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India and China are the biggest developing economies in the world apart from being the most populous nations. The population of China is expected to increase over 1.4 billion by 2050, and India may over take China and become the most populous nation at around 1.6 billion populace. These two nations are home to about 40 % of the total population in the world. Apart from this, India and China have attained remarkable success in the economic growth denoted by higher gross domestic product (GDP). The two nations together contribute about one-fifth of the world GDP. This paper discusses about the changes in the energy consumption pattern of developing countries like China and India aiming towards the sustainable development. Furthermore, this paper also analyses the most important drivers adding to the ecological problems, and gives a further glance at the ecological impacts of these in India and China. Over the last 50-60 years we have been emitting carbon dioxide at an accelerated pace. This has had an effect on the carbon dioxide concentration and other GHG gas concentrations, in the atmosphere. The paper also discusses about the effect of pollutants like NOx, SOx, Particulate matter and Mercury on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing population age structure has a significant influence on the economy, society, and numerous other aspects of a country. This paper has innovatively applied the method of compositional data forecasting for the prediction of population age changes of the young (aged 0–14), the middle-aged (aged 15–64), and the elderly (aged older than 65) in China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on data from 1960 to 2016. To select the best-suited forecasting model, an array of data transformation approaches and forecasting models have been extensively employed, and a large number of comparisons have been made between the aforementioned methods. The best-suited model for each country is identified considering the root mean squared error and mean absolute percent error values from the compositional data. As noted in this study, first and foremost, it is predicted that by the year 2030, China will witness the disappearance of population dividend and get mired in an aging problem far more severe than that of India or Vietnam. Second, Vietnam’s trend of change in population age structure resembles that of China, but the country will sustain its good health as a whole. Finally, the working population of India demonstrates a strong rising trend, indicating that the age structure of the Indian population still remains relatively “young”. Meanwhile, the continuous rise in the proportion of elderly population and the gradual leveling off growth of the young population have nevertheless become serious problems in the world. The present paper attempts to offer crucial insights into the Asian population size, labor market and urbanization, and, moreover, provides suggestions for a sustainable global demographic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the population transition in China and India during 1950-2015 by decomposing population growth into the growth attributed to the changes in fertility and mortality (intrinsic growth), and the growth attributed to the change in population age composition (momentum growth). The analysis reveals similarities and differences in the population transition path followed by the two countries and suggests that India lags behind China by about 30 years in terms of population transition. The population transition in China has been rapid and inconsistent, while India’s population transition has been slow and consistent. The momentum for growth intrinsic to respective populations has been the main contributor to population growth in both countries. The demographic dividend resulting from population transition in India has been substantially smaller than that in China because of differences in population transition paths. Unlike in China, population transition appears to have contributed only marginally to economic growth in India. This paper emphasises the importance of focussing population policy on the relative contribution of different demographic drivers to population growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out of the two dozen countries that constitute what is generally called “Asia”, some are the largest in the world while others are islands with smaller populations. When looking at oilseeds and vegetable oils in the region, one is faced with the same huge diversity which makes it complex to analyze, all the more that statistics are not easily available for many countries. Aside from the large differences in size, the region covers a wide spectrum of diversified climate environments. Asia is also mainly characterized by its huge population which has become largely urban, a key factor leading to the impressive growth of vegetable oil demand in the past 30 years. At an verage of 23.2 kg/year, Asian per capita consumption of oils and fats still remains slightly below the world average of 28.3 kg/capita/year. Therefore, although 53% of the world population is located in Asia, only 45% of world oils and fats is consumed in the region. As detailed in the paper, the world of Asian oilseeds and vegetable oils is highly concentrated on soybeans and palm oil. In spite of a large domestic production in China (12.3 MnT), soybeans are imported in huge quantities, mostly by China (78 MnT, 84% of the region’s imports) where more than 28% of world soybeans production is being crushed. Palm oil, the second large commodity consumed in the region, is mainly produced within the region, mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia. So where is the “world of diversity”? Hidden behind those two dominant commodities, practically all of the ten oilseeds constituting the core of the world production are grown in significant quantities in the region while, for vegetable oils, all those of significant importance are produced within the region with the exception of olive oil. The main question that should be kept in mind when reviewing this large regional demand is under what condition will future vegetable oil production be able to meet the expected rise of per capita oils and fats demand within the region, particularly from the three largest populated countries that are China, India and Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth in the Chinese and Indian economies, the opportunities for publishers have dramatically expanded. The paper discusses the regulatory, political, economic and cultural factors to be considered in entering these markets. Finally, the paper discusses three key tradeoffs to be considered in these markets: standardization/localization, volume/margin and the relative importance of digital/paper publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that in international joint ventures (IJVs) between firms from diverse cultures, partner related factors are of importance for the successful management of the joint venture. This paper reports the study of IJVs formed by Singapore firms in People's Republic of China and India. Since Singapore and China share a common Confucian culture, it was expected that a Singapore firm's approach to joint venture formation in India will differ significantly from its approach to joint ventures in China. The results, however, suggest that the partner selection process follows a different logic in Confucian societies, and Singapore firms were as successful in forming IJVs in India as in China. The paper further explores the influence of Confucian ethics and values on the formation of Chinese business networks. Findings also suggest that Singapore firms have bought into the Confucian value system, and the argument that partner commitment and trustworthiness are critical to long-term, harmonious and successful joint ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the resilience of distinctive local consumption cultures, this paper challenges some of the more sweeping claims that have been advanced in the name of ‘globalization’. Thinking about a ‘globalizing’ rather than a fully ‘globalized’ world encourages us to examine the deeply contested nature of the concept and to explore the geographically uneven nature of recent economic, political and cultural transformations. This paper approaches globalization as a site of struggle rather than as an established fact, emphasizing the need for empirically grounded studies of the impact of ‘globalization’ on consumer cultures in different geographical contexts. The paper examines the way that producers have ‘customized’ their products for different markets (drawing on evidence from China and South Africa). It then reviews case study evidence from three contrasting consumption cultures: consumption and ‘public culture’ in India, ‘consumer nationalism’ in China, and ‘artful consumption’ in Russia. The paper concludes by identifying some current debates and outlining some directions for future research, including a re-emphasis on consumption and material culture; an exploration of consumption as social practice; the delineation of commodity-specific consumption cultures; and some reflections on the political, ethical and methodological issues that are being raised in contemporary consumption research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy has a critical role in limiting the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper assesses the implication of aligning renewable energy deployment target with national emission reduction target for mitigation cost. The assessment methodology uses Asia-Pacific Integrated Assessment/computable general equilibrium (AIM/CGE) model to determine the mitigation cost in terms of GDP and welfare loss under alternative renewable targets in different climate-constrained scenarios. A range of country-specific emission constraints is taken to address the uncertainties related to global emission pathway and emission entitlement scheme. Comparative results show that China needs to increase its share of non-fossil fuel significantly in the primary energy mix to achieve the stringent emission reduction target compared to India. The mitigation cost in terms of economic and welfare loss can be reduced by increasing the penetration of the renewable energy to achieve the same emission reduction target. The modeling results show that coordinated national climate and renewable energy policies help to achieve the GHG emission reduction target in an efficient and cost-effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current article assesses emerging trends in global trade in the case of Brazil-India-China (BIC) Alliance. Although the globalized world is still recovering from the global 2008 crisis, it may be perceived that Brazil, India and China showed considerable growth during the crisis, continuing with the trend even after the crisis period. So that the growth observed in these three countries could be demonstrated, current paper is divided into three sections. The first section will deal with the emerging trends in global trade. Section two will examine emerging trends in Brazil, India, and China's foreign trade. The third section will examine the characteristics of the concept of 'new regionalism' and the role of WTO in accelerating the rate of growth in world trade for the coming years. Revised bibliography and descriptive statistics will be the methodology employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the National Defense Strategies of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) in order to verify how the four countries evaluate the strategic landscape of this century, especially regarding the balance of power between the Great Powers, their immediate geographical surroundings and their relationship with the US. This work addresses specifically the similarities and differences among them and how these differences reflect in their respective defense policies. Among the four cases, the Brazilian one will be in especial focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In a world increasingly affected by global environmental changes, Low Income countries will play an ever more central role in determining the future health of the biosphere. While global use of the biosphere''s capacity has increased over the past 45 years, per capita demand for biocapacity, as measured by the Ecological Footprint, has only increased in high-income countries and has remained constant or fallen in middle- and low-income nations. Consumption has increased faster than population in high-income nations, while population growth has been the dominant factor in middle- and low- income countries. Although listed in the middle-income group of countries, China showed atypical trends in the past 45 years, with a rapid increase in per capita Ecological Footprint that outstrip its gains in income. Typical trends were instead noticed for India, whose per person Ecological Footprint has fallen slightly. The results of this paper show that decisions made in China and India will be of fundamental importance for future global sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Our paper provides a comparative perspective on the development of public primary education in four of the largest developing economies circa 1910: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). These four countries encompassed more than 50% of the world's population in 1910, but remarkably few of their citizens attended any school by the early 20th century. We present new, comparable data on school inputs and outputs for BRIC drawn from contemporary surveys and government documents. Recent studies emphasize the importance of political decentralization, and relatively broad political voice for the early spread of public primary education in developed economies. We identify the former and the lack of the latter to be important in the context of BRIC, but we also outline how other factors such as factor endowments, colonialism, serfdom, and, especially, the characteristics of the political and economic elite help explain the low achievement levels of these four countries and the incredible amount of heterogeneity within each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world gets ready to begin the second decade of the twenty-first century, global climate change has been recognized as a real threat to civilization as we know it. The rapid and successful economic growth of developing nations, particularly China and India, is contributing to climate change. The route to initial economic success in China followed that of the developed nations through the development of industries. Unfortunately, China''s environmental protection efforts have not been the same as in developed countries because China is vastly different culturally, socially, economically and, especially, politically from developed nations. When China started to deal with environmental concerns in the late 1970s, it took advantage of the experiences of other countries in establishing environmental standards and regulations, but it did not have a model to follow when it came to implementing these standards and regulations because of the abovementioned differences. Economically, China is transitioning from an agricultural base into an industrial base; however, even now, 60% of the population remains farmers. China has been and still is heavily dependent upon coal for energy, resulting in serious atmospheric particulate pollution. While growing efforts have been expended on the environment, at this juncture of its economic development, China would be well served to revisit the traditional “develop first and clean up later” approach and to find a balance between development and protecting the environment. Against this backdrop, a reflective look of the effort to manage air quality from 1949–2008 (with an emphasis on the past 30years) in China is presented in this paper. The environmental component of the 2008 Olympic Games is examined as a special example to illustrate the current measures being used to improve air quality in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Records of individuals who achieved rebirth in the pure land of Amitãbha Buddha began as a genre of hagiography in eighth-century China and began appearing in Japan in the late tenth century. Thereafter these ōjōden were produced repeatedly throughout Japanese history in greater numbers than in China, and came to function as a form of prooftext for the establishment of the Pure Land school. Focusing on an apocryphal Indian ōjōden created in the late Heian period, this paper evaluates the form and content of ōjōden as a unique genre of Japanese religious literature exhibiting influences from monastic bibliography, miracle texts, and the category of adbhutadharma in Indian Buddhist literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of the effects of population pressure on the landscape using traditional methods for classifying urban territory are inadequate. The crude scale at which population densities are calculated and dependence on country-specific administration divisions hinder their ability to address such questions as the environmental impacts of cities and suburbs and make cross-national comparisons particularly difficult. This paper examines comparative urbanization measures among three case studies: the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province of China, the Indian state of Kerala, and the southern part of Florida in the United States. It proposes a measure based on the distribution of local population densities, taking advantage of the detailed data on small area populations and land area available in modern censuses and model-derived population databases such as LandScan, and the increasing potential of spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Examined with a similar set of thresholds, the resulting density distributions offer the potential to show better the ecological effects of population than do traditional measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the in situ measured data of the air temperature and ground temperature inside of Kunlun mountain tunnel on Qing–Tibet railway, China, the thawed extent of the permafrost surrounding the tunnel is very large, caused by the latent heat of the cast in situ concrete lining insulation during excavation in winter and other artificial activities. In this paper, taking the coupled effects of moisture transfer and heat conduction into account, a finite element formula of this problem is derived from the governing differential equations with phase change and moisture transfer equations using Galerkin''s solution. Using the computer program, predictions for the refreezing of Kunlun mountain permafrost tunnel are made. The analysis results show that the vault of Kunlun mountain tunnel would have been refrozen by 31 March 2004, the arch bottom by 30 September 2004 and the total tunnel by 30 September 2005, without insulation material. On the other hand, if the tunnel is fitted with insulation material, whose thermal conductivity is equal to 0.03 W/m.K and thickness of 0.05 m, the vault of Kunlun mountain tunnel would have been refrozen by 31 March 2004, the arch bottom by 31 December 2004, the left wall by 31 March 2006, and the right wall by 30 September 2006. Thus, insulation material will delay the refreezing of Kunlun mountain permafrost tunnel. The thawed extent of the permafrost surrounding the tunnel in cold regions caused by construction must be considered, and the time of the field observation should be extended, or observational results, such as their temperature and stress field, will greatly be different from results in stability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The last decade has seen a surging demand for biofuels in the wake of increasing oil prices and rising environmental concerns. The most common biofuel is bio-ethanol accounting for more than 90% of total biofuel usage. It is increasingly produced from sugar cane making cane a strategic crop for biofuels. Given the growing demand for “green” fuels, bio-ethanol production has been supported by energy policies in the past decade, which have consequently been accused of contributing to the global trend of rising food prices and thus jeopardising food security. However, while biofuel policies are an important driver, prices as much as food security will ultimately be determined by supply constraints of strategic crops. This paper hence investigates drivers of and constraints to sugar cane production in China and India and shows that supply side constraints vary significantly in the two countries. China and India both face serious limitations with regard to suitable available land for the further expansion of sugar cane production. Equally they are both faced with challenges to increasing yield output per hectare, albeit different ones. With regard to productivity, China achieved 2.7% annual yield growth since 1997, while India has seen yield decreases of −0.1%p.a. over the same period. The authors conclude that cane used as a feedstock to meet the rising energy demand will come at the expense of converting fertile land for non-food purposes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]