South Asia Investor Review

Is India an oligarchy controlled by its 55 recently-minted billionaires whose wealth equals one-sixth of their country's GDP? The answer to this question came when, as part of India's 2G scandal revelations, the Billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani was quoted as bragging that the ruling Congress Party is "Apni Dukan" (our shop), implying that he owns the ruling party. The scandal also produced evidence of collusion of India's corporate-owned mainstream media in their deliberate attempts to impose a blackout on the whole affair until it was finally broken by the relatively obscure Open magazine . Here's an excerpt from today's New York Times story that captures the essence of crony capitalism and the rise of Indian oligarchy as being among the world's largest: "India’s billionaires control a considerably larger share of the national wealth than do the superrich in bigger economies like those of Germany, Britain and Japan. Among the Indian bi...

Pakistan's economy is suffering from stagflation, a very unhealthy combination of very slow growth and high inflation, since 2008. These three years have also seen significant turnover in the nation's top economic management team. Pakistan is now on its third finance minister, Dr. Hafeez Shaikh, in three years. Mr. Shahid Kardar, the third central bank governor since 2008, has just quit amid serious policy differences with the PPP-led government. Kardar is the second central bank governor to leave in just over a year and the third senior policymaker to quit in less than 18 months. During this period, the IMF has also suspended its loans to Pakistan on concerns about lack of progress on budget deficit reductions through revenue enhancements committed by the government in 2008. "Differences of opinion on policy actions and on the implementation of certain directions that I, in my best judgment, did not consider to be judicious have compelled me to resign from office," ...

Pakistan is prepared to approve a Norwegian company’s plan to build a 150-megawatt wind farm, the first part of a $1 billion plan that could boost by a third the announced capacity for clean-energy power plants, according to Bloomberg News . Joar Viken, the CEO of NBT, a Norwegian company focused on building wind farms in China, Norway and Pakistan, said he plans to tap financing for his project from one of three Chinese turbine makers that his company is talking with about supplying machinery for the facilities in Pakistan. Wind Farm at Jhimpir, Sindh, Pakistan Pakistan has about 1000 MW of wind power plants at various stages of planning and construction, and another 498.5 megawatts of wind programs announced, mostly in Jhimpir, Gharo, Keti Bandar and Port Qasim wind corridors along the Arabian Sea coast in Sindh. The output from these plants will provide much-needed additional power for Pakistan , improve the country’s energy security, and lower reliance on natural gas and fu...

Pakistan’s nominal per capita income rose 16.9 percent to $1,254 in 2010-11 from $1,073 in 2009-2010, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan . Using the IMF's purchasing power parity exchange rate of Rs. 34 to a US dollar (versus official exchange rate of Rs. 85 to a US dollar), Pakistan's per capita income in terms of purchasing power parity works out to $3,135.00. Per Capita PPP GDP Although Pakistan's per capita GDP rose by only 0.7% in real terms, the much higher 16.9% nominal per capita income increase reflects a combination of the nation's double-digit inflation rate and the the rupee's stable exchange rate with the US dollar which has been losing ground to most major world currencies in 2010-2011. Similar to Pakistan's nominal growth, at least a part of India's nominal growth in per capita gdp and income is also driven by rising domestic inflation of over 10% and appreciating Indian rupee ( 5.5% from 48.32 in 2009 to 45.65 in 2010 ) from stron...

Here is Pakistan in Pictures, a slide show produced by and now running on PakAlumni Worldwide Social Network for Pakistani diaspora: Find more photos like this on PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network It covers the length and breadth of beautiful Pakistan from the shiny shores of Karachi in the southeast to the majestic heights of the Karakorams in the northwest. Please join Pakalumni to share your favorite pictures of Pakistan. Here's a video clip with more pictures of life in Pakistan: Related Links: Haq's Musings Scaling K2: The Ultimate Challenge Extreme Kayaking in Pakistan Pakistan's Media Revolution Along Grand Trunk Road in India and Pakistan Pakistan's Urban Middle Class Music Drives Coke Sales in Pakistan Life Goes On in Pakistan Karachi Fashion Week Is Pakistan Too Big to Fail? Karachi Fashion Week Goes Bolder More Pictures From Karachi Fashion Week 2009 Pakistan's Foreign Visitors Pleasantly Surprised Start-ups Drive a Boom in Pakistan Pakis...

Rampant corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development in Pakistan and many other developing nations. Is this corruption and lawlessness rooted in the absence of adequate law enforcement, or the lack of independent judges ? Or is it a national culture of corruption that ranks such nations among the most corrupt in the world on Transparency International surveys ? A paper titled "Cultures of Corruption: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets" by Ray Fisman of Columbia University and Edward Miguel of University of California, Berkeley attempts to answer the above question by using parking violations data on international diplomats living in New York City during 1997-2005. Since all foreign diplomats have immunity from prosecution in the host country, they do not have to pay fines for any parking violations in New York City. The authors argue that the way the diplomats from different nations behave in such a situation is entirely based on the cultur...

All the hype about Indian IT sector makes it hard to believe that it is Pakistan, not India, which has widely deployed biometric identification technology to issue multi-purpose national ID cards and e-passports to its citizens. Is this just another case of the proverbial shoemaker's children going barefoot? In fact, Pakistan is among the first few countries of the world to issue biometric national ID cards to 83 million citizens . Pakistan has also issued over 7 million e-passports to its citizens since October, 2004. These Multi-Biometric Electronic Passports, containing an RFID chip, facial and fingerprint images of the passport holder, PKI and other security features are compliant with ICAO standards. Established in the year 2000, NADRA, the National Database and Registration Authority , is Pakistan's state-owned IT services company that specializes in implementing multi-biometric national identity cards and e-passports, as well as secure access verification and control s...