Unfortunately a lot of that light in India is from small wood or dung fires making for a huge market for Ben Stein and visene.

Somebody hook these folks up with some compact flurecents.

__________________
"All of this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

~John F. Kennedy

Japan has the most light pollution

__________________
WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

India's economy is now and will be for the forseeable future, subsistence agriculture.

Its manufacturing core is centered around the lowest quality textiles (think rags and prison uniforms) and gems they mine with cheap and inefficent (but plentiful) labor. The country, by and large, is incapable of manufacturing anything meeting modern standards of quality and complexity.

Service-wise, they man call centers which increasingly draw the ire of consumers due to their ineptness, and their revenues will always be capped because the only driving factor is their incredibly low costs.

The average American's perception of India is far out of line with reality. We meet Inidans who are H1B visa holders and are representative of the higest .01% of the country. It'd be like trying to form an opinion on Americans by meeting Ted Turner, Bill Gates, and Ken Chenault.

Amongst all the hype of how India is going to be something more than a third world backwater is the fact that it's GDP (@$3,900/person) is along the lines of Syria, Nicaragua, and Guinea. A South Korea ($24,000), Hong Kong ($37,000) or Japan ($31,000) it's not.

An excellent point and one that's often overlooked. The attack on the Indian Parliment only a few months after 9-11, the Bombay bombings, the New Dehli bombings, the multitude of train bombings, and the persistent riots (Gujarat for instance) will assure long term instability and will severly limit foreign investment and deeply depress domestic productivity.
This article, of course, is a puff piece to encourage investment in India and not a critical or realistic view of the country and its prospects.
As third world countries go, it's not a bad choice. Be sure to get your Hep A, Typhoid, and Japanese Encephilitis vaccinations.
Unfortunately, to date, there's no vaccine for Hep E, Dengue, or Malaria, so be familiar with the symptoms of each. Also, most experts think India (or Nigeria) will be the site of the first major human to human outbreak of H5N1 avian.
Lastly, as is the case with pretty much every third world country, DO NOT DRINK THE WATER!!!

__________________
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1

Have you ever been to India???

India's workers are mostly engaged in menial labor and subsistence farming, but this hardly gives the correct picture of India's manufacturing capabilities. The Tata Group currently has the world's six largest steel producer, will soon own Jaguar, and is on the forefront of eco-car design which due to its low cost will open up vast markets in India and in burgeoning economies through out the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/bu...ss/04tata.html
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/37/...teel_WIPV.html
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...s_topDiscussed


"Tata has done dozens of deals, buying businesses as diverse as the Tyco Global Network; Daewoo Commercial Vehicles; the Moroccan chemical company Imacid; Tetley Teas; and, most audaciously, the $11.3 billion takeover of the British steel maker Corus last year, a company several times the size of Tata Steel. The group’s 27 listed companies have a market cap of over $70 billion, and the group reported after-tax profit of $2.8 billion in the last fiscal year — a 33 percent increase from the year before, in part because of the Corus acquisition."


Now that is only one company group albeit one that accounts for 3.2 percent of India's GDP and does included agricultural holdings. But there are several signs of India ramping up for high tech manufacture and for it to be able to leap frog China with it's strong supply of educated workers. Also there are increasing numbers of successful Indian ex-pats returning to India with both business knowledge and capital to swell the ranks of India's innovator class.

But that's just my 2 rupees.

__________________
"All of this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

~John F. Kennedy

I think a lot of it is also electricity pilfered from the utility lines. New Delhi's electrical grid operator now hires security guys to go around town and finding illegal connections and getting them off; they are also rewiring the grid with higher voltage lines which are not easy to pilfer from.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

Right, so we all agree.

India would be a MUCH better economic partner for the U.S. than say communists China or socialist Europe. If you take an indepth study into india's economy, it's very much like our own free market economy, albiet not as efficient. They also speak english. So that's also a plus.

Still, India needs to immediately address her infrastructure.
Tensions between the Hindu and Muslim populations.

Also, and I'm very adamant about this subject- India MUST do away with her Caste system. I'm shocked that people are still labled and treated as "untouchables".
India's human rights laws must be brought online with the rest of the western world.
This topic is very disheartening to me. And I'm really upset about it.

__________________
"who pissed in your cheerios of life"?

Physical infrastructure is an issue. Unfortunately, in India until now, the government has only moved on vast building projects when there has been an overwhelming need for them, partly because it is difficult in that democracy to just kick people off the land by declaring it eminent domain, and partly because the governemt is inept. In China, its the reverse; they build it up and then invite industries in. In India, industries and people overwhelm the current roads and ports and power lines, then the government reacts. Looks like it is now reacting to the urgent needs, though. Recently, a huge multi-dam system on a western river got finsihed which allows for electricity generation, irrigation canals, and flood protection. The project took a very long time to finish and yet its not quite in the same immenseness as China's Three Gorges Dam. Even so, this one will go a long way in providing needed water and electricity for millions.

As for Hindu-Muslim riots, unfortunately, India has just not been able to placate Muslims or get them to join the mainstream of the country in enough numbers. Many of them prefer to live their own ways and demand their own civil laws (shariah), although accept the secular penal code (which is less harsh than shariah--which would involve getting stoned and such things!). One basic criterion that many Indians have been fighting for is this basic inquality between Hindus and Muslims. There needs to be one common law applicable to all citizens. But there isn't one right now, even though the Constitution's preamble demands it take place within 10 years of the establishment of the republic (back in 1950). In as much as Muslims are still better equipped in India to handle modern economy than they are in many other parts of Asia, it is not as dire a situation. If U.S. had such a huge Muslim minority well-entrenched in its society, I believe it too would find it hard to handle.

As for caste discrimination, it is illegal, and was made illegal way back in 1950. The "untouchable" is not a term anymore. And the government provides a lot of benefits to the former untouchables, "dalits" as they are called now and other backward groups. In fact, there are reservations for them in government colleges and jobs, among other things; something similar here for AA community has never happened and if it did it got revoked fast. But caste is an entrenched social phenomenon that laws can't undo swiftly. I too wish there not be caste system, but there is. It is so entrenched that caste is observed even among Muslims and Christians in India.

As such, Indian government and economy has provided many role models for these sub-groups. India's 2 previous presidents were "dalit" and Muslim. India's richest resident Indian is a Muslim. And Muslims have made a name for themselves in India's movie industry. Point is that Indian system is slow-moving but it is also quite syncratic and accomodating for the most part. Minorities have done quite well in India if they assimilated themselves and didn't hegemonize on the local culture. That's how India's second-biggest conglomerate is run by Parsis (Zoroastrians), and Jews and Sikhs and Jains and others are solidly entrenched in society in a positive way. Heck, the current head of government (Prime Minister) is a Sikh, a well-known and well-respected one at that.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

India's Sensex index looks set for a strong year
Benchmark index hits intraday trading high; analysts raise target for 2008

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...%7D&siteid=rss

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

Ford expanding in India, building 2 new plants there even as it cuts production in North America.

http://biz.yahoo.com/nytimes/080108/...796.html?.v=10

NYTimes.com
Ford to Expand in India, Planning a Small Car and an Engine Plant
Tuesday January 8, 5:38 pm ET
By HEATHER TIMMONS
Ford Motor plans to more than double its investment in India to produce a small car for the fast-growing local market and to build an engine manufacturing plant there. The company is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will increase spending in India by $500 million, raising its total investment to $875 million, as it focuses on making the country a regional hub for small-car manufacturing. Car sales in India are growing by more than 20 percent a year, compared with 3 percent globally, and first-time buyers there are eager for cheap compact cars.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

Don't feed the obssessive negativity. Look at the other recent threads on this forum for examples of his thinking about other cultures. What's the point in talking to someone like that?! Tata is just one example. In less than a mere decade, India's IT industry has gone from less than $1 billion to about $40 billion today. There are more Indian IT companies with CMM Level 5 certification than anywhere in the world, even U.S.; this designation was developed by Carnegie Mellon University to evaluate an IT company's abilities. Indian pharmaceuticals are producing generics that meet US FDA standards and are doing it so cheaply that they can sell it around the world; patients in South Africa and Brazil depend on Indian drugs availability. If it was so shoddy, perhaps they wouldn't bother. Just a few other examples out of many...

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...