Kenichi Ohmae has written a terrific article on China's economic juggernaut, 'Profits and Perils in China, Inc.' (registration required), in the current issue of strategy + business. I dont like his implied advise to the Western governments to ignore the human rights situation in China. But as reportage, its a great read.

As an Indian, I am sad that India has not been able to achieve what China is poised to. As a strong believer in free market economy and human rights, I am slightly alarmed by the conclusions drawn by Ohmae. But his description of what he calls Chung-hua Inc. (Chung-hua, or Zhong Hua, as it is spelled in Beijing, translates into English as ?China,? and actually means ?the prosperous center of the universe.?) sounds right.

Russia is finding the going much tougher. Esther Dyson is probably the only person who seems really positive about Russia's economic outlook. In the current issue of Wired (not yet available online) she had forecast that in the next few decades Russia will be ahead of Uniter States in software development. But software development expertise alone, unless it is followed by infrastructural development in other spheres, won't be able to bootstrap the entire country's economy. It would, however, create a large cosmopolitan middle class that would become a catalyst for all sorts of interesting social changes. We know that one in India.