The internet of course....It's how things get rolling...

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"And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day."--Rev. Arnold Conrad

The caste system is hardly your fault, just like American Capitalism isn't mine.

And I pointed out that the last former slave died nearly 30 years ago. And since most former slaves died more than two generations ago, it's a ridiculous idea to say that India has a better record in dealing with discrimination than the U.S. Especially since outside of major cities, the caste system is still rigidly followed.

I don't hate India at all. It's just that I can OBJECTIVELY look at it and see it for what it is - a third world country with unrealistic aspirations to join the developed world.
You mentioned in another post that you grew up in India. Perhaps that has so colored your views that you're not really capable of seeing the issue rationally?
Look, my ancestors came from (primarily) Belarus. And do you know what I think of Belarus? It's a stinkhole. Probably one of the worst countries on earth. I'd certainly argue that it's the worst country on the European Continent. I'd never want to go there and breathe its toxic air, eat its disgusting food, or see its revolting sights. But I don't hate Belarus and I'm not ashamed that my ancestors escaped from there.
I, unlike you it seems, am capable of looking at an issue and seeing it unemotionally.

I could go back and paste a "Greatest Hits" version of your posts and it would be clear that you seethe with hatred (jealousy) of the JudeoChristian tradition and the results of its values.
I doubt that Jesus stood for deluding ourselves into thinking the inferior was superior.

There's nothing arrogant about pointing out documented facts.
Perhaps you think the only way someone could contribute to the topic is by joining a cheering section for India and ignoring the staggering array of facts?

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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

My friend Soy Panday is an indian skater.

In the Static 3 skate DVD they traveled to India to film.

Me and him still email each other , and yes there is still a Caste system in India.
It might not be fully institutionalized, but it's still very much evident in day to day life.

And to have a Caste system in any form or shape has precedence
in any talk of world economics.
A good free market economy liberates people. People who work hard and smart can move up the social economic ladder.
A Caste system outright denies a person this ability.
And it's a disgrace for any country to have it, to deny it's history or current existence, and disgrace not to learn from it and move on.

Google Soy Panday. He's a good skater.

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"who pissed in your cheerios of life"?

India's Infosys beats expectations with 25.2 percent profit jump

BANGALORE, India (AFP) - Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software company, Friday posted a better-than-expected third quarter profit after increasing its client base in a "challenging" market.

Net profit rose 25.2 percent to 12.31 billion rupees (314.28 million dollars) in the three months ended December 31, from 9.84 billion rupees a year earlier, it said in a statement
The result beat market expectations of about 11.8 billion rupees, and came despite the Bangalore-based group being hurt by a 12 percent appreciation in the value of the rupee against the dollar, which eroded export earnings.
Infosys added 47 clients during the quarter and benefited from a tax writeback amounting to 500 million rupees. The profit was notched up on revenue of 42.71 billion rupees, a rise of 16.9 percent from a year earlier.
"We see several opportunities for growth in the market place and have concluded several multi-million deals during the quarter," chief executive officer Kris Gopalakrishnan said.
He said Infosys benefited from global customers seeking efficiency in a "challenging macro-environment" by farming out computer services work to the company.
Infosys is the first of the big four Indian information-technology companies to report third-quarter earnings, amid expectations a US economic slowdown or recession would curtail IT spending by American corporates.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080111...s_080111054252

(40 rupees = $1)

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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...

A great backgrounder article on Indian business and how U.S. can get involved.


http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...ith_india.html

'In' with India

by Robert Travis Scott, Capital bureau Saturday January 12, 2008, 8:39 PM


NEW DELHI -- As luck would have it, the first Indian-American to be elected governor in the United States will be inaugurated in Baton Rouge at the same time India is celebrating the major holiday Makar Sankrant, a Jan. 14 harvest festival representing a fresh start and the ascent of the sun in the celestial sphere.
While Bobby Jindal might not be paying much attention to his parents' home country and its traditions on the day he takes the oath of office, image-conscious India surely will have an eye on him, the highest-ranking political figure of Indian heritage in America. And that could be an advantage for Louisiana.
Led by an innovative breed of entrepreneurs and a loosening of government controls on business, the second-most-populated nation in the world is lurching into the global economy with new resources of capital, skilled labor and technology. Like never before in its history, India is home to a growing number of companies with the means to expand their operations and trade around the world.
"India is the next China," said Louisiana economic development secretary Mike Olivier, who met recently with an Indian trade delegation. With Jindal as governor, Olivier said, Louisiana "will have every red carpet open...It's going to open up doors in a short period of time."
In the past 20 years, Louisiana has often sat on the sidelines while massive foreign investments have poured into other Southeastern states. Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi recruited big manufacturing facilities, including trophy auto plants from Japanese, German and Korean companies. Last year, a major German steel company opted for Alabama over Louisiana for one of the largest U.S. plant investments of the decade.
India has endured painful and exhilarating changes in its economic structure during the past 17 years to reach its current new age of increasing prosperity. These changes are leading to greater opportunities for Indian investment and trade.
"The possibilities in the United States are tremendous," said Vijay Kalantri, a leading Indian trade entrepreneur who has visited New Orleans twice. Kalantri said New Orleans' port is impressive and that he and others are circulating the good word in India.
Wooing a steel company
Robert Landry, director of marketing for the Port of New Orleans, said India has been a trading partner for about 10 years, mostly with imported steel, but the port recently has seen the shipment of more Indian manufactured goods.
Eventually, more Indian companies and products in the United States could lead to investments in new facilities and new jobs.
Olivier said he got Jindal, in his role as congressman, to sign a recruitment letter to a major Indian steel company that was considering plant locations in several states. Jindal Steel, which is of no relation to the governor-elect, is one of the few Indian companies with major manufacturing facilities in the United States. It has two plants in Texas.
"We're always looking for an opportunity, if feasible," said V. Gujral, vice chairman and chief executive of New Delhi-based Jindal Steel & Power Limited, one of several Jindal Steel subsidiaries.
The company plans to spend $12 billion for expansions in the next five years, he said, and is "open to possibilities."
A democracy with a vibrant free press and English as a major language, India has much in common with the United States. But as a nation with a socialist past, historical ties to Russia and tenuous economic relations with the West, it has a long way to go before becoming a close friend of America.
With 1.1 billion people, India is the fourth-largest economy in the world. It and China are expanding so fast economically that they are in a league of their own for domestic product growth rates. A recent headline in India's Business Standard bemoaned a pace of quarterly growth that had slowed to 8.9 percent, three times faster than that of the United States.
Slow progress
India is both a rich and a poor country, with large classes of wealthy and educated middle-class families and a staggering number of people living in poverty. On Indian television on a recent evening, an advertisement for diamond jewelry was followed immediately by an ad for a charity working to improve living standards in desperately poor villages.
The country has an abundance of natural resources, agricultural goods and small and large industries, but it also has a shortage of good roads, health care, power plants and schools.
"India is headed in the right direction, but slowly," said V.K. Topa, adviser to the secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi. The phenomenal growth has affected a large cross-section of the population but has trickled down too gradually to the poor and the villages, he said.
When India won its independence from the British in 1947, the private sector was cash-poor and the country relied on the public sector to create an industrial base. Government jobs became important sources of power and patronage in a system that dominated for 45 years. "It will take a long, long time for it to be shed off," Topa said.
A turning point was 1991, when India's fiscal deficit and low foreign cash reserves sunk it nearly into bankruptcy. Guided by then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, the government liberalized its crippling regulatory structure and currency exchange, cut red tape and changed the tax system to create a better business environment. The economy blossomed, the Indian stock market bulled upward, and Singh is now prime minister.  Sharing technology
A future turning point will be the decisions made in India and the United States about relations between the two countries, particularly about agreements to open the exchange of high-technology, weaponry and nuclear power expertise. Few Americans are preoccupied with the pending nuclear power treaty that would lift technology trade restrictions and allow close cooperation between the U.S. and Indian business and science communities. But educated Indians are closely following the regular front-page news of the treaty's progress, which is coursing through international regulatory channels.
That is because stronger relations could create a historic Indian shift from East to West, checking China's growing power and affecting regional stability and even the war against terrorism. After World War II, the Soviet Union supported the newly created nation of India by assisting it with weapons, nuclear power plants and trade. Over time, the public perception was that Russia was a good ally and the United States was not.
"So the Russians, they've been supporting us, giving us maybe lousy stuff, wrong stuff, low technology. But they're a friend," Topa said. It is a trust issue with billions of dollars in deals at stake.
For example, India is facing major decisions about defense purchases, including a multirole aircraft. If India chose a U.S.-made plane and then at some point decided to demonstrate another atomic explosion with its nuclear arsenal, would the United States halt the transfer of military equipment or supplies as a sign of disapproval? These are issues of real concern in India, Topa said.
Through their diplomatic efforts, Presidents Clinton and Bush have improved India's perception of the United States, Topa said. As a congressman, Jindal joined a diplomatic mission to India two years ago that helped lay the groundwork for a later visit by Bush to discuss the nuclear treaty.

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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...

------continued---------

Easing business rules
In recent years the Indian government has continued to peel off restrictions on corporate international activities, and so growing Indian companies started looking overseas for opportunities. Their impact is being felt in several ways on the international scene: traditional acquisitions of companies or plants; increased trade; building new plants abroad; and providing an incredible variety of outsourcing services made possible through modern phone and Internet links.
"These last three years...Indian companies have started looking outbound," said Vijay Iyer, a partner in international tax for Ernst & Young's affiliate in India. "The last three years have been a boom period."
Among the examples, India's Tata conglomerate has purchased Tetley and Eight O'Clock Coffee and a Ritz-Carlton hotel.
One of the keys, Iyer said, is that Indian companies are able to put together financing packages drawing on capital resources from around the world, a type of deal that was rare for them even just a few years ago.
A recent Ernst & Young report says investments and acquisitions will increase as Indian companies "increasingly pitch for larger assets overseas." A logical destination is the United States, the world's biggest, most tested consumer market.
"It is the place to be," Iyer said. "If you are looking at expanding, you have to look at the U.S."
Indian businesses are globalizing at a time of new trends in Indian-American affairs. The brain drain from India is not as dramatic as it was during the days when Jindal's parents left their home country nearly 40 years ago for career opportunities in Louisiana.
Under the old scenario, highly educated people would leave India and for the most part end business relations with their old country, as the Jindals did. Nowadays, with better business links between the nations, an Indian businessperson or engineer who goes to the United States is more likely to keep contact with Indian companies and more likely to return home, Iyer said.
Paving way for business
At the same time, Indian-Americans are becoming deeply integrated as individuals and as a community in the United States, which is building a gateway for business relations. Indian-Americans have the highest median income of any group in the United States according to ethnicity or country of origin, including Caucasians. They hold high-ranking positions in business and academia across America, such as PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi.
Bobby Jindal's rise to a top elected office is the ultimate expression of America's acceptance of Indian-Americans.
"India was greatly proud that one of its sons made it to that level," said Ron Somers, president of the U.S.-India Business Council. "This whole new generation that Bobby represents is the beginning of a wonderful force in the democratic process."
Topa said the Indian-American community is a significant factor in improving Indian views of the United States.
That community, he said, "has now come of age of some meaning, so the Bobby Jindals of the world today have more meaning." Journalists are more prepared now to write about Jindal's impact on Indian relations, evidence of the change.
"Five years ago you wouldn't be wanting to write about him in the same manner," Topa said. "All that put together is creating a scenario so that India-U.S. relations can move forward. But it needs a lot more patience and a lot more building blocks."
Landry, the port's marketing director, said Jindal brings a global perspective to the economic development table, and in the end, when it comes down to getting deals for the state, his general approach to business will be more important than his roots.
"His ethnic background might play well in India, but his business perspective is going to be what's most important," Landry said. "It's a great entree, but in the end it comes down to the bottom line."
Gene Schreiber, managing director of the World Trade Center of New Orleans, said Jindal's inauguration will be positive because it puts Louisiana on the map for Indian business.
"It creates awareness -- and awareness is the first step," he said.
Robert Travis Scott can be reached at rscott@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-4197.

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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 now, India is trying to test the waters from being something more than just being the Earth's back-office.

That will probably be realized in the next US recession, when lots of companies will want to fix their income statements (hint: Expenses)

India has made the marketing of do-the-same-for-cheaper a household name. I wonder how that will pan out though as India wants to now compete with US companies more than just integrate with them.

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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

And if you're one in a million, that means there's 1321.8 Chinese people exactly like you.

=)

Is that what they call an army of one?

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If he ever had to eat his own words he'd die of malnutrition.
Colin P. Varga 1991