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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Though China’s economy is growing at blinding speed, the country is witnessing increasing unrest in its towns and cities. By Conn Hallinan Behind the political crisis that saw the recent fall of powerful Communist Party leader Bo Xilai is an internal battle over how to handle China’s slowing economy and growing income disparity, while shifting from an export-driven model powered by cheap labor to one built around internal consumption. Since China is the second-largest economy on the planet—and likely to become the first in the next 20 to 30 years—getting it wrong could have serious consequences from Beijing to Brasilia and Washington to Mumbai. Whack-a-Mole China...
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*[This article was originally published by Knowledge@Wharton on April 25, 2012.] According to Jon Huntsman, Jr., former Utah governor and Republican presidential candidate, "partisanship has seeped into campaigning [so much] that breaking through with a message that is beyond party politics ... is a very challenging thing to do." Yet in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, he spoke about the importance of public service, as well as the need for fundamental tax and energy reform, the outlook for China in the coming decade, the role of the media in covering elections, his respect for Ronald Reagan, and what he plans to do in the coming months. An edited transcript of the...
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Politics / 360° Context / BRIC / AsiaBy Atul SinghBackground The British Empire left some toxic legacies. One of them is the Arab-Israeli standoff over Palestine and another is the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir. India and Pakistan are twins that had a bloody birth. Cyril Radcliffe, who drew the lines dividing British India into two independent entities of India and Pakistan, had not even visited the country before he arrived to divide it. Independence was accompanied by riots and the biggest migration in human history. At root lay two contrasting ideologies. India saw itself as a secular, multicultural country, and Pakistan as a country founded on fallacious religious ideology. Pakistan on the other hand saw India as a Hindu-...
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By Ivo OliveiraA small glimpse at the first Chinese architect to win the Pritzker Prize and its significance in relation to China’s urban development. The Pritzker Prize was created in 1979 by the Hyatt Foundation. Today it is recognized as one of, if not the most prestigious distinctions in the field of architecture. This award has already distinguished architects such as Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano. In 2011, the prize was awarded to Eduardo Souto De Moura from Portugal. This year – and for the first time in Pritzker Prize’s history – the award goes to China. The Chinese architect Wang Shu is the new laureate. Wang Shu is a professor and the head of the Department of...
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By Richard A. Bitzinger China’s new defence budget – particularly given the sizable and growing funding it dedicates to military R&D and procurement – demonstrates Beijing’s continuing resolve to gain military power commensurate with its growing soft power. In early March, China released its defence budget for 2012, which broke the symbolic $100bn barrier for the first time. In fact, Chinese military expenditures will total $106.4bn (S$134bn), an increase of 11.2% over 2011 – and this does not include possible hidden spending, which could add billions of dollars per year to the Chinese defence budget. No other country, save the United States, is in triple-...
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The Indian government needs to target its investments better. Jayadipta Chatterji interviews Rakesh Mohan. Led by the poor performance of the manufacturing sector, India’s economic growth has fallen relative to expectations. The main reason is the government’s fiscal slippages - private investment has decelerated and this is related to a crowding out effect of high government borrowing and consequent high interest rates. The revenue deficit is a pointer to the poor quality of government expenditure, particularly the high subsidies, instead of undertaking expenditure that created long-lasting assets. The revenue deficit is primarily responsible for the fall in savings and...
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By Jeffrey ChenAlthough China is more prosperous than ever before, its unbalanced economic growth has led to significant issues that can no longer be ignored. In 2012, the country must deal with a slowing economy, fallout from the highest-profile political scandal in years, and a major leadership transition this fall, constituting the biggest challenge to Communist Party leadership since the end of the Cold War. Background China's meteoric growth since reforms of the 1980s has been heralded by some as an “economic miracle.” The 2008 financial crisis revealed serious shortcomings in the international monetary system, cast doubt on Washington's development model, and hastened the...
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Going to war with Pakistan rather than resolving issues diplomatically will hurt rather than benefit India. Those with an aggressive view on India’s relations with Pakistan emphasise that the Indian army is much larger than Pakistan’s, and technically more sound in all three wings of the armed forces. Their views can be summed up as follows: “Indians know the exact locations of terrorist camps in Pakistan in southern Punjab and Pak-occupied Kashmir. India should not wait for another terror-attack to occur. Even if Indian air-strikes on those terrorist camps result in a war, we have an upper edge. Pakistan has neither money nor resources to sustain a war with us for even...
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Politics / 360° Context / BRICBy Atul SinghBackground India is seeing an unseemly controversy regarding its military. This controversy revolves around the age of its army chief and the offer of a bribe to him. The former led to litigation and the latter led to the return of the specter of corruption. Both have severe implications for the functioning of India’s military and the security of the country. General Vijay Kumar Singh, India’s army chief, claims his date of birth to be 10 May 1951, as recorded by the adjutant general’s branch, the army’s official record keeper. The military secretariat, on the other hand, has recorded his date of birth to be 10 May 1950. The government...
