Public Policy | IndusLatin

Promoting India Latin America Collaboration

Cars vs. Bus vs. Bikes

July 25th, 2008 Posted in India, Latin America, Public Policy, Visualizations

Something for the urban planners, if they find a voice in decision making, in megacities like Mumbai and Sao Paulo to keep in mind.
Core77 / design magazine

A poster in the city of Meunster’s Planning Office shows the amount of space taken up by cars, a bus, and bicycles used to transport the same number of people.

The accompanying numbers:
* Bicycle: 72 people are transported on 72 bikes, which requires 90 square meters.
* Car: Based on an average occupancy of 1.2 people per car, 60 cars are
needed to transport 72 people, which takes 1,000 square meters.

* Bus: 72 people can be transported on 1 bus, which only requires
30 square meters of space and no permanent parking space, since it can
be parked
elsewhere.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Year one of AO – After Oil

July 16th, 2008 Posted in Energy, India, Latin America, Public Policy

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The sooner policy makers in India and Latin America begin a “let’s put a man on the moon” effort to massively upgrade urban transit and inter-city rail for their citizens the better.

The Kansas City Post:
I think history will mark history will mark 2008 as year one of AO – After Oil. We are entering a new era that will impact our lives and our cities in ways just as profound as the automobile era did starting in the 20th century. As your grief counselor, let me just advise you that it’d be best for us all to quickly proceed through the 5 stages of grief, so that we can get on to more productive lives. Which stage are you in?

Denial – “This isn’t really happening, it’s only a temporary blip”
Anger – “It’s the greedy oil companies, Arabs, politicians (insert favorite enemy here)”
Bargaining – “If we just all buy hybrid cars we’ll be fine!”
Depression – “The economy is collapsing, our society is doomed!”

Instead, we all should move on to Acceptance – the era of cheap oil is over

Popularity: 1% [?]

Why Are Latin Countries Booming? The Role of Good Policies

July 14th, 2008 Posted in Economics - Indicators, Policy and Trends, Latin America, Public Policy

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Image via Wikipedia

RGE
There have been many fundamentals improvements in Latin America: current account surpluses; better balance sheets; smaller short term foreign currency debt; greater FDI flows; lower fiscal deficits and larger primary surpluses; high forex reserves; a reduction in liability dollarization; low inflation; reform and clean-up of banks and financial system; phase-out of IMF programs.

In turn, there are some remaining internal risks that may require more reforms: most [LatAm] countries still have large fiscal deficits and high debt ratios; risk of perverse public debt dynamics if shocks to real interest rates; slow pace of structural reforms, policy uncertainty; ‘reform fatigue’ and rejection of the Washington consensus in some Latin American countries.

There are also some structural impediments to growth that limit the potential long-run growth rate of some countries or regions (Latin America); these include: low investment ratios; low competitiveness; underdeveloped financial system; slow pace of structural reforms (labor, competitition/regulation, social security, taxation systems); weak institutions. So, long-run re-rating and achievement of investment grade depends on policy changes that increase long-run growth.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Latin America, macroeconomic trends

Wanted – Skilled Workers for a Growing Economy in Brazil

July 6th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, Economics - Indicators, Policy and Trends, India, Investing, Public Policy

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Image via Wikipedia

One possible solution is to have a roadshow in Indian cities, to attract Indian engineers to Brazil.

NYTimes.com
The average Brazilian worker has six years of schooling, compared with 10 years in South Korea, 11 in Japan and 12 in the United States and Europe, according to the National Confederation of Industry study.

Of the few Brazilians who go to a university, fewer than one in five take engineering, science, mathematic or computing, according to a recent World Bank study on the links between education and economic growth.

“In Brazil, most people that go to university do social science programs and this happens not because people desire to study philosophy, anthropology, geography, history,” said the study’s author Alberto Rodriguez, “but because private universities, where the growth has taken place, offer these courses because they are cheaper than offering engineering.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Brazil, education, India

Comparative Study of Copyright in Brazil, India and South Africa

June 15th, 2008 Posted in Brazil, India, Public Policy

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iCommons.org
Legal scholar and Professor of Law in Development at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, Upendra Baxi argues that the constitutional imagination of Brazil, India and South Africa are all premised on a shared history of violence and sharp inequalities. In the case of India, the birth of the constitution was preceded by the experience of colonialism and the violence of partition, in Brazil the traumatic experience of military dictatorships and in the case of South Africa the experience of apartheid. In other words, in all there countries the constitution emerged as a text of hope against a traumatic past, and the constitution was not merely a liberal document of governance, but a promissory note for a more just and equitable future. Baxi terms these as “transformative constitutions” whose responsibility to history is documented in the kind of promises made in chapters of the rights of individuals, as well as in the recognition of collective rights.

Popularity: 1% [?]