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The article reports on the continuation of the infrastructure confusion in India. It says that the East Indian industrial boom is suffering its habitual affliction, babu-ism, that is paper jungles of obstruction and incompetence that block development. It says that Maharashtra, the most industrialized state in India and source of much of its snowballing exports to the U.S., is facing electrical brownouts, which have dogged the rest of India for decades.

The article reports on the rekindling of a family feud in India over one of the biggest industrial fortunes in the world between the two Ambani brothers after a compromise was arranged by their mother to divide the empire left by their founding father. The settlement of the empire built by the two brothers' father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who died in 2002, gave Mukesh control of the petrochemicals and oil-refining business with Anil taking over the mobile telecommunications and financial companies.

The article reports on an announcement by Prime Minister John Howard that Australia would sell uranium to India with a proposal that the two countries start negotiating a free trade agreement. The decision opposes the country's long-time policy of not selling uranium to countries that do not sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). With its 9 to 10 percent growth rate anticipated in 2007, India is rapidly becoming one of the most important trading partners of Australia.

The article reports on the reopening of the old Silk Road, a commercial route that handles local trading between Sikkim and West Bengal in India and Chinese-occupied Tibet. The agreement to reopen the pass was part of a diplomatic bargain in which Beijing agreed to recognize the formal takeover of the Himalayan state of Sikkim south of the pass by India and New Delhi moved one step further in fully accepting Chinese rule in Tibet.

The article reports that the 14,000-foot high Nathu Lal pass has began to handle local trading between Sikkim and West Bengal in India and Chinese-occupied Tibet. The agreement between China and India to reopen the portion of the Silk Road was part of a diplomatic bargain in which Beijing agreed to recognize the formal takeover of the Himalayan state of Sikkim south of the pass by India. Although the pass opening was welcomed by Calcutta traders, expressions of anxiety about the security problem were rampant in the Indian media.