MNCs creating new Co-prosperity Sphere

As workers earn more in China (Chinese labour costs escalate and the US of A tries to contain China, MNCs are creating new supply chains that by-pass China.

No single country offers China’s vast manufacturing base. Yet taken together, a patchwork of economies across Asia presents a formidable alternative. It stretches in a crescent from Hokkaido, in northern Japan, through South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh, all the way to Gujarat, in north-western India. Its members have distinct strengths, from Japan’s high skills and deep pockets to India’s low wages. On paper, this is an opportunity for a useful division of labour, with some countries making sophisticated components and others assembling them into finished gadgets.

https://www.economist.com/business/2023/02/20/global-firms-are-eyeing-asian-alternatives-to-chinese-manufacturing

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Chinese labour costs escalate

making Indian and Asean costs look attractive.

Indian capitalism and democracy make Chinese communism look great

OK, OK, there’s no such thing as Chinese communism. It’s socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Why America is great again

A very tiny American research firm and short seller, Hindenburg, issued a very critical report about the Adani Group, one of India’s biggest conglomerates. A pulled secondary share sale of US$2.5bn and a rout in the markets shows that a pal of PM Modi, and India Inc are no match for a tiny American short seller.

We are in a sweet sport because of our Asean neighbours

And by 2050 Indonesia will be the world’s fourth-largest economy, projects Goldman Sachs.

China will not be happy

Taiwan’s Foxconn said on Dec. 8 that its Singapore unit had invested $500 million in its India affiliate.

Foxconn plans to quadruple the workforce at its iPhone factory in India over two years, Reuters reported on Nov. 11, citing two government officials with knowledge of the matter. It plans to boost the workforce at its plant in southern India to 70,000 by adding 53,000 more workers over the next two years, the report said.

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/apple-finds-happy-home-india-2022-12-20/

Will China send its navy and air force to exercise off Taiwan to express its displeasure?

India’s rising because it had incompetent govt not because of good govt

Unlike China.

If demography is destiny, India will be the Asian superpower, not China.

India is reaping the benefit of incompetent govt. It like China once upon a time tried to curb population growth.

India’s attempt to reduce fertility was less successful than China’s even though it was the first country to introduce family planning on a national scale in the 1950s.

Whatever, us Chinese are more productive:

But India’s prosperity depends on the productivity of its youthful people, which is not as high as in China. Fewer than half of adult Indians are in the workforce, compared with two-thirds in China. Chinese aged 25 and older have on average 1.5 years more schooling than Indians of the same age.

https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2022/11/14/india-will-become-the-worlds-most-populous-country-in-2023

All to play for in regional supremacy.

Asean countries are winners from Sino-US decoupling

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/11/06/who-wins-from-the-unravelling-of-sino-american-trade

And we are Asean’s financial centre and a global port to boot. Our PAP millionaire ministers are very lucky that S’poreans allow them to govern us. But are they grateful? I doubt it.

Why Mamas are IT talents

Bengaluru has nearly 70 engineering colleges. More than 55% of Indians on LinkedIn, a professional social network, boast technical skills, such as those needed for programming. Only Germans are technically savvier, and merely by a whisker; for Americans and Britons the share is around 42%. “Where else can you quickly hire a few thousand engineers?” marvels Shailesh Lakhani, a colleague of Mr Anand’s at Sequoia India.

https://www.economist.com/business/can-silicon-valley-still-dominate-global-innovation/21808708

Remember

 “Quantity has a quality all its own.”

Joseph Stalin

And Indian IT talents are cheaper to hire than S’poreans.

And we have the reason why Indian IT graduates are FTs in the eies of our Millionaire ministers, and employers here.

Chinese smarter than Mamas?

Or do Indians feel entitled?

China’s independent refiners have been buying Russian oil at steep discounts as western companies and Chinese state-owned traders have shied away FT reports.

But the Indians who buy Russian oil are the state-owned entities, int’l media reports.

Maybe the Indian govt thinks that being anti-China, and being a democracy that persecutes Muslims, will give it a free pass from the West?

What do Mamas, Russians and Indons have in common?

Their data on deaths from Covid is BS.

The truth

“Do you know about the sheep trees?”

Remember Kee Chiu Chan said cotton wool comes from sheep? The man who many “experts” said would become PM wasn’t joking. He claims he was just talking too fast.

Btw, it’s alleged that he’s very depressed that he didn’t get anointed as PM -in-waiting, twice in a row despite seemingly behaving as though he was a member of the Lee family at LKY’s funeral. Seems he is really hurt that someone from a “lousy” school and uni beat him: “If Lawrence can become a multi-millionaire, so can any ordinary non-elite S’porean”.

Heng at least was from RI and Cambridge.

Seriously, couldn’t help think of him and his failure to become PM when I read this:

“Do you know about the sheep trees?”

It refers to a centuries-old European myth that cotton, which was produced and exported from India, grew on lamb-bearing trees, he explains.

“People were so fascinated that European manuscripts actually had illustrations depicting this!” he says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61147097

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ The Vegetable Lamb by Henry Lee

 

Mamas eat beef and other interesting facts about food in India

I had always tot that Indian Muslims also don’t eat beef because it’s a rare dish in Indian Muslim eating places here.

But

[W]hile many upper-caste Hindus do not eat beef, millions of Dalits (formerly untouchables), Muslims and Christians across India do. It’s also a popular meat across communities in the southern state of Kerala where only a minority avoid it for religious reasons.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61020025

More interesting is that upper-caste Hindus became vegetarians only during British rule

Dr Bhattacharya says her research shows that brahmins in southern India ate meat at least until the 16th Century. In the north, they gave it up, along with some other upper-castes, only in the late 19th Century.

And

The most-ordered dish on Indian food delivery platform Swiggy last year was chicken biryani. Indians ordered two plates every second.

Indians are confused about the war in the Ukraine

Indian govt is just as confused but it leans towards Putin.

India, Russia’s bestie

Despite Xi saying China’s friendship with Russia has no limits, it’s the mamas who are buying Russian oil. Related post: Mamas love a cheap sale/ Xi scared of US?

Mamas love a cheap sale/ Xi scared of US?

Contrary to Cheap Russian oil for China, it’s the Indians who are buying cheap Russian oil,

not the Chinese.

Russian oil exports to India have quadrupled this month in a sign of the vast reshaping of global energy flows since the invasion of Ukraine. Russia has exported 360,000 barrels a day of oil to India in March so far, nearly four times the 2021 average. Historically, Russian crude oil has constituted below 5% of India’s total imports.

As For China, Chinese banks and companies do not want to risk losing much more valuable business elsewhere by flouting sanctions or doing unsanctioned business with the Russians that the West doesn’t like. The energy trade is not sanctioned but Western cos are avoiding it, hence the discounts in oil.

Time to remind the ang mohs about the racist ethnic Chinese story about whether to kill the Indian or the snake?

India gets taste of own medicine

For a second time in two days, the majority of passengers arriving in India on a flight from Italy have tested positive for Covid according to Indian officials.

On Friday, 173 out of 285 passengers aboard the flight from Rome to Amritsar tested positive on arrival.

It follows more than a hundred people testing positive after arriving in Amritsar from Milan on Wednesday.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59910842

Can’t help but think of Karma at work. Remember when Indians were infecting HK and S’pore?

Covid-19: Indians going to be banned from going to HK?

Covid-19: FTs from India reinfecting S’pore

Temasek still loves China despite kanna burn

Temasek is temporarily halting new investment in Chinese tech companies owing to uncertainty over Beijing’s crackdown on the sector, its chief strategist told Nikkei Asia.

Sipahimalani said once it is known what is expected of the tech platforms, it will be possible to assess the impact on businesses like Didi, and thus determine the merits of investing in a particular company.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Temasek-pauses-China-tech-investments-amid-Beijing-crackdown

But

Sipahimalani said China will remain a focus for Temasek.

He cited areas like medical technology, biotech, electric vehicles and renewable energy as high growth spaces in China that the investment firm will continue to look at, in addition to keeping an eye on how the situation in the tech sector plays out.

“These internet platforms are not going way,” Sipahimalani said. “They create millions of jobs, so … I don’t think anyone is going to think that they are going to go away, but the framework under which they operate, the rules under which they operate may go through some changes.”

This is the problem

“When there is no clarity about the regulatory rule book, it is difficult to say — is this fair value or not fair value — so I think we would rather be patient and wait.”

Ah yah go buy more things in MamaLand, the place the PAP govt loves

Whatever, in allowing in travellers from India, the PAP govt is doubling down on its love of all things from India. Imagine the uproar from S’poreans if one of these travellers is infected with Covid-19 and this results in another lockdown that is not really a lockdown: PAP govt’s idea of living with Covid-19?

The variant of Covid-19 from India threatens more than lives

Vaccination: no silver bullet/ India shows an alternative

Further to MTF: It’s Time for a Tiger” and “Give MTF beers, give them Tigers”, more reasons to buy PM-in-waiting Larry Wong and his team of millionaire ministers more Tiger Beers?

Look at our vaccination rate:

Still contagious: covid-19 jab efficacy

But the problem for our millionaire ministers and us (and the world in general) is that vaccination is no silver bullet against Covid-19 as once thought:

Still contagious: covid-19 jab efficacy

Fully vaccinated people with breakthrough covid-19 infections were as contagious as unvaccinated people, a British study published on Thursday found. Infections cleared faster in those who had been vaccinated, but their peak viral load was similar to the unvaccinated. The vaccinated and unvaccinated therefore infected a similar share of household members. What made a difference, however, was whether those household contacts had been vaccinated themselves. About 25% of vaccinated contacts tested positive, compared with 38% of unvaccinated contacts.

One reason for the disheartening results is the waning efficacy of covid-19 jabs against infection. Data from the household contacts suggested protection weakened within three months of a second dose. This means that people who are particularly vulnerable to severe covid might need a booster shot earlier than the prevailing six-month cut-off. Masks, ventilation and social distancing may be necessary at times, even in places, such as Britain, with high vaccination rates.

Economist Expresso

So maybe no Tiger Beers for the PAP millionaire ministers for getting us vaxxed?

But the alternative was (or is) for nature to run its course, as in India, and depend on immunity via catching Covid-19:

The world watched anxiously in April and May, when the caseloads were climbing almost vertically. The terror was justified. India was gripped by the first outbreak of the Delta variant (briefly called “the Indian variant”, until the WHO insisted on switching to Greek letters). Its ferocity taught lessons that some parts of the world are still learning. Indians died in untold numbers. To judge by the number of excess deaths, something like 2.3m lost their lives to the disease. Those who survived rued the government’s failure to procure vaccines earlier, when India had positioned itself as a pharmaceutical factory for the world. The rate of vaccinations went from a trickle to an erratic drip, as systems of every kind shut down. And then in June, almost exactly as fast as the wave of infections had shot up, it shot down again. Not 10% of the population had been vaccinated (see chart). Within two weeks it was back down to pre-Delta levels. No thanks to any medical intervention.

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/10/29/how-did-india-beat-covid-19

Note India has been vaccinating like hell since then and now 23.4% or 323m people have been fully vaccinated.

So maybe the PAP ministers deserve their Tiger Beers, after all?

What do you think?

The variant of Covid-19 from India threatens more than lives

(Make sure to read the concluding paragraph)

The decision to allow in vaccinated travellers from India reminded me that our PM who presides over a cabinet and govt that die-die must defend the Ceca agreement with India, said recently that the Delta variant (aka the Indian variant) was a game changer in Covid-19 management.

He said

with vaccination, COVID-19 is no longer a dangerous disease for most of us.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pm-lee-full-speech-covid-19-path-new-normal-2232531

But

[T]he emergence of the Delta variant has put us in a changed situation.

The Delta variant is highly infectious, and has spread all over the world. Even with the whole population vaccinated, we still will not be able to stamp it out through lockdowns and SMMs. Almost every country has accepted this reality.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pm-lee-full-speech-covid-19-path-new-normal-2232531

What he didn’t tell us is that thanks to the Indian variant (aka Delta variant) of Covid-19 the global economy is stalling. In it’s latest guesstimate, the IMF Those for Japan and parts of developing Asia were downgraded on account of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the imposition of restrictions on activity. 

The two possibilities stagflation or a global recession is not good news for global markets.

Whatever, in allowing in travellers from India, the PAP govt is doubling down on its love of all things from India. Imagine the uproar from S’poreans if one of these travellers is infected with Covid-19 and this results in another lockdown that is not really a lockdown: PAP govt’s idea of living with Covid-19?

Asia loves coal

Only Indonesia sells more coal than Australia globally. Coal remains OZ’ s second-biggest export after iron ore.

China and India are the world’s biggest users of coal.

West and India BSing about vaccine supplies

The US is to donate 500 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine to developing nations from next year. Recently President Sleepy Joe made the pledge at a virtual Covid-19 summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, promising an “arsenal of vaccines”.

The additional jabs will see the total US commitment on vaccine sharing exceed one billion jabs.

The Quad group of nations (US, Japan, Oz and Mamaland) agreed in March to supply a billion doses of vaccine to Asia this year, but India suspended exports during a wave of coronavirus in April. Now the Indians have said exports will resume in October.

The biggest BS artists are the woke Kanucks. The Honourable White have done relatively well.

As for China, their vaccines are rubbish.

India outshines China

Further to Time for emerging markets?

Blame the Indian variant of Covid-19 that is causing havoc in China?

No blame Water Margin hero, Grandpa Xi.

Grandpa Xi is shaking down the tech billionaires and calling for “common prosperity”. As these actions are what Robin Hood or the heroes in the “Water Margin” were doing, “robbing the rich to help the poor”,

A senior CCP official said that the push for “common prosperity” did not mean China would “rob the rich to help the poor”.

Xi is no Robin Hood but pork investors are suffering

Asean currencies V US$

Indon rupiah stronger than S$. Btw, see how strong is Taiwanese dollar. Stronger than Renminbi. Grandpa Zi must be upset.

Indian variant overruns China via Russia

So much so that Beijing shuts down transport links as the very infectious variant spreads to cities far and wide, int’l media reported.

China hunts down Indian variant as Covid outbreak spreads to 14 provinces

Authorities say infection arrived in Nanjing on Russian aircraft but went undetected for 10 days

FT headline yesterday

And

A total of 15 provinces have now confirmed cases. Cases in 12 of the provinces are connected to an outbreak that began in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58052894

What the Indian variant is doing to us and even the PAP govt who loves all things India, is nothing compared to what it’s doing to China and the CCP.

The Indian variant is show the people of China and S’pore that the competency of the CCP and the PAP, respectively, is a lot of bull and spin.

India is the Covid-19 superpower

Indian variant KOs Pfizer vaccine

Israel says Pfizer Covid vaccine is just 39% effective as delta spreads, but still prevents severe illness

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39percent-effective-in-israel-prevents-severe-illness.html

Indian Indians must be proud that their made-in-India variant makes the US/ German vaccine ineffective. And India is not resting on it’s laurels: new strain being developed.

India is rising. It’s new national flag.

Covid-19 in India: BS data on deaths

India has officially recorded more than 414,000 Covid-19 deaths so far.

But according to a BBC report,

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused excess deaths in India to cross more than four million, a new study has found.

Excess deaths are a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected compared to the previous few years.

Although it is difficult to say how many of these deaths have been caused by Covid-19, they are a measure of the overall impact of the pandemic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57888460

Karma for infecting the world with Indian variant, a variant that is causing stock markets to fall?

“Investors are concerned that the rapid spread of the Delta variant will derail the trajectory of the global recovery, notably in Asia which still has relatively low vaccination rates and where some widely used vaccines do not appear overly effective against it,” Jeff Halley, senior market analyst, from Oanda told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57885183

Chinese lose out in India

The geopolitical tensions between India and China (India thinks that it is on par with China, something China thinks is BS) means that Chinese investors face restrictions investing in India.

The Americans are reaping the rewards

Covid-19: Mama variant rules the world

OK, OK, more like the US, UK and Europe. What China can do (remember the Kung Flu aka Wuhan virus aka Chinese virus), India also can do.

Delta variant aka the Indian variant now represents 20% of new cases in the US says Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

In the UK, Modi’s virus represents over 90% of new cases.

The Indian variant is now dominant in Portugal and appeared in clusters across Germany, France and Spain.

[T]he delta variant appears to be more transmissible than any other. It may also be more severe and deadly. Even people who have previously been infected may be vulnerable.

Economist

But

Thankfully, the vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the main ones deployed in Britain, remain 80% effective after two doses. However, efficacy is considerably lower after a single dose.

Economist

Some reports put the efficacy at 90%. But don’t worry Modi’s working on a updated variant to infect the world.

Covid-19: Proud moment for India

And all Mamas round the world.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reclassified the Delta strain of Covid-19 as a variant of concern, saying it is more transmissible and adding further pressure to maintain the country’s vaccination drive.

FT

The slit eyes may have started the Kung Flu but the Indian version is the most transmissible.

Congrats Modi. Anything China can do, Modi’s India can do better.

Indian variant is more dangerous

UK government figures suggest a single shot is less effective against the fast-spreading Covid-19 Indian variant, in the UK.

Two vaccine doses needed for strong protection against variant found in India, UK data show.

But if you got two shots of the Pfizer or AZ (not approved here) nothing to worry about says the UK govt.

Note Moderna vaccine was approved in UK only in April. so no data available yet.

Kung Flu started in Wuhan, China, But Modi seems to want India to remembered as a Kung Flu enabler. Anything China can do, India will imitate. SAD.

While the Indian variant causes global havoc, China saves South American lives/ Chinese Kung Flu vaccine works

China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine was 67% effective in preventing symptomatic infection, data from a huge real-world study in Chile has shown. The vaccine was 85% effective in preventing hospitalizations and 80% effective in preventing deaths. An earlier trial carried out by Brazil’s government showed that the shot had an efficacy rate of just 50.7%. So China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine is effective against Kung Flu aka “Wuhan virus” “aka China virus”.

Once Indian variant is exterminated, hopefully this will happen

The US’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 could stop wearing masks and socially distancing in most indoor and outdoor settings (excluding health-care clinics and public transport).

Covid 19: India pays price for hubristic, arrogant Modi.

India’s recent catastrophic Covid-19 surge, from about 10,000 new cases a day in February to more than 300,000 a day over the past week, is a historical record in the making. Modi and the BJP must be proud that India is setting a record.

The Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and traditional New Year celebrations in China were much reduced in size. But Modi allowed millions to attend the Kumbh Mela. Hence the surge.

He tot Ram would protect India? After all Modi last year opened the shrine at Ram’s birth place.

Leaving China, coming to India

Delta Electronics, a producer of power components for Apple and Tesla, has reduced its number of employees in China by almost 50%, in the biggest such move to be made public by a Taiwanese electronics company. Delta says its target is a 90% reduction in employees.

Its moving to India where it’s building four large factories and SE Asia. It’s already in Thailand

S’pore’s a leading fake diamond producer/ Green S’pore?

And it’s no surprise that China and India are huge fake diamond producers as is the US of A. LOL.

Seriously, given the amount of energy needed to produce fake diamonds, if S’pore wants to burnish its green credentials, it had better force this industry to use renewables.

Chinese entrepeneur gets screwed by India

Chinese venture capital investors are shifting their attention to Indonesia after India closed its doors, creating a surge in investment this year.

Aaron Li once saw more opportunity in India than in his crowded home market of China, describing it as a “blue sea” for ecommerce. Now almost six months after his business, Club Factory, was banned in India, Li has resigned himself to being locked out of the country forever.There is little clarity about when Club Factory — which sold cheap fashion and homewares to hundreds of millions of Indians through their smartphones — could be allowed to trade again after New Delhi blacklisted scores of Chinese apps this year. That is despite Club Factory raising $100m from investors in 2019 to expand in the country of 1.3bn people.Li’s experience exemplifies the limbo in which many Chinese tech companies and investors find themselves in India. More than 200 Chinese apps have now been blocked from the Indian market. Meanwhile, Li and his team at Club Factory have pivoted to building a new app for Europe and the US. Even if India relaxes the ban, he said he wanted an apology before he would re-enter the market.

FT

Covid-19: Indian doctors reject Indian developed vaccine

They want the British developed vaccine.

International and Indian media reported that in some hospitals, frontline health workers have refused to take Covaxin, demanding access to Covishield instead.

The reason? India has not fully approved Covaxin: India’s Covid-19 vaccination: Do you feel lucky?

Covid-19: Indian developed vaccine more expensive

Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of costs the Indian govt Rs200 (US$2.7). Covaxin the the vaccine indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech costs Rs206 a dose: 3% more.

And don’t forget, India has not fully approved Covaxin– India’s Covid-19 vaccination: Do you feel lucky?

India’s Covid-19 vaccination: Do you feel lucky?

In “Dirty Harry”, Clint Eastwood playing Dirty Harry asks a criminal, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do you, punk?”

Indians going for vaccination should be asking themselves: “Do I feel lucky?”

India is due to start its Covid vaccination drive tomorrow, with priority given to about 30m healthcare and frontline workers.

The country’s drugs regulator has allowed the use of two vaccines. One developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University (Covishield) and one by Indian firm Bharat Biotech (Covaxin).

Indians going for vaccination should be asking themselves, “Do I feel lucky”, because they might get Covaxin, not Covishield. The British have approved Covishield, but no-one else in the world has approved the use of Covaxin.

Even India’s “approval” of Covaxin is not really an approval: its subject to caveats to protect the regulator and Modi’s govt.

The regulator said the vaccine had been approved for “restricted use in emergency situation in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, especially in the context of infection by mutant strains”. Weasel words, mealy mouthily words to avoid saying that Covaxin is safe i.e passed phase 3 tests.

Hence, Experts raised concerns over India’s emergency approval of Covaxin before the completion of trials.

Health watchdog All India Drug Action Network said there were “intense concerns arising from the absence of the efficacy data” as well as a lack of transparency that would “raise more questions than answers and likely will not reinforce faith in our scientific decision making bodies”.

India’s Drugs Controller General, VG Somani, insisted Covaxin was “safe and provides a robust immune response”.

“The vaccines are 100% safe,” he said, adding that side effects such as “mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine”.

BBC report

Reason why India has a Covid-19 pandemic?

Because Indians don’t read Wikipedia? And so don’t know what WHO is telling the the public about Covid-19. In October the World Health Organisation started working with Wikipedia to make information on covid-19 available via Wikipedia.

But as the u/m shows, Indians don’t read Wikipedia.

Btw, there’s an interesting article in the Economist on Wikipedia: https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher. Worth the read.

India loses richest man in Asia title

Zhong Shanshan is worth US$77.8bn, making him the world’s 11th richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He’s richer than India’s Mukesh Ambani, and Jack Ma.

Mr Zhong took vaccine-maker Beijing Wantai Biological public in April listing its shares on the Chinese stock market. Three months later he did the same thing with Nongfu Spring, his bottled water company, publicly listing it in Hong Kong.

Nicknamed the “lone wolf” Mr Zhong’s career has spanned journalism, mushroom farming and healthcare.

Mr Ambani lost his title despite seeing his fortune increase US$18.3bn to US$76.9bn as he did deals with Google and other cos, and with SWFs and private equity firms to transform his conglomerate Reliance Industries into a technology and e-commerce business.

Post Covid-19: India’s ascent but there’s a catch

The UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said India will become the third largest global economy by 2030.

India had overtaken the UK as the fifth-biggest economy in 2019 but has slipped behind it again due to the pandemic’s impact. It won’t take over again until 2024, the CEBR says India’s economy will go on to overtake Germany in 2027 and Japan in 2030.

But the bad news for India is that China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than previously forecast, according to the CEBR.

China’s management of Covid-19 would boost its relative growth compared to the US and Europe in coming years.

FYI in Cynical Historian: 1960: PAP turns S’pore into a Workers’ Paradise

Post-Covid-19, why West should give Indians a break on the use of coal

Burning coal is a big contributor to climate warming. India is given a hard time by the West because of its expanding use of coal: even China is promising to use less of it. But Modi is proud to burn ever more coal even if the resulting pollution kills Indians.

India should point out that Hindus (most of the population, too bad about the beef eating Muslims and their cousins, whisky drinking Pakistani generals) are vegetarians.

Modi should tell the West “Do you want us to eat more meat? And help worsen climate change resulting from a warmer earth?” And to the human right activists complaining about the treatment of beef-eating Muslims, “Our policies keep the number of beef eaters from growing. We even hope to cut the numbers down. You want them to grow?”

In short, the deal with the West is “We remain vegetarians, so let us burn coal even if the pollution kills us. Oh and let us beat up the Muslims”.

Post Covid-19, economic prospects for India and the Philippines are the most bleak

Emerging markets will feel most the economic impact of the pandemic, particularly India and the Philippines. Btw, looks like Spain, France, UK and Italy are not developed countries but China is.

Modi and Indians will not be happy with China’s success.

Despite Covid-19, India in fast food eating frenzy

An Indian bread supplier to McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC will launch its IPO next week. Mrs Bectors hopes to raise Rs5.4bn (US$73m). Should not be a problem. Indian investors love Western fast food made the Indian way.

Last week, Burger King India’s initial public offering drew bids of US$9.5 bn, or more than 150 times the shares on offer. Investors are bullish about the country’s food service sector despite a slowdown inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IPO had aimed to raise US$110m, US$60.5m from the publi

Btw, India’s stock market has been on a record-breaking run since November. The Tantallon India Fund closed 11.29% higher in November

Only in India

Living in the 4th China, which is uniquely for a Chinese society, multiracial and multi-religious, and as someone who knows that most of our laws have Indian origins (I trained as a lawyer), I find this quaint, amusing and chilling.

Indians of different faiths cannot easily get married:

India’s Special Marriage Act, which allows interfaith marriages only after a month’s notice to the authorities containing the couple’s personal details. So couples fear that their families will intervene to prevent the wedding.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55158684

Where be unicorns? Not India or Western Europe

But America and China. And in SE Asia, Indonesia.

Related posts:

Time for India to ban Paytm, Zomato, Byju and Dream11?

Can India afford to boycott Chinese investors?

Covid-19: Why the AstraZeneca vaccine is a blessing for India from Ram and pals

Interim data suggests the AstraZeneca vaccine provides 70% protection, but the researchers say the figure may be as high as 90% by tweaking the dose. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines showed 95% protection.

But the vaccine is cheap compared to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine: it’ll be sold at cost. India doesn’t have much $ unlike the Americans. The other vaccines are priced for the West, not for India

Better still, it can be kept for at least six months in a normal fridge. The Pfizer vaccine needs ultra-cold storage of -70°C, and can be kept in a fridge for only a few days. The Moderna vaccine can be kept in a fridge for a month.

This means that the AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored in any surgery or pharmacy in a third world country like India.

Richard Hatchett, the head of CEPI, a foundation that funds research into vaccines for pandemics, said he thought this vaccine had the potential to significantly alter the course of the global pandemic and could be delivered anywhere, including poor countries.

Economist

And that’s not all. The best news is that the Serum Institute, an Indian maker of drugs and vaccines, committed itself to mass-manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine as long ago as April. And it seems half of what it makes can be kept by India, to be used in India.

India’s ordered it:

India has to pay the Serum Institute for the vaccine but Modi’s thugs are already thinking about how not to pay. A minister has talked loudly of seizing the vaccine when the Serum Institute said India had yet to allocate funds to buy it.

Sounds like India is imitating China’s grandpa Xi.

Whatever, Hindoos should be breaking more coconuts. After an Indian US VP, this vaccine shows that Ram and pals love India, not withstand the many Muslims. LOL.

Time for India to ban Paytm, Zomato, Byju and Dream11?

India has banned 43 more Chinese apps, including Alibaba’s online shopping site AliExpress. The Electronics and Information Technology ministry said the apps were blocked for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to [the] sovereignty and integrity of India”. More than 200 apps have been banned since relations with China deteriorated in June.

FT

I hope Modi and his Electronics and Information Technology minister know that Alibaba invested in Indian payments company Paytm and food delivery start-up Zomato, while Tencent invested in education app Byju’s and fantasy sports platform Dream11.

The cunning Chinese could have installed spyware and malware in these Indian apps to fix India? Remember how the British conquered India? There were Indians happy to be paid “peanuts” help the British East India Co.

Related post: Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China?

Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China?

I’ve reported that in revenge for China humiliating India in the Himalayas (All those dead Indian soldiers) India has been exporting sending Indians with Covid-19 to HK (Covid-19: Indians going to be banned from going to HK?) and S’pore (Covid-19: FTs from India reinfecting S’pore)

In a change of tactics, India is now sending direct to China packaging of frozen cuttlefish frozen infected with Covid-19. The packaging is infected with Covid-19, not the cuttlefish.

Seriously, the Chinese authorities have detected Covid-19 in the packaging of frozen cuttlefish from India,

Covid-19 vaccines: India backed the wrong horses

India backed the loser by a country mile.

Modi’s gang backed Novavax’s vaccine, ordering lots of it. But it didn’t bother with the two likely winners: the vaccines from AstraZeneca/ Oxford University and Pfizer/ BioNTech.

Covid-19: India no longer generic pharm king

India role as “the pharmacy of the world” because of its role in supplying generic medicines to poorer countries, is under threat. China previously a supplier of cheap ingredients. it now formulating own drugs, Western countries now their increasingly protecting their own pharma industries to ensure drug security

Indians can counter better than Americans

In its general election last year, India counted 600m votes in a few hours, compared with the days it will have taken to tally about 140m votes in America.

Economist

No wonder Indians dominate the H-1B visas the Americans give out to techies.

Are Indians more immune to Covid-19? Or why the Chinese are laughing, sneering at the Indians

Seems Indians are more immune to Covid-19 .

But they wouldn’t like the reason why they are more immune. And that’s the reason why the Chinese are laughing and sneering at Indians.

It’s not not because Indians are more virile, with better genes. It’s because

[N]ew research by Indian scientists suggests that low hygiene, lack of clean drinking water, and unsanitary conditions may have actually saved many lives from severe Covid-19.

In other words, they propose that people living in low and low middle-income countries may have been able to stave off severe forms of the infection because of exposure to various pathogens from childhood, which give them sturdier immunity to Covid-19. Both papers, yet to be peer reviewed, looked at deaths per million of population to compare fatality rates.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54730290

So Indians have better immunity because India’s a “shit-hole” country, a term used by Trump about African countries.

Chinese can’t stop laughing.

Covid-19: Indians going to be banned from going to HK?

Is it just preventing India from using Covid-19 to make China weak again? Or is it escalating tensions?

Hong Kong announced a third suspension against Air India after Indian travellers accounted for most of Hong Kong’s 17 new infections on Saturday (‘Coronavirus: Hong Kong urged to curb inbound travel from India as nation linked to most of city’s 17 new Covid-19 cases‘, 17 Oct). All of Saturday’s confirmed infections in Hong Kong were imported, 11 of them arriving from India.

This is the third time Hong Kong has banned Air India. Hong Kong had barred Air India from running the Delhi-Hong Kong services from August 18 to 31, and September 20 to October 3.

Hong Kong imposes a 14-day ban on any airline that carries five or more COVID-19 positive passengers, or operates two consecutive flights with three or more infected passengers.

It currently requires travellers from India to present a negative PCR test result for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to Hong Kong. But cattle truck load of infected travellers from India, the Hong Kong officials are facing calls to further tighten rules on travellers coming from there.

Hong Kong health experts are raising questions over the reliability of testing in India. Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a Hong Kong government adviser said that there could be inaccuracies with the tests conducted in India. “It remains unclear with the reliability and sources of the tests there,” he said.

All those fake degrees?

Btw, Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China in escalation of border dispute?

Covid-19 harm: India slumps, China surges

The IMF’s latest forecasts, released on October 13th, spell out just how long the economic harm from covid-19 will last. It think that in many places output will stay well below its pre-pandemic trend, as labour and capital are only slowly reallocated from shrinking industries towards thriving ones. Last October the fund expected India’s economy to grow by more than 40% by 2024; now it expects half that. By comparison, look at the chart to see that China is expected to suffer very little.

Covid-19: Monitoring Indian workers from the UK

For the last year and a half, Shibu Philip, founder of Transcend, a small London-based firm that buys beauty products wholesale and re-sells them online, has used Hubstaff software to track his workers’ hours, keystrokes, mouse movements and websites visited.

With seven employees based in India, he says the software ensures “there is some level of accountability” and helps plug the time difference.

“I know myself. [You can] take an extra 10-minute break here or there. It’s good to have an automatic way of monitoring what [my employees] are up to,” says Shibu.

“By looking at screenshots and how much time everyone is taking on certain tasks, I know if they’re following procedures.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54289152

Btw, he’s an ethnic Indian.

Covid-19: India robbing the poor to give to the rich

India is struggling what with the Covid-19 pandemic making many destitute because the economy has collapsed.

Instead of aid to the starving people, India will provide subsidies to 16 manufacturers including Apple supplier Foxconn and Samsung Electronics to expand its domestic production of mobile phones and electronics.

Modi’s from a Bizarro World* where Robin Hoodis feared by the poor, loved by the rich.

No chipatis or rice? Let the people (50% of whom are living in extreme poverty) buy made in India mobile phones and electronics, Modi is saying?

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*

“Bizarro World” has come to mean a situation or setting which is weirdly inverted or opposite to expectations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World

GIC goes elephant and ant hunting/ S’pore’s way of showing friendship to both India and China

This week Reliance Jio raised Rs248.9bn (US$3.4bn) from prominent global investors including GIC, TPG, Silver Lake and KKR for its e-commerce business.

GIC, already an investor in Ant Group, is looking to put more than US$1bn into the Chinese financial technology company’s IPO.

Meanwhile India and China are rowing and killing the other’s soldiers.

And India is banning Chinese investments and apps ( Can India afford to boycott Chinese investors? and Indian start-ops depend on Chinese money), and boycotting Chinese goods (Can India afford to boycott Chinese products?)

Great way to show S’pore is a friend of both.

The worrying thing is that it could end up upsetting both. And to pls both both, it’ll end up allowing more FTs in. SAD.

Pakistan humiliates India

And its not in cricket, or Covid-19 (Covid-19: Muslim Pakistan is blessed while Hindoo India is cursed?)

I couldn’t help but feel the humiliation of Indians when I read that a Marvel superhero is Pakistani, not Indian

Canadian newcomer Iman Vellani will play the superhero Ms Marvel in an upcoming Disney+ series, reports say.

Deadline reported the news, adding the character will feature in future Marvel Cinematic Universe films too.

Ms Marvel is the alter-ego of Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Khan, who idolises other superheroes such as Captain Marvel.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-54369448

India to boycott Disney, Marvel? Modi to complain to his pal Trump?

India, the regional superpower? Give me a break. LOL.

Covid-19: reducing the infection numbers the Indian way

There are credible international reports that India had significantly reduced its coronavirus testing, lowering its daily tally of reported cases as India was poised to breach the threshold of 100,000 infections a day. But it didn’t work did it, the threshold was exceeded.

But it wasn’t an original Modi idea. His pal Trump has been advocating that the US reduce testing to keep a lid on the cases. But most states gave Trump the finger.

But not Florida (the governor is a fan of Trump). Recently as the number of cases increased, the state decreased testing, imitating India.

 

Must be Pakistani

SAD for Indians to have such neighbours. Related post: Like India’s Modi, Allah’s no believer of liberal democracy

A man suspected of injuring two people with a meat cleaver in Paris has admitted to deliberately targeting the former offices of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, French media report.

The man, an 18-year-old born in Pakistan, reportedly linked his actions to the magazine’s recent republication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Charlie Hebdo did this as a trial over the 2015 Islamist attack on the magazine which killed 12 people began.

The magazine’s location is now secret.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54307820

Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China in escalation of border dispute?

Hong Kong has suspended Air India’s incoming flights after Covid-19 positive cases were found on a flight.

Hong Kong banned Air India from flying to its airport for two weeks till 3 Oct after 6 passengers were found on a 18 Sep Air India flight. The passengers were flying from Delhi into Hong Kong. The 6 were tested positive upon arrival.

Prior to this, Air India carried 11 Covid-19 positive passengers also on a flight from Delhi to Hong Kong on 14 Aug.

India trying to bring China’s economy to its knees, so that it resembles India’s economy? Meanwhile S’pore is happy to let Indians in.

Like India’s Modi, Allah’s no believer of liberal democracy

By one measure, just 3% of Muslims live in countries that are freer than the world average

Personal freedom is still limited in most of the Islamic world, so Modi’s India is a lot freer. So India is a lot better off than most Islamic countries.

Covid-19: 1m more cases and India’s the leading Covid-19 nation

The US has 6.61m Covid-19 cases and the rate of increase is slowing. It’s the world’s leading Covid-19 nation. India is second and running fast to catch up.

India’s coronavirus infections have now passed 5m cases.

The virus appears to be spreading much faster in India than any other country, with daily cases crossing 90,000 for the five days up until Tuesday.

BBC

The good news is that the death rate is lower than in many countries with a high caseload: only more than 80,000 people have died in India. The US has around 196,000 deaths.

But don’t worry, Modi has plans for India to beat the US to be the leading Covid-19 nations, with more deaths than the US.

Anything Trump can do, Modi can do better. LOL.

China humiliates India, Modi; Huaiwei suffers/ India still pulling its punches

On the Tibetan plateau, the two nuclear-armed nations have thousands of soldiers massed along the disputed border high , after a June clash. The clash left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. Very recently, India and China agreed to ‘quickly disengage’. And China has just returned five Indian nationals who strayed into Chinese territory when hunting.

China has humiliated India and “strong-man” Modi. I’ve already reported on an economic cost to both countries: Can India afford to boycott Chinese products?.

The cost to China of the border dispute is economic. Huawei and other Chinese telecoms equipment companies are being phased out of India’s booming market, including that for 5G networks.

Although India has not issued any formal, official written ban on equipment suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE, Indian telecoms service providers have been told not to use Chinese equipment in future. A government official said India was wary about Chinese investment in sensitive infrastructure.

“The thinking is: ‘Let’s do tough rather than talk tough,’” an official told the FT. “We don’t want to make life miserable for consumers. But when it comes to big public contracts and critical infrastructure, we would prefer non-Chinese companies. That message has gotten through to Indian business.”

The impact on Chinese tech companies could be considerable. Huawei has been one of the three biggest telecoms equipment suppliers in India which is the world’s second biggest mobile market with more than 850m users. It has had significant contracts with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and state-owned BSNL.

Covid-19: Postive thinking didn’t work in India did it?

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Update: Modi juz behind his pal Trump in Covid-19 cases. “Catching up with you. Anything u can do, I can do better”. SAD.

(India has recorded more than 90,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its total above that of Brazil.

The country now has the second-largest number of confirmed cases in the world, 4,204,613. It has reported 71,642 deaths, the third-highest in the world.)

BBC: Updated at 2.15 pm on 7th September.

U/m added at at 2.53 pm on 7th September. SAD.

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India keeps recording new coronavirus infections, with yet more people dying: last week, India has recorded the highest single-day coronavirus case count of any country with 82,860 new infections. More than 67,000 Indians, including former president Pranab Mukherjee, have died from the disease, with the death toll climbing above 1,000 people a day.

But Modi’s govt and his party are reassuring Indians that the country’s recovery rate was rising and that its fatality rate was one of the lowest in the world. And Modi no longer discusses the pandemic publicly.

That’s positive thinking (Or is it postive denial?) at work. But it ain’t working clearly.

So it’s poetic justice that Amit Shah, Modi’s enabler, had to be hospitalised for Covid-19 after telling Indians that the country’s recovery rate was rising and that its fatality rate was one of the lowest in the world.

Modi, Amit Shah and BJP, ever tot Ram and pals are still unhappy? First the soldiers’ death than this.

Covid-19: Must be India again

New Zealand reported 14 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, seven of whom arrived in the country from India. Trying to do to NZ, what they did to S’pore? Covid-19: FTs from India reinfecting S’pore.

M’sia has the right attitude: M’sia has jux barred entry for long-term pass holders from India, Indonesia and Philippines. Decision made after considering the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the three countries.

CECA: Good TRE article

A friend asked someone who has written on CECA on FB in the past whether the u/m allegations of Foong Swee Fong are correct. The person replied that “MTI is using a very strict definition, almost strawman definition of what a lot of citizens are concerned about.”

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MTI’s interpretation of CECA: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/mti-ceca-indian-nationals-citizenship-pr-employment-pass-13059698

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Foong Swee Fong’s understanding of CECA:

Misleading on CECA

Again, the authorities are painting one side of the picture to mislead. This time, it got the MTI to do the dirty work.

It starts off stating authoritatively that there is “no provision under CECA for Indian nationals to become PRs and citizens”. That’s true and actually obvious because this agreement pertains to investment, not citizenship. But we all know that PMEs form the pool for future PRs and citizens, unlike Work Permit holders.

It then says that it is “not true that CECA requires the Singapore authorities to automatically grant employment passes to Indian PMEs who want to work here”.

It gives the impression that Indian nationals are treated no differently from other nationals, but it is not true. All applications for Employment Passes must satisfy the minimum qualifying salaries as well as other standard requirements like educational qualification, employment offer from a company etc. So in that sense, approval is “not automatic”, but it is again stating the obvious.

What they didn’t say is that the Singapore authority is obligated under CECA to grant an Indian applicant an Employment Pass once he or she satisfies the various criteria, whereas, it has no such obligation for other nationals.

If the qualified Indian applicant is rejected, he can seek recourse via his government as provided under CECA.

Let me quote Article 9.3.1: “Each Party shall grant temporary entry to natural persons of other Party,…in accordance with this Chapter.”

Unless I have a different understanding, “shall grant” means “must grant”. And this include 127 different categories of professionals.

MTI goes on to say that “all companies must comply with rules on fair hiring”.

Again, this is misleading because although all companies are subject to the Fair Consideration Framework, that requirement is not applicable if the applicant is an Indian national.

Let me quote Article 9.3.3: “Neither Party shall require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry in respect of natural persons upon whom the benefits of this Chapter are conferred.”

Economic needs testing basically means the employer must ensure that there are no suitable locals before employing a foreigner, hence, MOM’s Fair Consideration Framework. But Indians are exempted.

I stand corrected because the text in Free Trade Agreements is meant to obfuscate rather than clarify because if the public understands and realise that the odds are stacked against them in favour of businesses, they would be thumping their pitchforks in front of Parliament House, after all, FTAs are actually Investor Rights Agreements. Hope the authorities can clarify.

Foong Swee Fong

And to end, the guy my friend asked also said “And not everything is addressed. Eg. Look at 9.3 i think in ceca, the bring your family clause. No equivalent in japan fta and a few others.”

I think Foong Swee Fong is correct. What do you think?

Covid-19 helps India be a world leader

India announced two records. A new world record for daily infections: “the world’s third-most infected, on Sunday reported 78,761 new cases in 24 hours, passing the number posted in the US on 17 July.”

And on Monday, the biggest contraction of any major Asian country:
a 23.9% plunge in gross domestic product for the second quarter.

Good work India. Use Covid-19 to show the world that India can be world leader in multiple fields.

Civid-19 aftermath: China ascendant, India descendant

The gods are not appeased by Modi. They are happy with Xi. Or maybe the CCP rules China better than the BJP rules India.

Covid-19: Muslim Pakistan is blessed while Hindoo India is cursed?

While the land of the Hindoos is suffering from the displeasure of the unappeased Ram and friends (India’s cases soared past 3m, the third-highest in total behind America and Brazil: Why India has to contend simultaneously with Chinese aggression, Covid-19 and floods?), Muslim Pakistan is blessed by Allah.

With a weak healthcare system, large population and many poorer families living in crowded living conditions, Pakistan seemed in danger from the outset of a catastrophic toll from coronavirus.

The danger appeared to increase in June, when doctors in major cities reported that their hospitals were overwhelmed with patients. Intensive care units in the largest hospitals filled up, and families were forced to shuttle relatives around in the search for a bed.

But just a few weeks later, hospital admissions appeared to fall drastically.

Really? Relax, Hindoos, Pakistan may be faking the data. The BBC reports

Data obtained by the BBC from officials in the country’s two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore, show that there was a significant rise in graveyard burials in June that can’t be explained by coronavirus deaths alone.

For example, in Miani Sahib graveyard, the largest in Lahore, in June 2020 there were 1,176 burials this June, compared to 696 in June last year.

Only 48 of the burials this June were of officially recorded coronavirus patients. The rise is likely to be a combination of undetected coronavirus deaths, and patients suffering from other illnesses not getting treatment as hospitals were under such pressure.

Similarly, in Karachi, June 2020 saw significantly more burials than at any other time during the past two years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53742214?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting-story

It could be that Pakistan is better at faking the datathan India: Covid-19: Indian death count is fake news?

Covid-19: Indian death count is fake news?

India has more than 50,000 Covid-19 deaths, overtaking the UK to become the fourth-worst-affected country for fatalities. But the number of deaths per million people stands at 34. Far lower than what has been reported in Europe or the USof A.

The case fatality rate which measures deaths among Covid-19 patients, is just around 2%. Many epidemiologists attribute this relatively low fatality rate to a young population – the elderly are typically more vulnerable to the infection.

But there are experts querying this analysis, saying that the count should be higher, a lot higher

From a BBC report:

[S]ome believe that there is substantial undercounting in several states.

For one, many states, in contravention of WHO guidelines, are not adding suspected cases in the final count.

Second, a handful of states are heavily attributing Covid-19 deaths to patients’ underlying conditions or co-morbidities. Two states, Gujarat and Telangana, appear to have undercounted heavily, as an investigation by health journalist Priyanka Pulla shows. In Gujarat’s Vadodara, for example, the number of deaths grew by just 49% in the last two months, even as the caseload leapt by a whopping 329%.

Third, there have been reported discrepancies between the official toll from the virus and counts from crematoria and burial grounds in some cities. So is India missing a lot of deaths, considering only a small fraction of the population has been tested – around 2% – and many deaths are not being medically reported? Also, only one in four deaths in India is certified for a cause. “Of course there is undercounting as we have weak health surveillance systems,” says Oommen C Kurian of Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank. “But the question is about the scale of undercounting.”

Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, says it is “hard to gauge how much underreporting is going on without historical data and calculation of excess deaths during this period”.

“Excess deaths” are the bulk of deaths above normal levels, some of which may have been caused by Covid-19.

More than 230 Indians, including doctors, researchers and students, have petitioned authorities to release information on deaths for at least the last three years to calculate “excess deaths”. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53773070

FTs: HK like us; learnt from us?

FTs rule the financial sector. But at least the FTs in HK are ethnic Chinese not mamas. Chinese privilege in S’pore? What Chinese privilege? More like Indian privilege in financial services and Peenoy privilege in other sectors? SAD.

On Ho Ching’s comments on social media about Temasek being “Little India”, the real “Little India” is StanChart: written a few yrs ago: Last Deepavali in Marina Bay’s Little India?.

Sadly for S’porean PMEs, the prediction was wrong. SAD.

Also wrong: Indians: Why migrating to S’pore is not a good idea

Where India trumps China

India beats China hollow in absolute $ terms and in %age terms (as %age of GDP) in remittances. PeinoyLand is 4th but in $age terms beats both of them.

S’pore is big employer of Indian and Filipino PMETs.

Why India has to contend simultaneously with Chinese aggression, Covid-19 and floods?

If I were a religious Hindu (I’m neither Hindu nor Indian, though I practice meditation), I’d be pretty worried about whether the gods are unhappy with India.

What with India having to contend simultaneously with Chinese aggression, Covid-19 and floods, And suffering the economic woes associated with Covid-19 and the floods.

Life is rough for Indians. In ancient times, the Israelites would be offering sacrifices to appease Jehovah, and if he didn’t act, making sacrifices to Baal and his pals.

So I couldn’t help but laugh at:

“The entire nation is under Ram’s spell today. By God’s grace, a golden chapter is being written by India.”

Modi recently after laying a symbolic silver brick in the sanctum at the site of the Ram temple in Ayodhya

What planet is Modi on?

But then I tot hopefully, Ram and his pals will be appeased with the temple and shower blessing on the Hindu Indians because Modi played the role reserved for Hindu kings.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-53661966/ayodhya-india-pm-modi-leads-ram-temple-ceremony-at-divisive-holy-site?intlink_from_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia&link_location=live-reporting-map

Modi appeases the Gods?

Chandrakant Sompura, the chief architect of the proposed temple, told news website The Print that the structure would be designed in the “Nagara” style of temple architecture – a popular north Indian temple building style.

The inner sanctum of the temple – where the idol of the primary deity is housed – will be octagonal. The temple will include a large structure of three floors with 366 pillars and five domes.

Mr Sompura said that a memorial wall in honour of those who were involved with the temple movement would be erected.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53577942

What military infrastructure projects India & China are building on their border

Covid-19: FTs from India reinfecting S’pore

Not me, but the constructive, nation-building propaganda arm of the PAP govt ST

More than 100 such cases confirmed in past month, with over half from India

ST headline yesterday, somewhere in the middle of yesterday’s paper

A lot more than half, 62 to be precise, ST reported on Thursday.

From June 30 to last Tueday, there were 107 cases of infections from abroad and they were imported from nine different countries, with more than half – 62 cases – coming from India.

Another 23 cases were imported from the Philippines, while the rest came from countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and the United States.

Most of the imported cases – 27 – are work pass holders, while 23 of them are S’poreans. There were 20 permanent residents and 19 dependant’s pass holders among the imported cases.

Given that India is full of Covid-19 cases, third behind the US of A and Brazil, why let people from India? Btw, PeenoyLand also saw a recent coronavirus surge, so why let Peenoys in?

Why not impose stricter quarantine rules, if they are that impt to the economy?

These FTs tua kee isit?

Btw2, FTs are also a problem in HK: Covid-19: Silence of Lim Tean, Meng Seng and TOC is deafening.

Covid-19: Indian students starving in the UK/ Will India send help?

The BBC reports that volunteers at the Newham Community Project in east London are feeding up to 600 students, most in their early 20s.

Most are from India and are taking master’s degrees. SAD.

Backgrounder

Hundreds of international students in the UK have had to resort to food banks after part-time work and funding from families dried up during lockdown.

Some have been unable to pay their course fees and have been threatened with suspension by their universities which would result in their visas being cancelled.

Covid-19: India’s new flag

India has recorded more than 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 and nearly 29,000 deaths, more than any other Asian country.

Globally, only US of A and Brazil are ahead of it. All are ruled by populist “strong” leaders. Only Modi is the real autocrat, the other two are wannabes because their country have strong institutions.

Covid-19: Modi in denial

The BBC reports that Indian experts say that “full-blown” community transmission is happening in India.

But the government refuses to accept that community transmission has begun, saying there is no clear definition of the term, and each country can define it based on local conditions.

So far, Kerala and West Bengal are the only two states to accept that they have entered this stage.

But global understanding on the subject is simple: when the source of infection can’t be traced in a large number of cases, it’s safe to define it as community transmission.

The WHO’s guidelines say: “community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53510307?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting-story

According to Dr Arvind Kumar, chairman of the Centre for Chest Surgery at Delhi’s Sir Gangaram Hospital: more and more patients are turning up at hospitals whose source of infection cannot be traced. And, he adds, the rising case numbers support this.

For the record: India has recorded more than 1.2 million cases and nearly 29,000 deaths.

Covid-19: The really bad news for India

India has now over a million cases and has the third largest number of coronavirus cases in the world after the US and Brazil.

But this figure is likely to be a gross underestimation of the number of Covid-19 cases because India (and the other sub-continent countries) are far behind other countries with serious numbers of Covid-19 when it comes to testing.

Why India is reconsidering its attitude towards China

The FT’s James Kynge and Amy Kazmin discuss the relationship between Asia’s two superpowers.

But whatever it does economically against China, it hurts itself more than it hurts China:

China is India’s second-largest trading partner after the US. It accounts for nearly 12% of India’s imports in sectors such as chemicals, automotive components, consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals.

At least 70% of India’s drug intermediary needs are fulfilled by China,” Sudarshan Jain, president of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told the BBC.

India’s booming smartphone sector is heavily dependent on cheap Chinese phones made by Oppo, Xaomi and others who dominate the local market. These phones are “made in India” but the parts are imported from China.

Most consumer electronics and many industrial equipment makers say they need crucial intermediate goods from China.

Can India afford to boycott Chinese products?

And India’s blacklist of 59 Chinese apps

excludes India’s most valuable startups, including the US$16 billion payments giant Paytm, backed by Ant Financial, as well as education star Byju’s, which counts Tencent as an investor. Alibaba and Tencent also invested billions of dollars into other Indian startups such as Zomato, Big Basket and Ola. In total, 18 of India’s 30 unicorns have Chinese funding, Gateway House, a Mumbai-based thinktank calculates. 

Can India afford to boycott Chinese investors?

Why Amitabh Bachchan won’t die of Covid-19

Because he’s Indian.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan says he has tested positive for coronavirus.

Writing on Twitter, the 77-year-old superstar confirmed his diagnosis and encouraged anyone who had been in contact with him in the past 10 days to get tested.

He was transferred to Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, according to local media.

A hospital official told The Indian Express newspaper that he was in a stable condition.

Don’t worry fans. Not only will he get the best treatment but India’s track record on two areas of the pandemic is good. But than that of the UK and the USA.

India’s recovery numbers are promising

The data suggests that those in India who have been diagnosed with the virus are recovering from it faster than they are dying from it.

And

India’s death rate is also very low.

India has so far recorded about 20,160 deaths from Covid-19. In absolute numbers, that is the eighth highest tally in the world. But per million of the population, it is low.

So relax fans, be happy he’s not in the US or UK.

Covid-19: What India gets right

India gets a bad press internationally  because six months after its first confirmed infection it has overtaken Russia to record the world’s third largest number of Covid-19 cases.

But amidst all the criticism two facts stand out.

India’s recovery numbers are promising

The data suggests that those in India who have been diagnosed with the virus are recovering from it faster than they are dying from it.

India’s death rate is also very low

India has so far recorded about 20,160 deaths from Covid-19. In absolute numbers, that is the eighth highest tally in the world. But per million of the population, it is low.

Covid-19: More Pakistanis are dying than Indians

In the time of Covid-19, better to be a Muslim in India than in Pakistan. Btw, better to be a Muslim in Bangladesh than in India or Pakistan.

Covid-19: India surpasses Russia

India has recorded more than 24,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. India now has the third-largest number of confirmed cases in the world, 697,413. There have been 19,693 deaths.

The latest surge in numbers has also been caused by a rise in cases from a few of southern states, including Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Can India afford to boycott Chinese investors?

Chinese killed 20 Indian jawans and seized Indian territory.

India retaliated by banning ByteDance’s hugely popular video-streaming app TikTok and 598 other Chinese apps on national security concerns.

Not that silly of India because this significantly narrows a top growth market for Chinese technology firms and may embolden other governments to shut them out.

Fuelled by cheap data and a young population, TikTok has picked up some 200 million users in three years in India.

The popular mobile app features snappy, shareable videos, often catering to teens and other young people. Using filters, sounds, music and hashtags, young Indians upload songs, dances, pranks, comedy skits, career tips, challenges, language and yoga lessons.

Reuters

Interestingly, the blacklist excludes India’s most valuable startups, including the US$16 billion payments giant Paytm, backed by Ant Financial, as well as education star Byju’s, which counts Tencent as an investor. Alibaba and Tencent also invested billions of dollars into other Indian startups such as Zomato, Big Basket and Ola. In total, 18 of India’s 30 unicorns have Chinese funding, Gateway House, a Mumbai-based thinktank calculates. But new investment rules and rising anti-China sentiment may slow the overall flow of capital from the People’s Republic and that will hurt growth.

India and China have also become increasingly integrated in recent years. Chinese giants deeply “embedding themselves” in India’s socio-economic and technology ecosystem, according to Gateway.

“There have been more than 90 Chinese investments in Indian startups, most of them made over the last five years. Eighteen out of 30 Indian unicorns [tech startups valued at over $1bn] have a Chinese investor,” says Amit Bhandari, an analyst at Gateway house.

At $6.2bn, direct Chinese investment in India appears relatively small. But, Mr Bhandari says, restricting Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants from creating monopolies in the Indian market will be crucial given the “outsized impact” of these investments.

India has already amended its FDI (foreign direct investment) rules to stave off hostile takeovers of Indian companies.

China sends kung fu experts to border with India/ Modi caught lying

News of the army’s new martial arts trainers was reported by official Chinese news outlets on 20 June, according to Hong Kong media.

State broadcaster CCTV said 20 fighters from the Enbo Fight Club would be based in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, although Chinese media had not confirmed they would be training troops on the border with India.

BBC

Wow looks like China’s serious about defending its territorial gains. Contrary to what Modi claims, Indian experts have published photos of the new line of actual control that Chinese has established. It’s inside territory that once was within India’s line of actual control. BBC report (with photos): https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53174887?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c1newxlp4qwt/china-india-border-dispute&link_location=live-reporting-story

Covid-19: India’s Tata looking to UK for £1bn loan

India’s pride, the Tata group is looking to the UK govt for help. Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel are trying to get the UK govt to lend them £1bn. Each is looking at a loan of about £500m.

The Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank (all of which are state-owned) and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank gave a £560m credit line to JLR after the UK govt told JLR to bugger off because its bonds are rated as junk. Like other car makers, JLR is short of cash because of Covid-19 has disrupted the supply and demand for cars.

Covid-19: China rescues India’s Tata

Because

The reason why Indian banks couldn’t lend the money to Jaguar Land Rover is because of a very slow-burning crisis in the Indian financial system. A long history of bad lending decisions and poor governance has led to serious problems in India’s banks, shadow banks and mutual funds.

China humiliates India twice in June

Can India afford to boycott Chinese products?

Well according to a BBC report (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53150898), senior Indian businessmen say that boycotting Chinese goods is like choking oneself to death. India can’t breath without importing Chinese goods.

China is India’s second-largest trading partner after the US. It accounts for nearly 12% of India’s imports in sectors such as chemicals, automotive components, consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals.

“At least 70% of India’s drug intermediary needs are fulfilled by China,” Sudarshan Jain, president of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told the BBC.

India’s booming smartphone sector is heavily dependent on cheap Chinese phones made by Oppo, Xaomi and others who dominate the local market. These phones are “made in India” but the parts are imported from China.

Most consumer electronics and many industrial equipment makers say they need crucial intermediate goods from China.

Covid-19: India rising

But not in a good way. Second to Brazil in acceleration phase.

Btw, last week India overtook the UK to have the fourth-highest number of Covid-19 infections globally.

SAD.

Why isn’t Australia targeting India as Oz’s next golden goose in place of China?

Oz has grown rich because of China’s growth into an economic superpower second only to the US of A.

For the past decade, China has been Australia’s largest trading partner and now accounts for 32.6% of its exports.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52915879

Australia’s mines have delivered iron ore, coal and gas to fuel China’s growth – preferred to rivals in Brazil for their quality and geographic proximity. It’s a deal that benefits both nations.

Other sectors – education, tourism, agriculture, wine – have also flourished in the Chinese market.

BBC

But now Oz is over reliant on China. And China is now squeezing Oz’s balls and pussies: think the barley tariffs, the warning to Chinese students wanting to study there that Oz are racists (But then Ozzies are equal opportunity racists. They also don’t like Indians: think the Melbourne incidents.), and the threats to buy less Oz agricultural products. All because China thinks Australia should sit down and shut up and not criticise China. They should just take China’s money and be grateful.

So Oz is trying to diversify away from China. Korea, Japan and Vietnam are major target markets.

India should be a major target market but Australia only has set a goal to send A$45bn (US$31bn) in annual exports (A$25bn in 2019) to India by 2035: yes 2035. Last year, it sold more than A$200bn to China alone.

Maybe Ozzies think Indians are unlikely to become as rich as the Chinese? And that India will remain poor and an economic pygmy, unlike China? And Vietnam has a better chance of becoming the next golden goose?

Or that yellow skins are better than dark skins?

BBC

China humiliates India twice in June

You would have read in the Indian and international media (China slaps Modi, will Modi just sit down and shut up?) about how the Indian army got beaten up.

But it’s a lot worse for India. It’s the second Chinese humiliation in June. I reported this in early June

OK, OK, I exaggerate, China only rescues Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), a British car maker, part of Tata Motors since 2008.

The Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank (all of which are state-owned) and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank gave a £560m credit line to JLR after the UK govt told JLR to bugger off because its bonds are rated as junk. Like other car makers, JLR is short of cash because of Covid-19 has disrupted the supply and demand for cars.

:Covid-19: China rescues India’s Tata.

The reason why Indian banks couldn’t lend the money to Jaguar Land Rover is because of a very slow-burning crisis in the Indian financial system. A long history of bad lending decisions and poor governance has led to serious problems in India’s banks, shadow banks and mutual funds.

The result? Indian banks had no money to help out Tata Motors. Chinese banks were more than willing to lend, doing their patriotic duty of showing up India’s pretensions of being China’s equal.

Time for Modi to do something rather than bully defenceless Muslims and jobless workers.

Stand up for India, Modi.

Proud ethnic Indians overseas are getting tired of being sneered at by racist ethnic Chinese: “We’re far superior to Indians and what happened on Monday proved it.”

But cows are likely to fly before Modi does anything to make overseas ethnic Indians proud again.

Time to Make India Great Again?

China slaps Modi, will Modi just sit down and shut up?

Or will he Walk the Talk of defending India’s borders and ninour?

At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese forces in Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region, Indian officials say.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53061476

Chinese casualties are unknown. But, the editor of Global Times, a state-run tabloid, acknowledged the Chinese casualties in a tweet.

 “The Chinese seem to have brought iron rods, sticks studded with metal tips and stones,” says Nitin Gokhale, an Indian defence analyst quoted by the Ecomomist.

Most probably he’ll Choke the Talk? Remember that he let Pakistan walk all over India in the last round of hostilities.

And that was only Pakistan. This is China, home of the Wuhan virus.

But maybe, he’ll call on Uncle Trump to beat up China? And Modi thinks India’s an emerging superpower like China?

Covid-19: Indians dying like flies in Modi’s home state

Ahmedabad, home to more than seven million, is the largest city in the western state of Gujarat.

It’s also the worst-affected by the pandemic, accounting for more than 75% of the state’s caseload, and nearly all of its deaths.

With more than 21,500 confirmed cases, Gujarat has India’s fourth highest caseload. But the state’s fatality rate – the proportion of Covid-19 patients who have died – is the highest at 6.2%. This is more than double the national average of 2.8%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53009560

(Emphasis mine)

What’s the point of being PM of India if Modi can’t help his home state?

Covid-19: The huge risk India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are taking and the reason why

The risk: they are relaxing lockdowns even as new cases continue to increase.

The lockdowns may have made these countries’ curves of new infections less steep so far. But lockdowns did not flattened them. Millions are emerging from lockdown into an environment where Covid-19 infection is more widespread than when they went in.

At the current pace, the numbers are doubling every two weeks, suggesting that by the end of July, when some models predict the outbreak will peak, the official number infected may reach 5m and the death toll could approach 150,000.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/06/04/the-pandemic-is-still-gathering-pace-in-most-of-the-world

But these countries had no choice. Because even at the best of times many people live hand-to-mouth. With lockdown, many were starving. and hence reopening the economy became more important than flattening the curve. Sad.

Covid-19: China rescues India’s Tata

OK, OK, I exaggerate, China only rescues Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), a British car maker, part of Tata Motors since 2008.

The Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank (all of which are state-owned) and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank gave a £560m credit line to JLR after the UK govt told JLR to bugger off because its bonds are rated as junk. Like other car makers, JLR is short of cash because of Covid-19 has disrupted the supply and demand for cars.

Where were the Indian banks when Tata needed them? Chinese banks lend to a trophy asset of Tata, India’s pride and joy, when India and China are rowing: While India was fighting Covid-19, China invaded.

What’s in it for China? Telling Indians that its banks are better than that of India’s, most of which are according to the analysts are in dire need of capital because of bad debts to Indian tycoons.

JLR is Britain’s largest automotive manufacturer and designs, manufactures and sells some of the world’s best-known premium cars (the iconic Land Rovers), but sells most junk Jaguars.

Tata Motors got sold a dog. Sad. But then the Tata group very anglophile: British junk is the best.

Covid-19: Whatever India can do, Pakistan tries to do better

And with Covid-19, it has succeeded.

Pakistanis must be really proud that last Thursday, Pakistan joined India in surpassing China after a record 4,688 new Covid-19 ncases were registered in Pakistan during the previous 24 hours to take the tally to 85,246.

Here’s a BBC report on how bad things are in Pakistan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52925286. Worst than in India

Giving more reason for Pakistanis to be proud: ahead of China with 84,160 patients has been placed at 18th position, one rank lower than Pakistan, according to the data from Johns Hopkins University.

But it’ll dent Pakistan’s pride that India has the sixth-highest number of confirmed cases in the world. On Saturday, the BBC reported, India recorded close to 10,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours, taking its total above that of Italy.

But Pakistanis should be very proud that on a per capita basis, more Pakistanis caught the virus than India. India is a demographic superpower, something Pakistan can never aspire to: 212.2 million v 1.353 billion (2018 data). India has over 236,657 cases. There have been 6,649 deaths.

Sometimes, nationalism takes some silly turns.