Brazil India

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Introduction: Most of us adore Brazil as the country that produced Pele. Some of us know Brazil as the country that would be hosting the Summer Olympics in 1916 and the Football World Cup in 1914. Yet others know Brazil as one of the G-20 countries and a country with worlds largest freshwater supplies as well as the largest tropical forests. Common Realities: Think Brazil and India, and think: melting pots of history, status as BRIC countries and impressive geographical expanse The similarities continue. There are several close affinities between the two countries in matters economic, social, and developmental. While Brazil had a military dictatorship till the mid Eighties, India was plagued by excessive control, Licence Raj and Hindu rate of growth. In the 90s, both were teetering on the brink of collapse. They managed a remarkable turnaround, thanks to their respective Finance Ministers. Brazil managed to tame inflation which averaged 750% plusa a year between 1990 and 1995. Now Brazil , like India, is a leader among the developing countries and an emerging world power. Both of us have carved out a niche of our own and the world respects us as the BRIC ( Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries which, according to Goldman Sachs would rise to the topb by 2050 or listens to our voice on Climate Change as the BASIC ( Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries. As per Goldman Sachs, the BRIC countries would have a dominant presence on the world stage by 2050. India and Brazil are well positioned to grow. The decline in working age population will happen later for India and Brazil than for Russia and China. Indias median age is close to 25 years. In Brazil, more than 60% is under 29 years age. While India came out of the global financial meltdown largely unscathed, for Brazil it was like a small tide breaking on its beaches. It was among the LIFOs ( the Last in and first out). That is, Brazil was among the last G-20 countries to get affected and among the first ones to come out of recession. Common Challenges : Unfortunately, on the flipside too, we have a few common points. The rich and the poor both will get ice. Only, the poor will get all of theirs in winter. Brazil has the unenviable distinction of ranking very high on the Gini coefficient index of inequality assessment. The gap between the rich and the poor is so wide that the richest 10% receive 50% of the nations income, while the poorest 10% receive less than 1%. India faces the same problem: Indias richest states have incomes that are five times higher than those of the poorest states. Bureaucracy stifles business in both the countries Both of us fare poorly in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business 2010 report. While Indiac is pegged at
133 out of 183 countries, Brazild is ranked at 129 Taxes are overbearing. Both got a low rank ( 150 or below) on Paying Tax. India has additional problems. For example, India brought up the rear with a pathetic 182 rank on Enforcing Contracts . Both the countries have been criticized for not having translated government expenditure into quality governmental services. Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index1 ranks Brazil at 79 and India, close behind, at 84.
In Brazil, the standards of primary and secondary public education have been falling at the Government-funded Schools over the years. Nowadays, practically all the middle class sends their children to private schools In India, quality of Primary education is a far bigger problem. 15% schools have no toilet and consequently girls drop out. As for High Schools, just about 15% of the students manage to reach there. In a hypothetical situation, if Indias entire college-age population opted for undergraduate education, only 7% of them would have been accommodated Both are witnessing violence. While Brazil has to contend with urban violence and crime in some urban pockets (In 2006, nearly 50,000 people were murdered in Brazil), India has bigger problems to address : terrorists and the Naxalites, communal riots and hostile neighbours. The unemployment rates in both Brazil and India are close to 7%..
Country-specific Realities & Challenges : However, there are several key differences between Brazil (largely an urban country with more than 80 % urbanisation) and India ( essentially a rural country with more than 70% population living in rural areas ).
BRAZIL :
Realities/potentials :
As per Goldman Sachs, Brazile & Russia are expected to become worlds dominant raw material suppliers. Brazils growth is closely correlated with the Commodity prices. Brazil has pioneered ethanol fuel production. Its ethanol fuel production reduced the number of cars running on gasoline by 10 million. Also, it is one of the leading countries in hydroelectric power generation.
Challenges :
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Brazils score was 3.7, and Indias 3.4 on a scale of 1-10. The lower the score, worse is the perception of corruption in that country.
People are disinclined to save. The interest rate is high. Deforestation :.Brazil has the largest area of forest removed annually worldwide. The Amazonian rainforest is fast depleting due to logging and shifting cultivation. Perhaps they cant see the forest for the trees.
INDIA :
Realities/potentials :

As per Goldman Sachs, Indiaf & China are expected to become worlds dominant material suppliers of Services and Manufactured goods. Growth rate in disposable income has been more than 10%. Savings rate is more than 30% now
Challenges :

Primary health : Even though India has avoided famines in recent decades, half of children are underweight, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly same as the Sub-Saharan Africa. Poor rural infrastructure : grid electricity and roads need to develop significantly without a large Carbon footprint.
Conclusion : The Happy Planet Index2, a measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting wellbeing on a country, ranks Brazil at 9 and India at 35. As two of the worlds fastest developing nations, lets hope Brazil and India will look within and shape the world.
References :
The HPI value of a country is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita.
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a : Getting it together at last: 12th November 2009 The Economist b : Dreaming with BRICs: The Path to 2050 by Dominic Wilson and Roopa Purushothaman of Goldman Sachs c: Doing Business 2010 India : a co-publication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation http://www.doingbusiness.org/Documents/CountryProfiles/IND.pdf d: Doing Business 2010 Brazil a co-publication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation http://www.doingbusiness.org/exploreeconomies/? economyid=28
e & f : WIKIPEDIA : BRIC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRIC

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e & f : WIKIPEDIA : BRIC

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