economy

After Eric Schmidt's recent visit to India, he travelled to other parts of Asia which included the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Much to the curiosity of those looking on from the sidelines, he spent all of four days in the "red" capital ostensibly to—just as he did in India—promote the Internet and Internet connectivity. However, a South Korean professor of North Korean Studies does not believe that this was the only item on Schmidt's agenda during his visit.

Unfortunately, the Titan in question isn't the desi version. Instead, we are talking about the CEO of Titan International, an American tyre company that manufactures off-road tyres under the Titan and Goodyear brands.

Well, India may not be one of the worst place to be born into on this planet. Worser might be a closer approximation if you go by a "quality-of-life" index published in The Economist.

China's e-commerce portal Taobao reports that it conducted USD 3 Billion worth of business in 24 hours on Singles' Day. The store is owned by the Alibaba Group, a subsidiary of which—alibaba.com—has a presence in India as well.

More on this story can be found on this blog.

The Economist has a fascinating visual piece correlating India's states and union territories to equivalent countries of the world in terms of economy and population.

You might be familiar with the story of Chinese businesses hiring white westerners to sit around in their offices and in their meetings in order to lend that subtle touch of competence and professionalism to their establishments. They are apparently getting inordinately pickier nowadays: