Replies to post #115106 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[rollingrock]

Atkins and you have no idea what
you are talking about. So who was going to pay for this rail system few people wouls use?

[dickmilde]

Is this one different ???

I thought we just went over this starting here:

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56382960

[StephanieVanbryce]

Exporting Our Way to Stability

By Barack Obama November 5, 2010

AS the United States recovers from this recession, the biggest mistake we could make would be to rebuild our economy on the same pile of debt or the paper profits of financial speculation. We need to rebuild on a new, stronger foundation for economic growth. And part of that foundation involves doing what Americans have always done best: discovering, creating and building products that are sold all over the world.

We want to be known not just for what we consume, but for what we produce. And the more we export abroad, the more jobs we create in America. In fact, every $1 billion we export supports more than 5,000 jobs at home.

It is for this reason that I set a goal of doubling America’s exports in the next five years. To do that, we need to find new customers in new markets for American-made goods. And some of the fastest-growing markets in the world are in Asia, where I’m traveling this week.

It is hard to overstate the importance of Asia to our economic future. Asia is home to three of the world’s five largest economies, as well as a rapidly expanding middle class with rising incomes. My trip will therefore take me to four Asian democracies — India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan — each of which is an important partner for the United States. I will also participate in two summit meetings — the Group of 20 industrialized nations and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation — that will focus on economic growth.

During my first visit to India, I will be joined by hundreds of American business leaders and their Indian counterparts to announce concrete progress toward our export goal — billions of dollars in contracts that will support tens of thousands of American jobs. We will also explore ways to reduce barriers to United States exports and increase access to the Indian market.

Indonesia is a member of the G-20. Next year, it will assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — a group whose members make up a market of more than 600 million people that is increasingly integrating into a free trade area, and to which the United States exports $80 billion in goods and services each year. My administration has deepened our engagement with Asean, and for the first eight months of 2010, exports of American goods to Indonesia increased by 47 percent from the same period in 2009. This is momentum that we will build on as we pursue a new comprehensive partnership between the United States and Indonesia.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak and I will work to complete a trade pact that could be worth tens of billions of dollars in increased exports and thousands of jobs for American workers. Other nations like Canada and members of the European Union are pursuing trade pacts with South Korea, and American businesses are losing opportunities to sell their products in this growing market. We used to be the top exporter to South Korea; now we are in fourth place and have seen our share of Korea’s imports drop in half over the last decade.

But any agreement must come with the right terms. That’s why we’ll be looking to resolve outstanding issues on behalf of American exporters — including American automakers and workers. If we can, we’ll be able to complete an agreement that supports jobs and prosperity in America.

South Korea is also the host of the G-20 economic forum, the organization that we have made the focal point for international economic cooperation. Last year, the nations of the G-20 worked together to halt the spread of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. This year, our top priority is achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth. This will require cooperation and responsibility from all nations — those with emerging economies and those with advanced economies; those running a deficit and those running a surplus.

Finally, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Japan, I will continue seeking new markets in Asia for American exports. We want to expand our trade relationships in the region, including through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to make sure that we’re not ceding markets, exports and the jobs they support to other nations. We will also lay the groundwork for hosting the 2011 APEC meeting in Hawaii, the first such gathering on American soil since 1993.

The great challenge of our time is to make sure that America is ready to compete for the jobs and industries of the future. It can be tempting, in times of economic difficulty, to turn inward, away from trade and commerce with other nations. But in our interconnected world, that is not a path to growth, and that is not a path to jobs. We cannot be shut out of these markets. Our government, together with American businesses and workers, must take steps to promote and sell our goods and services abroad — particularly in Asia. That’s how we’ll create jobs, prosperity and an economy that’s built on a stronger foundation.

Barack Obama is the president of the United States.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/opinion/06obama.html?_r=2&hp

[StephanieVanbryce]

Obama unveils major deals on 'job fair' India visit

Sat Nov 6, 10:06 am ET

MUMBAI (AFP) – President Barack Obama announced Saturday 10 billion dollars in trade deals with India to create 50,000 US jobs, on a visit that began with an emotional tribute to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Kicking off a four-nation Asian tour weighted towards prying open new markets for US goods, Obama also said he would relax technology export restrictions imposed after India's nuclear tests back in 1998.

"As we look to India today, the United States sees an opportunity to sell our exports in one of the fastest growing markets in the world," he told an audience of US and Indian businessmen in financial the hub of Mumbai.

"For America this is a jobs' fair. As we recover from this recession we are determined to rebuild our economy on a stronger foundation for growth," he added.

At the same time, he urged India to play its part by implementing "a steady reduction in trade barriers" in sectors from retail to telecommunications.

"New jobs and growth flow to countries that lower barriers to trade and investment," Obama said.

"Our trade with India is still less than our trade with the Netherlands," Obama said. "I have no doubt we can do much better -- there is no reason why this nation can't be one of our top trading partners."

Rajan Bharti Mittal, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, welcomed what he described as a "very pragmatic speech."

Outlining a series of measures to ease export controls, Obama said they would allow India's purchase of "dual use" technologies that have civilian or military applications.

The measures would involve removing Indian space and defence companies from a restricted "entities list" and supporting Indian membership of four key global nuclear nonproliferation regimes.

The commercial agreements included a 7.7 billion dollar contract for Boeing to supply 30 of its 737 aircraft to Spice Airlines, and a preliminary accord on the sale of 10 C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft potentially worth four billion dollars.

Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle, flew into Mumbai on Air Force One at the start of a trip that will also take the president to Indonesia, South Korea for the G20 summit and Japan for the APEC summit.

The journey, just days after Obama's Democrats took a drubbing in mid-term elections focusing on the economy, is aimed at boosting US access to emerging Asian markets and creating new US jobs to ease 9.6 percent unemployment.

Obama's first stop in Mumbai was the Taj Mahal Palace, which was the main target of the November 2008 attacks by 10 Islamist militants that killed 166 people.

"The United States stands in solidarity with all of Mumbai and all of India in working to eradicate the scourge of terrorism," Obama wrote in the condolence book at a memorial to the victims.

"We visit here to send a very clear message that in our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity, the United States and India stand united," Obama said after meeting survivors at the hotel.

Treading a fine diplomatic line, Obama did not mention that extremists blamed for the attacks, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, were based in Pakistan, India's arch-rival and America's anti-terror ally.

On the eve of Obama's departure for India, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the LeT and another group, Jaish-e Mohammed, a key planner of the attacks.

US officials now say that cooperation with India on counter-terrorism is at its highest-ever level, despite India's misgivings about US support for Pakistan.

After the Taj, Obama toured the Mumbai house of Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi, who he has cited as a key personal influence.

"He is a hero not just to India, but to the world," he wrote in the visitor's book.

Obama moves on to New Delhi on Sunday, where he will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and deliver an address to parliament.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101106/wl_sthasia_afp/indiausdiplomacy_13

[StephanieVanbryce]

Universities Tag Along With Obama to India to Set Up Ties Like Yale, Duke

Nov 4, 2010 9:03 PM PT

Yale University and Duke University are among dozens of U.S. colleges that India is recruiting to help educate its population with more than 550 million people under age 25.

Duke, Brown University and the University of Chicago are planning offices, research centers and campuses in India. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and Cornell University have traveled to India to raise money and establish collaborations. Yale President Richard Levin visited India last week to set up a joint program that will educate Indian college leaders.

President Barack Obama will make a three-day state visit to India, starting tomorrow, accompanied by U.S. university officials eager to strengthen their ties to the country. Institutions want to “get in on the ground floor” as India’s economy and education system mature and the nation becomes a global power, said Dipesh Chakrabarty, a University of Chicago history professor who is leading the university’s efforts to plan a research center in New Delhi, India’s capital.

“We see India as a tremendous opportunity for higher education,” said Robert Brown, president of Boston University and a member of the delegation traveling to India, where he aims to open a campus, in a telephone interview. “There’s tremendous demand, a growing population in the middle class, an English- speaking, well-organized educational system -- all the things that you need to interface with a private American university.”

Business Summit

Representatives of Boston University, Arizona State University in Tempe, and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, are part of the delegation of academic and business leaders. The group was organized by the U.S.-India Business Council, a Washington-based lobbying group. Obama is scheduled to attend their business summit tomorrow, in Mumbai. During their visit, university officials will lobby for a bill pending before the Indian legislature that would allow foreign schools to open branches in the country for the first time.

U.S. institutions of higher learning have already expanded overseas, with campuses in the Middle East and China. India is the logical next step, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs for Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Duke wants to open a facility for Indian and U.S. students, although it doesn’t know where, Schoenfeld said.

“In an increasingly global world, it would be hard to have a truly complete education without having some experience with India and China,” Schoenfeld said.

Levin, president of Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, said on Oct. 28 during a trip to India that the institution would train Indian university leaders through a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Management in Kozhikode.

Tata Group

U.S. college fundraisers are also eager to tap into the growing wealth of Indians. On Oct. 14, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received a $50 million donation for its business school from the Tata Group, a diversified Indian company whose interests include steel and chemicals. Harvard also got $10 million on Oct. 4 from Anand Mahindra, managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a Mumbai-based industrial company whose interests include automobiles, for humanities education.

Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, has formed an advisory council on India and is planning an office in New Delhi, said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs at Brown. The council is co-chaired by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd., whose interests include energy and materials. Ambani is also the parent of a Brown student.

Growing Demand

India needs 600 more universities and 35,000 more colleges over the next 12 years to enroll 30 percent of its potential students, according to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. The most-elite U.S. institutions won’t be the first to open campuses with degree-granting programs, he said.

“Harvard and Yale are world-renowned institutions,” Sibal said. “They have the best people come there, so they have no hunger. It will be institutions that have hunger. They are the ones that will come -- those that want to establish themselves as global universities.”

Arizona State is seeking to attract Indian companies to an office and retail complex called Skysong that the university is developing in Scottsdale, Arizona, said Sethuraman Panchanathan, the institution’s chief research officer, who is part of the delegation. Also traveling to India is Jaishankar Ganesh, dean of Rutgers School of Business-Camden, who said he’s exploring partnerships with Indian institutions.

Discount Land

Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, has looked at land for a facility in Hyderabad. The property was offered, at a discount price, by the government of Andhra Pradesh state, said Vijay Madisetti, the Georgia Tech professor leading the school’s initiative, in an e-mail. The university is waiting for passage of the Foreign University Bill before taking action, he said.

India’s gross domestic product expanded 8.8 percent in the three months ended June 30, the most since 2007 and the joint second-fastest pace among the world’s 20 largest economies, after China. Brazil recorded the same growth as India.

Only about 12 percent of children in India enter college, about half the world average of 23 percent and well below the 56 percent in developed countries, according to figures compiled by the Washington-based World Bank.

Legislative Session

India’s Congress Party-led government introduced the Foreign University Bill, which would allow foreign institutions to set up their own branches. Colleges would need to invest at least 500 million rupees ($11 million) to start up, and reinvest surpluses into their India-based programs. The legislature begins its next session on Nov. 9.

How the U.S. colleges in India will operate depends on the final provisions of the law and the availability of financing, said Boston University’s Brown. Unlike projects in the Middle East and China, where state or local governments have paid for U.S. campuses, the Indian programs of American schools need to find their own funding, Brown said.

Boston University is talking to a philanthropist about financing its campus, said Brown, who wouldn’t disclose the name of the potential donor or the locations he is considering. Boston University would initially offer master’s degrees in disciplines such as business, journalism and art, Brown said. The university may offer undergraduate degrees later, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-05/universities-tag-along-with-obama-to-india-to-set-up-ties-like-yale-duke.html