NATHU LA TRADE THIS SEASON

Gangtok, Nov. 14: Chinese trade through Nathu-la continues to falter compared to business on the Indian side. But it is not the global economic meltdown that has hit the neighbouring country.

Rather, it is the “obsolete” items, which China can export, that have made the trade a one-sided affair.

The volume of trade from May 19 to October 30 stood at nearly Rs 59 lakh as against Rs 34.6 lakh in the same period last year. The Sikkimese traders exported items worth Rs 57.6 lakh, while the imports from China were Rs 1.35 lakh. Edible items topped the list of articles sent to China in 2008, the third year since the reopening of the trade route located at 14,400ft above sealevel.

Official records of the trade through Nathu-la available with the Sikkim commerce and industries department reveal that the businessmen from the state have a monopoly over their counterparts in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. While the Indian exporters can send 29 items, including tea, flour, vegetable oil, cigarettes and liquor, China can sell 15 items permitted by India.

Anil Kumar Gupta, a member of the India-China Traders’ Association, said the Chinese could have done better if silk was permitted to be exported by them. “The list of items that the Chinese can export includes obsolete articles like goat’s hair, yak’s tail, China clay and horses. Our exports could have touched the crore mark had we been allowed to sell Basmati rice.”

Quoting official figures, Gupta said this year, over a thousand traders from Sikkim had visited the Renquingang trade mart in TAR, 16km from the border, while double the number of their Chinese counterparts came to the Sherathang post near Nathu-la.

“If more Indian exporters had gone across the border, the volume of trade would have certainly gone up,” he said.

An official of the Sikkim commerce department said the state government had made several attempts to persuade the Centre to revise the trade list but did not get any response. “We had prepared the list and sent it to the Union commerce ministry,” the official said.

The trade through Nathu-la will close on November 30. The traders from both the countries will meet at Sherathang on that day and review the business conducted through out the year.

Chinese delegation in New Delhi

CHINESE BUSINESS DELEGATION MEETS JAIRAM RAMESH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Delhi DT 11 OCT 2008
15:30 IST
Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce, has stated that China is India’s biggest trading partner and India is 10th biggest trade partner for China, and added that India is taking all necessary steps for diversifying its trade basket. During the interaction with the Chinese business delegation which was led by the Chinese Vice Minister, Mr. Gao Hucheng, here today, Shri Ramesh said that India and China should look ahead to explore the possibility of commencing discussions on a mutually beneficial RTA that meets the common aspirations of both countries. The meeting was attended by senior officials from both the countries.

As regards market access for Indian agricultural products into China, especially fruits & vegetables, Shri Ramesh noted that the Chinese side has allowed entry for only 3 items – mangoes, grapes and bitter-gourd – out of 17 and hoped that the rest of the pending fruits and vegetables would be grouped into two groups for a simultaneous finalization of SPS protocols.

Both sides noted that there is a need to increase bilateral investments between the two countries, particularly in sectors like petrochemicals, steel, healthcare, IT automobiles, biotechnology, advanced materials, renewable energy and low carbon technologies.

During the year 2007-08, India’s major exports to China are: iron ore, raw cotton, ores & minerals, plastic & linoleum and machinery & instruments. India’s major imports from China are: electronic goods, machinery, iron & steel, organic chemicals and other commodities.

Source: PIB

india china trade at $ 37.8 billion in 2007-08

New Delhi, Oct 11, IRNA: India's Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath, has informed that India-China trade in 2007-08 reached $ 37.8 billion, an increase of 47 per cent over 2006-07.

Interacting with the visiting Chinese Vice Minister, Gao Hucheng, here Friday, Kamal Nath informed that there are enormous opportunities for both India and China in expanding trade in services particularly in construction and engineering, education, entertainment, financial services, IT & IT-enabled services, transport, tourism and health.

Both sides discussed about holding the 8th Joint Economic Group (JEG) at a mutually convenient date.

The 7th JEG meeting was held in March 2006.

After the opening of the third border trade point between India and China, the Chinese side has been looking for expanding the scope of trade through Nathu La.

In July 2007, the Indian side proposed an addition of 24 more commodities tradable through Nathu La, mainly food items.

In turn, the Chinese side proposed 36 commodities including machinery, motor cycles and electrical appliances.

China ranks 64th and the cumulative FDI inflows stood at $ 4.7 million.

The top sectors attracting FDI inflows (January 2000 to March 2008) from China are trading, industrial machinery, mining, hotel and tourism and drugs and pharmaceuticals.

The top sectors attracting technology from China are metallurgical industries, chemicals (other than fertilizers), electrical equipment, industrial machinery and drugs & pharmaceuticals.

Earlier today, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on India-China Trade Remedy Cooperation Mechanism, was signed by G.K. Pillai, Commerce Secretary from Indian side and from Chinese side by Gao Hucheng, Vice Minister

FRESH FRUITS & VEGETABLES TO CHINA

China may allow 14 items for trade



New Delhi: India is hopeful that China would allow entry of 14 items in the category of fruits and vegetables under a bilateral trade agreement, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here on Saturday.

Under the India-China bilateral WTO accession agreement of February 2000, both sides have signed a sanitary and phyto-sanitary protocol to facilitate exports of fresh fruits and vegetable to China.

Mr. Ramesh said Chinese side had allowed entry of only three of the 17 items. — PTI

BUSINESS AT NATHU LA IMPORVES

Indian traders do good business at Nathu La

Gangtok (PTI): 22 Sept 2008: Indian traders recorded a turnover of Rs 10 lakh in August at Nathu La to take the total business to Rs 26 lakh since the annual trade on Sino-India border was re-opened on May 19.

According to data released by the Sikkim Commerce and Industries Department here, utensils including copper bowls fetched a revenue of Rs 9 lakh for Indian traders during four months of trade at the Renquinggang mart.

Other products like black tea, textiles, woollen shawls, canned food, vegetable oils and cigarettes were in demand from importers.

About 60 importers visited the mart daily to buy Indian goods, officials said.

TIBET-THE LOST FRONTIER

TIBET-THE LOST FRONTIER

Himmat Singh Gill

Tibet: The Lost Frontier
by Claude Arpi.
Lancer Publishers, New Delhi.
Pages 338. Rs 795.

Tibet was indeed a lost frontier during the 19th and first quarter of the 20th centuries. It was known only to a few intrepid explorers who ventured out to this landlocked Himalayan kingdom of the lamas and their cavernous monasteries, perched precariously high on the snowy mountaintops. Today, with all the diplomatic chess boarding and armed military turbulence that has overtaken this once peaceful and religiously oriented land, it would not be wrong to say that a frontier has been lost, but this time to a powerful Communist giant that has merrily trampled all over it without mercy or any regret.

Arpi, who was born in France and is an avid student of Tibet, tells the story of the takeover of this once autonomous land, now a part of China, and the ‘masterly inactivity’ of an Indian leadership under Jawaharlal Nehru, assisted by his blue-eyed diplomat K. M. Panikkar, our man in Beijing.

Arpi traces the winding paths of the three ancient civilisations of Tibet, China and India, which over time developed their own characteristics, and the pacifist and non-violent signature of a Dalai Lama-ruled Tibet, which ironically added impetus to its own dismemberment at the hands of Mao and his party when they took power in China after overthrowing the KMT government of Chiang-Kai-Shek A nuclear-armed Communist China eager to stretch out its reach and boundaries in Asia clearly saw the importance of Tibet in the furtherance of its strategic ascendancy. The author points out very clearly this prophetic assessment when he writes that, “The key to conflict or peace in Asia lies on the Tibetan plateau”.

With the occupation of Tibet in 1950,China sent out an unambiguous message to a newly independent India and the ruling elite in the neighbouring Soviet Union that it harboured political and military designs of a serious kind in this part of the world. The October 1912 the Government of Tibet’s letter to the Viceroy asking for a British representative to be posted to Lhasa and its directions to China to withdraw all its officials and troops from inside Tibet was followed by the Simla Convention of April 1914, where Tibet and the British government agreed to their mutual boundary being along the McMahon Line. With the Chinese representative only initialing and not signing this pact, a vacuum was left wide open for subsequent disputes which in fact came to a head with the attack on India in 1962.The 13th Dali Lama’s prediction that “large insects are eating and secretly injuring small insects” was true in every respect.

Besides the change in fortune that the British had left India and a ‘karma’ that was none too benign to the people of Tibet, it was their added misfortune that an idealist Nehru, sold over Non-Alignment and notions of bringing peace to Asia and the world at large, remained oblivious till the end to the trampling of a buffer neighbour state.

In the meanwhile, Ambassador Panikkar continued to send glowing reports about the growth of Indo-Chinese friendship and Zhou-EnLai’s warmth in relations, and all this suited Nehru to the tick until of course he suddenly learnt in 1951-52 that the Chinese were feverishly constructing the Aksai Chin road, linking Ladakh to Tibet. In Parliament, Prof Ranga lashed out at Panikkar for “professing the friendship not only to China’s people, not only to the Chinese government but to China’s sovereignty over Tibet. This beats anybody and everybody”.

The attention of readers is drawn to the fact that it was in Panikkar’s time that in official government-to-government correspondence, the fact of an Indian acceptance of a Chinese ‘suzerainty’ over Tibet was changed to that of their having ‘sovereignty’ over the Himalayan kingdom, leading to an entirely bigger concession being inadvertently made to the Communists. Rightly does Arpi say that “Nehru did not want (to) take a clear stand” on the question of Tibet as a buffer state.

Arpi even brings out the startling fact that after the occupation of Tibet, there was no food to feed the Chinese troops, and for quite some time on Chinese request Indian rice was sent through the Chumbi Valley trade route on orders of Nehru, with our foreign office being instructed to keep the matter under the wraps.

It was again in October1951, when Secretary-General in the External Affairs Ministry Bajpai cautioned Nehru about the distinct possibility of Chinese “small forces dribbling in” through the many passes on the border and “make(ing) trouble for India”, that the Prime Minister outrightly rejected such a contingency. The author says, “Nehru also felt that large expenditures on the Army would starve the development of the country and its social progress.” Much the same attitude sadly prevails even today in our babudom and political masters, when they are dealing with the Indian Army of today.

Nehru visited China in 1954 and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. In between we had the 1967 Nathu-La clash and another one at Wangdung in Arunachal in 1986. Narasimha Rao in 1993, A.B. Vajpayee in 2003 and now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008, have all visited China, and yet the vexed border question in the northeast along the McMahon Line remains unresolved to this day. It should be clear to any Indian as to why China is keeping this dispute unresolved and open to dispute. And while the Dalai Lama resides in India, a previously independent and autonomous state has been erased from the world map.

Claude Arpi’s well researched and illuminating account of the failure of India’s diplomacy in its very backyard is a tribute to not only the author’s painstaking efforts at getting to the truth (which few Indian writers can be credited with as regards to writing on Tibet), but also marks a plus for the publishers who thought of bringing out this very instructive account. This study vividly points out that the peace-loving people like the Tibetans can no longer hope to remain in a Shangri-la of their own cut off from the prying eyes and their adventurous designs, and that to exist as an independent nation one must fine-tune not only its diplomacy but also be militarily strong enough to send out the right message.

( SOURCE-tHE TRIBUNE)

NATHULA-BARBERED WIRE NOT SILK

Barbed wire, not silk

The historic Nathu La Pass on the Silk Route is a frontier that resonates with a violent past and speaks of an uneasy truce in the present. Out here, Hindi-Chini is not so bhai bhai

Nishi Malhotra Chandigarh

Man-made boundaries are like lines in wet sand, drawn with a heavy hand, but vulnerable to the sweeping tides of history. I went to the Indo-China border at Nathu La Pass recently, hot on the trail of two arch rivals’ sudden desire to increase trade and shake hands across a border that once opened onto countries called Sikkim and Tibet. What I found, instead, was a frontier that resonates with a violent past and speaks only of an uneasy truce in the present—made in the interests of the new realities of globalisation, perhaps.

The international boundary between India and China at Nathu La Pass is a paradox. The two strands of barbed wire without a no man’s land that mark this ‘friendly’ border are put to the lie by the heavy stone fortifications still intact on each side. The Chinese appear to have built miniature replicas of the Great Wall that descend from the snowy heights both to the left and right of the border, complete with tunnels and a tower, from which a CCTV records, 24 hours a day, all movement (including that of tourists’) on the Indian side. The Pass itself is not obstructed, however, and tourists can gape at a very worthy view of what was once Tibet.

High on the mountain ridges that are under Indian control, and clearly visible in the near and far distance, are what at first appear to be several random piles of stones partially covered with snow. These are the bunkers inside which our frontline soldiers live, breathe (in extremely rarified air) and wake up. Despite the border now being open to trade and tourists, it is hard to find many private vehicles on the 56 km route from Gangtok to Nathu La. What you do see, instead, is a lot of army green: checkposts, tin-roofed clusters of makeshift cantonments, convoys of trucks ferrying supplies, diesel-spewing jeeps (I travelled in one) and artillery that startles you with the boom of its shells ricocheting off the inner ranges.

An army colonel in Gangtok, in answer to my query about whether he would characterise the atmosphere at the Nathu La border as friendly, said, “Let’s just say there is no hostility at present.” In fact, the Friendship Gate, erected to mark the opening of the Pass, looks out of place next to the poignant signage extolling the fallen heroes of 1962 and the war memorial commemorating them. Indian soldiers patrolling the boundary keep their distance from the Chinese —it is easy to see why.

Even as the Chinese soldiers reach out across the barbed wire to shake hands and pose for pictures with tourists, some of them are not averse to stealing goods from unsuspecting Indians. I was witness to two unseemly (for any army, anywhere) incidents in the one hour we spent at the border —a student had a Rs 100 note snatched right out of her hand by a soldier, who ran off back to his checkpost, laughing at her distress; another tourist managed to save her camera from being grabbed just in the nick of time. No one can help the tourists because the two strands of wire, easy enough to cross, constitute an international boundary that cannot be violated.

As for commerce—the big reason why Nathu La is now a familiar name across India—all the hoopla basically boiled down to importing some yak tails and goat skins (How did we ever manage without them before?). These items, and some sheep, horses, etc., are on the restricted list of 15 that Indian traders trudge all the way up to the Pass and into the village of Renqinggang, in China, to bring back. Of course, they are allowed to export from a list of 29 items as well, including useful things like tea and rice, which hordes of Chinese would gladly grab, except, the Indian government has given permits to only 100 traders. As to why the number of permits issued is so low, and, worse, why the chosen traders should have been born before 1975, the year Sikkim became an Indian state, only the government of India can explain the mystery.

The Chinese have no restrictions on items to be imported and exported or the number of traders who can travel to the Indian mart at Sherathang. They are a little annoyed, though, about their traders not being allowed to stay the night in India; the Chinese have hospitably granted the privilege of overnight stay to tired Indian traders, even constructed hostels for them.

Nathu La is a must-visit for history buffs and those who want a ringside view of what a disputed frontier looks like; even with all the talk of cross-border tourism, it doesn’t quite seem that the warlike infrastructure here is going to be dismantled in a hurry.

The Pass does have a fascinating past. It was used as an offshoot of the Silk Route since ancient times, connecting Lhasa, in Tibet, with the Bengal plains. The trade volume through Nathu La became heavy after the British annexed territories belonging to the Sikkimese, Bhutanese and Nepalese in 1815, and later signed an agreement with China. After China took over Tibet in 1950 and suppressed a Tibetan uprising in 1959, the passes into Sikkim became a conduit for refugees from Tibet. During the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the Nathu La Pass witnessed skirmishes between soldiers of the two countries. Although Sikkim was, at the time, an independent country, the Indian army used to man its border with China. The Pass was closed shortly after 1962.

Up until when the Pass was sealed, goods, such as pens, watches, building materials, cereals, dismantled scooters and four wheelers were exported from India to Tibet on mule-back. A train of 200 mules, each beast of burden carrying 80 kilos on its back, used to take 20-25 days to make the journey from Gangtok to Lhasa and back. The return journey often brought goods, such as precious stones, gold and silverware, medicinal plants and musk pods. Almost 95 per cent of the traders from the Indian side were from the Marwari community.

In later years, several Indian leaders, including Jyoti Basu, Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee, discussed the opening of land trade through this pass (and Jelep la, another all-weather pass that is only five kilometres away from Nathu La) with Beijing. But it was only in 2004, following the visit by India’s Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to China that the formal opening of Nathu La was announced.

Due to logistical problems on the Chinese side, the actual re-opening of Nathu La took place only on July 6, 2006. It was attended by 700 dignitaries from both countries as well as the national and international media—despite the freezing rain and bitter cold that prevailed on the day. The re-opening also marked the formal recognition by India of Tibet as part of China and China’s recognition of the accession of Sikkim to India in 1975. Ironically, July 6 is the birthday of the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, whom the Indian government has been sheltering in Macleodganj ever since he fled Tibet in 1959.

Trade for the year had closed already when I travelled to Nathu La in late October this year. However, history and commerce notwithstanding, geography is a good reason to head to the pass that towers over the relatively low-lying city of Gangtok (4,500 ft) at a dizzy height of 14,400 ft.

The steep gradient is traversed by one of the world’s highest motorable roads and it is possible to make the journey in just two hours. What this translates to on the ground is that one has to cross four climactic zones on the way up—from sub-tropical forest to temperate to wet and dry alpine to cold tundra desert. The treeline disappears at about 12,000 ft and at the time

I travelled, snow was already beginning to pile up from this point onwards. In summer, I was told, the route to Nathu La is spellbinding —irises, poppies, orchids and rhododenderons bloom all along the way. Tsangmo Lake, a crystalline tarn fed by glacier-melt, makes for a good en-route halt —its surrounding area is teeming with wildlife such as Brahmani ducks, yaks, red pandas and migratory birds. Nathu La Pass itself offers a phenomenal long-shot view of the Chumbi Valley of Tibet and a close-up portrait of the Chinese, of course!

( source: Hardnews Magazine-N Delhi)

MOMENTUM IN NATHU LA TRADE THIS SEASON

Nathu La border trade gains momentum


Gangtok, Aug 20 Border trade between India and China through Nathu La has gained momentum, with the country's export turnover in the last month alone indicating a significant growth.
According to figures released by the Sikkim Commerce and Industries Department, the turnover of export from India reporting a figure of Rs 7.20 lakh in July.

The export turnover at Nathu La, which reopened on May 19 this year, for the two till June stood at about Rs eight lakh export turnover. The total export turnover up to now stands at Rs 15.67 lakh.

Textile products like shawls, blankets, utensils and copper items were much sought after by Chinese importers in view of the growing demand for them by the people of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Commerce and Industry Department officials said.

Products like vegetable oil, canned food, tea, cigarettes and coffee were also much in demand by Chinese importers, they said.

Expressing satisfaction with the growth of bilateral border trade this year, the officials said that with Beijing Olympics 2008 coming to an end on August 24, the volume of the bilateral border trade was expected to pick up with the larger participation of traders of the two countries.

MAHINDRA 51% STATE IN CHINESE COMPANY

Mahindra buys 51% in Chinese tractor co


Mumbai, Aug. 18 Tractor and utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra has agreed to pick up majority equity in a joint venture it will form with China’s third largest tractor company, Yancheng Tractor.

The new venture will hold the divested tractor business of the state-owned Chinese company. The deal will strengthen M&M’s tractor company, Mahindra Farm Equipment Sector, the third largest tractor maker in the world, and gets it closer to its aim of becoming number one.

M&M will hold 51 per cent equity in the joint venture, through its Mauritius-based subsidiary, Mahindra Overseas Investment company. It will pay $26 million ( Rs 112 crore) for the stake.The net assets of the Chinese company that will be transferred to the new venture are valued at $ 50 million, said Mr Bharat Doshi, M&M’s Chief Financial Officer.

This is Mahindra’s second tractor venture in China after Mahindra China Tractor Company Ltd, the 80:20 joint venture between Mahindra and Jiangling Motors Company.

M&M makes tractors in the 24-80 HP range and Yangcheng in the 16-125 HP range. Yangcheng exports tractors to the US, South America, Europe, Russia and Africa.

Mr Anand Mahindra, M&M’s Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, hoped the new venture would help the company realise its aspiration of being the number one tractor company in the world.

Mr Doshi said the farm equipment sector sold 1.14 lakh units in 2007 and the figure would be 1.44 lakh if the sales of Punjab Tractors, which M&M bought last year, were added. Yangcheng sold 26,000 units last year.

“If we put together all these numbers, it surpasses that of the world’s largest tractor maker,” said Mr Doshi, suggesting that Mahindra had the potential to become the world’s number 1 in volume terms.

“Yancheng’s Huanghai Jinma brand is strong in domestic China market and the company is one of the biggest exporters,” said Mr Anjanikumar Choudhari, M&M’s President, Farm Equipment Sector. Yancheng Tractor, located in Jiangsu Province, had total revenue last year of about Rs 500 crore.

Investment plan


“We have an investment plan for the growth of the company. Over a period of time we will invest $ 20 million,” said Mr Dhoshi. He said that Yancheng targets 30 – 35,000 unit sales in the current year.

Giving his perspective on the collaborative venture, Mr Anand Mahindra said “World speaks that India and China are competitors. We are showing that India and China can collaborate to create a new competitive force.”

M&M plans to enhance its research and development capabilities in China. “The Chinese have a fair degree of cost-competitiveness. We will certainly leverage that. China could be a base for exports,” said Mr Gautam Nagwekar, Chief Operating Officer, Mahindra Farm Equipment Sector.

Source: Businessline

FASTER HIGHER RICHER- CHINA

Faster, higher, richer- CHINA

The 2008 Olympics will open on Friday in Beijing in a burst of pomp and pageantry. Much has been said and written about how China will use the event to showcase its achievements over the past three decades, as it moved from being a Maoist cesspool to its current status as one of the world’s emerging superpowers. The famous Bird’s Nest stadium, the 36 other Olympic facilities, the gleaming new hotels, the super-fast trains from Beijing to Tianjin (where the football games will be played), the world’s biggest airport terminal in the capital city — each is meant to impress.Most countries host their first Olympics when average incomes reach a certain level. When will India be ready?

China is not unique in this respect. Japan did something similar when it hosted the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. “The autumn of 1964, when the Olympics came to Tokyo, was to be the greatest ceremonial celebration of Japan’s peaceful, post-war democratic revival. No longer a defeated nation in disgrace, Japan was respectable now. After years of feverish construction, of highways and stadiums, hotels, sewers, overhead railways, and subway lines, Tokyo was ready to receive the world with a grand display of love, peace, and sports,” writes Ian Buruma in his 2003 book on the rise of Japan, Inventing Japan: From Empire to Economic Miracle.

Familiar, isn’t it?

Economic resurgence and hosting the Olympics seem to go hand in hand. There is a common feature between the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics — and indeed most of the Olympics held across the world in the postwar years. And this common feature could offer us some clues about when India will be ready to host its first Olympics.
Most countries have hosted their first post-war Olympics when their average incomes have moved into a tight band of between $4,000 and $8,000, calculated using 1990 purchasing power parity, or PPP, dollars. I have taken the incomes data from economic historian Angus Maddison’s monumental research into the world economy since the dawn of the christian era. The record suggests that India should try to host its first Olympics when its average income is somewhere in that range.

Consider two Asian countries that had just about emerged out of mass poverty when they hosted the Olympics, to tell the world that they have arrived. Japan had a per capita income of $5,668 in 1964. South Korea had a per capita income of $7,621 in 1988, the year the Games came to Seoul. Both had recorded around 15 years of astonishing growth by the time the world’s best athletes came to their capital cities to win medals and glory. In another part of the world, Mexico had a per capita income of $4,073 in 1968, a year marked by the slaughter of protesting students to ensure a peaceful Olympics and Black Power salutes on the victory stand.

It was not economic success but political unrest that made those Games memorable, a risk that the Chinese are well aware of.

But the incomes rule is not restricted to emerging Asian and Latin American nations alone. Interestingly, even more developed nations had average incomes in the same range when they hosted their first post-war Olympics. Here are some of the relevant numbers: London in 1948 ($6,746), Helsinki in 1952 ($4,674), Melbourne in 1956 ($8,108), Rome in 1960 ($5,916) and Moscow in 1980 ($6,427). The exceptions are few, such as Munich in 1972 ($11,481), Montreal in 1976 ($14,902) and Atlanta in 1992 ($23,298). But when Hitler and his thugs tried to use the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to showcase their achievements, Germany had a per capita income of $4,451.

I am not suggesting any Iron Law of Olympic Bids. But it does appear that countries need strong economies to convince the International Olympic Committee that they can play host to the world’s best sportspeople and thousands of tourists. You need to be rich enough to do the job.

So, when will India be ready? India’s average income right now is around $3,000 in PPP. That is at current rates, and not in the 1990 dollars that I have used in the earlier examples. But a comparison with China today would suffice. Average Chinese PPP incomes will be around $5,500 this year.

How long will it take India to reach that level? Assuming current rates of economic growth and population growth, it will need at least another decade to reach there. In other words, India could think of bidding for the 2020 Games.
China will be showcasing more than its physical infrastructure in Beijing this year.

It also wants to prove that it has the world’s best athletes. A quick tour of various online betting sites suggests that China is expected to win more medals this year than any other country. As far as winning medals goes, India is unlikely to emulate its northern neighbour by 2020.

Sad, but true.

( source: Livemint)

First tax return filed in Sikkim

Gangtok, Aug. 6: Sikkim today formally came under the purview of the central income tax act with the opening of the first income office here this afternoon.

Initially, around 10 per cent of the state’s total population of 5.4 lakh will come under the assessment of the tax. However, Sikkim Subject Domicile and holders of Certificate of Identification are exempt from paying the tax.

Bonani Ghosh, the commissioner of the income tax department (north Bengal and Sikkim), said after the inauguration of the new office: “The assessment year will be 2008-2009. This has already been agreed upon between the state and the Centre.”

Assistant commissioner A.K. Pramanik of the Siliguri office will also oversee the Sikkim operations through four employees posted at Gangtok. The new office is housed in a government quarters above Bhanupath on the way to the secretariat.

Pankaj Saxena, the general manager of a hotel here, was the first to file his individual return. His chartered accountant handed over the details of his income to the commissioner.

“I appeal to all members of the business community and the state government to make this a smooth operation,” the commissioner said.

A series of workshops will be conducted by the office soon to answer the queries of those who will now have to pay the Central Income Tax.

The Income Tax Act of 1961 had been extended to the state in 1989 but had not been enforced because of stiff opposition from residents, who felt it would overrule the old laws of Sikkim protected under Article 371 (f) of the Constitution.

( SOURCE: THE TELEGRAPH)

CHINA KEEN ON EXPANDING BORDER TRADE

China keen on expanding border trade with India

Shimla, August 05 As China takes initial steps to develop trade links with Himachal Pradesh under its “province-to-province Sino-Indian commerce strategy”, it has reiterated its interest in broadening the share of border trade between two countries through the high-altitude passes in the state.

In a significant move, China has extended support to the entrepreneurs of Himachal to explore trade possibilities in China. It has also requested the Indian government for relaxing visa norms for Chinese nationals and to allow for trade of wide variety of goods through the old silk route that enters China from India through the Shipkila and Nathula passes of Himachal Pradesh.
Replying to a question in Shimla during a seminar organised by the India “China Trade Centre (ICTC), Economic and Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of People’s Republic of China in India, Peng Gang said, “The Chinese government is very keen on expanding the trade in India, but the Indian government has been conservative with stringent visa norms for Chinese traveling to India.”

Giving out numbers during the seminar on growth of Himachal with experience from China, Gang said 5 lakh Indians visited China during 2007, while only 50,000 Chinese could get a visa to India.

“India is free to export 36 items to China through the borders shared by India along Himachal with the Autonomous Tibet Region, but China can export only 15 items,” said Gang.
Chairman SRC of India China Trade Centre (ICTC) V.K. Mishra said the Indian government is expected to add more items to the list of things allowed through border trade, which would include more significant things than salt and tea.

Health Minister Rajeev Bindal, on behalf of the state, conveyed interest in developing ties with China in infrastructure building, agriculture, tourism, hydro power and Herbal processing.
“Opportunities of processing of herbal produce and food processing in collaboration with China are being looked upon,” he said.

Chinese Company Longjian Road and Bridge Limited Company (state-run) is the first to foray into Himachal for road infrastructure development in Una and Rohru, with an investment of about 100 million US dollars.

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KUFRI: “India should relax the stringent visa requirements for Chinese entrepreneurs and tourists for promotion of bilateral relations, trade and joint ventures,” said Peng Gang, the economic and commercial counsellor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in India, here on Tuesday.

He said although the Chinese had started Visa Facilitation Services in their country, the number of Chinese visiting India was far less than the Indians visiting China.

Mr. Peng was addressing a seminar in this tourist resort near Shimla on ‘The growth of Himachal Pradesh with experiences from China and economic cooperation’ jointly organised by the India-China Trade Centre, the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Chinese Enterprise in India. Improve cooperation

Claiming that bilateral trade was expected to reach $60 billion by 2010, he stressed the need to advance industry-to-industry relations and improve cooperation in the fields of steel, ferro-alloys, chemicals, information technology, plastics, petrochemicals and general trade.

Top officials of the India-China Trade Centre said though political clearance from the Chinese government was required for joint ventures with the State-owned companies from China, private entrepreneurs could do it without any government authorisation. There was no harm going in for economic and business cooperation despite the fact that Dalai Lama stays in Himachal Pradesh.

Mr. Liu Shu Jun, Chief Representative of Longjian Road Bridge Company, which is doing two road projects in India, said the company has installed infrastructural equipment worth $7 million in the past few days in the State.

Why Qinghai-Tibet Railway is threat to India?

Why Qinghai-Tibet Railway is threat to India?

China plans to lay world's highest Qinghai-Tibet Railway's first branch line connecting Lhasa and Xigaze in Tibet. It's seen as a great asset for China's armed forces. India has a reason to be cautiously optimistic about this Railway.


CHINA IS planning to extend the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to neighbouring Nepal. If this happens, it will mark the beginning of a new power equation in Asia. With the Maoists in the saddle in Nepal, India’s worries have only been compounded.

China has plans to lay Qinghai-Tibet Railway’s first branch line connecting Lhasa and Xigaze, Tibet’s second largest city. This branch line will then be extended to the China-Nepal border, about 400 kilometres away from the city, according to Chinese media. This will mark the evolution of a new great game.


The 1,142km Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa in Tibet is the world’s highest and longest railway, running through extremely inhospitable terrain located at heights of more than 4000 metre above sea level. The highest point in the railway is the 5,072 metre (16,640 ft) high Tanggula pass in the Kunlun mountain range.


China has notched up a series of spectacular achievements in the recent past. The main concrete wall of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River – the world’s largest hydro-electric power project has begun to hold water. The mammoth Three Gorges project is expected to be completed by 2009. The first Chinese Taikonaut (astronaut) lifted into space aboard the Shenzhou-V spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in October 2003. China’s next manned space flight, the third in the programme, is slated for later this year.


The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was a challenge for Chinese engineers and workers. They had to endure tremendous hardship due to the lack of oxygen at such heights. The successful completion of the railway a year ahead of schedule attests to the ingenuity and the tenacity of the Chinese. Concerns have been voiced about the probable damage to the environment. Some critics argue that the new railway could spell doom for the endangered Tibetan antelope or Chiru.


Fears have been expressed that the migration of Han Chinese may cause irreparable damage to Tibetan culture and lead to a demographic change. However, Chinese government officials discount these fears. They argue that domestic and foreign tourists will bring in much needed revenue, reduce transportation costs and save time. China has ambitious plans to extend the railway to areas bordering India, Nepal and Bhutan. This assumes additional significance in view of the re-opening of the trade route in Nathu la in Sikkim between India and China after a hiatus of 44 years. China wants to bring Tibet Autonomous Region into the national mainstream in the hope of ending problems of separatism in its outlying regions through economic development.


The new railway will be a great asset for China’s armed forces allowing easy and rapid movement of men and materials. With India cosying up to the US and Japan firmly in the American camp, China is wary of American attempts to encircle it. Yet, China is aware that the US needs its help when it comes to the North Korean and the Iran issues. China is playing a leading role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). India has observer status in the SCO along with Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran. China’s interests in the SCO may put it at odds with the American designs in the region.


China is also grappling with the problem of overcrowding in its urban areas. To control the migration into its already overcrowded cities, China knows that there has to be more equitable development. China has been facing flak on its human rights record internationally and events like the opening of the railways could help deflect attention from these issues, albeit temporarily.



India has reason to be cautiously optimistic about this railway. The disputed border with China in Arunachal Pradesh is one reason India has to be on guard. India’s decision to construct new roads in Arunachal Pradesh is a step in the right direction. Though Chinese presence in the border areas seems to be increasing, India need not be unduly worried. At the same time, however, there should be no laxity in terms of defence preparedness lest India should be caught in a 1962-type situation.

Fortune from a fungus

Olympian lure: Yarchagumba, the 'elixir'
ENVIRONMENT: YARCHAGUMBA


Fortune From A Fungus


There's gold in them hills.... It's a power drug in China and grows on a caterpillar.

Debarshi Dasgupta

The demand for Yarchagumba, a fungus that grows on a caterpillar and is found in the Himalayan states, has suddenly gone up in China
Some in the trade suspect this is because of the Olympics. Prices have hit Rs 7-10 lakh per kg.
Villagers in Himalayan states are often found collecting it illegally from protected reserves
The trade in Yarchagumba is harming the fragile habitat in the upper reaches, prompting wildlife experts to call for regulation
***Improbable though it may sound, an exotic fungus has triggered a gold rush of sorts in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Alpine meadows are fragile biospheres. Unchecked harvesting puts them in danger.
Considered a performance enhancer, Yarchagumba is a much-sought-after ingredient in traditional medicine in China. But some trade observers suspect that the Beijing Olympics has pushed prices to a never-before high this year. In 2007 a kilogram of the
fungus sold for about Rs 4 lakh, but prices could now crest anywhere between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. Given the high value associated with this fungus, over-exploitation and smuggling has become rampant and menacing. In the past two weeks, there have been at least two foiled instances of smuggling of the fungus. The first one involved an Assam Rifles jawan who was reportedly caught with a few lakh of rupees and about 500 grams of the fungus in Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. The second incident took place in Sikkim, where three smugglers were nabbed by the state forest department on July 2 with 17 kg of the fungus on them. In the past two years, there have also been two murders in Uttarakhand that some claim were linked to the trade in the fungus.
Yarchagumba, scientifically known as Cordyceps sinesis, grows on caterpillars of the Hepilus fabricius moth. Spores of the fungus grow inside the caterpillar and produce a stalked structure that grows outward from its body. The collection season usually begins with the onset of spring and lasts a few weeks. In India, it is found in the Himalayan stretches at an altitude of about 3,500 metres. The fungus contains proteins, peptides, essential amino acids, and Vitamins B1, B2 and B12, among other nutrients.Most of the harvest is exported illegally to Nepal to be sent onward to China. While some have speculated about a link between the present surge in the trade this season and the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, there is no hard evidence yet to back that claim. That may, however, be a possibility as the fungus's popularity first soared after the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, when Chinese female athletes shocked the world by smashing records in several track and field events. Their coach, Ma Zunren, gave part of the credit to a tonic containing the fungus.The potential of Yarchagumba has not, however, received much official attention yet. "We are trying to grow it artificially on grain and come up with a processed form that may be used by Indian drug companies," says A.N. Shukla, head of forest pathology at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. Meanwhile, every spring villages in the hills empty themselves as the able-bodied set out for the meadows in search of the fungus. This unregulated exploitation poses a major threat to the fragile ecosystem of alpine meadows that are known for their exuberant but short-lived burst of plant life during summers. The habitat shelters endangered animals like the musk deer, snow leopard and Himalayan brown bear, besides several protected species of flora. All this may be in danger if the collection of the caterpillar fungus is not checked.For, during collection, hundreds of people often camp together.

CHINA EYEING SIKKIM

China eyeing Sikkim again

By Shri Ashok Kumar Mehta

India, like others, follows a 'One China' policy but deals with two Chinas. The "peacefully rising China", which "understands and supports India's aspirations to play a greater role in international affairs" but merely lip services it, actually regulates a relationship on its own terms. This is the China which Indian leaders want to emulate economically and frequently make believe there is space for both to rise and prosper. This China will soon overtake the US as India's largest trading partner.

The other China is the one that inflicted a humiliating defeat over the boundary dispute in 1962 and has kept bullying and needling India without diplomatic grace and sophistication. It is opposed to India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council, entry into the Asian economic and security structures and recognition as a state with nuclear weapons. Its blatant use of Pakistan and other negative strategies ensures India is kept confined to South Asia courtesy its strategic encirclement: 'String of Pearls', a chain of naval bases designed to undermine India's pre-eminence in the Indian Ocean region.

China's military modernisation is moving at a frenetic pace. Defence spending has registered an annual increase of 17 per cent, officially amounting to $ 70 billion, though Western analysts say it is double that amount. The upgrade in military infrastructure in Tibet has trebled the operational and logistics capabilities of the PLA. Its strategic programmes are on the rise too.

The boundary dispute, which hurts India, has for all intents and purposes remained on the back burner, periodically subjected to the charade of political and cartographic mechanisms for its resolution. It is a zero sum game. Cleverly, the Chinese have raised the political cost of any settlement to unacceptably high levels even raking up boundary dispute on the settled Sikkim border.

Dealing with the two Chinas are officials in foreign office who believe relations with Beijing have never been better and military commanders who assert that there is a serious disconnect between our perception of Chinese intent and capabilities. But they are being advised to underplay, even underreport, border incidents.

The Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor's recent television interview on the frequency of alleged intrusions by the PLA was unprecedented for its candour and content. He emphasised that both Armies were patrolling up to the Line of Actual Control of their perception and transgressing each other's imagined red lines. He dismissed the aggressive behaviour of the PLA in dismantling military structures on the Dolam Plateau near the trijunction of Bhutan as a matter for Bhutan to sort out with China. It is no secret that India is committed to the defence of Bhutan and coordinates its border talks with China.

Article III of the 1996 CBM Treaty, which outlines several de-escalating measures, cannot be implemented as a mutually acceptable LAC has defied definition and demarcation.

The most recent and sustained fingering by PLA on the border has been in North Sikkim is Gyangyong area. The border with Sikkim was settled in 1890 as per Anglo-Chinese convention along the watershed between the Sikkim Teesta and the Tibetan Mochu rivers. The boundary though has not been jointly demarcated. In 2003 during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China, Sikkim was recognised as a State of the Indian Union after India parroted for the nth time that Tibet was an Autonomous Region of China.

On June 16, a vehicle-mounted PLA patrol came one kilometre into the Finger Area making it the 65th intrusion this year in the same area. On one occasion, Indian soldiers formed a human chain to block the entry of the PLA. In 1967, similar Indian tactics at Nathu La blew up into a major border skirmish.

Sikkim's geo-strategic importance is recognised beyond doubt. Its eastern shoulder descends into the Chumbi valley to the point near the trijunction with Bhutan which is disputed. North Sikkim is the only area in the East from where any meaningful ground offensive into Tibet can be mounted. During Operation Falcon, following the Sumdorong Chu standoff in Wangdung, heavy tanks, artillery and mechanised vehicles were inducted into North Sikkim in 1987. As matching infrastructure lagged behind and slowed down to zero after the 1993 and 1996 peace accords, the military deterrent capability also withered away. So twice, once after 1962 and again in 1987, infrastructure development plans were aborted.

Only this year, singed by Chinese accusations of a prime ministerial trespass of Arunachal Pradesh was a retired Army Chief despatched as Governor of the State and a development package funded. No Indian Prime Minister has ever visited Tawang which, the Chinese say, has an inalienable connection with Tibet.

The intrusions in Sikkim have provoked the standard official response: From "not yielding an inch of ground" to "integral part of India" to "the matter will be taken up at the appropriate highest level". For at least three days after the June 16 trespass in Sikkim, the media went berserk, painting the incident as a serious breach of faith by the Chinese. Mr Mao Swe, the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata, defused the crisis by publicly reaffirming Beijing's recognition of Sikkim as part of India. He added that these were not incursions but differences of perception. For good measure, he said, "The border dispute between India and China won't be settled soon."

The message is loud and clear. Regardless of the method and level of negotiation, the boundary dispute will not be resolved anytime soon. Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei has injected a strategic dimension to the India-China relationship, whatever that means for conflict resolution.

Why has the PLA become proactive? Why the needling in north Sikkim and why now? Until this year, the Sikkim boundary was a settled issue. Only the status of Arunachal Pradesh was periodically questioned. China, raising the ante on the boundary issue and thus India's discomfiture, has in part to do with India's strategic partnership with the US, improving its bargaining position on the boundary question and delaying its full and final settlement.

The PLA's posturing on the border is risk laden. Indian Army and Air Force do not have an adequate deterrent capability in the East. A counter offensive Corps has remained on paper since 1987. Belatedly two new Mountain Divisions have been sanctioned for the East. We are 20 years behind the Chinese in operational capability and infrastructure.

The Chinese have raised not just the political, but also the military cost by undisguisedly dragging the border dispute. Two companies of the PLA will shortly arrive in Punjab for counter-terrorism exercises with 11 Corps, ostensibly augmenting strategic ties! For soldiers in north Sikkim and elsewhere on the LAC, the contradictions in policy and statement are not easy to comprehend. Managing differences on the LAC is easier in South Block than in Finger Area, especially when China intends to prolong the war of nerves.

( Source- The pioneer-June26,2008)

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