South-South FDI vs North-South FDI : A Comparative Analysis in the Context of India

Over the years FDI activities from developing countries have grown very rapidly and most of these investments end up in other developing countries. Such FDI flows are formally known as South-South FDI. This paper attempts to compare the characteristics of South-South FDI versus North-South FDI in the context of India. The analysis is carried at two levels. First we look at the overall trends of FDI flows (both inward & outward) region wise (North versus South), country wise and sector wise. Our results confirm that Indias FDI activities have broadly been consistent with the well known concept of Investment Development Path (Dunning, 1981). We also find that while country profiles have undergone changes, there has been no significant shift in the sectoral profile. Next we carry out econometric analysis at the sectoral /industry level for inward FDI from the North and from the South to examine the difference in the characters (if any) of FDI from the two sources. Our broad conclusion is that although there is not much difference between FDI from the north and from the south (both being concentrated in sectors with larger markets, higher export orientation & lower import intensity) southern FDIs appear to flow more into growing sectors while FDI from north do not have such indication. Ultimately however, it is at the firm level where one needs to identify the factors inhibit/attract FDI. The qualitative findings from a limited survey of 93 firms are presented in the appendix.FDI inflows and outflows, North-South FDI, South-South FDI

Implications of India-Asean Fta on India’s fisheries sector

India and ASEAN signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in trade in goods which came to effect from 1st January 2010. There were apprehensions on the likely impact of this RTA on some sensitive sectors of India such as agriculture, fisheries and plantation crop as large number of people depend on these sectors for their livelihood. India is a large consumer of marine products and export also export part of the catch to international markets (1.7 percent in total world export in 2007). Some of the ASEAN partners of India namely Thailand (5.82%), Vietnam (3.86) and Indonesia (2.14%) have larger presence in international fisheries trade and there is a possibility that they can export these products in to India in the post FTA period. In this context the paper looked in to the various provisions of India ASEAN FTA on fisheries sector and calculated trade complementarity and similarity using different trade indices. The paper found that India has taken adequate precaution to protect its marine sector from large scale dumping. The apprehension that India-ASEAN FTA will lead to substantial import of marine products in to India is unfounded

Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law

We review recent experimental tests of the gravitational inverse-square law and the wide variety of theoretical considerations that suggest the law may break down in experimentally accessible regions.Comment: 81 pages, 10 figures, submitted by permission of the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. Final version of this material is scheduled to appear in the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science Vol. 53, to be published in December 2003 by Annual Reviews, http://AnnualReviews.or

Market Opportunities and Challenges for Indian Organic Products

Organic agriculture offers trade opportunities for farmers in the developing and developed countries. This market of organic products is expected to grow globally in the coming years and high growth rates over the medium term (from 10-15 to 25-30 %) are expected (Yussefi and Willer, 2002). This organic market expansion makes it possible for farmers to reap the benefits of a trade with relatively high price premiums (Yussefi and Willer, 2002). However, this market is not very well known to most farmers, especially those living in the developing countries. Furthermore, information about it is not readily available to farmers in the developing countries. The absence of sufficient technical and market information and financial support also means that few farmers will risk changing their method of production. In developing countries it is therefore essential for major key players (e.g. NGOs, farmer organizations, traders, exporters etc.) that promote organic farming to have up-to-date information on the available opportunities (market requirements) and trends of the organic market. One example is India, a country with a huge number of small farmers who still use traditional methods and do farming with few agricultural inputs. NGOs that promote organic farming and other organizations support farmers in these aspects. An organic movement is now emerging in India on different levels (producer groups, trainers and advisors, certification bodies and processors and traders). So dissemination of information about the opportunities and challenges for Indian organic products on the domestic and international market is of fundamental concern in order to allow continued development of the organic agriculture movement in this country

Persistent Challenges of Quantum Chromodynamics

Unlike some models whose relevance to Nature is still a big question mark, Quantum Chromodynamics will stay with us forever. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), born in 1973, is a very rich theory supposed to describe the widest range of strong interaction phenomena: from nuclear physics to Regge behavior at large E, from color confinement to quark-gluon matter at high densities/temperatures (neutron stars); the vast horizons of the hadronic world: chiral dynamics, glueballs, exotics, light and heavy quarkonia and mixtures thereof, exclusive and inclusive phenomena, interplay between strong forces and weak interactions, etc. Efforts aimed at solving the underlying theory, QCD, continue. In a remarkable entanglement, theoretical constructions of the 1970s and 1990s combine with today's ideas based on holographic description and strong-weak coupling duality, to provide new insights and a deeper understanding.Comment: Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize Lecture at the April Meeting of APS, Dallas, TX, April 22-25, 2006; v.2: reference added; v.3: reference adde

Quantum Statistical Physics - A New Approach

The new scheme employed (throughout the thermodynamic phase space), in the statistical thermodynamic investigation of classical systems, is extended to quantum systems. Quantum Nearest Neighbor Probability Density Functions are formulated (in a manner analogous to the classical case) to provide a new quantum approach for describing structure at the microscopic level, as well as characterize the thermodynamic properties of material systems. A major point of this paper is that it relates the free energy of an assembly of interacting particles to Quantum Nearest Neighbor Probability Density Functions. Also. the methods of this paper reduces to a great extent, the degree of difficulty of the original equilibrium quantum statistical thermodynamic problem without compromising the accuracy of results. Application to the simple case of dilute, weakly degenerate gases has been outlined.Comment: Submitted for publication in Physica A journa

Impact of ASEAN-India FTA on India’s Plantation Commodities : A Simulation Analysis

The present study attempts a quantitative assessment of the impact of recently signed ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA) for selected plantation commodities (coffee, tea and pepper) in India. We use partial equilibrium modeling approach (SMART model and gravity model) to simulate the likely import increase of the plantation commodities under the proposed tariff reduction schedule of the AIFTA. Overall, the results suggest that the AIFTA will cause significant increase in Indias import of plantation commodities. The increase in imports is mostly driven by trade creation rather than trade diversion. From the economic efficiency point of view, trade creation improves welfare as the new imports replace the high-cost domestic production. The analysis shows that the proposed tariff reduction may lead to significant tariff revenue loss to the government. However, the gain in consumer surplus (due to the fall in domestic price and the consequent reduction in dead-weight loss) outweighs the loss in tariff revenue leading to net welfare gain. By and large, the simulations based on the SMART and gravity models provide similar results on the magnitude of total increase in imports. The surge of new imports may have adverse impact for the livelihood of the Indian farmers engaged in the production of these commodities. Farmers will have to realign the structure of production according to the changing price signals and hence it is critical to provide adjustment assistance to the affected farmers.SMART Model, Gravity Model, Simulation Analysis