Tuesday, June 14, 2011

wsj: china scales down pricing, speed on bullet trains. $300 billion boondoggle. UPA, please note.

jun 13th, 2011 CE

china has sharply reduced the prices on its soon to be inaugurated peking-shanghai bullet train, and also scaled down its speed from 350 km/hour to 250 km/h. there is a plan to spend $300 billion on bullet trains by 2020 (i am sure UPA is paying attention to this juicy little investment that leaves the 2G loot in the dust. i am awaiting, any day, the announcement of the mumbai-delhi bullet train at $200 billion.)

the existing bullet trains are plagued by poor ridership and allegations of poor safety regulations and massive corruption, as well as unviability of operations, given the debt/asset ratio is already 57%.

2 comments:

Pagan said...

OT:

Vietnam bolsters military stance amid China marine row


Vietnam's Prime Minister has issued a decree about a potential military call-up, amid rising tension with China. Vietnam has conducted live-ammunition exercises in the sea adjacent to the waters it disputes with China. The area is thought to be rich in natural resources, and Hanoi has accused Beijing of harassing its oil exploration ships.

Pagan said...

OT:
In India's Grain Bowl, Farms Face Threat From MNREGS

Ever since the start of the UPA government's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of migrant labour to Punjab and Haryana has dropped to a trickle, forcing farmers to hike farm wages massively.

"Labourers used to come every year to the large landholders, asking for work. Now they pick and choose and go about saying: Sardar (master), we don't have time".

"Four or five years ago, it used to cost 500-800 ($11-$18) rupees to plant an acre of paddy. Last year the labourers took a tenth of the paddy and 3,000-4,000 rupees."