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Inflation slips to 4.14 per cent
New Delhi: Inflation was down at 4.14 per cent for the week ended November 5 from 4.75 per cent in the previous week, despite rise in the prices of essential food and non-food, fuel and manufactured goods.
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China-India synergies could catapult them as corporate superpowers
Shanghai: A study has said that the combined GDP of China and India will account for up to 20 per cent of the world's total trade by 2025 if the two Asian giants agree on free trade.

The China-India business synergy is the tip of the iceberg of immense economic power said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic advisor to MasterCard International in Asia Pacific.

He said that the new generation of joint China-India companies will change the competition landscape in global business and synergy.

In one of its latest 'Insights Reports,' MasterCard says that rather than viewing Chinese and Indian economies as competing, it is more important to understand their potential business synergy. The impact of a China-India business alliance will catapult their corporate sector to be among the best in the world, the study said.

China's manufacturing prowess is unrivalled globally and against this are India's strengths in R&D and high-tech services. With the ease of instantaneous communications and information flow, spatial and temporal distances between both countries are virtually non-existent, the report said.
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India says no trade off on farm talks
Washington: Indian commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said Thursday that New Delhi would protect farm interests at all costs during next month's World Trade Organization ministerial meet.

He said that at no cost would there be any compromise on agriculture issues. "There cannot be a trade off in agriculture for any other gain we get in the WTO," Nath told the Economic Editors Conference Thursday in New Delhi.

The Indian minister said his government was totally committed to ensuring that Indian farmers' interests were safeguarded regardless of whether other nations make deeper cuts on tariffs and expanded market access.

Since the onset of agricultural negotiations, New Delhi has been concerned about import competition in agricultural goods and has resisted opening up its markets in protected sectors.

The Indian minister told his U.S. counterpart Rob Portman last weekend that the U.S. proposals on agriculture were "not real cuts."

Kamal Nath said that what the U.S. had proposed last month are not real cuts. It would still allow them to raise trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers. The real cuts would be when there is decline in the support provided by the U.S. Treasury he said.
The Bush administration does not agree with Nath's assessment of the U.S. proposal. The United States contends its cuts in tariffs and trade-distorting support are ambitious and meaningful.

India has demanded deeper cuts in trade-distorting support by developed countries by 70 percent, something Washington says within the range of the U.S. proposal, which stands at 60 percent.

Developing countries have also called for more lenient tariff cuts ranging from 25 to 40 percent, while calling on developed countries to make 45 to 75 percent tariff cuts.
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Russia: next energy superpower'
Chandigarh: Energy expert Dr S.K. Sharma, a member of the National Security Council and former Dean University Instructions (DUI), Punjab University says Russia is emerging as the next energy superpower.

Speaking at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) at the seminar on ''India-Eurasia: The way ahead'', Dr Sharma stated that US is opposed to Iran primarily because it does not want the pipeline from Baku to cross through Iran.

The US backed pipeline to Turkey is in a totally volatile terrain and security concerns add up to almost 10 dollars per barrel. He said Russia is the country to watch as for every dollar increase in cost in petrol, Russia earns an extra billion dollars. It also has the largest gas resources in the world, he remarked.
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