China tech giants buying into Silicon Valley; India's foreign policy crisis; Johnson & Johnson fined $2.2 bn; Qatar failing its migrant workers

1 China tech giants buy into Silicon Valley (Evelyn M Rusli, Paul Mozur & Douglas MacMillan in The Wall Street Journal) China's homegrown Internet giants which have little consumer business outside their home market, are unloading small fortunes on startups in the Silicon Valley as they strive to understand and eventually gain a foothold in the elusive US market. This week, Tencent Holdings, a social networking and gaming company, is vying to lead a fundraising round of $200 million in buzzy American messaging app Snapchat, according to people briefed on the matter.

Tencent's investment will likely value the two-year-old company, which has no revenue, at $4 billion.
Snapchat is just China's latest target. Long cloistered by a censorship regime that blocks international competitors, China's 600-million user strong Internet market has helped companies like Tencent and Alibaba become some of the world's largest. Tencent is worth more than $100 billion, while Alibaba is edging toward an IPO that could value it just as much. Growth, however, has slowed in recent years amid ferocious competition, and the largest firms have begun to look abroad for new opportunities.

To accomplish this, Chinese firms are tunneling into Silicon Valley's tightknit network with more than just thick checkbooks. To lead their efforts, they've tapped a small circle of connected bankers and executives. In October, Alibaba established a San Francisco-based US investment group, headed by Michael Zeisser, formerly of McKinsey.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303843104579171963801529056

2 India’s foreign policy crisis (Harsh V Pant in Khaleej Times) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a busy man these days – on a legacy tour, trying to underscore his credentials as a foreign policy leader of consequence. At home, though, he remains isolated, marginalised by his party, mocked by the opposition and hounded by the national media. Not surprising, therefore, that at the end of his 10-year stint at the helm of Indian politics, he is seeking refuge in foreign lands.

On the surface, New Delhi’s foreign policy is doing well but a closer examination suggests that in the name of multipolar diplomacy and non-alignment, Indian foreign policy is in danger of becoming rudderless, especially with economic decline and political turmoil at home. India’s major relationships are suffering as questions emerge in Washington about India’s rise, in Moscow about the gravitation to the West, in the East and Southeast Asia about India as credible balancer – all this emboldens China.

India’s ties with the US are now flagging. For all the talk of “time-tested” Indo-Russian ties, the two sides feel the pressures of a changing global context. Bilateral trade is struggling to cross the measly $11 billion mark, and Russia’s privileged position as India’s defence supplier of choice is under pressure as India shifts to the purchase of smart weaponry, which Russia is ill-equipped to provide. The outcome of Singh’s talks with China was meagre. India’s profile in its own neighbourhood has been shrinking rapidly as New Delhi’s inability to shape the evolution of domestic politics in Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka demonstrates.

This foreign policy crisis is of India’s own making. Inability to put its own house in order has shattered the notion of India as an emerging global power. In the last five years, the government in New Delhi decimated economic potential, scaring domestic and foreign investors, and making the county hostile to private investment. The last two decades were exceptionally good for Indian foreign policy in that they allowed India to operate in an international environment devoid of major power conflict.

After initially taking advantage of this benevolent environment, Indian leadership lulled itself into believing that it would last forever. Where bold choices were needed, all Indian policymakers could offer were a rehash of old ideas. As the system is undergoing changes with relative American decline, India finds itself bereft of economic heft and diplomatic agility. If the Indian story appears less attractive today, then Indian leadership must shoulder most of the blame.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/November/opinion_November6.xml&section=opinion

3 Johnson & Johnson fined $2.2bn (BBC) Drugs giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $2.2bn to settle allegations over its marketing techniques, the US justice department has said. The firm is alleged to have paid incentives to doctors and pharmacies to promote three of its medicines. The firm also allegedly promoted the drugs for uses not officially allowed.

Johnson & Johnson "lined their pockets at the expense of the American taxpayers, patients and the private insurance industry," US Attorney General Eric Holder said. While US doctors can prescribe medicines as they see fit, pharmaceutical companies cannot advocate any use of their drugs that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It is the third-biggest settlement involving a drugs firm in US history.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24811664

4 Qatar failing its migrant workers (Robert Booth & Owen Gibson in The Guardian) Qatar is failing to fully implement an international convention banning the use of forced labour ahead of the 2022 football World Cup, the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned. Azfar Khan, the ILO's senior labour migration adviser in the Arab states, said that despite pledges to do otherwise Qatar did not properly inspect workplace conditions and there was "no coherence" in the state's policies over the use of migrant labour.

"The onus is on the Qataris if they have ratified the convention to better implement it," he said. "Many of the abuses that take place which can lead to forced labour are still happening." Qatar became a signatory to the ILO convention on the abolition of forced labour in 2007.

The ILO's criticism follows exposure of 44 deaths among Nepalese workers from June 4 to August 8 and warnings from unions that more than 4,000 migrant workers could die between now and 2022 unless punishing working schedules and squalid living conditions are radically overhauled. There are already an estimated 1.2 million migrant workers in Qatar, mostly builders, and the country is expected to ship in at least 500,000 more as construction accelerates in preparation for the world's biggest sporting event.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/27/qatar-failing-forced-labour-un