India tries to mediate the South China Sea conflict
“Too many dragons, too much noise.” That is how one Chinese scholar explained constant friction in the South China Sea to the Financial Times. The South China Sea is a region hotly contested for by China and which shares territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei primarily because it is one of the most important shipping routes and largest underwater reservoirs of oil and gasSocial networking sites boom in Asia
As facebook increased the price range on its initial public offering by an average of 14 percent to raise more than US$12 billion, giving the world’s No. 1 social network a valuation potentially exceeding US$100 billion the move is making ripple affects across the industry. Shares of ren ren, facebook’s alias in China, surged the most in a month – up 60 cents at US$6.09 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. While ren ren’s above average quarterly results were also the reason behind China’s social networking companys raising shares, analysts confer that facebook’s massive demand also fueled the rise.
Social networking companies have been the catalysts for phenomenal social changes in the past few years as millions of users across China and India have used the platform to harness social movements and press governments into reform. Helping to take news, information, personal stories and local atrocities national, social media networks are drastically changing the way people communicate, how governments endorse policies, and how quickly social change is sweeping across our countries. Grappling with social economic factors is challenging enough for our people in a rapidly globalizing world, often social media networking sites, help us localize issues, bring to the fore matters we didn’t otherwise know existed and help common citizens digest news and information in a more personalized way.
Indian drug manufacturers shun Chinese bulk drugs
Indian medical students might be flocking to Chinese universities to study medicine due to lack of opportunities back home, but Indian small and medium scale bulk drug manufacturers are finding quality to be a major set back in procurements from China.
China and India are the leading players in bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) which are used to make medicines. Both countries account for more than 40 percent of global bulk drug production. China is the largest bulk drug supplier, and India is second. China is a key supplier of bulk drugs to India – exporting 60 percent of India’s US$7 billion bulk drug imports, however with few quality controls, sans inspections and dismal regulations, China’s low costing bulk drugs are no longer incentive enough for Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers. Further, the Indian bulk drug market is valued at US$13.5 billion, and its Chinese counterpart at US$30 billion.
India has already dealt with the problem of fake ‘Made in India‘ drugs being sold in Africa, now poor quality API are causing an increasing number of Indian phrama companies to manufacture their own bulk drugs in India.
Shasun Chemicals and Drugs, a Chennai-based Rs 1,000-crore company, has decided to manufacture some intermediates at its Andhra Pradesh plant, rather than importing them from China. Managing Director S. Abhaya Kumar says: “We have earmarked Rs 70 crore to move production of some of our key intermediates to India. The shift should be complete by December”, he told Business Today. Shasun, the largest producer of ibuprofen in the world adds that besides quality, intermediate prices in China have also increased by 10 percent in the last three months, due to rising petroleum prices and pressure on China to adhere to environmental norms. Shasun is developing 13 APIs for a few billion-dollar drugs whose patents expire in the next five years.
Do China and India have the Midas touch?
China and India’s industrial and trade numbers might be indicators of an anemic economy, yet Venture Capitalists are pouring funds into the two countries in an almost assured chance that they will reap high returns.
At a time when the both the European and American economies are struggling to keep their heads above water, China and India seem like the only beacons of hope. According to the Forbes’ Midas List 2012, one-quarter of the top 100 ranked VCs have China and India deals sprinkled into their mix of deals spanning Europe, Israel and the U.S. Of the top 100 venture capitalists who scored in the 2012 ranking but were not on the 2011 list, 12 have China deals sometimes several successful ones among their investments. Two more VCs on the Midas 2012 list have funded at least one winning India startup. A majority of technology driven firms, the 2012 list also highlights those VC firms that have invested in Chinese and Indian companies that have gone public over the past five years, – these include Chinese companies Renren (China’s facebook), Tudou (China’s Youtube), HiSoft Tech, Dangdang, Bitauto, VanceInfo and Qihoo 360 as well as Indian online travel portal MakeMyTrip.
US clears first Chinese takeover of American bank
The worlds most valuable lender the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China better known as ICBC, as well as two Beijing-backed financial firms — China’s sovereign wealth fund the China Investment Corporation (CIC), and Central Huijin Investment have been granted permission to set up branches within the U.S. All three financial institutions will be recognized as bank holding companies, regulated as commercial US banks. The move would gradually allow the Chinese banks to purchase stakes in American banks.
The approval by the US Federal Reserve will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States. ICBC already has a branch in New York that focuses on commercial lending. The Fed took nearly two years to approve that branch, which it did in 2008. Experts meanwhile applauded the transaction, Chinese banks have long been seeking access to the U.S. banking system in order to provide financial support to Chinese companies operating overseas and to increase the exposure of the Yuan to foreign investors. ICBC opened their first office in India, in Mumbai late last year, for primarily the same reasons.
“This unprecedented acquisition of a controlling stake in an US commercial bank by a mainland bank is strategically significant,” ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing said. “This could accelerate M&A as Chinese banks may look to acquire regional banks in order to establish a U.S. footprint,” added Jaret Seibert, Senior policy analyst at Guggenheim Securities’ Washington Research Group, to Bloomberg News.
The move also comes admist the US strong yet subtle pressure on Chinese banks to open their markets to foreign companies and investors. In last week’s talks, China agreed to allow foreign firms to own significantly larger stakes, although minority ones, in Chinese brokerage firms. It was a long-awaited breakthrough in a sector where restrictions have limited foreign firms.
