Posts from — September 2008

In a meeting in Vienna, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group has just granted a historic waiver for India to be able to import nuclear fuel and technologies.

This is a huge step in the US-India Civil Nuclear Agrement process. I will post more details shortly.  But remember you heard it here BEFORE the  Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and before CNN and Fox News.

They don’t call me the The India Expert for nothing.

2.6 billion people live in India and China. Yet Vanity Fair magazine could not find a single person among those two countries to make its 2008 best dressed list.  Among 36 names mentioned, there are 22 whose primary residence is in the United States (including a whopping 15 New York City alone). The balance of the 14 live in Europe.

That’s preposterous! Its hypocrisy to call the list “international” unless the publication intended to match the home continent of its advertisers.

By any reasonable definition, there are plenty of very well-dressed people in Brazil, Egypt, Dubai, Australia, Japan, Singapore, you name it. There are thousands in India and China that are better dressed than the horrendously attired Iris Apfel (what IS that thing on her chest, and are those Halloween spectacles?) or the confused Stacey Bendet.

Since Iam the India expert, let me point to a recent Indian best dressed list.  Being attractive and being well-dressed are not the same thing of course, but look at former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bacchan or at another movie star from India, Rani Mukherjee.

There are dozens of men and women better dresses than Vanity Fair’s selections. I am sure someone from China could come up with a long list.

The rewards of doing business with India are great today. But only for the patient.  I counsel my clients to pack some extra patience and a sense of humor when they travel to India.

The Ambani billionaire brothers are known in India for moving very quickly. Yet the god of Hollywood (Steven Spielberg) is finding that they pace is not quite what he might have expected.  In August, I predicted that Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal were likely to be off when they predicted that the deal between Spielberg and Ambani was imminent. Those  publications have been quiet since.

Now on September 1, we have BusinessWeek saying that the deal is imminent. Any day now, heh heh.  I’m holding my breath, are you?

They don’t call me THE India Expert for nothing.