ACCORDING to statistics published by a news agency, 700 million people of India are groaning under poverty. Their woes are multiplying with the increasing inflation and unemployment. Hundreds of thousands shelterless people are born, raised and die on footpaths. In major urban centres like Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. Millions who are without job stand up in long queues in front of hotels and shrines where some affluent people distribute occasionally free meals. India with an exploding population of over 1.25 billion people is spending billions of dollars on acquisition of sophisticated weapons and in upgrading its nuclear capability as part of its bid to emerge as a major power. India is claimed to be “shining” but majority of its population is without a square a meal a day. Starvation is forcing hundreds of hungry unemployed persons to commit suicide. No doubt, in the area of information technology India is being rated as a country fast catching up with advanced nations but it is no satisfaction to those millions who can not keep their soul and body together.
Pakistan is no better either. The Government sources claim with figures that unemployment has been reduced, inflation checked and the number of people living under poverty line has decreased. However, the common man feels otherwise. Despite impressive growth rate and launch of mega development projects which have created additional job opportunities coupled with massive foreign investment promised by multinationals and friendly Governments and international institutions, the level of poverty appears to be the same as last year if it has not further deteriorated. Statistics quoted by Government sources painting a rosy picture of the economy do not bring any solace to the man in the street who is hit hard by substantial rise in prices of items of daily use. Considering income levels, the comparison of prices of essential items in South Asia as circulated by the Government which show that these are lower in Pakistan do not convince the common man. Defence budget is going to be hefty again -a requirement which cannot be ignored.
It is unfortunate that framers of the national budget do not know ground realities. The abnormal increase in prices of essential commodities are pushing more and more people under the poverty line. The knowledgeable circles assert that giving of proposed subsidies on essential items will not help. They maintain that substantial subsidies paid by Government on sugar supplied by Utilities Stores Corporation and import of sugar have not helped. The prices of sugar in the open market are at the same level when sugar crisis hit the nation. Indirect taxes on various items shall have to be slashed. To offset the adverse impact of oil prices, the Government should withdraw or substantially reduce incidence of taxes on petroleum products so that transportation costs are cut thereby reducing prices of essential items. The prosperity of the people of South Asia hinges on resolution of conflict and establishment of peace and harmony. As long as distrust persists between Islamabad and New Delhi, the two rivals shall continue to spend billions on defence which could be diverted to raising the quality of life of the teeming millions of the sub continent.

Global exchanges

The world’s stock exchanges, once bastions of nationalist pride, are following each other into international mergers and partnerships. The physical independence of great stock-broking centers such as London, Paris, Berlin and even Chicago and New York is about to disappear. The truth in real terms, however, is that their actual independence has been slipping away steadily over the last ten years. The latest manifestation of the agglomeration of stock exchanges is the New York Stock Exchange’s bid to merge with Euronext in a $10 billion deal that will unite the main stock trading centers of Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon with the largest US exchange. Perhaps just as significantly, Euronext includes the London International Financial Futures Exchange (Liffe). Coupled with NYSE’s own futures and options business, the new exchange would more than rival the currently still dominant Chicago futures exchange.
Analysts point out that if the Euronext-NYSE merger goes through, it will leave the German Borse and the London International Stock Exchange isolated. The German Borse has, at various times, tried to join London and Euronext. London, for its part, has in the past flirted with Amsterdam and has had the NYSE’s high technology stock rival NASDAQ build up a key 25 percent stake in it. To the shareholders in these individual stock exchanges, the merger and takeover activity is of course of consummate interest; they want to be able to sell their shares for the best price. The German Borse may yet try to top the merger terms between NYSE and Euronext. However, to the mass of international shareholders who trade on these exchanges, the place where their buy and sell orders are executed is of less and less relevance.
Not all shares of course are traded on every stock exchange. But the Internet has made this virtually irrelevant. Online trading platforms mean that investors are increasingly able to buy and sell any share on a single platform, in some confidence that their orders will be executed at the best price in the relevant exchange. However, despite this increasing investment fluency, the existence of local exchanges will remain important for some time, for two reasons. First, local brokers and analysts are expected to have the best knowledge and understanding of stocks that are unique to their particular geographical exchange. Secondly, all important financial dealing regulations are still country-based. This latter will change but it will take time and bitter experience before the regulation of international online trading systems is on a par with the current best national regulatory practice.
The current developments will inevitably engulf Arab exchanges. Even a single GCC market is unlikely to offer the depth and liquidity to rival the new transcontinental behemoths. There will be some who will regret the independence loss for new and confident stock markets but the reality is that investment is now global and individual country-centric stock markets are on the way out.

—Arab News