[SeaGypsy]

Thailand, last time I checked, was food self sufficient & a strong net exporter of food. India not so & the farming sector currently is way over-reliant on fossil water.

Regarding the gold, India has more dollar millionaires than Australia & NZ combined have people, so a lot of wealth concentrated in the top percentile.

Regarding the shit in the streets issue- there is no real reason why bucket toilets can't be used & the waste concentrated & composted. My Indian friends tell me it is part of the caste system, the belief that only the Dalit (untouchables caste) can touch sewage, directly or or hauling buckets etc & there are not enough Dalit to pick up the shit, nor enough shit eating animals to eat it all. Khmer based cultures don't have this impediment to cleaning up after themselves.

[Shaved Monkey]

There were pig toilets still in Goa ,I used one, but they are not increasing.

[Timo]

This is interesting regarding Thailands exports / imports & economy

http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/tha/

For comparison, this is India's

http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/ind/

Just look at India's gold imports $36Billion- and these people are poor ??? !!!

Gas

In India, and in Thailand, apparently gold is everything. In India, at least, personal wealth is displayed by the sheer volume of bangles and jewelry worn by women. I know that sounds insultingly shallow, but when my wife was there, numerous women asked her why she was not wearing any bangles, and falsely assumed that she was poor, even though she was an American with enough dough to travel independently to India. My wife quickly bought lots of bangles to wear, but none were gold. All I can gather is that India is a completely different culture, and I'm not one to judge.

Similarly, one of our closest friends is from Thailand, and her father is a doomer, of sorts, who is in to hoarding gold. Apparently, at least according to her, gold is cheaper and easier to buy in Thailand. We'll see this fall.

[Shaved Monkey]

I went through the gold markets in Mumbai they have the population convinced new gold is better than old gold so people are constantly trading their old jewelry for new.
I was trying to buy old jewelry and they thought I was mad.

Im heading to Thailand for a month or so in the next month or so.

[Shaved Monkey]

Apparently, at least according to her, gold is cheaper and easier to buy in Thailand. We'll see this fall.

I got your PM but cant answer you have PMs blocked

[Tanada]

More at link below quote.

India has launched an unmanned model space shuttle, joining the race to develop reusable spacecraft.

The 7m-scale model took off from Andhra Pradesh and was expected to fly about 70km (43 miles) into the atmosphere before coming down at sea.

Since Nasa stopped its Space Shuttle programme in 2011, there has been strong international competition to design alternative reusable spacecraft.

Such vehicles could significantly cut the cost of space exploration.

India has been putting substantial research and resources into its space programme.

A Mars orbiter launched in 2013 is its most high-profile space venture to date.

It hopes to launch a full-scale reusable shuttle within a decade.
Hypersonic speed

Monday's launch of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-TD) took place at a site at Sriharikota.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36355842

[GHung]

At first glance I thought it said "India Spice test", as in, some culinary curry competition. Someone gave me some curry recently that's hot enough to solve the world's energy problems, but seems that's not it.

Anyway, kudos to India for their successes, for all the good it'll do them. "Ground control to Major Param", and all that. I suppose whether or not the money would be better spent on birth control, solar energy and desalination plants is their business.

[Tanada]

Large article at link below quote.

The sudden bans on big diesel cars in the NCR region and in Kerala and a gradual shift in retail economics away from diesel towards petrol have put Rs. 50,000-crore worth of investments by car manufacturers under a cloud. This should worry not just the car makers but the country too as India still needs diesel, but without pollution.

This is probably the rudest shock Toyota Motor Corporation has yet had in India.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... 544660.cms

[Tanada]

India continues to look for alternatives to oil imports as its auto sector, economy, and population continue to boom.

India’s oil consumption growth reached a record-level 11 percent last year as an increasing urban population with rising income fueled greater use of cars, trucks, and motorbikes. The country consumed 196.5 million tons of oil products in 2016, up from 177.5 million tons in 2015, according to the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell.

Demand for gasoline jumped 12 percent last year to 23.7 million tons, while diesel demand grew 5.6 percent to 76.7 million tons.

The U.S. Department of Energy reports that India was the fourth largest consumer of crude oil and petroleum products in the world in 2015, after the U.S., China, and Japan. The country depends heavily on imported crude oil, mostly from the Middle East, similar to China. More than 80 percent of its crude oil demand is being met through foreign oil suppliers.

The Indian government has been pushing for increasing domestic fuel sources reducing foreign imports, improving air quality, and reducing carbon emissions in fast growing cities like New Delhi. Goals include more domestic oil production, liquefied natural gas for commercial vehicles, compressed natural gas for light-duty vehicles, and renewable energy replacing coal.

Strong demand for oil and fuel production has led Indian refiners to spend billions of dollars in recent years to meet market demand. State-run Indian Oil Corp. has been expanding its existing refineries across the country.

The BP Energy Outlook 2017 reported that India joined other Asian countries in efforts to increase demand for LNG as a replacement for oil. Indian conglomerate Tata is bringing long-distance trucks powered by LNG as a replacement to diesel-fueled trucks.
Related: Who Will Win The Race In Russia’s Emerging Oil Frontier?

Public transport, taxis, rickshaws, and quite a few private cars have been converted to compressed natural gas (CNG), which is cheaper and cleaner than diesel or gasoline.

With India’s booming population, which the United Nations predicts will be larger than China’s by around 2030, energy demand and oil consumption are expected to reach record levels.

The International Energy Agency estimates the country will account for a quarter of global energy demand growth by 2040 coming from booming manufacturing and a bigger, richer and more-urbanized population. The agency expects the country’s oil demand to reach 10 million barrels a day in the next quarter of a century, marking the fastest growth in the world.

Much of that oil is being used for transportation including passenger cars and motorbikes, and commercial vehicles serving growing industries and expanding cities.

India’s auto sales, including commercial vehicles and motorcycles, rose 9.2 percent last year to 21.9 million, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The country passed South Korea last year, becoming the fifth largest global market for vehicle manufacturing.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corp. of Japan, is India's largest passenger car company with about half of the market’s share. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. are two leading automakers in India, with other Indian commercial vehicle and motorcycle manufacturers filling the top ranking. Korean maker Hyundai has been another leading foreign import company in that market, according to India Brand Equity Foundation.
Related: Is Big Oil Underestimating Autonomous Vehicles?

A government program, “Make In India” is considered to be helping the automotive sector grow robustly and create jobs for locals.

While there’s interest from India’s national government to see more electric vehicles come to its streets, its product selection and sales volume pales in comparison to Asia’s leading auto markets, China, Japan, and Korea. Tesla will be opening up in India by this summer, and Mahindra has been the EV market leader so far.

Gasoline and diesel continue to lead the way in Indian vehicle fuel, and that consumption is expected to grow.

By Jon LeSage for Oilprice.com

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... cords.html

[vtsnowedin]

CNG LNG are energy sinks, neither can be delivered for less than $70 oil-equivalent and so will not bail out India. Nor will The Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.

That Russian oil is going to China

Which will reduce Chinese demand for Indonesian and Middle East oil letting India access it.

[Subjectivist]

Pete have you ever bothered to verify a single one of your trillion asumptions before spouting off your nonsense?

[vtsnowedin]

CNG LNG are energy sinks, neither can be delivered for less than $70 oil-equivalent and so will not bail out India. Nor will The Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.

That Russian oil is going to China

Which will reduce Chinese demand for Indonesian and Middle East oil letting India access it.

What is wrong with you vt. You make a fool of yourself over at ETP and you say sh@t with no backup. There is no Indonesian oil for India.

And ME oil will continue to go to Europe to replace the missing Russian oil. India is FUBAR. I am sorry that facts have no place in your world-view

So I am behind on the export land model for Indonesia. Iran and the rest of the middle east will make up the difference.

[ROCKMAN]

vt - What's interesting is years ago their state oil company, PERTAMINA, recognized their PO future and began an aggressive campaign of acquiring foreign oil. It's current acquisition budget exceeds $100 billion. So while they might be getting less for their oil it's no longer being exported and is consumed internally. And its imports are costing it less now just as it's able to buying foreign oi production on the cheap. It turns out the collapse in the price of oil happened at just the right time for Indonesia: it has converted from oil seller to oil buyer. Which is why it left OPEC. Here a taste of what it's been up to:

Pertamina last year concluded a $1.75 billion deal to acquire productive assets in Algeria from ConocoPhillips. It has also acquired a 10 percent interest for an undisclosed amount in Iraq’s West Qurna Field, the second-largest oil field in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field. “Why Iraq? Because geographically we can transport the oil to Indonesia. Why Algeria? Because we can process the crude domestically,” he said.

Pertamina will receive its first shipment of 600,000 barrels of crude from Algeria later this month, to be for processed at its refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. It expects to boost output at its Algerian sites to 32,000 barrels per day by 2017.

Sugiharto said M&A was common in the oil and gas industry, driven mostly by national oil companies like Pertamina tasked with securing energy supplies for their respective countries. “All nations do this, and Pertamina must compete for it,” he said. Sugiharto said the company had several possible acquisition targets in mind and had already made a few bids this year, although he declined to elaborate.

Jakarta-based Pertamina reported an 11 percent rise in net income to $3.07 billion in 2013 compared with a year earlier, from total revenue of $71.1 billion, up slightly from $70.9 billion in 2012.

[vtsnowedin]

A current change in India's demand for oil is a knockoff effect of it's currency fight against corruption. Car sales are down and motorcycle and scooter sales are down by as much as forty percent. When they get that sorted out total world demand for oil may start to rise once more.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -clampdown

Industrywide demand for passenger vehicles in India will be depressed for a few months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unprecedented cash clampdown, according to senior executives at Tata Motors Ltd. and Honda Motor Co.
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The cash crunch, following the withdrawal of high-denomination banknotes, has hurt consumer sentiment and is expected to continue through March, Mayank Pareek, president of passenger vehicle business at Tata Motors, said in an interview. Customers who have deferred purchases may come back in a few months depending on the economy, Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice president at Honda’s India auto unit, said without elaborating.

Passenger-vehicle sales expanded at the slowest pace in nine months in November just as automakers were expecting a good monsoon after back-to-back droughts to boost rural incomes and spur demand. Sales of motorcycles and scooters, where about 65 percent of purchases are paid for in cash, fell for the first time in 11 months.

The hit to big-ticket purchases like autos is the latest in a string of knock-on effects from the government’s Nov. 8 decision to withdraw old 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee banknotes in its biggest crackdown against corruption and to boost digital payments.

The move resulted in a rush to deposit or exchange the notes with long queues outside banks across the country. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index last month was at its lowest since December 2013 and indicated a contraction, with activity declining in three of six services sectors monitored and order backlogs climbing due to delayed payments from clients.

“Vehicle purchase is more of a discretionary spend and not a necessary spend therefore customers will postpone their buying decision,” said Abdul Majeed, partner at Price Waterhouse. “Automakers will cut production, focus more on exports and give discounts to clear inventory at dealers till such time normalcy returns.”

[Tanada]

My understanding (and we all know how accurate that is LOL) is that Indonesia is like the USA, that is they import oil to meet their demand, but they also export oil from their own system to other countries. They also import finished oil products. Thus it is true that Indonesia exports oil to India as VTsnowedin stated and it is also true that Indonesia is a net oil importer as Pstarr stated. One fact has nothing to do with the other fact, you need to look at the whole picture. Getting into an argument instead of looking at all of the facts is not a smart way to try and convince anyone else you are right and they are wrong.

[Tanada]

On December 16, 2017 the PM of India inaugurated the latest hydroelectric dam formally joining the grid and announced many infrastructure projects in the region to encourage cooperation in additional hydro projects. Pictures and more text in link below the quote.

PM Modi Launches Dam, Addresses Rallies In Mizoram, Meghalaya: Highlights

Aizawl/Shillong: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mizoram and Meghalaya today to inaugurate various development projects. The Prime Minister addressed public meetings and also funded young entrepreneurs launch several infrastructure projects. PM Modi reached Aizawl in the morning before headedto Shillong later in the day. PM Modi's visit gave momentum to BJP's campaign ahead of Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura early next year.

PM Modi inaugurated the new BJP Meghalaya unit office during his visit today. BJP is already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh among the northeast states.

15 new railway lines of nearly 14000 km and 4000 km of National Highways costing 47,000 crore and 32,000 crore respectively have been sanctioned by the Union Government, in an attempt to boost connectivity in the North East region, the prime minister said.

The prime minister also spoke about how he has instructed his ministers to interact with the people of the north east and atleast one of them must visit the region every 15 days.

On the restrictive bamboo regulation, PM Modi said that from now on there will be no requirement of any permit for farmers to produce, transport or sell bamboo and its products, benefiting the farmers and working towards doubling their income by 2022.

PM Modi also spoke about his 'Act East Policy'. As Mizoram serves as a gateway to the South East, the state can gain vastly as a transit point for trade with Myanmar and Bangladesh. He also spoke about how the scenic beauty, high literacy rate and vast English speaking population of the state can boost tourism.

With reference to the building of New India, the prime minister emphasized on the following:

• To achieve New India by 2022, increasing economic growth and sharing the fruits of the result will go hand in hand.

• Every Indian, irrespective of caste, gender, religion, class must have equal opportunities

• The 115 relatively backward districts of North Eastern States will benefit from the government's plans to usher in development in these districts.

Narendra Modi said the hydropower project will:

• Provide electricity

• The reservoir water will provide avenues for navigation which will boost connectivity between remote villages

• Development of fisheries

• Boost eco-tourism

• Provide drinking water supply

PM Modi spoke about his government's commitment to the projects in the North East by referring to the completion of the delayed Tuirial Hydropower Project. He also said these projects will usher in a new era of development in the North Eastern region.

The prime minister celebrated the completion of the 60 Mega-Watt Tuirial Hydropower Project. Some highlights about the project are:

• This is Mizoram's first large hydropower project which should be able to boost the socio-economic development of the state.

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government cleared the project back in 1998 but got delayed.

• The huge reservoir is spread over an area of 45 square kilometres.

PM Modi inaugurated the Tuirial Hydropower Project today in Aizawl and referred to the project as a 'boon' for the people of Mizoram.

The prime minister referred to development in the north east during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime and said how his ministers have visited the region around 150 times. He also said resources are being devoted for significant progress in the North east.

LINK