Analysis of WTO against China's limits on imports

The time has come to recognize that EU, Japan, China practice trade policies that can only be called mercantalistic. The United States has tried to use the WTO for years to force these parties to change, but nothing has happened. The time has come for policy makers in this country to abandon the notion of free trade and begin the re-industrialization of this nation. Unfortunately, special interest groups which profit from the present economic rules to the detriment of ordinary hard working Americans will block such policies.
China will never compete fairly and will always act in bad faith. China’s trade policies (including currency) are very protectionist and aggressive which they justify as necessary to make up for past disadvantages. No one wins in a trade war - but a country can only be pushed so far before it realizes that it is being beggared by trade counterparty. The USA has been among the biggest advocates of free trade - but has rarely evaluated whether that trade is fair. With constant enormous trade deficits, it appears that several countries (including China) have taken advantage of the US open trade policy.
China continues to amass a huge trade surplus over U.S. They then use these funds to not only buy our distressed and bankrupted corporations but to also acquire our own indigenously developed high technology.

U.S - China trade - Win-Win for China

China is a growing economic power, 2nd only to the US in size. Both the countries stand to reap substantial economic rewards by reducing the costs of business, eliminating tariffs and working cooperatively.

China must do more to protect IP rights, and the government needs to divorce itself of ownership interests in industry .The most pressing dangers to US economic competitiveness come from inside their own borders. The most promising item for US exporters is the rise of a Chinese middle class, hungry for U.S products. Billions of people wanting to spend their hard earned wealth on U.S products.
America is at a great disadvantage economically from China’s unfair trade policies and U.S should move to cancel your membership to the WTO because of non-tariff import restrictions and unbalanced currency manipulations, and exploitation of copyright laws. China only looks after its own interests and is the ultimate free rider on the world stage.
China wins by exporting cheap Chinese products which helps employment in China and China wins because those exports in turn allow China to amass huge forex reserves which China invests in US treasuries.

US looses domestic jobs because of imports of cheap Chinese products and US looses because US digs an ever deeper debt hole in favor of China with Chinese investments made from Chinese exports.

There is no clear picture how long this one-way trade with China having huge trade surpluses with US can continue and how much deeper debt hole can US dig for itself before it realizes that free-trade mantra is its own graveyard?
On the whole, I feel US - China trade is a win-win game for China.

Airtel's innings in Africa

Competition and unexplored avenues which can bring in possible potential revenues pushes the companies to spread their wings globally. This article is the analysis of Bharti Airtel’s expansion to Africa by acquiring Zain, a Kuwait based telecommunication firm which has operations in 15 countries in Africa. Airtel was foraying into Africa again after their earlier attempts to gain foothold in Africa through MTN deal resulted in failure.

Zain was not doing brisk business in Africa compared to their operations in the Middle East. Airtel saw the potential profitability in acquiring Zain as their entry to African market. In India, Airtel is the pioneer in making the best use of technology in providing communication services. It was their superior technology and minute based revenue which fetched them 33 % market share. Airtel strongly believed that integrating their technology with Zain’s existing platform would be cost effective for them.

Airtel also benefitted from Zain’s Zap, a mobile money service which enables the payment of groceries bills via mobile which in India is still in very nascent stage. They can implement this in India to further strengthen their market share. Low procurement cost, high market penetration, and replication of low cost business model provides ample scope for growth in Africa but at the same time, they also have to contend with operations overhaul and integration challenges. Each percentage increase in tele-density in a continent like Africa brings a GDP growth to India.
The competition is also less in Africa compared to India. In Africa they have the advantage of competing with only 4 competitors where in India every now and then a new service provider is coming into the market.

I will say that slowly but surely Airtel is moving in the right direction to tap the potential in African telecommunication market which is on an upswing. But still it is going to be a big challenge for Bharti Airtel to make money out of Zain's African assets.

Letter to Captains...

To ,
Anil Kumble – Royal Challengers Bangalore
M S Dhoni – Chennai Super Kings
Sachin Tendulkar – Mumbai Indians
Adam Gilchrist – Deccan Chargers

Subject : Selecetion of playing 11 for Semifinals

Hi All ,

To make the IPL 3 journey more exciting , I would like to suggest you the best playing 11 for you guys…

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Manish Pandey
Jacques Kallis
Kevin Pieterson
Robin Uthappa
Ross Taylor
Virat Kohli
Rahul Dravid
Anil Kumble
Dale Steyn
Vinay Kumar
Praveen Kumar

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar
Shikar Dhawan
Saurabh Tiwary
Ambati Rayudu
Keiron Pollard
J.P.Duminy
Dwayne Bravo
Abhishek Nayar
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Lasith Malinga

Chennai Super Kings

Matthew Hayden
Murali Vijay
Suresh Raina
M.S.Dhoni
S.Badrinath
Albie Morkel
R.Ashwin
Shadab Jakati
Sudeep Tyagi
Doug Bollinger
Muttiah Muralitharan

Deccan Chargers

Adam Gilchrist
Herschelle Gibbs
Mohnish Mishra
T Suman
Rohit Sharma
Andrew Symonds
Venugopal Rao
Pragyan Ojha
Harmeet Singh
Chaminda Vaas
R.P.Singh

This line ups are a suggestion to bring out the best of entertainment and game of cricket from IPL.

Regards
Venky

IPL 3 - One hell of a journey

The final four for the semis were decided with just one league match remaining in the tournament. That itself tells you how competitive the matches and the teams have been.

All tournaments have their ups and downs and so did this one. But you could not ask for a better last week with four teams trying their best to get a place in the semi-finals which are have been relocated to Navi Mumbai due to unavoidable circumstances.

We’ve seen many tournaments and series where teams are forced to play inconsequential matches, which is neither good for cricket nor for fans. Many of these matches, not surprisingly, fail to attract a good response in terms of fans coming to the stadium. It is heartening to see that with just two league matches to go, we still don’t know who the fourth semi-finalist will be.

The tournament has been on for over a month now and full of surprise victories and sudden failures. Changes in team form, player form and pitches have kept the tournament alive. What is interesting here is that teams that were struggling earlier did find some form and those who started off extremely well are now finding it difficult to book a place. Mumbai Indians are the exception here, impressive for their consistency. They have won 10 of their 13 games so far and qualified for the semis with three games in the kitty.

Delhi and Chennai are the ones who started well, fluttered in the middle and now are back to roaring form. Deccan Chargers were the strugglers who have now suddenly taken the tournament by the scruff of its neck and have gone on to win five matches on the trot.

The Delhi pitch has improved from a few matches ago while the Chennai track has started providing a lot of turn and bounce. M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru is not as quick as it was at the start of the tournament. And the ground at Dharamsala has been a welcome entry to the IPL. It has lived up to expectations which is no mean achievement considering it was being compared to the Newlands cricket ground at Cape Town famous for its backdrop of the Table Mountain.

The three strongest teams have made it to the semis – Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai Indians seem to be the strong favourites to win the title, yet on their day, Chennai and Bangalore too can trounce the side led by the little champion.

This is what makes IPL even more interesting and has the entire nation on its feet. Every match from now on will be watched even more keenly and it will be interesting to know what team fans will support, especially those whose favourite team has been ousted from the tournament.

Whoever wins, one thing is for certain, its been one hell of a journey. And the IPL Awards are the perfect conclusion to a highly engaging series.

I back Chennai Super Kings to take the championship.....