Promoting India Latin America Collaboration

Revitalising South America’s smallest flag carrier

December 16th, 2008 Posted in Tourism, Uruguay
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FlightGlobal

[Matias] Campiani, CEO says the financial turnaround is proof Pluna’s new strategy of turning Montevideo into a hub for the Southern Cone of South America is working. Over the last year the carrier has added frequencies to key business centres such as Buenos Aires, Santiago and Sao Paulo while launching new thin routes such as Asuncion in Paraguay, Rosario in Argentina and Curitiba in Brazil.

Pluna previously was primarily an origin and destination carrier with less than 10% of its traffic connecting. Campiani says Pluna has already succeeded at increasing its transfer business to 40%.

The new network strategy was made possible by switching to smaller aircraft. Pluna last year placed an order for seven Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen regional jets plus eight options. The carrier over the last six months has already taken delivery of six CRJ900s with the seventh due to be delivered next month. “In a crisis situation I think we have the right size aircraft,” Campiani says.
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Venture Capital to invest in Indian rural technology

December 16th, 2008 Posted in India, Infrastructure
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Business Standard

Venture capitals (VC) in India, which traditionally invested in urban segments or technology sector, have begun investing in rural-centric technology firms. Avishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Acumen Fund, and Rural Innovations Network (RIN) are showing increased focus on rural markets.

“India has very few funds that look at investing in rural India. But what’s heartening to see is that the sector now has a few options and entrepreneurs can approach for investment,” said Arun Natarajan, MD and CEO, Venture Intelligence.

Most of these VCs get their funding from philanthrophic activities. RIN gets funding from donors such as HIVOS, The Lemelson Foundation, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, and The Rockefeller foundation. Whereas Google, Gates, Cisco and others form the investor base for the Acumen Fund.

Acumen India has been in the country since 2005 and has invested in 12 entrepreneurs. The focus is to fund innovative businesses that target the poor as consumers and demonstrate to the world the sustainable ways of bringing access to critical goods and services such as healthcare, water, housing and energy to low-income households.

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Milking greener pastures – Kiwi dairy Investments in LatAm

December 15th, 2008 Posted in Agriculture, Chile, Uruguay
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The Amuls of the world should follow.
Stuff.co.nz

In barely three years, New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay, Wrightson’s stockmarket-listed investment vehicle, has acquired 36,500 hectares of land and leases a further 3500ha. It has spent heavily on new pasture grasses, irrigation, roads, fencing, reticulated water supply to each paddock, milk sheds, staff accommodation, training and the other infrastructure needed to bring New Zealand-style pastoral dairying farming to the country.

It reckons it is already the largest dairy farmer in South America, and by the second quarter of next year, it plans to be milking 23,000 cows. Competition has forced up land prices. The cost of buying and converting land to dairying is nearly double that of the first purchases. But a cost of, say $10,500 per hectare, is less than 25% of New Zealand prices.

Wrightson is hopeful prices will stabilise at less than 50% of farm income, say US17-18c on a milk price of US35c.

Wrightson has already spread its climate risk by buying in three regions of Uruguay. It’s now looking across the border in southern Brazil where land is cheaper and more plentiful. Kiwis are also investing elsewhere in Brazil but the adaptation challenges are greater as they head north.

You can find similar stories of gutsy investments by Kiwi farmers in Chile. One day that will be likely true of Argentina. It has plenty of land and agricultural infrastructure to support a big increase in dairying.
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First Major Energy Study Shows That Wind Is The Cleanest Source

December 13th, 2008 Posted in Energy
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Device Daily

[N]obody conducted an elaborated study to find out the best ways to fight against global warming, reduce pollution, and which are best renewable energies, therefore Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, decided to do something about this and he conducted the first major and scientific energy-related study.

He says that the best ways to accomplish our green goals are “blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants.” Also, he added that the so-called clean coal is “not clean at all.”

Here is Jacobson’s list of clean energies from best to worst:

1. Wind Power

2. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

3. Geothermal Power

4. Tidal Power

5. Solar Photovoltaics

6. Wave Power

7. Hydroelectric Power

The professor says that we should forget and go against nuclear, clean coal, corn ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol. According to Jacobson’s findings, cellulosic ethanol is worse than corn ethanol as it releases more air pollutants, it requires more land for crops, and it damages the wildlife.

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India may import raw sugar in 2009

December 7th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Commodities, India
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The Economic Times

India will produce less sugar than it would consume this year. Normally this should be enough to make the bulls snort in anticipation of profits. But not this time. The red rags are too many. The crunch will come between April and September 2009. By April domestic production will grind to a halt, while consumption will show its normal summer increase as we beat the heat with colas and ice creams. Instead of building up stocks, we would be eating into them.

Since we still have some unsold sugar from previous years, there won’t be outright shortage. But sugar won’t be plentiful either. With just-enough supply, the natural tendency of traders is to push up prices by holding back just a little. Being an election year, it is unlikely the government will allow prices rise beyond a point. The big question is what will the government do to keep things in check.

The easiest way would be to allow unfettered import of ready-to-eat white sugar. The world market is waiting to pounce on the Indian market. ISO says out of the 34 mn t raw sugar that Brazil will produce this season, it can export almost 22 mn t. This is 17% more than last year. Ocean freights are so low, it costs just $18/t to ship sugar thousands of miles from Brazil to India. Traders at international trading houses here say at current New York prices, white sugar from Brazil can reach India at $340/t or about Rs 18/kg. In case the government allows white sugar imports, local mills can kiss life goodbye.
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At La Mar on the pier, it’s all about ceviche

December 7th, 2008 Posted in Arts, Culture and Society, Food and Beverages, Peru
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SF Chronicle

Chef Gastón Acurio has a vision, and it permeates everything you see on the plate and in the decor at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, the Peruvian restaurant that opened in September on Pier 1 1/2. The building frames calming views of San Francisco Bay on one side and skyscrapers on the other.

Acurio has become an international celebrity chef with restaurants all over the globe, but this is his first in the United States. His vision, according to the restaurant’s Web site, is “to take the new concept of Peruvian cebicheria to the world.”

The building blocks of [Peruvian] cuisine, and the ingredients that show up repeatedly in both the traditional and contemporary dishes, are the chiles, particularly aji amarillo and rocoto; along with huacatay (often called black mint); and choclo, a big, starchy corn that resembles fattened hominy and is used in most ceviches and rice dishes. Many of these flavors also appear in the three sauces waiters put on the table when diners are seated.

Peru’s version of sashimi is tiraditos, but the raw slices of fish in such items as the kona kampachi ($15) are so heavily covered with aji amarillo, habanero and ginger sauce that the fish becomes almost a prop for textural contrast.

Peruvian food not only has Japanese influences but also incorporates flavors from Spain, Africa and China, which show up in iconic dishes like lomo saltado ($25), chunks of tender beef wok-seared with tomatoes, red onions and soy sauce, then topped with french fries.

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Manipal Education buys out Antigua University

December 7th, 2008 Posted in Caribbean, Health and Pharma, India
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The Economic Times

In one of the biggest cross-border deals in the education space, Manipal Education has acquired the entire shareholding of American

from New York-based Greater Caribbean Learning Resources. Manipal Education confirmed the buyout, but did not disclose the transaction size. However, sources said the company has raised $115 million debt financing from ICICI Bank in recent weeks, which will be ploughed into the buyout as well as capex requirements for ramping up the campus.

ET first reported on the potential acquisition in its edition dated October 7. The Caribbean is a well-established market for medical students
from the US mainland, where the availability of seats far outstrips demand. “We have completed the buyout, giving us control over AUA, which is among the top five medical education campuses in the Caribbean islands along with St George’s University School of Medicine
and Ross University,” Anand Sudarshan, MD & CEO, Manipal Education, told ET.

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LatAm to reach 388 mln mobile lines by end-2008

December 7th, 2008 Posted in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Latin America, Mexico, Telecom, Uruguay
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Telecompaper

Latin America will reach over 388 million mobile lines in service at the end of this year, accounting for 9.6 percent of the overall mobile lines in service worldwide, according to the Information Society index (ISI) established by consulting firm Everis. Brazil is expected to end the year with 143.2 million phones, Mexico with 76.9 million and Argentina with 44.8 million, which together account for nearly seven of every ten mobile lines in the region.

Mobile networks cover the entire populations only in Uruguay and Chile, while in Ecuador and Colombia they reach 84 percent of the population. Bolivia has the lowest mobile coverage, reaching only 45.9 percent of the country’s population. Argentina registers a higher mobile penetration than population coverage, with 102.2 mobile phones per 100 inhabitants.

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Argentina stimulates ethanol use in fuel

December 5th, 2008 Posted in Argentina, Commodities
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Before coming to Argentina, I did not even know they produced sugar. Brazil is LatAm’s powerhouse in sugar. Two weeks ago I was in Tucuman, Northern Argentina (Amazingly, Sikhs immigrated to NW Argentina, in the 1910s) – the center for sugar production. I smelled the odor of processed sugarcane while driving down the highway from the various “Ingenios Azucareros” or Sugarcane processing mills. I think that Tucuman province’s potential is underexploited, and there is huge opportunity for Indian sugar companies to invest in that region. Tucuman is the referred to as  “El Jardin de la Republica” – The Garden of the Republic of Argentina. There are farms spreading for kilometers all around with low population density – probably less than 2 per square kilometer. A huge difference from the super densely populated sugarcane-growing regions in Western U.P.

All About Feed

A 2007 law already required Argentines to use a 5% fuel mix of either biodiesel or ethanol starting in 2010. De Vido’s announcement shifts the law in favour of sugar-based ethanol.

De Vido said the move is part of a national biofuels promotion program aimed at boosting the production and use of clean and renewable energy.

The planning minister said as part of this program companies will invest more than $500 million in northern sugar-producing provinces.

De Vido said Argentina will initially produce 300 million litres of ethanol annually but that will rise to more than 600 million a year.

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No corking Uruguay’s rising status as wine country

December 3rd, 2008 Posted in Tourism, Uruguay
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LATimes.com

Wind-tousled grapevines, marching in cornrow-straight lines and hung with pearl-like clusters of light-green fruit, stretch as far as the eye can see across gently rolling farmland near the village of Juanicó in the Canelones District. Flowering red rosebushes punctuate the ends of each row, and tiro-tiro birds, named for their unique call, nest on wooden fence posts. Stalwart pine trees shield the vines from unkind winds along the 34th southern parallel.

The Canelones District is home to the Juanicó wine region, just a 45-minute drive from the Río de la Plata, the broad, slow-moving river that flows between Argentina and its northern neighbor Uruguay.

Surprisingly, the Juanicó region is not part of Argentina, a well-known wine producer and exporter. It belongs to tiny Uruguay and serves as a gateway to the Wine Roads, a stretch of 15 bodegas where wine aficionados can stroll through vineyards, tour century-old cellars and sample fine wines and local cuisine.

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