Friday, June 22, 2012

China economic woes may be deeper; Kenya not to send maids to Middle East; Super poor, yet super power?; Rethinking Indus Valley; Delhi's water woes

1 Chinese economic woes may be deeper (The New York Times) As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles. Record-setting mountains of excess coal have accumulated at the country's biggest storage areas because power plants are burning less coal in the face of tumbling electricity demand. But local and provincial government officials have forced plant managers not to report to Beijing the full extent of the slowdown, power sector executives said.

Indeed, officials in some cities and provinces are also overstating economic output, corporate revenue, corporate profits and tax receipts, the corporate executives and economists said. The officials do so by urging businesses to keep separate sets of books, showing improving business results and tax payments that do not exist.

Questions about the quality and accuracy of Chinese economic data are longstanding, but the concerns now being raised are unusual. This year is the first time since 1989 that a sharp economic slowdown has coincided with the once-a-decade changeover in the country's top leadership.

2 Eurozone big four agree on growth plan (BBC) Leaders of the eurozone's four biggest nations have agreed in principle to measures to boost growth equal to 1% of the currency area's economic output. Germany, France, Italy and Spain outlined plans to push for a 130bn-euros package. But analysts suggest that with little or no new money involved, the significance of the agreement between the four was more symbolic than actual. There is also still no consensus on issues such as common eurobonds.

3 Kenya wary of sending maids to Middle East (BBC) Kenya has stopped its citizens from seeking jobs as domestic workers in the Middle East, saying increasing numbers have been mistreated. Correspondents say Kenyans have returned with horror stories; from sexual abuse to a maid's body found stuffed into a fridge. The foreign affairs ministry says Kenyans have been duped by unscrupulous agents who promise non-existent jobs. Until the new rules are ready, Kenyan citizens are barred from seeking work in the Middle East as domestic workers. Some 3,000 Kenyans are believed to be working in Saudi Arabia, according to the International Organization of Migration.

4 Super poor, yet super power? (N Janardhan in Khaleej Times) Some of India's characteristics -- 1.2 billion population, world's largest democracy, home to 150 million Muslims, and largest provider of peacekeepers -- are well documented. Even as it is super-poor at one level, it has the trappings of a superpower at another -- hi-tech plans to develop supercomputers, complete nuclear fuel cycle facilities, placement of own satellites in orbit, replicating IT success in biotechnology, biogenetics and pharmaceuticals, apart from already being the world's No. 1 arms importer last year, and becoming the third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity in 2012.

The fact that about 46,000 Indians reportedly still die from snakebites every year and the country has more mobile phones than toilets could be scary and nauseating statistics. But they reflect the diversity of two Indias, each living in different ages, and scope for development which assures economic vibrancy. It is this aspiration for remedying the darker side that could be its inspiration to achieve the brighter end.

Even the slowing global economy has not hindered wealth generation in India. Fifty Indians were on the Forbes billionaires’ list in 2011 and the number of millionaires rose by 21 per cent to 162,000. By 2015, this is forecast to double. This is why India need not be despondent. One needs to look back and be optimistic that the churn under way in various spheres would be more beneficial than detrimental. The country has risen from dust and is unlikely to bite dust again.

5 Rethinking Indus Valley civilisation (Asad Badruddin in Dawn) What is the relationship between the pre-Islamic, pre-Christian Indus Valley Civilization to today's Islamic Republic of Pakistan? These two strands of the secular and religious deliberately create a powerful contradiction.
Embracing our Indus past will enable us to reject Arab cultural imperialism in the name of religion, and will help us discard the Two-Nation Theory. We will be focused not on fighting wars with India, but in making the greatest cities in the world. Cities like those of the past, which valued trade and commerce and became the hub of Indo-Persian-Chinese commerce.

We will be a country that celebrates diversity; ethnic diversity of the many languages and cultures around the ecosystem of the great river, and religious diversity, for it will be a country for (all types of) Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs who can respect this ecosystem. And once religion is prevented from being abused we can truly reconcile it with modernity and our legacy of British constitutionalism. Once our conscious awakens to this idea, we will be a renewed nation. On the crumbling edifices of Moenjadaro and Harappa we will once more build great cities, and build a great country.

6 Why Delhi is running out of water (The Wall Street Journal) World Bank experts say that by 2020, it is likely that the next wars will be fought over water. For Delhi and Haryana, those wars seem to have already begun. Experts are of the view that Delhi's water woes are as much due to its own poor water management as the tussle over supply. Delhi has claimed that its request to Haryana to supply its share of water has not been met. Haryana's Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda has said that Delhi is getting more than its due share.

Delhi's water shortage isn't new. Every summer, taps go dry in several parts of the city as demand rises. According to official estimates, the city's water demand in peak summer months has hit more than 1,150 million gallons a day, but the city is getting only about 835 million gallons a day. Every year Delhi blames the states, but they haven't been able to set their own house in order, said Nitya Jacob, the program director of water at the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment.

It isn't that Delhi is short of water, but the fact is a lot of water gets wasted, he said, adding that as much as 52% of water is wasted because of leakages in the distribution pipeline of the Delhi Jal Board, which is responsible for supplying water in the Delhi region and also for water treatment and waste disposal in the capital. Delhi generates a huge quantity of sewage, both domestic and industrial. But it roughly treats only 40% of it. The rest seeps into water bodies. It gets polluted too, says Mr. Jacob, adding that the groundwater now has a high quantity of nitrates and metals, making it unfit for domestic use. Additionally, the city can't use the Yamuna River as a source because it no longer has any fresh water. "It's only sewage now," Mr. Jacob says.

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