SAJAforum

OBAMA: "Did you have something to do with that?"

Times Now correspondent Simrat Ghuman was "walking on air" after President Obama called on her to ask a question during his news conference at the G-20 summit in London. (Is it just me, or does that number seem to change every year, and entirely without warning?) Apparently, Ghuman was so high in the clouds that she couldn't help but interrupt Obama's answer:

QUESTION: Hi, Mr. President.

OBAMA: How are you?

QUESTION: Thank you for choosing me. I'm very well. I'm (inaudible) from the Times of India.

OBAMA: Wonderful.

QUESTION: You met with our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. What did you -- what are you -- what is America doing to help India battle terrorism emanating from Pakistan?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, your prime minister is a wonderful man.

QUESTION: Thank you. I agree.

(LAUGHTER)

I agree.

OBAMA: You know, did you have something to do with that?

(LAUGHTER)

You seem to kind of take credit for it a little bit there.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: We're really proud of him, so...

OBAMA: Of course. You should be proud of him. I'm teasing you. I think he's a very wise and decent man and has done a wonderful job in guiding India, even prior to being prime minister, along a path of extraordinary economic growth that is a marvel, I think, for all the world.... [link]

Must-see video of the entire exchange (including Obama's full response) is above, and the rest of Obama's answer appears after the jump. No word on whether Prime Minister Singh is now "walking on air" as well. However, the next time someone tells me that Sree Sreenivasan and Arun Venugopal are "wonderful men," I'll be tempted to interrupt and say "thank you."

Unfortunately, Ghuman's pride in her Prime Minister stole some of the media oxygen from the actual response to her own question. However, as the Associated Press notes, in his response Obama said that "in a nuclear age, at a time when perhaps the greatest enemy of both India and Pakistan should be poverty, ... it may make sense to create a more effective dialogue between India and Pakistan."

TIBET: 50th Anniversary of Dalai Lama's exile to India

It's night time in NYC, but it's already daytime in India, where the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile to India is being marked. I am looking at the latest postings in the Twitter feed of Stephanie Nolen, South Asia Correspondent for Canada's Globe and Mail, who's in the town of Dharamsala and doing Twitter updates from the ceremony there.

the #Dalai Lama has left the temple in a swirl of monks and pipers and drummers and Tibetan flags
7 minutes ago from mobile web
#Dalai Lama concludes by asking for peace for all beings
13 minutes ago from mobile web
#Dalai Lama: "We must prepare ourselves in case #Tibetan struggle goes on for a long time."
18 minutes ago from mobile web
#Dalai Lama: "I have no doubt that justice of #Tibet's cause will prevail iif we continue path of truth & non-violence."
19 minutes ago from mobile web
#Dalai Lama - "Very few Chinese people have a true understanding about Tibet" due to deliberate misinformation by authorities

INDIA: Gurcharan Das in the NYT, on India's Hindu advantages

There was a time--quite a long period, actually--when Westerners liked to refer to the "Hindu rate of growth" in India, i.e., the slow growth of the nation's economy (compared to other Asian countries) and its apparent basis in Hindu fatalism (Whaat to do, we're like that only). The term was supposedly coined by economist Raj Krishna but popularized by Robert McNamara.

Atanu Dey thinks it should've been called "the Nehru rate of growth," to reflect its roots in socialist policies, but Arun Shourie had another idea in a column he wrote a year ago: simply re-brand "the Hindu rate of growth" as shorthand for high growth, and give credit to India's Hindus.

A couple days ago, "India Unbound" author Gurcharan Das wrote an op-ed in the New York Times. It's ostensibly about whether India or China will end up occupying the "top rung on the ladder of world power." Generally, I find these India vs. China discussions more a parlor game than anything else, but Das' larger point is that India manages to succeed despite its government, while China grows because of its government.

While he's at it, though, he can't help toss up a couple "Hindu" theories, explaining its economic growth as well as its democratic strengths.

From "The Next World Order":

The speed with which India is creating world-class companies is also a shock to the Chinese, whose corporate structure is based on state-owned and foreign companies.

I have no satisfactory explanation for all this, but I think it may have something to do with India’s much-reviled caste system. Vaishyas, members of the merchant caste, who have learned over generations how to accumulate capital, give the nation a competitive advantage. Classical liberals may be right in thinking that commerce is a natural trait, but it helps if there is a devoted group of risk-taking entrepreneurs around to take advantage of the opportunity. Not surprisingly, Vaishyas still dominate the Forbes list of Indian billionaires.

GLOBALIZATION: Wadhwa study on India & China in pharma R&D

2009 UPDATE: See Wadhwa's March 2009 study, "America's Loss is the World's Gain."

In March 2008, SAJAforum hosted a webcast with Vivek Wadhwa (along with Vinod Dham, "the father of the Pentium chip") about immigration and business. Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur who is currently a fellow at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University, wrote to us today about his latest research projects. Take a look below and post your comments, please.

From: Vivek Wadhwa <vivek[at]wadhwa.com>

As you know my team at Duke and Harvard has been studying the globalization of industries. We about to release our first report in a series which shows how India and China are becoming major players in global R&D. Even though China is investing hundreds of billions of dollars into next-generation plants to turn the country into an export power in semiconductors, passenger cars, and specialty chemicals, India is ahead in innovation and R&D.

We observed that in the aerospace industry, Indian companies are designing the interiors of luxury jets, in-flight entertainment systems, collision-control/navigation-control systems, fuel-inverting controls, and other key components of jetliners for American and European corporations. In the automotive industry, Indian engineers are helping to design bodies, dashboards, and power trains for Detroit vehicle manufacturers. In telecom and computer networking, Indians are developing futuristic technologies for the intelligent cities which are being constructed in the Middle East. Indian engineers are also developing technology behind the next generations of cell phones for European and American companies.

The first in our series of reports looks at the pharmaceutical industry. Details of this are provided below The press release below will be on the wire on Wednesday, June 11 morning. Our detailed report can be downloaded from www.globalizationresearch.com.

If anyone wants to contact me, they can write to me directly.

Thanks, Vivek <vivek[at]wadhwa.com>

Among the findings, as highlighted in the press release below:

Through detailed interviews with executives of 16 pharmaceutical firms in China and India on their business models, value-chain activities, partnerships and technology capabilities, the researchers found that:

1. Indian and Chinese companies are making strides in the most lucrative segments of global value chains. In less lucrative segments, such as preclinical testing, animal experimentation and manufacturing, Chinese firms appear to be more prevalent.

2. India is regarded as a more mature venue for chemistry and drug-discovery activities than China.

3. Domestic Indian and Chinese firms rarely have the capital and the regulatory expertise to develop a drug beyond phase II clinical trials. Their commercial development of new intellectual property therefore necessitates relationships with major multinational corporations.

You can download the full report here.

Press release below. Post your comments, please.

GLOBALIZATION: Migrants send $300 billion home each year

A recent World Bank study led by Dilip Ratha says that global remittances--the money that migrants send home--exceeds $300 billion per year. Jason DeParle of The New York Times covered the study, "World Banker and His Cash Return Home":

India ($27 billion), China ($26 billion) and Mexico ($25 billion) are the leading beneficiaries. But in relative terms, small countries gain the most, with some increasing their national incomes by more than 20 percent. Egypt gets more from remittances than it does from the Suez Canal.

More on Ratha’s pioneering work (also view an audio slide show, "Return to Sindhekela"):

When Mr. Ratha reached the World Bank in the early 1990s, most economists saw remittances as small private sums that were irrelevant to development. After years of sending money home, he took a closer look.

Given the scorekeeping at central banks, it was an exercise in forensic accounting.

The International Monetary Fund said the Philippines received $122 million. Mr. Ratha produced an estimate 51 times higher: $6.2 billion. His tallies, first published in 2003, showed that remittances, once dismissed as the equivalent of a rounding error, were nearly three times greater than the world’s combined foreign aid.

“That was a bombshell,” said Kathleen Newland, a founder of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington research group. “Putting it in that context made people see there was this enormous flow of money into the developing world. Dilip really is the person who put remittances on the map.”

Phil Izzo has more at the WSJ blog Real Time Economics (which also cites Ratha):

The U.S., which was the top immigration country in 2005 with 38.4 million immigrants, is by far the largest source of outflows, with $42 billion in recorded outward flows in 2006. Saudi Arabia ranks as the second largest, followed by Switzerland and Germany. The Mexico-U.S. corridor is the largest migration corridor in the world, the Worlds Bank said, accounting for 10.4 million migrants by 2005.

However, there has been plenty of criticism of remittances. From the Times:

When officials from more 150 countries met in Brussels last summer, remittances figured high on the agenda. Skeptics smell a fad.

“Remittances: the New Development Mantra?” asked an article by Devesh Kapur of the University of Pennsylvania. He sees the money as a palliative that, while at times helpful in easing poverty symptoms, leaves underlying structures unchanged. “If I ask can you name a single country that has developed through remittances, the answer is no — there’s none,” he said.

NEPAL: Crackdown on Tibetans in Kathmandu

Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit emailed me a link to a photo feature on the crackdown on Tibetans in Kathmandu, who were protesting peacefully in front of the UN building.

Photo by Sam Kang Li.
Click here to watch more photos.

Read this BBC article which reports that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao "appreciated" the steps taken by Indian authorities in handling protests by Tibetan refugees.

What do you think of the Indian and Nepali government's response towards Tibetan protesters? Please post your comments below.

I asked four questions to Kalaya’an Mendoza at Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based network of youth activists working for the Tibetan freedom and independence.

1.    What do you make of the mass crackdown on Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal?

India and Nepal should abort the heavy-handed tactics they have been using against Tibetan protesters. It is disheartening to see this is how the Indian government reacts to an act akin to Gandhiji’s own peaceful protests. The Nepali government should also practice maximum restraint in using excessive and unnecessary force against Tibetans. (Read more below).

ECONOMICS: How much Indian consumers spend, vs. Americans and Chinese

The New York Times has an op-ed by several economics experts, trying to figure out whether the U.S. is in a recession. One piece is by Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, who made this point:

There is hope that young consumers from rapidly growing developing economies can fill the void left by weakness in American consumers. Don’t count on it. American consumers spent close to $9.5 trillion over the last year. Chinese consumers spent around $1 trillion and Indians spent $650 billion. It is almost mathematically impossible for China and India to offset a pullback in American consumption.

Read the rest of Roach's piece here: "You Can Almost Hear it Pop"

CONSUMER SAFETY: Hari Sreenivasan's Scoop on a Dangerous Halloween Toy

Hari Sreenivasan, the Dallas correspondent for CBS News and a long-time SAJA member, had an important, timely and exclusive (not easy to do stories that fit all three adjectives) this week. Two days before Halloween, he broke the news that a brand of toy/prop called "Ugly Teeth" more than lives up to its name visually. Turns out they have more than 100 times the acceptable levels of lead in the paint and ingesting any amount can be very dangerous for children. The story, which he first aired on "The Early Show" and later did follow-ups on for other shows, had an immediate impact. The product was removed from store shelves and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an official warning about the teeth being recalled.

Whenever television does such stories, it's easy to dismiss it as rating hype but not in this case. After Hari sent around an e-mail alerting me to the story (see copy below), I forwarded it to a list of friends who have kids under 7ish. And at 9:04 p.m. on Halloween night, one of those friends sent in this post-trick-or-treating note: "Thanks for passing the info on. I just threw the teeth away as I finished reading this." That is an example of journalism at its most effective: when it helps improve people's lives. Halloween, as Hari says, is "a time for parents to worry about cavities, not lead poisoning."

It also is a lesson to reporters and media outlets about the importance of doing your own "marketing" of SOME of your stories. Send e-mails to your friends, post items on Facebook, etc. You can't rely on your media outlet, no matter how big, to get to everyone.

Watch Hari's exclusive and post your comments below.

• Video of one of the CBS stories
• Text version of the story

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• SAFETY: Canada Bans Brand of Neem Toothpaste
• HARI SREENIVASAN ITEMS:
  • THREE QUESTIONS: Hari Sreenivasan Moves to CBS News
  • "The Simpsons" Controvery (and fun) continues
  • Three SAJAers in TV Land
  • Hari's running in the NYC Marathon this Sunday, Nov. 4, to raise money for "Team for Kids," a terrific charity that helps children around the country. You can support him by going to this link and putting in his last name (SREENIVASAN) and his entry number (124528) and making a tax-deductible donation.]

From Hari's e-mail, sent around on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007: