Tata, the Indian car manufacturer which purchased British Jaguar this year, continues to face protests at its manufacturing plant in Singur, West-Bengal (a state in eastern India). Controversy began when the government purchased farmland for the plant in support of the new micro-car, the Nano. The Nano will start at $2300 to make purchasing a car affordable to the growing middle class in India. The protesters continue to threaten workers at the plant. Ratan Tata, CEO, is considering moving the plant. Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung My previous post about Tata. See also Nano on Wiki. [Read more]

This being an election year in the US, some big companies can get away with almost anything. After losing a $35 billion deal to build the next generation of U.S. Air Force tanker planes to European competitor EADS (refer to previous post), Boeing called “foul-play” and Congress forced the Air Force to re-open the bidding process. Boeing has now publicly stated that they will not participate in the bidding unless it is extended by an additional four months. Boeing needs the extra time to include a different plane in the bid. Well sure, the first plane they offered lost the bid. Remember, we are talking about a big military project here, paid for with taxpayer money. The bidding process is meant to be open and fair to ensure that the... [Read more]

The Beijing Olympics are almost over and I am still waiting to see advertising from Lenovo, the Chinese company which produces and distributes the ex-IBM ThinkPad Laptop (refer to my previous post). Lenovo was one of the few “global” Olympic advertisers. At least their ads are showing up here on our blog. They seem to be sponsoring US beach volleyball, so maybe they are focusing on the US market and not Europe, where I live. Speaking of Lenovo, they also have a few blogs themselves. One of them is called “Worldsourcing” and is written by the Lenovo VP for Corporate Communications, Reid Walker. The subject is the “decentralization of the world’s economy and talent”, a topic I often look at and post about... [Read more]

Pallavi Aiyer moved from India to Beijing to be an English teacher in China (and to be with her boyfriend). Her memoir “Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China” thus includes many comparisons between her native country and her new country of residence. Combined, the two are refered to as “Chindia”. Aiyer’s experiences as a teacher of English to Chinese journalism students and her travels to different parts of the country provide for fascinating insights into the modern Chinese culture. Almost all of the millions of students in China today are only-children who, compared with their parents, have obtained great material wealth. They define freedom as being able to dress how they want, date whom they want and buy... [Read more]

With the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics just days away, I am looking forward to learning more about China. Hopefully, we will get some human interest stories and documentaries about China in between the sporting events on television. In case the TV studios shy away from anything more “political” (meaning anything which might be seen as controversial), today I will look at two new books on China which have made my reading list. “The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom” by Simon Winchester portrays Joseph Needham (1900-1995) a British scientist and Sinologist who formulated the “Needham question:” Why did the country... [Read more]