Mumbai, India (AHN) – India is set to gate-crash into the exclusive three-member club of nuclear triads by 2012 with its first nuclear submarine, INS Arihant, which is to be commissioned in either late 2011 or early 2012. Arihant means “destroyer of enemies” in the Hindi language.

Only three countries in the world currently have a complete nuclear weapon triad, which means the capability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. These countries are the US, Russia and China.

Indian Navy chief Adm. Nirmal Verma announced Thursday that the country’s crucial underwater leg of nuclear capability would be the third arm of the country’s nuclear defense, which is presently made up of road and rail-mobile ballistic missiles as well as fighter jets such as Mirage 2000s and Sukhoi-30 MKIs, all of which are able to deliver nuclear weapons.

Speaking ahead of the forthcoming Navy Day on Saturday, Verma said, “When INS Arihant goes to sea, it will be on a deterrent patrol. The triad will then be in place… the aim is to make it as effective as possible.”

The INS Arihant was launched in Vizag in July 2009. After it is commissioned, it will possess potent SLBM capabilities, which would complete India’s nuclear triad and bolster its position among the nuclear power club.

Speaking on this development, sources within the Navy said that Arihant remained a top secret project until its launch last year. It is first of three nuclear-powered submarines that India is currently building with help from Russia.

Clarifying India’s stand on nuclear deterrence, Verma also said, “We have a declared policy of no-first-use, but we have Arihant. We have a triad in place now, but we have to use it as effectively as possible. We have Arihant going within two years and there is progress in the project, despite some hiccups. We will be within time and commission the vessel by 2012.”

View full post on Politics Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States has added Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, an Islamic charity group, which was the key aid provider to hundreds and thousands of flood-displaced people this year, to its terrorist black list over its al-Qaeda links.

There were speculations that the notorious Jihadi group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is blamed for 2008 deadly Mumbai attacks, was using the charity, which also runs ambulances’ fleet across Pakistan, as its front.

Announcing it on the blacklist, State Department’s coordinator for counter-terrorism, Daniel Benjamin said, “LeT has attempted to use Falah-e-Insaniyat as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end to that attempted evasion.”

Benjamin added that the group’s leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf along with two other LeT-linked men Mian Abdullah and Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan were also named on the list of “specially designated global terrorists”.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on the foundation’s head to stop the charity from fuelling money to the LeT terror group. Notably, Islamic charities were the first ones to come to rescue and aid hundreds of people with food, shelter and medical care in this year’s devastating floods.

However, the charity group’s leaders rejected the U.S. claims of acting as a front for any terror organization.

“We are just a welfare organization,” said Mian Adil, the Vice President of Falah-e-Insaniat, earlier this year.

View full post on Politics Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Indian Railways with their expansion program is in the midst of offering thousands of jobs in the United States if all goes according to expectations during U.S. President Barack Obama’s upcoming November visit to India, according to a visiting top-ranking Indian business visionary.

Moreover, the initial orders are expected to cross a combined value of $4.5 billion from Indian Railways in the next 10 years, of which a substantial share is set to go to involved American firm, added Amit Mitra, chairman of an experts committee set up by Mamta Banerjee, the Indian railway minister.

Among all the offers on the plate, one is a definite win-win situation for the U.S. businesses as only two companies Elector-Motive Diesel (EMD) and General Electric (GE), both from the U.S. are bidding for the project of manufacturing of diesel locomotives worth millions of dollars, noted Mitra.

Mitra, who is also the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is looking at the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and innovative financing for the development of Indian railways.

American company GE also features among four bidders for a multi-million dollar electrical engine components unit in Dankuni, also in West Bengal.

Mitra noted that the corresponding jobs in the U.S. would be created either in Erie, Pennsylvania or in LaGrange, Illinois.

In the coming month, there is an invitation to receive financial bids in the pipeline from six short-listed companies, including one from the U.S., for building a coach factory in Kanchrapara in West Bengal.

During his trip to Washington, D.C., Mitra disclosed he was here working to finalize business agenda for the November presidential visit to Mumbai, Amritsar and New Delhi.

Mitra noted that with the generation of jobs both in the U.S. and India, the upcoming Obama visit is set to cement the economic ties between the two democracies.

View full post on Politics Stories

Ok, you ask … what is it and why should I care?

When conventional wisdom is not working any more, we need alternative investment strategies and you should give consideration to a very important region that collectively has a bigger economy than Brazil, Russia, and India … 3 out of the 4 BRIC countries.  And, in terms of growth, this region is growing faster than any of these countries.

Population wise, this region is bigger than the USA and is approximately equal in population to the EU.  In addition, this region has an exploding population (which is good from an engine of growth perspective … reference a key theme in recent presentation from Stuart Varney of Fox News at WizeFEST 2009, a conference this author recently attended).

This region is in the center of a part of the world along the old Silk Road … where we think of a network of traders with caravans loaded with silk, spices, flowers, jewelry, and gold … and trading routes with the romance of the Indian Ocean.  From Perth, Australia to Mombassa, Kenya along the coast of East Africa with passages up and down the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

There is a political thaw underway in a country in this region that has been the mercantile crossroads between East and West since its days as a link on the old Silk Road.

Examples of this thaw are that the US is sending an ambassador to this country after a four-year absence and the US is easing export bans to this country.

The region is called MENA or the Middle East and North Africa.  Among its largest economies are Saudi Arabia (where this author had a home base for two years) and the United Arab Emirates (which includes the go-go city of Dubai).  As a result, MENA holds 60% of the world’s proven oil reserves and nearly half of its natural gas.

Much has changed in this region over the years and its reach has expanded such that The New Silk Road weaves through Damascus, Riyadh, Dubai, Mumbai, Chennai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  Along The New Silk Road, key alternative growth strategies include the scarcity of water and food, infrastructure needs, energy (in terms of drilling, pumping, and distribution) and engineering services … and finally, it offers growth not dependent on US trade (which is expected to be quite anemic).

In 2000, China’s exports to the Arab world came to just $6B.  Last year, China’s exports to the Arab world ($48B) nearly matched America’s exports to the Arab world ($50B).  Earlier this year, China finally passed the USA to become the Arab world’s largest trading partner … highlighting how a rising Arab world is turning away from the West and Rediscovering China.

Syria is the country mentioned previously that has a political thaw underway and is the mercantile crossroads of the East and West on the old Silk Road.

The largest investor in Syria is the Chinese company, Haier, that makes washing machines and microwave ovens in the country.  Another Chinese company recently completed a $180M hydroelectric plant.  On the drawing board, there are big real estate projects, including resorts on the Syrian Mediterranean coast.  They are 48,000 hotel beds coming online over the next three years and this will almost double the amount of beds currently available.  Tourism is up significantly in this country and currently accounts for 13% of the economy.

The region benefits from expanded trade with China and the rest of the Asian countries that are in pursuit of the region’s oil.

The most interesting thing about this growth is that it is happening in a part of the world where water is scarce and it is most difficult to grow food.  In Kuwait, one of the countries in the region, annual water consumption is 22 times the rainfall.  Counties in the region import 60% of their food and are phasing out crop production in order to conserve water.

Ironically, many of the countries in the MENA block are investing in farmland overseas with major purchases of farmland in Indonesia, the Sudan, and Pakistan.

One of the key takeaways is that alternative investment opportunities in a growth region like MENA include food and water necessary to feed and meet the thirst of all these people as well as the energy, infrastructure, and engineering services to drill, pump, and distribute oil and natural gas.

Your author lived and worked in the region early in his career and was always impressed with the upside potential in the region once political barriers could be overcome.

In addition, a recent edition of The Economist had a cover story on the Arab world titled “Waking from its sleep” with a 14-page special report containing a collection of articles.  Key points in these articles indicate that there has been two decades of political stagnation but there is a fever under the surface for change.

In the Arab world, its people are starting to speak out, to strike, and to take to the streets in pursuit of their demands.  As more women are educated and as more business people want a say in the state-run economies, the old pattern of the Arab governments that are corrupt, opaque, and authoritarian, are changing.

The democratic and capitalistic movements underway include education, tolerance, and independent institutions such as judiciary and free press.

Once the last failed dictatorship is voted out, the quiet revolution will be complete and the tremendous upside potential from trade will grow the region even faster under the more liberalized economic governments.

I trust this article has introduced you to an emerging economic region … a crossroads where East meets West on The New Silk Road … and the various alternative wealth creating opportunities associated with water, food, infrastructure, energy, and engineering services related to oil and natural gas.

I will continue to monitor developments in the MENA region and report on alternative wealth creating strategies in future articles and updates at my blog which is at http://aspenIbiz.blogspot.com  

Early in his career, Mike was an engineer with a large aerospace company. For many years, he was with a “marquee” consulting firm where he worked extensively with clients all around the world and became know as an American globalist. Most recently he has been providing technology, business, and management advisory services as a self-employed entrepreneur.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/historic-shifts-are-underway-on-the-new-silk-road-where-east-meets-west-creating-alternative-investment-opportunities-1335514.html