Dr. Amitendu Palit's blog

Chinese smartphone producer Xiaomi has tied up with Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn to manufacture mobile phones in India. The first batch of Xiaomi phones (Redmi 2 Prime) assembled by Foxconn in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh was launched recently. Greater low-cost phone production by Xiaomi in collaboration with Foxconn will be enthusiastically welcomed by Indian consumers given their voracious appetite for mobile phones:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first official visit to China in May 2015 is expected to lay the foundation for expanding the two Asian giants’ budding model of cross-border business and people-to-people contact: the sister-city arrangement. The future growth of such arrangements already is manifest in a slew of “sister city” arrangements planned between Chinese and Indian cities. The foundations of such interactions go back to 2013 when decisions were made to connect Delhi and Beijing, Bengaluru and Chengdu, and Kolkata and Kunming as sister cities.

Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions are increasingly becoming the bane of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Wary at the prospect of being sued by foreign investors in special tribunals, governments are reacting against such provisions in mega-regionals like the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact and the European Union-Canada FTA.

The euphoria over the birth of the NDB (New Development Bank) at the 6th BRICS Summit overshadowed the invitation extended by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the APEC Leaders meeting in China in November. Mr. Modi’s presence at the meeting would significantly improve India’s prospects of joining the APEC. President Xi’s invite reflects the possibility of China supporting India’s entry. This would enhance the strategic backing India enjoys from other major APEC members like Australia, Japan, Indonesia and the USA.