KACHARAGADLA

The wording of the sub-title, “in search of a relationship”, is deliberate. It would be incorrect to write “in search of a new relationship” because that would assume there was an “old relationship”; except in an indirect manner, which I shall come back to below, India and Japan have never really had a relationship. If one takes the major actors on the global stage today – the US, the EU, Russia, Brazil, China, India and Japan – the weakest link is between Japan and India. To cite only one example: as distant as Brazil and Japan may be geographically and culturally, there is a large emigrant Japanese population, estimated at about 1 ½ million, in Brazil. Similarly, there are Indian diasporas on all continents of the world and in many countries, but none of any significance in Japan. The total number of Indian residents in Japan (population 126 million) is 22,335, about the same number as in Sweden (population 9 ½ million)! The recent (11-14 December) visit of Japanese Prime Minis

The 505 km corridor linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad gas been assessed as a viable project. Japan has offered to finance India’s first bullet train, estimated to cost $15 billion, at an interest rate of less than 1 per cent, officials said, stealing a march on China, which is bidding for other projects on the world’s fourth-largest network. Tokyo was picked to assess the feasibility of building the 505-km corridor linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State, and concluded it would be technically and financially viable. The project to build and supply the route will be put out to tender, but offering finance makes Japan the clear frontrunner. Last month, China won the contract to assess the feasibility of a high-speed train between Delhi and Mumbai, a 1,200-km route estimated to cost twice as much. No loan has yet been offered. Japan’s decision to give virtually free finance for Modi’s pet programme is part of its

Falling oil prices, constructive election results helped the country post the biggest gains in terms of their number and total wealth during 2014 India has become home to the 11th largest population of dollar millionaires, with 198,000 such high networth individuals (HNWI), as falling oil prices and "constructive" election results helped the country post the biggest gains in terms of their number and total wealth during 2014. India recorded the largest gains - for the region and globally - for HNWI population (26.3 per cent) and wealth (28.2 per cent). "The election of a popular reform-minded prime minister helped to boost investor confidence and contributed to strong performance in the stock market, with a 21.9 per cent increase in the MSCI Index. Lower oil prices helped reduce country's budget deficit and retail inflation fell considerably," a report said. "All these events helped India moved up to the third place for HNWI wealth across the Asia