International and Bilateral Issues

India ranks 132 on business-friendly reforms: World Bank report

U.S. has continued to press India to undertake more investor-friendly reforms under the bilateral Strategic Dialogue
China, India, and the Russian Federation are among the 30 economies that improved the most over time
Singapore led on the overall ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the U.S. and Denmark. The Republic of Korea was said to be a new entrant to the top ten.
India still ranks low overall in the Doing Business assessment, with its rank improving marginally from 139 to 132 between the 2011 and 2012
The progressive elimination of the “licence raj” led to a 6 per cent increase in new firm registrations in India, and highly productive firms entering the market saw larger increases in real output than less productive firms.
Yet a country such as Nigeria appeared to have made more progress towards the frontier of maximum business-friendly reforms than India has between 2005 and 2011
More than 100 economies use electronic systems for services ranging from business registration to customs clearance to court filings,
This saves time and money for business and government alike. It also provides new opportunities for increasing transparency

EU to tighten rules governing trading in commodity derivatives

The European Commission is hoping to inject more transparency into Europe's financial markets by tightening up the rules governing speculation in the commodity market — partly blamed for the rise in global food prices — as well as high frequency trading, which has been blamed for some market volatility.
Regulators will be able to ban specific products, services or practices “in case of threats to investor protection, financial stability or the orderly functioning of markets,”
The Commission plans to give domestic regulators the power to monitor and intervene at any stage in trading activity
Europe's move follows that of the US, where the Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week introduced limits on trading in commodity derivatives, including the number of contracts held by a firm.

Qadhafi has met his fate, says new regime

The former Libyan strongman, Muammar Qadhafi was killed on Thursday in a final assault by new regime forces on the last pocket of resistance in his hometown Sirte, sparking wild joy and celebratory gunfire across Libya.
World leaders welcomed Colonel Qadhafi's demise as the end of despotism, tyranny, dictatorship and ultimately war in the north African country.
NTC commander said one of Col. Qadhafi's sons, Mutassim, was also killed in Sirte.
Col. Qadhafi was wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity but Libyan leaders had said they wanted him captured alive so he could be put on trial.
In Brussels, NATO said two alliance aircraft on Thursday morning struck two pro-Qadhafi military vehicles near Sirte.

Closer economic integration in CIS

Russia has signed a free trade pact with seven other ex-Soviet states in a move to promote closer economic integration across the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The agreement was signed at a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose union of 11 out of the 15 former Soviet republics, held in St. Petersburg
Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan joined Russia in the deal. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan took time out to study its pros and cons.
The West denounced the trial as politically motivated.
The free trade zone is seen as a move reflecting Moscow's effort to get Ukraine join the customs union, a closer economic group Russia set up last year with Kazakhstan and Belarus. At the St. Petersburg summit, Kyrgyzstan was also invited to join the customs union.
The St. Petersburg agreements are in line with Mr. Putin's goal of creating a “Eurasian Union” of former Soviet nations.
The “Eurasian Union” is to become “one of the poles of the modern world, serving as an efficient bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region

No radiation: Pakistan

Emergency was declared for seven hours at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KNUPP) on Tuesday night after heavy water leaked from a feeder pipe to the reactor.
The leakage has delayed reopening of the KANUPP which supplies 80 MW of power to the Karachi Electric Supply Company.
The leakcomes a time when there is considerable apprehension across the world over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear facilities particularly warheads in view of the precarious security situation within the country.
It is located at Paradise Point on the arid Arabian Sea coast
Manufactured by Canadian General Electric, its 30 year nominal design life period ended in 2002 after which the operating license was renewed.

A triangle of great promise

The trans-continental partnership with Brazil and South Africa is surely one of the most innovative.
Each finds itself occupying a similar position with the other two in the global matrix of economic, political, and strategic attributes.
they share not just the goal of democratising bodies like the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund but also an approach to international politics that values dialogue and diplomacy over coercion and the use of force.
The Tshwane declaration issued at the recent summit in Pretoria offers a good indication of where the grouping is headed. Apart from the issues of global governance, development, and climate change, the document deals with diverse subjects like intellectual property rights, internet governance, and gender as well as a range of regional problems from Afghanistan and Syria to Somalia, Haiti, and Sri Lanka.
The three also agreed jointly to push for expansion of the UNSC. However, South Africa's inability to get the African Union to endorse the draft resolution being prepared by India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan — the G-4 — will likely limit its willingness to get into campaign mode in New York.
IBSA needs to deal with two other structural weaknesses. The level of intra-group economic and business relations is relatively low. Secondly, civil society and people-to-people interaction is negligible.

‘Walk the talk,' Commonwealth leaders told

Leaders will gather in Perth from October 28 to 30 for their biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) against the backdrop of a deepening global financial crisis, on the one hand, and a crisis of governance in several member-nations — Pakistan, Fiji, which is currently suspended from the Commonwealth, and Zimbabwe — on the other.
The Commonwealth's propensity for thinking big (“Think big, start small and upscale fast,” is how a senior Commonwealth official described its motto) is reflected in the CHOGM's ambitious agenda that includes issues ranging from the “challenges” of food security, sustainable development and natural resource development to financial turmoil and climate change. These will be discussed under the overarching theme: “Building National Resilience, Building Global Resilience.”
Marlborough House — the Commonwealth's grand secretariat in London
The general perception was that the Commonwealth was an “anachronistic and fusty” organisation with no clear aims or direction. It lacked drive and innovation and had failed “to live up to its values and principles.”
The Commonwealth is as much, if not more, an association of 2 billion people as it is a group of 54 governments.
As the Commonwealth enters a period of revitalisation, now is the right time to strengthen the interaction between civil society and governments within Commonwealth processes.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to pull out of the CHOGM (he will be represented by Vice-President Hamid Ansari) reportedly because it would have clashed with a conference of Governors called by the President has caused both disappointment and surprise.
There is speculation whether it is a sign of India starting to lose interest in Commonwealth with its sights set on bigger things as it emerges as a global power.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma dismisses such suggestions in relation to India and insists that it remains “fully engaged.”
One of the big-ticket initiatives in which India is heavily involved is the creation of a network of election management bodies which will establish a “gold standard” for elections that all democratic member-states will be expected to follow.
The India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, launched by the Election Commission of India in New Delhi recently, will train election commissioners from other Commonwealth countries.
This is the third CHOGM to be held in Australia (after Melbourne in 1981 and Coolum in 2002) and is billed as the largest Commonwealth gathering.
there is a lot of anticipation around the launch of the report of the Eminent Persons' Group, set up at the 2009 CHOGM in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, to suggest ways to reform various Commonwealth institutions

What explains Chinese ‘aggression'

China's growing interest in the South-East Asian region has been in the news recently. However, its actions are, in fact, quite rational from its standpoint, and are an outcome of a combination of factors, such as protectionist measures in the US and the EU against Chinese exports; unabated price rise in China, including higher labour costs, energy prices and land rents; and the appreciation of the renminbi.
The financial crisis since 2008 has seriously affected world trade, with some governments resorting to protectionist measures such as anti-dumping and countervailing measures to protect their domestic industries.
Such protectionist measures are hurting China the most. During 2008, Chinese exports to the EU and the US fell by 19.4 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively.
Global Trade Alert (a database tracking number of protectionist measures imposed around the world) has indicated that as many as 659 measures were initiated against Chinese exports after 2008.
China has received more foreign funds than any of the other BRIC economies.
However, such active intervention and increase in incomes in China, have resulted in overheating of the economy. Wages of migrant workers, land, property rents, and power prices, have all registered an increase.
China has also imposed stricter pollution control norms on its industries, raising the marginal cost of producing goods in China.
Trade and investment measures undertaken in the South-East Asian region are non-discriminatory and complementary in nature. These nations are increasingly driving down tariff barriers and other border costs. Most of the items are traded at zero tariffs among the member countries.
Since October 2003, China and Thailand have taken the lead in implementing zero tariffs on agricultural products, covering 200 types of fruit and vegetables. China has also granted zero tariffs treatment to Cambodia (83 products), Laos (91 products) and Myanmar (87 products).
Since 1996, Chinese firms have constructed six hydro-power plants and one thermal power station in Myanmar. China has also invested in power transmission, and copper processing activities in Vietnam.
At present, there has been ownership issue over the Spratly Islands, and the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Brunei, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam, each has notified United Nations about their share of claim.
The US wanted to mediate using the Asean forum, which China has been opposing. So what the Indian media calls Chinese aggression appears to be quite rational on the part of China.