Post 8

Recently illegal immigrants from India have been flooding the borders. Ever since certain south American countries have relaxed their border laws, thousands have used this pipeline to sneak through the U.S. southern borders. In the past 3 years 2600 Indians have been captured crossing the border, up from just the typical couple hundred. They are the 4th largest immigration group in the U.S. Human smugglers are also helping the process because they can typically get more money from the Indians. Even though India is economically secure, it is culturally significant for an Indian to travel abroad. Especially in certain locales, it is almost tradition in certain areas for Indians to immigrate abroad. By moving to the Western states, they are elevating their status. When they are caught, many claim asylum do to religious persecution of the sikh religion in India, but asylum isn't usually granted because that hasn't been an issue since the 1980's, and in fact the president is a sikh.

This article was kind of surprising to me at first because it seems strange that Indians would want to immigrate away from even financially secure homes, but it turns out it is a regional tradition. It makes me wonder whether as India's global status continues to increase whether this kind of cultural thought process will disappear. When they come here, the immigrants generally take on jobs like taxi driving and farm labor, often making less than what they did at home, but they gain the status of living in the west, and eventually the start making more. I guess I never thought of that as a push for people to immigrate, but I imagine that in some ways it is similar to how American college students are encouraged to study abroad, or how many nationalities come here on foreign exchange programs. For now it seems hard to determine whether this is an increasing trend, or just a spike do to the relaxing of certain south American laws, but hopefully, for their sake, the Indians can learn that their own country is doing quite well enough.


"More Illegal Immigrants from India crossing border." USA Today. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-07-17-illegal-immigration-indians_n.htm?csp=34news>

Post 7

According to the Economic Times the Indian economy could see as much as a 4.9% increase in economic growth if they had equal opportunity for women. It seems that even though the UN recently praised India for its democracy there are still low numbers of women in key economic areas, and that 63% of women don't have much say in household matters. Even though they are constitutionally equal it seems that many don't know their rights and even though there have been some women in political power, they are virtually nonexistent in the judicial area of India.

Other sources though seem to suggest that female contribution to the workforce is impressive, even accounting for 30% of the software industry (Indian population is about 50% women) but that Women are still behind men in education enrollment and success. They also don't have very many property or land rights. It is believed that women were once equal with men in ancient times but that Islamic influences deteriorated their rights and freedoms in the medieval ages. There were some demoralizing practices such as killing wives with their husbands, and in some areas covering women up and limiting their movement. Now the Indian president is a Women, so many great strides have been made and I think that it is a sign of a positive future for India as a rising first world nation.

Post 6

The other day high ranking U.S. and Indian economic officials met at the 2nd annual India-U.S. Financial and Economic Partnership. Attendees included India's chief economic advisor and head of the Indian reserve bank. The U.S. was represented by the Fed Chairman and the Exchange commission chairwomen. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss mutual regulatory policies. They discussed economic problems both countries are facing, as well as infrastructure investments needed in India, but no resolutions were passed. Nonetheless the meeting shows that both sides are eager to strengthen economic ties. Outside of the official meeting, Indian leaders worked to reassure American investors that the current economic slump was an aberration and that the economy was on the right track. Investors are still worried that the current leadership will not be able to pass the necessary reforms to allow the country to grow.

Indian Banking Emerged in the late 1700s but the oldest existing bank is the Bank of Bengal. During the American Civil War the US supply of cotton to Europe fell, so Indian Banks opened to finance trade with Indian cotton instead, but due to high speculation most failed. Since then until the 1900s banking was relegated to Europeans. In the 1900s India enjoyed relative stability and small banks popped up to serve ethnic and religious communities. After the Indian Independence, the government took measures to hold an active role in the economy, including the creation of a reserve bank, and various regulations. Then they nationalized the 14 largest banks so that the gov. could control credit. Only recently, in the 90's has the government started to relax its control on banking, allowing private banks to be established again, and this influenced a retail boom, and the economy has been strong since then. Now the banking system is considered quite mature. The Indian Fed reserve was established no that long after the US.

Wikipedia

Islam, Frank. "US investors seek hassle-free entry into Indian Economy." The Economic Times. 2 July 2011. <http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/us-investors-seek-hassle-free-entry-into-indian-economy/articleshow/9071165.cms>