BRIC
BRIC
Fair Observer provides analysis of important issues, events and trends in the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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360° Analysis / India / Most Favoured Nation / Non-Tariff Barriers / Pakistan / Politics / SAARC / trade / WTO / BRIC / AsiaWhile the debate over according India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status rages on in Pakistan, the possible implications for both countries cannot be predicted so early on. A lot more needs to be done in order for the trade to be liberalized. The Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, as envisaged by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), stands for non-discriminatory trade between signatory countries. Even though India granted MFN status to Pakistan back in 1996, the country held back and named strategic concerns and the lack of trust between the two states as reasons for its decision. In September 2011, the Pakistan Government announced the ...
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360° Analysis / initial public offers / Microfinance / millennium development goals / poverty reduction / BRIC / Africa / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityMicrofinance is undergoing a fundamental challenge, as the participation of some of its institutions in capital markets fuels a debate on how social entrepreneurs should balance social missions with financial interests. At its core, microfinance provides financial resources to those discriminated upon by orthodox financial establishments. Professor Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of Microfinance, believes that the goal of Microfinance is not just to make the poor become self-sufficient but equally and as importantly, to help them retain their money. The Grameen Bank, which Yunus founded in Bangladesh, can take loans and accept deposits. To receive a loan, a borrower...
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360° Analysis / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AsiaBy Kevin KwokKevin Kwok comments on the experience of foreign students in China. This is the second in a series of two articles. Read part 1 here. Accounting for the Chinese Experience In the first part of the article, three archetypes of the student abroad were introduced: students who had long dreamed of and meticulously planned their experience; the ones who came around to the idea slightly later and decided on a destination through meticulous research; and students who put considerably less thought into planning their study abroad experience than their peers. Do students have similar experiences abroad when studying in China? This is a country whose culture is arguably the most alien for my survey...
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360° Analysis / Banerjee / economic boom / economic problems / Gandhi dynasty / Manmohan Singh / Moody's / New Delhi / populism / The Economist / Trinamool Congress / Finance & Economics / BRIC / AsiaBy David KarlWhatever Singh’s own faults as a government leader, India’s economic malaise is due to more basic problems. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on the receiving end of a barrage of slings and arrows these days. The most recent salvo comes from Time magazine, whose Asian edition this week has a cover story labeling him “The Underachiever.” But his detractors are off target: Whatever Singh’s faults as a policymaker, India’s economic malaise is due to more basic problems. The article takes Singh to task for ineffectual leadership, asking whether the soft-spoken prime minister who turns 80 in September is still up to the demands of his office. This...
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There are 2 million stateless persons scattered across Myanmar and an estimated 400,000 of them are of Indian origin. As India participates in Myanmar’s rejuvenation, can it also use effective diplomacy to advance minority rights in the country? By Venessa Parekh Even as the world smiles benignly at the democratic opening up of Myanmar and the extended foreign tour of its Leader of the Opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s complex domestic dynamic, hidden for years, has surfaced. The spillover of the sectarian violence that began in early June has simultaneously exposed the difficulties of democratisation and the plight of Myanmar’s many underprivileged ethnic...
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360° Analysis / Politics / Europe / BRICDespite reports to the contrary, the Caucus Emirate Mujahedin have taken on a global Jihadi and pan-Islamic flavor. On March 29, 2010, two women detonated their suicide vests on Moscow’s subway, killing 40 and wounding over 100 civilians. Commentators ignorant of Jihadism’s history in the North Caucasus, immediately pinned blame on Vladimir Putin while whitewashing the Chechen separatists they admired. Former Washington Post editor Anne Applebaum and US-government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Liz Fuller implied that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind the attack, offering no evidence. Chicago University’s Robert Pape wrote a fact-...
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360° Analysis / Politics / BRIC / AsiaIndian Counter Terrorism efforts and the necessary corresponding cooperation with Pakistan have remained stagnant, even in the face of continuing threats and recent attacks. By Inder Malhotra In September 2011, the United States observed the tenth anniversary of 9/11 with great solemnity and manifest determination never again to allow its repetition. There was little sign of similar sentiment in India on the eve of the third anniversary of Pakistan’s savage terrorist attack on Mumbai. People seem to have virtually forgotten the horrific assault; a few are advising others to forget the past and “think of the future,” whatever that might mean. These sentiments can be...
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360° Analysis / Politics / Europe / BRIC / Middle East / Global SecurityRussia supports Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for historic, economic and strategic reasons. The United Nations estimates that, since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, as many as 15,000 people have lost their lives. Unlike the 1982 Hama massacre, when Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising that saw 10,000 to 40,000 people killed, the current conflict in Syria has gathered enormous global attention. Those outraged by Russia’s opposition to military intervention in Syria tend to lose track of the ties between the two countries that stem from the Cold War. When, after World War II, the Soviet Union and the US emerged as the dominant...
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360° Analysis / BRIC / Asia / Science & Technology / HealthWhen talking about agriculture in China, you are likely to hear two statistics over and over again: China is home to 22% of the world's population and has less than 10% of the world's arable land. In a country that has vowed to maintain 95% self-sufficiency in agriculture, this gap has put agricultural reform at the top of the China's political agenda. And it makes China one of the prime spots in the world for the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops. Over the past five years, research into GM crops has become a pillar of China's agricultural reform strategy. Government investment in the technology has increased steadily, and more and more multinationals are investing...