For generations of china watchers, Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea was an objective interpreter of the tumultuous events which unfolded in the Peoples’ Republic.  Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea was one of the world’s leading scholars on china, a political scientist who skirted the minefield that her subject’s often fraught relations with India laid before her peers with integrity, wit and an objectivity of consideration rare in the field of Sinology. Taking to academia at...

china on Monday accused the developed nations of trying to “split” the developing countries to weaken their voice at the Copenhagen summit. It also called upon the developing countries to come together in the “common interest of mankind.” Interacting with a group of journalists here on Monday, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yan said protests by the Alliance of Small Island States against the drafts prepared by G-77 countries and Brazil, South Africa,...

We Indians implicitly believe in India’s great past. Recently, that past has been given a statistical underpinning by Angus Maddison. To celebrate the beginning of the 21st century, Maddison wrote a book called The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. There he says that India was the world’s largest economy in the first millennium AD. It produced one-third of the world’s income in the first century, and 29 per cent in...

India, china and 128 other countries briefly walked out of the climate change talks here today in protest against the failure of industrialised countries to make firm commitments on greenhouse gas emission cuts in the years beyond 2012. The walkout by the developing countries followed an exchange between Australian and African delegates at a meeting called to set emission reduction targets for the industrialised countries. Australia refused to make any commitment on...

Momentum suggests 9 per cent for the full year The overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which includes the three components of manufacturing, mining and electricity, grew at a pace of 10.3 per cent during October. This is lower than what was expected, but higher than the 9.1 per cent for September. With this, the April to October growth rose to 7.1 per cent, up from 6.5 per cent in the...