The world has coined a few acronyms for the fast growing and developing countries since the

final few years of the last century like CHINDIA, BRIC, VISTA and Next Eleven. The BRIC countries have shown rapid economic in the first decade of this century and are considered to eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries in the world by 2050. The significant similarity of the BRIC countries is they all have huge land area and population. Together they occupy more than 25% of total land area and over 40% of worlds total population. The BRIC countries are rich in resources, politically stable and opened their doors to foreign investors. The combined GDP of BRIC countries is 15% of total global economy. China has already surpassed Germany to become the country with 3rd highest GDP in the world. VISTA countries unlike the BRIC countries have very little in common. The VISTA countries have shown economic growth over the last few years only but, at a rate much lesser than BRIC countries. VISTA countries are not as politically stable as the BRIC countries. Also, they dont have the large land area or large population and the natural resources which the BRIC countries have. Only South Africa and Argentina have plenty of natural resources. The quality of labor is force is good in Vietnam as against the South Africa where the quality is very poor. N-11 countries too have very little in common. Some of the N-11 countries have shown prospects of good economic growth. Of the N-11, only Mexico, Korea and, to a lesser degree, Turkey and Vietnam have both the potential and the conditions to rival the current major economies or the BRICs themselves. The N-11 countries have small area but large populations. The N-11 countries were not in the global picture till a few years ago but, there has also been a marked pick-up in integration with the world economy in some countries due to the openness to the world trade. Despite the dissimilarities in the type of economies and the governments the BRIC, VISTA and some of the N-11 countries are showing promising trade and economic growth. But, the governments face some serious challenges which are hindering the path of progress in all these emerging countries. Increasing Poverty Criminalization of politics Corruption Increasing unemployment Red tapes and bureaucracy Unbalanced regional development (Rural China is underdeveloped) Inequality Terrorist attacks and Insurgencies (Chechenians in Russia, Naxals in India) Quality of education Judiciary (The sheer volume of pending cases in Supreme Court in India) Inflation Corruption in governments undermines the economic progress where the funds directed towards the infrastructural developments flow into the pockets of the government officials. Russia, Iran, Philippines, and Pakistan are highly corrupt countries. The terrorist attacks increase in the insecurity and foreign investors become skeptical about investing in these countries. Red tapes and bureaucracy are responsible for the slow infrastructural development in these countries. Despite China being ruled by communist party it has one the best infrastructures in the world. The BRICs biggest strength in the days to come is the fact that there is an increase in the number of wealthy people in those countries and they are growing as a consumer market. Until now, the focus was on there being a production market using cheap and abundant labor, but as a result of economic growth, the lure of the consumer market is becoming increasingly strong. People are getting increasingly higher salaries in urban areas. With prospect of higher salaries increasing

number of people are migrating from rural areas to urban areas. This has lead to the development of middle tier cities. More and more infrastructure development is taking place. More and more foreign institutional investors are coming forward from the western countries to invest in these infrastructural projects. China and India require enormous natural resources because not only are they manufacturing and service centers of the world, but because of their own rapidly expanding domestic consumer markets. And this demand for natural and industrial resources such as oil, gas, coal, copper, bauxite, aluminum, iron and steel will be for many years because of the rapid infrastructure growth. As compared to India, China invests heavily in infrastructure. China invests about 40% of GDP in best infrastructure one will see in the world. India is lagging far behind China in terms of infrastructure development with a meager 5.5% of its GDP being invested.

India's economy and enterprises will be globally integrated especially with other advanced countries through large scale acquisitions of well established and well respected foreign companies with technology, branding and manufacturing assets. The journey has already begun with Mittal Steel's acquisition of Arcelor, Tata Steel's acquisition of Corus Steel, and Hindalco's acquisition of Novelis. And it will not be limited to industrial raw materials and to private enterprises of India. PSUs are starting to flex their acquisition muscles. Similarly, Wipro, an information technology (IT), engineering services, as well as consumer products company, has recently made several worldwide acquisitions. Finally, Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy's have become significant players in the global pharma industry largely through acquisitions. In other words, India will contribute to global growth as much, if not more, through MNCs investing in Western assets as it would through growth of its domestic consumer markets. On the other hand, China's growth will be proportionately more domestic and only on a selective basis through global acquisitions. The disparity in corporate culture between the two businesses is the most serious problem in international mergers. A seemingly unbridgeable cultural gulf in management style and work ethics soured Chinese company TCL Corp's acquisition of French consumer electronics company Thomson SA. Similar problems arose in the integration of BenQ and Germany's Siemens Mobile. Chinas estimated labor workforce is about 60% of total population out of which 49% works agriculture, forestry and fishing. About 22% of the labor works in manufacturing and construction industries and 29% works in services sector. In India agriculture employs 60% of the labor, while industry and services employ 17% and 23% respectively. Most of the developing countries in BRIC, VISTA and N-11 have a very large population. Labor is cheaply available in these countries, which is why most of the most of the products produced in these countries are sold cheaply in western countries. The markets from western countries have been facing stiff competition from Chinese car makers, since they are cheaply priced. This has caused many industries in the west to outsource the manufacturing or sell the manufacturing units to developing countries. This is precisely what happened in the case of IBM-Lenovo deal. Balancing economic development with environmental protection is already - and will remain - a major challenge. Urbanization, industrialization and intensive agriculture mean that pressures on the environment are unlikely to abate for decades in BRIC. The unstoppable trend of urbanization brings increasing strains on land and water resources. Although Brazil and Russia are already nearly as urban as the G6 (in some cases more so), India and China will face significant growth in their urban populations over the next 25 years. By 2030, the urban share is projected to increase by 50% in China and by 40% in India.

On the whole, the N-11 are already highly urbanized. In five, more than half the population is urban; some, including Korea, Mexico, Iran and Turkey, are roughly at G6 levels. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Vietnam and Bangladesh remain overwhelmingly rural (some 75%). Urbanization in these countries should support economic growth, particularly by underpinning productivity growth, as has already been the case in China and is beginning to materialize in India. Air pollution is a burgeoning problem and a predictable consequence of the BRICs growth, given that they are passing through the most energy-intensive phase of development. China is projected to outpace the US as the worlds largest carbon dioxide emitter in less than a decade. Fuelled by 4% annual growth in CO2 emissions, Chinas CO2 emissions are projected to be one-third higher than those of the US in 2030, even before the Chinese economy surpasses the US. Indias CO2 emissions could be nearly twice as high as Japans in 2030. The N-11, which comprise 7% of the world economy, account for 9% of the worlds energy consumption and an equal share of global CO2 emissions, well below the BRICs 30% share of emissions.

Developing and urbanizing countries face a dual challenge of supporting intensive agriculture while preserving fresh-water supplies. Fertilizer usage explains some of the divergence between agricultural efficiency in China and India. China uses 2.8 times as much fertilizer per hectare as India. While this boosts agricultural yields and thus supports urbanization, it raises the risks of water pollution in both the countryside and the city.

Ageing China: Two primary reasons are responsible for aging population in China: 1) increased longevity, which is raising the number of elderly, and 2) the one-child policy, which has slowed the growth rate of young adults in the population. The implication for workforce growth is immediate and significant. When more workers reach retirement age and growth of the young adult population slows, the dependent per- worker ratio will increase and the demographic bonus will end. Many observers are thus concerned that .China may get old before it gets rich. Ageing has been perceived almost exclusively as a problem for industrialized economies, following years of urbanization and industrialization. Fewer people have associated ageing with a developing country where labor is often ample and the cost of child-raising inexpensive. China may be an exception. Although it is still considered a developing country by many standards, China has the fastest ageing trend among the 14 developing economies in the BRICs and the N-11.

Infrastructure is a key part of this story. It is vital to economic growth and plays an important role in reducing income inequality. As globalization deepens, infrastructure will arguably become even more important for countries seeking a role in the just-in-time global economy. Mobile telephony has experienced explosive growth over the past decade. In 1995 only three people in 1,000 had mobile phones in China; by 2004 more than 250 did. Russia has jumped from less than one per 1,000 to levels approaching those in the G6. The explosive growth story in mobile phones is spreading to the N-11, with the poorest countries posting triple-digit growth in recent years. Electricity consumption is widely divergent, with Russia using about 70% of the G6 average and agricultural India consuming only 10% of Russias level. The roles are reversed in roads: Indias network is comparable to those seen in the G6 (in quantity if not in quality), while the lack of roads in vast Siberia means Russia has a much smaller network.

Access to improved sources of water and sanitation, which can have an important impact on productivity, has risen in India and China since 1990. Urbanization has been a major driver of this progress, although Indias gains have outpaced the rate of urbanization. Road networks across the BRICs are much less developed than in the G6, with road density on average only one-quarter the G6 level. This is one sector in which India trumps the other BRICs: its road density is nearly 70% of the G6 average and 18 times the world average. In contrast, Russia is the only BRIC country with road density below the world average, due to the extremely limited network in Siberia. There is a striking contrast within the BRICs, as 75% of the population in Brazil and 87% in Russia have access to sanitation facilities, compared with just 30% in India and 44% in China in 2002. Indian women have the lowest labor-force participation rate, the lowest share of parliamentarians, the lowest life expectancy, the lowest literacy rate, the lowest level of enrolment in tertiary education, and the highest maternal mortality rate. Addressing these problems will require significant investment and innovative policies. At the other end of the scale is Russia, where women generally fare well in comparison not only to the other BRICs but also to the G6. Labor-force participation is in line with high-income countries, literacy is at virtually 100%, and women are strongly represented in tertiary education. The prevalence of HIV in Russia is the highest among the BRICs, but the share of women affected is the lowest. Parliamentary representation is low by G6 standards but still better than in India or Brazil. Overall, the scope for upside surprise arising from an improvement in womens conditions is limited, although Russian women are significant contributors today. Chinese women largely score well against their BRICs peers, outstripping them in political representation and labor-force participation, but lagging in tertiary education. In health and literacy, Chinese women fare slightly worse than those in Brazil and Russia but better than those in India. Here too, investments in health and education could pay significant benefits. Brazil shows a mix of strengths and weaknesses, pointing to solid upside potential. Female literacy is high, as is access to tertiary education (where women are better represented than in the Euro zone). But maternal mortality is high, and among the BRICs, Brazil has the highest share of women affected by HIV and the highest obesity rate. Political participation is little better than in India. Human capital is a critical aspect of the long-term growth story. Life expectancy among the N-11 today (65 years) is in line with the BRICs but nearly a decade below the G6 average. The UN projects that life expectancy rates in the N-11 and the BRICs will converge around the current G6 level (75 years) by mid-century. But health spending will need to rise significantly outside just a handful of the N-11. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria currently spend less than $25 per head on health each year. Cooperation emerging developing countries: Some of the emerging countries especially the BRIC countries offer a helping hand and extend full cooperation to some of the developing countries mainly in Africa. India and China have ongoing technical assistance initiatives that cover almost all areas of interest to other developing countries, and both have, in the last decade, taken to underpinning technical assistance with financial support. India has spent a cumulative 2.0 billion dollars on its technical assistance program: about 40 percent on education and training; another 40 percent on projects and project-related advisory services; and 20 percent on study tours, cultural exchanges and disaster relief. China has extended billions of dollars in commercial and concessional loans to African countries to develop and bring to market a range of agricultural and mineral commodities. Other key

players in South-South cooperation include Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria, among many others. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced recently that his country would double low-interest loans to Africa, from 5.0 billion dollars to 10 billion dollars over the next three years. In 2000, the Chinese government reduced or forgave one billion dollars in debt incurred by the least developed countries (LDCs), described as the poorest of the world's poor. By the end of the first quarter of 2009, China had exempted 150 matured debts owed by 32 countries. Last year, the total trade between China and Africa amounted to over 106 billion dollars, an increase of 45 percent over the previous year. And China's imports from Africa amounted 56 billion dollars, an increase of 54 percent over the previous year. Chinese Ambassador Liu Zhenmin recently said, "In the future, China will provide further assistance and support to African countries in areas such as agriculture, education, health, medical care and clean energy." "We will also continue to support African countries in their conflict prevention and settlement, and peace building endeavours," he declared. The Indian government has said it will establish 19 institutions to develop human resources and capacities in Africa. The institutions would include the Africa-India Institute of Foreign Trade, AfricaIndia Diamond Institute, Africa-India Institute of Information Technology and Africa-India Institute of Education Planning and Administration. India will also create 10 vocational training institutions and five human settlement institutes. Many of these institutions will provide support to the creation of skilled professionals in Africa who could either work for themselves or with local companies or with foreign investors including those from India is the view. The Pan African E-network project that seeks to bridge the 'digital divide' between Africa and the rest of the world is one of the most far-reaching initiatives undertaken by India. Already 42 countries have joined this program, which is intended to provide digital information services with priority on tele-education and tele-medicine services and VVIP connectivity by satellite and fibre optic network amongst the heads of state of all 53 countries. The project would provide major benefits to Africa in capacity-building through skill and knowledge development of students, medical specialists and for medical consultation. The Africa-India Framework for Cooperation, launched last year, includes capacity building programs for medical and health specialists to tackle pandemics like malaria, filarial, polio, HIV and TB. Presence of China in Africa: Win Win situation Since early days China has helped Africa to counter the representation of Taiwan in the United Nations. China has more recently become a player in the energy field on the west coast of Africa, which is the largest producer of oil on the continent. Nigeria and Angola are the main producers and China has become active in both countries. Angola represents how China puts its assets together to build its presence. In connection with its bid to win rights to exploration of a bloc, China offered Angola a $2 billion soft loan as part of a longer term aid package. China won the bid. China is not only protecting its clients from strong punitive measures by which Chinas investments are attractive to Africans, but also because they come with no conditionality related to governance, fiscal probity or other of the concerns that now drive western donors. China has won a license to operate four of Nigerias oil blocs, as part of an incentive to build a hydro power station. Beyond this is Chinas willingness to take over a privatized oil refinery in Nigeria, a money losing proposition that no western company would likely have touched. All in all China is reported to be considering $7 billion in investments in Nigeria, covering a wide variety of sectors.

In Zambia, China has invested nearly $170 million in the mining sector, primarily but not only copper. China is now the worlds largest user of copper. China has been active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country gripped by civil war and instability. Despite these conditions, China has begun investment in cobalt and copper mines, begun work on roads to facilitate mineral exports, and examined power projects as well. In another unstable country, coming out from a devastating civil war, Sierra Leone, China is developing a luxury hotel and making other investments going in where others would fear to tread. In Uganda, a Chinese pharmaceutical firm is introducing a new anti-malaria drug and bidding on a contract to supply treated bed nets. China is investing in minerals, roads and farming, and supplying Mugabes Zimbabwe govt. with jets and other armaments. In return for a rare hand of friendship in an increasingly hostile world, Mugabe has offered Chinese companies almost anything they want, regardless of payback. Chinas trade with Africa has risen sharply, Chinese goods are flooding African markets and there has been growing concern in Africa about the effect on local industry. Exports of Chinese textiles to Africa are undermining local African industry while the growth of Chinese exports to the United States is shutting down the promising growth of African exports in this field. International division of labor: As the labor started costing very high in the western developed world, the world saw a shift of manufacturing from advanced capitalist nations to the developing world, with fragmentation of production and transfer of low skill jobs, while the bulk of the Research and Development activities were retained in the heartlands of the world capitalism. Due to availability of cheap and abundant labor in China and with much developed amongst the BRIC and N-11 most of the assembly lines of many electronics industries were set up in China. Also, with the assembly lines of the textile industries being transferred to these emerging countries women in these countries have become a part of the international working class. As far as the services industry is concerned India is one of the world leaders. Its is in the late 90s of the last century that the BPO and IT services sector started booming. Many of the US software and support companies started outsourcing their operation to countries like India and Philippines by setting up their delivery centers there. These are the jobs which require lower skills levels which are readily available in these countries. The western countries have outsourced call center services, data entry services, engineering services, financial services, creative services, web analytics services, healthcare services, photo editing services, software development, research and analysis services and a host of other additional services. The availability of technically trained and skilled manpower in India is making companies across the world look at the country as a profitable base to shift their high-end support services. Companies like COLT Technology Services are considering outsourcing their technical back-office support work to India. Other areas are high-end network engineering/management support. Another field which is showing immense potential is that of digital content creation and animation. Animation studios like Walt Disney, MGM and Warner Brothers are already outsourcing low-end work like clean-ups, twining and modeling to India. The availability of skilled and trained manpower and India's ability to keep in step with the latest technological advances in the industry is prompting foreign studios to consider India as a base to shift other high-end animation work like storyboarding and developing original content for animated films ad TV series. Teleradiology is the next segment that holds great

promise, mainly due to the time zone differences and the availability of highly skilled radiologists. Engineering services like CAD/CAM 2D, 3D and CAE modeling and design automation are the latest additions to the ever increasing list of processes being outsourced to India.