Month: January 2013

Weaker-than-expected holiday sales drive down price of Apple shares

By Economic Times Mumbai, Jan. 24, 2012 – Weaker-than-expected holiday sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone reinforced fears that it is losing its dominance in smartphones, driving its shares down 9 percent in pre-market trading and drawing another round of stock price target cuts. Fourteen brokerages including Barclays Capital, Mizuho Securities USA, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Raymond James, Robert W. Baird & Co and Canaccord Genuity cut their price target on the stock by $142 on average to $599. Apple’s shares closed at $514 Wednesday on the Nasdaq. Jefferies & Co cut its rating on Apple’s stock to “hold” from...

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IKEA Gets Agency Approval to Open Its 25 Wholly-Owned Stores in India

By BBC News NEW DELHI, Jan. 21, 2012 – India’s foreign investment agency has approved Ikea’s entry into the Indian market, bringing the Swedish firm closer to being the first major foreign retailer with wholly owned outlets. Ikea plans to open 25 stores, investing about U.S. $2 billion over the next 15 to 20 years. The proposal now needs approval from the federal cabinet. It comes with Indian policymakers trying to boost foreign investment to spur the slowing economy. “The government is committed to play a constructive role in encouraging FDI (foreign direct investment) specially in areas which create...

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Book Review: Ancestral Images – A Hong Kong Collection

Author: Hugh Baker Publisher: Hong Kong University Press, in collaboration with Columbia University Press Book Review by: Artha Hemrajani This is an updated and revised (2011) edition of Hugh Baker’s unique and useful book Ancestral Images – A Hong Kong Collection. Three volumes of it were original published respectively in 1979, 1980 and 1981. I call it unique because there is probably no other Chinese culture book with images, on the New Territories, a previously mostly-rural section of Hong Kong. The New Territories section has now come into the modern age and is likely to look urbanized just like...

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Book Review: Workers, Unions and Global Capitalism – Lessons from India

Author: Rohini Hensman Publisher: Columbia University Press Book Review by: Artha Hemrajani Globalization has leveled the playing field for developing countries like China and India, for example, to compete for jobs with developed countries like the United States and Germany. Globalization is here to stay. It positively affects the developing world and negatively affects the developed world in the form of changes in the livelihood sources and lifestyles of tens, if not hundreds of millions of people around the world. Essentially, the word ‘globalization’ immediately brings to mind the word ‘competition’. Globalization has helped employers in developing countries grow...

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Book Review: Collaborative Regional Development in Northeast Asia

Editors: Won Bae Kim, Yue-man Yeung and Sang-Chuel Choe Publisher: The Chinese University Press, in collaboration with Columbia University Press Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram A conference was held on the island of Jeju in South Korea on July 7, 8 and 9 in 2010 with 31 participants from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, wherein 23 papers were presented on matters relating to the common interests of these four nations. Organized by South Korea’s Presidential Committee on Regional Development (PCRD) the purpose of that meeting was to reshape regional policy as a result of recent changes in the...

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