Archive for July, 2009
Congress may push India’s IT firms to Mexico with H-1B
ComputerWorld
As Indian firms fight the threat of H-1B restrictions, IT services companies might not leave their fate to politics. In an effort to reduce their need for visas, they may look to increase their presence south of the border.
Indian IT firms have boosted operations in Mexico in recent years to serve Latin American and U.S. [...]
Unblocking Panama canal’s bottleneck
Business | The Guardian
Panama has steamed ahead with a massive expansion of its canal to keep trade between Asia and North America flowing through the waterway.
It has revealed bids for the main contract in a $5.25bn plan to widen the canal, clearing the way for one of the world’s largest and most lucrative infrastructure projects. [...]
Caviar dreams come true in Uruguay: Outsourced aquaculture
WSJ Magazine » Print
after 30 years of supplying the South Atlantic Soviet fishing fleet with equipment, Walter Alcalde, a Uruguayan businessman, amassed a list of government contacts that would make James Bond seem like an espionage intern. And during the final days of that empire in 1989, one of these contacts, a captain from [...]
Brazil: Dancing through the economic crisis
Highlights from a summary article, part of a recent special report in the FT on Brazil. FT.com / Reports –
This is the Brazil that finally, after years of unfulfilled promise, is catching the world’s attention – and sucking in foreign direct investment, while many rivals go without. It is a mature democracy with a [...]
Water Wars – Winners and Losers
The agricultural output of India over the next 3 decades could be severely curtailed if water shortages are not addressed. The populist measure of giving Indian farmers free power has resulted in rapid depletion of groundwater supplies for agriculture. I saved Andy Mukherjee’s Bloomberg columns from 2 years go where he wrote about problems created [...]
India: Angel for Latin America
Key Takeaways from this OECD report:
1) Regarding competition with India in 3rd markets, Latin america has little to fear from India (at the moment). (Ed: Even going forward only some sectors of the Brazilian and Mexican economies would come under direct competition from Indian players. Almost all other economies should benefit from complementarities.)
2) Major economies [...]
Poor monsoon stalks India despite economic strides
The related problem of severe groundwater depletion is going to be a millstone around raising Indian agricultural growth rates in the next couple of decades.livemint
Unless India makes sweeping reforms to upgrade its fragmented and inefficient farm sector, the yearly monsoon will remain a key economic event, but with declining significance for investors. Agriculture’s share of [...]
Indian food prices soar while inflation dips to -1.55%
Huh?! It seems every country’s official inflation statistics are suspect. The man on the street has a true sense of it while officials at government agencies are churning out computer-generated information divorced from reality.Economy and Politics – livemint.com
Year-on-year, the prices of cereals went up more than 12.2%, pulses 16.7%, and fruit and vegetables 10.5%. At [...]
Wood Pellets Catch Fire as Renewable Energy Source
Good opportunity here for Brazil and Uruguay as well.WSJ.com
European utilities are snapping up the small combustible pellets to burn alongside coal in existing power plants. As a global marketplace emerges to feed their growing appetite for pellets, the Southeastern U.S. is becoming a major exporter, with pellet factories sprouting in Florida, Alabama and Arkansas.
Wood pellets [...]
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