Albeit the renewable power generation is relatively new to the mountainous south Asian country, it is upbeat about the commencement of the project by early next year. Mewang Gyeltshen, chief engineer from the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Bhutan told Recharge that energy demand was increasing by 12 percent, and country had sufficient supplies but remote households needed a sustainable standalone off-grid system.

On the other hand, India’s energy fund is aimed at developing a South Asian regional power grid, with focus on renewable sectors such as hydro, solar and wind. It will comprise of Bhutan with investment of about $850mn (3,000 MW), a 400-kv transmission line at $50mn with Nepal, a 1,000 MW HVDC link with Sri Lanka costing $415mn and a 1,000-MW HVDC back-to-back link with Bangladesh at $220mn.

It should be recalled the Tala Hydro power project in Bhutan, a joint venture by Indian firms, has been successfully commissioned in September 2006 and transmits power to North India. The project has mutually helped, Bhutan to jack up its economy while India to reduce power shortages in its northern parts.

The success of Tala has prompted other Indian energy firms to foray into Bhutan. Last month, the THDC India Ltd, a Govt. of India undertaking, has signed a MoU with Bhutan for the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of 180 MW Bunakha hydroelectric project in Bhutan. The Bunakha project is a part of the Indian government’s initiative to develop 10,000 MW of hydro power in Bhutan by the year 2020.

Bhutan sells hydropower to India at a price of $0.04 per kW, making 100 percent profit from a production cost of $0.02 per KW. Since it is estimated that for every one percent GDP growth more than the same percentage of energy production is required, Indo-Bhutan energy co-operation is likely to be a long-term one.

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Interestingly, an internal Pentagon memo, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and mobile phones. It also reports that the country is home to previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, besides lithium.

The memo compels to probe, what is Pentagon’s task in Afghanistan? Is it mining, peace-keeping or capturing the elusive terrorists? The timing of the announcement also induces the misgivings on the veracity of the study as well as the US interest in the country. Is the US trying to stay longer in Afghanistan on this pretext to thwart the increasing presence of the regional powers, China and India, by providing business options to the county?

In November, a 30-year lease, to start mining copper in the Aynak valley, southwest of Kabul, which holds one of the world’s biggest untapped copper deposits, was sold to the China Metallurgical Group for $3bn, making it the biggest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan’s history. Likewise, post-Taliban, India is also heavily involved in the re-construction and development of Afghanistan’s infrastructure.

The retrospective chronicling of the events on the recent discovery compel to call for more queries. Why Russia did not show much interest in Afghanistan despite having the cognizance of country’s rare mineral wealth?

According to the study, while leaving Afghanistan in 1989 after nearly a decade-old occupation the Soviets left behind a horde of old charts and data hinting on the massive mineral deposits in the country. Incidentally, it says, it was with these data, the US Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006.

Consequently, it establishes a fact that the US entered Afghanistan with prior knowledge of potential mineral wealth in the country. If there is truth in the find, then the Afghanistan’s new found fortune fuels the perception that any ‘offensive’ war includes an exploration agenda for natural resources or knowledge treasure trove behind it whenever any country initiates a war in a foreign land, especially a far-off one.

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Ahead of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to India next month, hundreds of protesters took to the streets against the proposed trade pact, claiming it would hugely benefit the neighbouring country by forcing the domestic industry into appalling risks. The CEPA which was supposed to be signed two years ago is likely to come to fruition during Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi on June 8.

Many highly educated, including doctors and engineers who were part of the recent protest along with businessmen fear that the island could be dominated by cheaper and skilled Indian services at the expense of the domestic industry. But this argument is unfounded as India’s educated unemployed were largely jobless because their reluctance to work for less or in remote places. Moreover, Sri Lanka being a country less than half the currency value of India would not have to panic about the products or services from India going cheap rather can ensure superior quality which could help the country build its economy on a firmer footing.

The Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) signed in 1998 and which is effective since March 1, 2000 has been able to boost trade between both nations significantly with near equal opportunity for the Sri Lankans. The ISFTA that is confined to the trading of only goods pushed country’s exports by manifold from $55.7mn in 2000 to $516.4mn in 2007.

On the contrary, in 2002, the traded volume between China and Sri Lanka totalled about $350mn, of which China’s exports accounted for $340mn providing room for Sri Lankan exports at about a meagre $10mn. Although Sino-Lankan trade witnessed tremendous growth over the years with bilateral trade crossing $2bn in 2009, imports from China remained predominately greater than the efflux.

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India would be largely interested in absorbing Israel’s technological prowess in areas such as bio-tech, nano-technology, healthcare, security services, water management and agriculture. On the other hand, Israel will focus on the India’s manufacturing potential to overcome its limitations on this front.

Although there are equal trade and utility potential for both countries, the tariff differences remained a roadblock for the smooth transition of trade talks ever since they began. India’s tariffs are on the higher end, and will have to make steep reductions to accommodate Israel’s trading needs. However, given the smaller size of Israel’s manufacturing industry, India does not have to worry about any massive influx of goods if it compromised on tariffs.

Speaking to Business Line, Eli Belotserkovsky, Deputy Chief Mission, Embassy of Israel, said that there are very few issues that need to be sorted out to finalise a FTA between the two nations. He opined that the two-way trade was evenly matched at about $2bn, and projected to grow up to $6bn once the FTA was signed.

Belotserkovsky admitted that they were not good at mass production or heavy equipment, where India could play a big role. He also said that the textile trade was another area which had immense potential between the two nations.

The Indo-Israeli FTA is expected to promote investment opportunities for both governments as well as private enterprises. Among goods and services, both countries’ major area of focus would be agriculture as it has been in the past few years.

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Maria Neira, UN World Health Organization’s (WHO) director of public health and environment said that “Neglecting sanitation and drinking water is a strike against progress, and without it, communities and countries will lose the battle against poverty and ill-health.” She told this at the launch of the UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report in Washington.

The report has highlighted that with over 2.6bn people living without access to improved sanitation facilities and nearly 900mn people not receiving drinking water, the progress made in this sphere would be able to fulfil only half of MDG target by 2015. Some sources estimate that with the current pace, it may take couple of centuries to achieve the goal as the world population will grow disproportionate to the achievements made so far at the water and sanitation front.

It is apparent from the report that overall development aid for water and sanitation has fallen from 8 percent in 1997 to just 5 percent in 2008 – less than commitments for health, education, transport, energy and agriculture. Surprisingly, the study is able to find that water and sanitation played a far more important role in improving productivity and welfare of communities as people could allocate more time for productive labour while keeping themselves in good health. It stressed that improved access to sanitation and water produces economic benefits that range from $3 to $34 per dollar invested, increasing a country’s GDP by an estimated two to seven percent.

“Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and the lack of hygiene claim the lives of estimated 2.2mn children under the age of five every year. Of these deaths, 1.5mn are due to diarrhoea, the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease,” said Dr. Neira. Similarly, Clarissa Brocklehurst, UNICEF Chief of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) opined it was imperative to act now to provide potable water and proper sanitation before it got into epidemic proportions.

The findings of the report will be presented at the first annual High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, which will be hosted by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Washington on Friday. The meeting will provide a platform for representatives of developing and donor countries to gain greater understanding of the linkages between water, sanitation and economic growth to commit appropriate resources and promote mutual accountability, partnership and shared responsibility.

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In 2007, Bush administration began negotiations on ACTA particularly to contain several developing countries engaged in piracy acts, and to protect the interests of leading US firms which lost their price competitiveness on account of counterfeiting. Incidentally, the ACTA effect will not be restricted to internet activities alone but extends to counterfeit pharmaceuticals, designer merchandise, music, movies, etc.

Surprisingly, the final draft will not have the endorsement of China, one of the largest counterfeit producers. Hence, looking back to past events on taking action against China in regards to infringements, the trade pact is expected to encounter similar stalemate while implementing a likely ratified deal. Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the European Union Presidency (Spain) and EU Member States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the US.

Many ACTA dissidents blame the secretive or undemocratic nature of reaching the agreement by not revealing the details for public discussion. On the other hand, WIPO provides scope for public scrutiny with an added advantage of the inclusion of major counterfeiting countries in negotiations.

Meanwhile, the tech firms are understood to be apprehensive about ACTA’s secondary liability clause, which recommends the responsibility of copyright infringement behaviour of the user on the online service provider. The clause will possibly affect social networking sites, video-sharing sites and several other user-generated content sites including the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia.

Last month, a statement signed by senior trade-union officials from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the US raised the question of intellectual property rights becoming an element in the free-trade negotiations. However that fear is put to rest by officials at the eighth round of ACTA negotiations calling the deal as a ‘standalone’ one, and would not tinker with FTAs.

According to sources, the draft will leave out three-strikes provision that would require border agents to search the contents of electronic devices. Experts term three-strikes a preposterous idea as it would virtually bring every transit cell to a standstill.

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The agencies including Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Export Inspection Council (EIC) have provided necessary technical inputs and financial assistance in supporting export growth in perishable items. The release indicated APEDA through its schemes for Infrastructure Development Scheme for Quality Development, Scheme for Market Development and the Scheme for Research & Development has been making efforts to expand export of products including processed food items.

The exports of perishable items have increased from $1.78bn in 2006-07 to $2.69bn during 2008-09, and a similar projectile has been able to witness in April to November 2009 period by recording more than $1.5bn. APEDA and Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India have compiled the export data.

As per the release, the vegetables exports from India during 2007 – 08 were about $341mn and the same was worth around $560mn in 2008 – 09 fiscal. In contrast, floriculture continued to idle with 82.5mn in 2008 – 09 and $76mn in 2007 – 08 as compared to 2006 – 2007 fiscal’s $146mn. The export of perishable items is permitted freely under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).

India’s perishable merchandise is largely comprised of vegetables, fruits, groundnuts, floriculture and livestock products. The latest figures show that fruits, groundnuts and livestock products have grown by about 10 – 20 percent.

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According to a Business Line report, the mission, led by Mr Marten van den Berg, Deputy Director-General for Foreign Economic Relations, brings 40 delegates from 27 companies, and will cover New Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. Although majority of the group comprised of heads from the agro and automotive industries, the mission will also be exploring trade opportunities in areas such as, the life sciences and health, logistics and infrastructure, IT, tele-communications and innovative other sectors.

Last week, the Netherlands Ambassador to India Bob Hiensch has said that his country was eyeing greater bilateral trade between the two countries in coming years. He added that the Netherlands was hoping bilateral trade to reach €10bn by 2014.

Currently exports from India are valued at about €2.5bn and imports stood around €1.6bn. India and the Netherlands began their trading alliance since more than 400 years ago when the Dutch trading ships visited South and East coasts of India in search of spices and textiles.

The Holland delegation is mainly visiting India to showcase its prowess in various spheres including IT, agro-tech and water management systems to attract Indian companies whom desirous of entering the European market. It should be recalled that last month, Oedith Jaharia of the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that 25 percent of India’s fruits and vegetables were wasted in the absence of viable food processing technology. He suggested that India could use the Netherlands expertise in food processing to avoid such colossal waste.

The present economic outlook of the Netherlands is very attractive since the country is able to weather the recent global meltdown by bringing in foreign investments more than €3bn or about 30 percent of its GNP in 2009. Ms Jolanda van der Aart, who runs the India Desk at the Amsterdam Foreign Investment Office told Business Line that information, communication and technology was one of the five largest export revenue earner for the Netherlands, and has been growing at 4-5 percent every year, and this offered the Indian firms a huge opportunity by way of outsourcing and export and import of computer parts and systems.

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Women’s Bill recommends 33.3 percent or one-third of seats in the decision making bodies starting from the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures. The sympathizers of the bill claim that such legislation will increase women’s participation in political affairs of the country by diluting gender inequality in the social system.

Though the draft has passed the first hurdle by getting a nod from the Rajyasabha, upper parliamentary house, underscores women emancipation and empowerment, it is believed to have constructed to serve a larger need of the country, i.e. population control. India’s policy makers envisages such a need as all inclusive growth in the past two decades have facilitated increased life expectancy and reduced infant mortality spiking population growth. They also perceive even 10 percent plus GDP growth would not suffice if the population growth is left untamed.

Nonetheless, there are many misgivings about as to how the bill would address the issues of women such as access to education, healthcare and even food, and above all the decision making rights including child-bearing. It should be noted that the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh stated before the bill was put to vote in the upper house “What we are going to enact today is a small token of homage to the sacrifices our women have made in nation building, in the freedom struggle, in all other nation building activities.”

Incidentally, the government seemed to be hoping the benefits of the bill to trickle in over a period of time than in immediate future. The exercise of effecting a policy change is an effort to expedite women empowerment through a governmental process rather than awaiting a social change as many countries with higher women parliamentary participation have experienced. Rwanda ranks first among the list of countries with female representation in the decision making body followed by Nordic states including Sweden and Finland.

The bill has to undergo two more phases for its approval, one at the lower house of the parliament and other at the state assemblies. Reservation within the new bill for minorities and lower castes as demanded by the opposing parties will be discussed once again in the coming sessions.

Prior to the approval, it is hoped, rather than reserving fixed constituencies for women, a rotating system covering all constituencies should be included in the bill for the outreach of all sections of the country. The new legislation to bear the desired results needs to include well chalked out responsibilities to the female representatives for the upliftment of the women of each constituency they represent. Unless these key elements are not looked upon, the fourteen-year old proposal may not be able to fulfil its very goal.

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Along with changes in trade policies which would help exports from developing countries the Chinese manufacturers also will get incentives to maintain price competitiveness in the global markets. China’s exports, which experienced robust growth of more than 25 percent before 2008, dropped by 16 percent last year.

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming at the sidelines of the meet stated all China’s financial policies, including its devalued status of yuan/renminbi, were part of China’s stimulus package comprehensively designed to counter global economic meltdown. He also defended the subsidies, claiming the stimulus incentives “abide by the rule of the World Trade Organisation and bear no protectionism.”

While announcing the policy statement, China admitted that it would “eliminate unreasonable restrictions” on the import front. A re-look at this policy comes after repeated complaints from India to its Chinese counterparts at every platform they met. The policy statement said “imports from developing countries will be expanded so as to satisfy domestic demand on the one hand, and promote mutual benefits and common development on the other.”

Zhang Zhigang, a member of the CPPCC said that if the country wanted to encourage consumption, exports were “vital”. Likewise, Chen said that export-related sectors provide at least 90mn jobs – about 7 percent of the national population – and therefore affect consumption.

Barring surprises, most members during the meet felt export was key to China’s economy indicating the most censured yuan’s low currency value that is tied to the Chinese export advantage would be moreover the same for the coming months until it gets even with its early 2008 export growth. Chen statement corroborates that fact as he said “although yuan faces appreciation pressure, China still plans to keep the exchange rate of yuan stable”.

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The president of Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) P Sivakumar told that it was imperative to relax visa regulations to tide over the growing demand for tailors as many shops were at the verge of shutting down. The inadequacy of sustainable skilled human resources in this field within the country was pointed out to be one of the major reasons for the shortage.

Sivakumar said currently most of the workers with traditional sewing skills were hired from India and Pakistan. He further added although most of these businesses preferred to hire Malaysians, there was a lack of local workers with the necessary skills.

Many representatives from the industry is understood to have approached the MIBA president on this issue as they feared any delay from the government in granting permission to hire foreigners would force them to close shop sooner or later. Sivakumar said “We want the government to consider their plight as it is a unique problem”.

The Malaysian government’s efforts to train locals to avoid jobs being lost to foreigners were futile following many prospects who were homemakers opted to work from home. Sivakumar said the government should consider long-term training programs to generate skilled workers within the country.

According to sources, the MIBA is preparing to present a memorandum to the Human Resources Ministry to resolve this issue, and there are also plans afoot to set up an Indian tailors’ association. The MIBA is a non-profit and non-governmental organization which facilitates entrepreneurial integration of the Malaysian Indians to the region.

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Wadhwa stated that India’s trade and investments in the Gulf bloc were set to rise sharply as the fast economic growth had boosted energy demand in the country. She said India offered a “secure and predictable” market for oil and gas from the GCC, but should not be confined to these sectors alone.

It has been observed that India’s geographical proximity and historical trade links make the country a prospective parking place for the Gulf bloc’s investments, and guaranteed higher returns. India’s total trade with the six-member bloc increased from $19.58bn in 2005-2006 to $86.9bn in 2008-09, and is well ahead of the EU’s $80.6bn and the ASEAN’s $44.6bn.

Despite having extended and strong ties with the GCC, India just has been able to attract investments from the UAE. The cumulative investments from the UAE were just over $1bn during April-July this year, but the two-way trade between both countries stood at $44.5bn in 2008-09.

Although GCC is the largest trading bloc, the investments to India from the region did not keep pace with the growth. Currently GCC member states’ share is less than 1 percent of the FDI in India.

According to a recent United Conference for Trade and Development study, India’s FDI inflows jumped 85 percent in 2008 against a 14.5 percent decline in overall global FDI inflows. With the likely conclusion of FTA between India and the GCC by next year the country is expecting investments to pour in from the region.

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Last month, Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry of India had said the slide in overseas sales had resulted in companies cutting 500,000 jobs in 10 industries. Since past four months, India’s exports are declining at an average of 30 percent.

The new policy has simplified exim documentation procedures to avoid red tape and attract new entrants. The affected industries are provided with tax cuts and lower interest rates. The government has decided to continue the DEPB scheme up to December 2010, and enhanced insurance coverage and exposure for exports through ECGC Schemes till 31st March 2010.

Sharma while presenting the FTP said “we would like to encourage production and export of ‘green products’ through measures such as phased manufacturing program for green vehicles, zero duty EPCG Scheme and incentives for exports”.

According to the Indian commerce ministry, the measures like tax exemption and cheaper credit rates to the needful industries are a stitch in time program but the larger plan would be to expand and diversify to new markets. The decline in demand for Indian merchandise from the North American and Western European markets that account for almost 50 percent of Indian exports has forced India to call for increasing presence in Latin America, Africa, Oceania and CIS countries.

India’s trade deficit was $10bn per month last year but past three months have seen that falling to half of last year’s average. India’s exports grew from about $64bn in 2004-05 to around $169bn last fiscal at an average growth rate of 25 percent, the third fastest after Russia and China during the same period.

The new FTP will serve as the trade roadmap for the next five years to the exim entities of India. The Ministerial Meeting of the WTO G-20 plus countries that will be held in India during the first week of next month will witness Indian negotiations centred on the new FTP. Sharma said that India was committed to conclude the Doha Round talks, however, indicated that India would remain conscious of the interests of the millions of country’s farmers and also that of country’s small and medium enterprises.

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Chile and India has signed a PTA in January 2005 aimed at increasing bilateral trade. There are 144 products as per the 2005 agreement, and two-way trade reached more than $2bn in 2007-08 fiscal. At the moment there are huge trade imbalances in favour of Chile as India was able to export just about $250mn worth of products to Chile. Higher taxes in Chile have put Indian products at a disadvantage but a FTA with Chile could bring the taxes to zero on many products.

Lately, Chile has entered into FTAs with several countries including the US, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and many Latin American and the EU countries. It should be recalled, the continuance of free market policies was one of the election campaign promises of the incumbent center-left President Michelle Bachelet.

A FTA between India and Chile is likely to provide India to look at other countries in the region to engage in similar trade ties in the future. Indo-Chilean FTA was likely to multiply bilateral trade in copper, wine, aquaculture products, processed food and forestry products indicated the Chilean Ambassador.

Navarro also said that the Indian exports to Chile would substantially increase when the deal was through. He was of the opinion the talks between both countries were delayed due to the Indian elections, and he hoped to hold talks by August to add more products to the list and reduce the tariffs.

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