2008 July 15 | IndusLatin

Promoting India Latin America Collaboration

Same good earth, different harvests

July 15th, 2008 Posted in Agriculture, India, Latin America

Just like in harvests, severe economic and political limitations restrict the income of individuals around the world, as well.
Case in point:
Within India – $1trillion economy 1billion individuals – $1000 per capita
Overseas Indians: $350 billion annual income 20 million individuals – $17500 per capita
(rough figures, not adjusted for PPP)

As far as I know, there has been no large-scale blood transfusion/brain transplant in Indians overseas. It’s the institutions and policies for the most part that account for the staggering difference in per capita incomes/output.

chicagotribune.com
The best land for farming corn, wheat and soybeans looks remarkably the same around the world, though the results could hardly be more different.

From the Argentine pampas to western Ukraine to central Illinois, the topsoil is flat, dark and deep. It retains moisture but drains well. It can be tilled without forming a crust or blowing away on the breeze. More often than not, it gets favorable weather. And it recovers quickly from the abuses of mankind.

If the world is going to grow enough food to meet rising demand, these acres must produce more. Yet in many countries where the blessings of sky and earth combine, farmers labor under severe economic and political limitations. Crop yields vary drastically even with identical weather and soil conditions. So Ukrainian farmers produce a fraction of what their U.S. counterparts grow on comparable land.

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Argentina, Economics - Indicators, Policy and Trends, India

Indian firms make killing out of clean technologies

July 15th, 2008 Posted in Energy, India

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Modern wind energy plant in rural scenery.

Image via Wikipedia

The Times of India
Investments in clean technologies are riding a green wave into India. In 2007, Green India Inc raised $1.4 billion through convertible bonds from the international market even as it picked up $628 million from the domestic stock market.

Indian companies are at the forefront of a trend in global investments in clean technologies like wind and solar power — an increasing drift of money from the developed countries towards developing economies of India, China and Brazil. The United Nations Environment Programme has revealed this in a recent report ‘Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investments’.

2007 was a breakthrough year for the Indian green energy corporates — they had never before garnered money from the global market through bonds — a fiscal device that provides medium-level security to investors. Convertible bonds appeal to investors in unsteady markets, as they provide a fixed return with capital appreciation.

While the bond market might have been a new venture for Indian companies, consummate in the well-established wind-energy market in the country, India attracted $2.5 billion for asset finance, up almost four times from the $671 million it had picked up in 2006. As a consequence, the country’s wind power capacity grew by 1.7 giga watt in 2007.

Suzlon might have hit a snag with its new exports this year but the potential of the market continues to expand. Venture capital funds and private equity placements hit $265 million, slightly higher than the $236 million that Indian companies had attracted in 2006.