Latin America’s global middle class
The exercise makes the important assumption that the mean value of expenditures (or income) in the household data surveys, is equal to the mean household consumption (or income) in the national...
View ArticleA BRICS Development Bank: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
Synopsis Delay in the governance and quota reform of international financial institutions has driven emerging economies to look for alternative solutions. The proposed BRICS development bank is one...
View ArticleLula returns to India
Former President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as ‘Lula,’ returns to India later this month to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. Lula has...
View ArticleGlobal Swing States and the Human Rights and Democracy Order
Editor’s Note: This paper was originally published by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. You can also download the related report titled “Global Swing States: Brazil, India, Indonesia,...
View ArticleA mandate for BRICS Bank
At the 5th BRICS Summit that begins in South Africa today, the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are expected to ratify the creation of the BRICS Bank. After discussion...
View ArticleCommentary: A BRICS bank for the South
The plan for a BRICS bank, announced at the BRICS summit in Durban in South Africa at the end of March, is a cause for celebration. More so for those of us who participated in the South Commission and...
View ArticleBrazil’s unusual protests — and larger lessons from it
Brazilians do not protest. This is the conclusion that I had come to after spending four years in that country as the Indian ambassador till recently. No matter what the provocation — inordinate delays...
View ArticleThe rupee’s precipitous plunge
The rupee has seen a precipitous drop over the last year, down 7.5% from 55.9 to the dollar and now hovering over the 60 mark. Certainly the current decline was the immediate result of the US Federal...
View ArticleBrazil’s upwardly mobile revolution
It is natural to draw parallels between the protests in Brazil and other global movements—in India, the Arab world and most recently Turkey—which preceded them. Some comparisons may be relevant, like...
View ArticleBrazil, Turkey, Occupy and India: What’s up folks?
Brazil exploded with mass demonstrations and riots while I was driving north from the American south. The best one could do was to listen to radio reports. But, a few things stood out. A gathering of...
View ArticleSeeking dignity and direct democracy
Scattered, small-scale protests are so common at Union Square in Manhattan that they seem part of the landscape. So when a few score people gathered there in mid-June, waving flags supporting Turkish,...
View ArticleA clarion call to study BRICS
On July 6th, Chinese and Russian universities jointly launched the BRICS Universities League, a consortium of institutions dedicated to study the five BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and...
View ArticleIndia-Bhutan: Winning friendship
Bhutan, famous for propagating the concept of Gross National Happiness instead of the commonly-used Gross National Product, took another major step towards democratization by successfully concluding...
View ArticleLatin America Update, September 2013
Brazil enacts tough anti-bribery law Brazil’s new anti-bribery law covers both bribery of foreign officials by Brazilian companies and bribery of local officials by any company, domestic or foreign....
View ArticleWhy are the Brazilians protesting?
While the massive June protests by over a million Brazilians have subsided, smaller-scale protests about different causes continue in various parts of Brazil. Protestors in Rio de Janeiro, for example,...
View ArticleIndia needs business activism
Just three years ago, India was viewed as another Asian upcoming economic giant, along with China. Now, instead, the country is in a severe economic slowdown with a potential balance-of-payment crisis....
View ArticleHow Latin America reduced poverty
The success of the Bolsa Familia, the widely-admired poverty alleviation programme in Brazil, is considered by many as a role model for developing countries. However, not many beyond Latin America know...
View ArticleBrazil’s new global agenda for the internet
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled her scheduled October 23 state visit to the U.S. (the first state visit in 18 years), reportedly outraged by the news that the U.S. spied on her and the oil...
View ArticleIndia-Latin America Engagements, October 2013
Indian two-wheelers in Central America The two-wheeler market in Latin America is growing rapidly because of demand from millions of poor people who are joining the lower middle class as a result of...
View ArticleLatin America: Looking ahead to 2014
The politics of the region will be more pragmatic and less radical in 2014 – and in the coming years too, as a result of changes in the political leadership in Venezuela. The death of Venezuelan...
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