A Passage To India: Ready or Not, Here They Come....
The country of India is climbing the charts as a player in Global Power. The United States is trying to get into their good graces and tap the economic potential of their growing middle-class.
From the U.S. Dept. of State (Jan. 18):
U.S. Initials Open Skies Aviation Agreement with India
"The U.S. Department of State announces the initialing of a landmark Open Skies air transport agreement with India. Representatives from the United States and India initialed, ad referendum, the text of the Agreement on January 15, 2005.
This agreement significantly modernizes U.S.-Indian aviation relations by allowing airlines to make commercial decisions with minimal government intervention. It provides for open routes, capacity, frequencies, designations, and pricing, as well as opportunities for cooperative marketing arrangements, including code-sharing. It also includes all-cargo seventh freedom rights, allowing airlines to perform international cargo operations with no connection to their homeland. Establishing Open Skies as the basis of U.S.-Indian aviation relations is an important step toward spurring trade, investment, tourism, and cultural exchanges between the world's two largest democracies.
With this initialing, India becomes the 67th bilateral U.S. Open Skies partner."
But, we're not the only ones.....
From The Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo paper, Jan. 19)
Toyota group says time ripe for expansion in India
"After years of maintaining a low profile in India, Toyota Motor Corp. wants to expand local production. A basic strategy has already been assembled: small, affordable cars targeted at the country's rapidly evolving middle class.
While it is not a radical business model for a Japanese automaker, the flagship of the Toyota group has long outgrown its postwar origins as a producer of cheap little runabouts. Japan's top carmaker is enlisting the help of subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co., a specialist in small vehicles, to help steer the India campaign. The two companies are planning for Daihatsu to start making subcompact models in India with engine displacements of about 1,000cc. Annual production, starting as early as 2007, will be 100,000 units at most, sources say.
India has a population of more than 1 billion and a fast-growing economy. Along with China, Russia and Brazil, the country offers a promising future for global automakers facing mature markets in North America, Europe and Japan.
As auto sales in China come off the boil, the Indian market, ranked 13th in the world in 2003, offers a most promising sales acceleration. Vehicle sales in India stood at 1.07 million units in 2003, surging 22.6 percent from a year earlier, according to Fourin Inc., a Nagoya-based automotive market research company. The ranks of car buyers will continue to swell as India's information technology-led economy raises income levels. By 2010, annual sales volume is tipped to exceed 2 million vehicles."
Keep the numbers in mind as the world's oil reserves continue to dwindle as oil use increases..... Please refer to Gold9472's thread "The End of Oil?" at: http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200 for more information.
