
Voting in India took five weeks and the results won’t be announced until tomorrow, but the stock market has already rallied, which “suggests investors anticipate a solid victory” for Narendra Modi’s business-friendly National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Exit poll projections are notoriously unreliable and this year “several factors heighten the uncertainty,” especially the fact that “of India’s electorate of 814 million, fully 150 million were eligible to vote for the first time.”
Tags: Electorate, Exit poll, India, Investors, Narendra Modi, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Projections, Rally, Results, Stock market, Uncertainty, Victory, Voting
New York Times (April 27)
“If nothing changes in the next two decades, India will need to provide chronic care for more than 100 million people with diabetes — close to the entire adult population of Russia.” In China, diabetic numbers are also skyrocketing and expected to mushroom from 98 million to 142 million by 2035. And these numbers understate the challenge. We know how to manage diabetes “in Kansas City or Tokyo.” In developing countries without sufficient chronic care medical infrastructure and with incomes that can ill afford medication, diabetes becomes a devastating affliction. “If we’re going to be any help at all, we need to make a conceptual shift.”
Tags: China, Chronic care, Conceptual shift, Developing countries, Diabetes, Incomes, India, Kansas City, Medical infrastructure, Medication, Russia, Tokyo
The Economist (April 12)
Rising energy demand, is leading “two of the world’s rising industrial powers, India and China,… to look at the idea of building reactors that run on thorium.” More abundant than uranium, thorium is also less conducive to weapons use, minimizing the threat that it could be misused by rogue bomb makers. China already has over 400 people working on this, with plans for a working prototype reactor by 2015.
Tags: Abundant, Bomb, China, Demand, Energy, India, Industrial, Prototype, Reactor, Reactors, Thorium, Threat, Uranium, Weapons
Financial Times (February 6, 2014)
“In an era when much of the world is worried about the possibility of drifting into Japanese-style deflation, one country has precisely the opposite problem: unbridled inflation.” Over the last 5 years, India’s consumer prices have been rising annually by close to 10%. “That is no small matter for the multitudinous poor, for whom escalating food prices can summon the spectre of hunger. Nor does it do much for macroeconomic stability, which India badly needs in this year of tapering and tricky political transition.” Fortunately, new central bank governor Raghuram Rajan looks “up to the task.” With his tough policies, he may prove the Paul Volcker of India.
Tags: Central bank, CPI, Deflation, Food, Governor, Hunger, India, Inflation, Japan, Macroeconomics, Paul Volker, Poor, Raghuram Rajan, Stability
New York Times (January 15, 2014)
After three years without a case, India “can now be declared polio-free.” This “victory is an important milestone in the global effort to eliminate polio,” but much remains to be done to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of eradicating the disease by 2015, which would mean the world could be declared polio–free in 2018. Unfortunately, 2012 brought backtracking. There were 350 new cases of polio, up from 213 in 2012, and these occurred in 8 countries, up from 4.
Tags: 2012, 2015, 2018, Disease, India, Milestone, Millennium Development Goal, Polio, Polio-free, U.N., Victory
Time (January 10, 2014)
“Only a short time ago, the world’s emerging markets, especially the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – were supposed to be the saviors of the global economy…. Now, however, with the opening of 2014, many emerging markets look like they’re the ones that need saving.”
Tags: 2014, Brazil, BRICS, China, Emerging markets, Global economy, India, Russia
New York Times (December 17, 2013)
With average incomes nearly tripling “over the past decade, India has reached a tipping point. “The old politics are over. The governing Indian National Congress, the centrist reference point of the nation’s democracy, seems out of touch, and with it the Gandhi dynasty. Passivity is giving way to a ferocious engagement. It is driven by anger over corruption, incompetence, inequality and inertia.” Change seems assured, but little else. “New forces and parties are emerging with unpredictable, perhaps even dangerous, consequences.”
Tags: Corruption, Democracy, Engagement, Gandhi, Income, Incompetence, India, Indian National Congress, Inequality, Inertia, Passivity, Tipping point
New York Times (November 1)
An ongoing border dispute between India and China has led to war and confrontation. A recent agreement, however, “gives both sides an incentive to review their now very different maps of the region and settle on a permanent border. Until that happens, the possibility of serious conflict remains very real.”
