|
|
|
Sort Order |
|
|
|
Items / Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
088315
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
China has the world's fastest-slowing economy. According to official statistics, gross domestic product skyrocketed a staggering 13.0 percent in 2007. In fact, in all likelihood that figure was even higher, with poor sampling procedures failing to properly take into account the output of small manufacturers, which at the time constituted the most productive part of the economy. Even without that extra bump, however, this put China in the top echelons in terms of economic growth.
Last year, however, the economy tumbled. GDP growth, Beijing tells us, was 10.6 percent in the first quarter, 10.1 percent in the second, 9.0 in the third, and 6.8 percent in the fourth. The decline continued this year, with growth reported as 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the lowest rate since China began issuing quarterly GDP statistics in 1992. The falloff is even more dramatic if we dig a bit beneath these numbers. China's National Bureau of Statistics reports GDP by comparing a quarter with the corresponding one during the preceding year. If, instead, it compared a quarter to the preceding one - as most countries do - it would have reported essentially no growth during the fourth quarter and, possibly, a contraction. And we have to remember that small manufacturers are suffering more than other producers, so current statistics still do not reflect the real drop-off in output. When other distortions in the statistics - some the result of fakery - are taken into account, it becomes clear that no economy is currently falling faster than China's.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
088322
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Eighteen months ago, H S Debnath, the deputy director of the Botanical Survey of India, stumbled upon rare volumes of intricate designs and weaving techniques while breaking open a locked cupboard - British locks no less, he adds. The find, he says, consists of two series of volumes, in sets of 18 and 15, dating back to 1866, titled, Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India. Together, the volumes present nearly 2000 fabric designs, complete with their length, breadth, weight, place and price specifications, as well as detailed archival material on weaving patterns, techniques and processes, with a companion volume on natural dyes. The whole project reflects the British zeal for detailed study, possibly undertaken, Debnath says, as an administrative enterprise to map agrarian patterns and output in the wake of famines. How the volumes ended up in almirahs in the Industrial section of the Indian Museum in Calcutta, where the Botanical Survey has its offices, remains anybody's guess.
Whatever the answer, Debnath's find excited many. "Indian textiles had never been documented before, as it has traditionally been a father-to-son communication," says Kasturi Gupta Menon, the honourary president of the Crafts Council of India. Menon feels that such documentation can find a practical application today, if the designs are taken to weavers to be revived. Debnath says that efforts are now underway to digitise the entire collection, and to see "if the material can be commercially applied, especially for the country's ailing handloom sector". Finds such as Debnath's open up fascinating windows into an era when Indian textile products dominated the imagination and commerce of merchant traders from Central Asia and the Mediterranean to the remoter landscape of the Netherlands, bringing them to ports in the Deccan, Coromandel and Bengal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 3 |
ID:
088316
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Constant theorising notwithstanding, at the moment no one has a clear understanding of when the current global economic meltdown will pass, or what the landscape will look like when it is done. One survey of economists, released by the Wall Street Journal during the first week of April, suggests that the US recession will end in September. As for the rest of the world, who knows? But there is also looming apprehension for the period beyond this timeframe, that the end result could be a situation worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Already there are clear signs of this, with manufacturing sectors around the globe collapsing, spectres of protectionism reappearing, layoffs becoming rampant, economic nationalism re-emerging, and social tensions and instabilities adding to the mix. In this part of the world, China and India, the two giants, despite showing some resilience, have suffered tremendously.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 4 |
ID:
088317
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The wisdom preached by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and nearly all mainstream economists during the past quarter-century of what has been (mistakenly) called 'neo-liberalism' has been that economies open to trade, capital and investment flows from around the world - in obedience to the laws of the putatively 'free' market - grow and develop faster and, hence, can bring about a quicker reduction in poverty, via the famous 'trickle-down effect', than can other economic approaches. This has been the essence of what is called globalisation. Textbook theory, it has been argued, shows very convincingly that both sides to a trading contract (both within and across countries) gain from it. Such 'efficiency' gains constitute the necessary incentive for spurring investment and growth within economies.
Theory is one thing, however, while reality quite another. The above wisdom today lies shattered as the 'great financial crisis of 2008' threatens to throw economies around the world into a serious depression - one that could last for years, such as took place during the 1930s. Trade, as an engine of growth and poverty reduction, now has to be questioned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 |
ID:
088323
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
In the parliamentary elections of the largest democracy in the world, international relations have seldom been on the agenda of political contestations. Despite heated debates over operational details, there is a consensus among non-left parties in New Delhi that the Nehru Creed, which assumes the role of successor state of the British Empire in Southasia, has to continue as the bedrock of Indian foreign policy. This is an assumption that confers secondary status to other states born out of British India. No wonder, then, that Bhutan is the most trustworthy friend India has in the region; and that too because South Block is entrusted with the responsibility of directing foreign affairs of the royal government in Thimphu. But mention China, and eyes light up with expectations from Kathmandu to Colombo - in every capital city of the Subcontinent except New Delhi.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 6 |
ID:
088319
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The year 2008, for many reasons, is likely to go down in the annals of recent Tibetan history as a watershed year. This was the year when Tibetans in Tibet, 49 years after the takeover of their country, demonstrated clearly and loudly that they were still unhappy under Chinese rule; when a new generation of Tibetans in Tibet, spanning the entire society from monks and nomads to farmers and students, became politicised; and when the Tibetan movement assumed a pan-national character, involving people from all three traditional provinces of Tibet in a united and hitherto unprecedented manner. Finally, this was also the year when the Dalai Lama's Middle Way approach, which gives up the demand for independence in return for genuine autonomy, and which he has pursued patiently and unwaveringly since the late 1980s, finally crashed in the face of Beijing's unequivocal rejection. Now, a year on from the widespread anti-Chinese demonstrations of spring 2008, and six months since the 'special meeting' convened by the Dalai Lama to discuss future options for the Tibet movement, it is time to face up to some harsh realities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 7 |
ID:
088321
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Sri Lanka is home to an array of ethnic groups, the smaller of which live partly outside the mainstream of society. Undoubtedly, the best known of these are the Veddah, who conform to the aboriginal, hunter-gatherer archetype. A lesser-known community, the only 'untouchable' group until the 1950s, is the Rodi. Indeed, the Rodi's intriguing myth of origin, their tragic history and the much-renowned beauty of their women, have combined to distinguish them. Not only has the tribe transformed into an oppressed caste in the mists of history, but the Rodi women have suffered disproportionately due to the burden of myths about their sexuality. While their beauty has been romanticised, the mystique of their sexual prowess has inspired both desire and fear in men of higher castes.
Although their beginnings are far from certain, it is possible that the Rodi were originally a hunting tribe from the Subcontinental mainland. Their current numbers are unknown, as Sri Lanka ceased to include caste in the population census almost a hundred years ago. Anthropologist Nireka Weeratunge's research in 1988 (the most recent to date) found one of the villages studied to have a larger population than the figure that had previously been used for the Rodi population for the Northwestern Province as a whole. While definite numbers thus cannot be cited, the Rodi population is today estimated to be around 25,000.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 8 |
ID:
088318
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Nepal's relationship with its northern neighbour, Tibet, was cemented when the Nepali princess Bhrikuti Devi married the king of Tibet, Songtsan Gampo, in the seventh century AD and earned the divine title White Tara. Thereafter, hundreds of Nepali artisans visited Tibet to build monasteries; and trade in bronze, gold and silver idols of Tara and other deities became one of the cornerstones of commerce between the two countries. For Nepal, Tibet was a more immediate entity than China, for thinking of distant Shanghai as a city with which to do business was farfetched.
During the mid-16th century, a treaty was signed between Nepal and Tibet that made Kathmandu the sole entrepot for the latter. In a fairly short timeframe, this allowed the ethnic Newar merchants of the Kathmandu Valley to build a roaring business with Tibet, trading with goods to and from India. However, defeat to a Chinese expedition force in 1792 changed Nepal's fortunes till trade was restored in 1856, when Nepal invaded Tibet and forced the trade routes to re-open. The Newar merchants again began to set up businesses in Lhasa, where they could trade goods from India and other parts of the world for gold and silver.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 9 |
ID:
088320
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Nine months after the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) took charge of the government following success in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the national condition in Nepal today is characterised by a series of absences: of rule of law, of government, of development, of reconstruction and rehabilitation, of investment and economic revival. The elections of April 2008 threw up a Maoist party that had yet to be socialised into open society, while the leadership began projecting the election win as an endorsement of the decade-long 'people's war'.
The public pins its hope on the constitution-writing, but the work has barely begun halfway to the stipulated deadline, because the newly renamed United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is unable or unwilling to lead the process. Meanwhile, the peace process itself is threatened by the Maoists' sudden reluctance to abide by previous understandings on integration and rehabilitation of their combatants, themselves verified at more than double their conflict-period estimated numbers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|