Journal Press India^®

          I feel pleased to share with all my readers the tremendous positive response that we have been receiving for FOCUS from different sections of academia and policymakers. As very few journals in India deal exclusively with areas in the realm of international business, FOCUS has been providing an excellent platform for dissemination of ideas pertinent to international business. In keeping with our tradition of addressing diverse areas in international business, this issue brings together perspectives for dimensions ranging from trade relations and financial integration to cross cultural competencies and the role of climate change in economic development.

         International trade has always remained an integral part of international business and changing paradigms of globalisation are affecting different dimensions of trade. In this context, the paper on ‘Augmented footprint of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in India’by Dr. S. P. Sharma and Rohit Singh analyses the dynamics of international trade in Indian chemical sector both at the macro and micro level and examines the export potential and competitiveness of Indian chemical products in international market with special emphasis to FTA markets. It assesses the impact of erosion of protection and the extent to which FTA partners are responsible for India’s rising imports. Another paper on trade by Maria de Fátima S C Previdelli and Luiz Eduardo S de Souza outline a history of recent trade relations between China and the European Union, discussing its evolving dynamics and volume in international trade. The investment aspect of international business has been dealt with in two different papers: one which deals with the aspect of financial integration between the Indian and Australian stock market and the other which looks at the relationship between FII investment and economic growth. The former paper by Dr. Amit Kumar Singh and Rohit Kumar Srivastava investigates financial integration between NSE and ASX stock market and finds that there is no strong evidence of financial integration between the two. The latter paper by Dr. Neeta Tripathi studies the cause and effect relationship between FII inflows and economic growth in India and concludes that economic growth is not a substantial determinant of FII inflows in India.

            This issue of FOCUS also includes a paper on cross cultural competencies with reference to Chinese and Indian middle level employees by R. Delecta Jenifer and G.P. Raman. The paper examines the relationship between demographic factors and cross-cultural competence within these countries and the results reveal that higher education level and increased work experience leads to higher level of cross cultural competence. Another interesting aspect of international business is covered in a paper on ‘economic developement and climate chnage’ by Megha Jain. The author argues that some of the most unfavourable effects of climate change are in developing countries and hence there is a need o make climate change policies a mainstream goal for global governance. This study examines the impact of economic development factors such as output, energy usage and foreign direct investment on carbon emissions across BRIC economies and other developing nations, graphically using EKC hypotheses and empirically using GMM. The results validate that economic growth factors are elements of environmental quality in BRIC and developing economies. The paper indicates the relevance of making climate change policies a mainstream goal for global governance through increased carbon spacing.

            We have introduced a section on ‘Perspectives’ in this issue of FOCUS to include those papers which share important opinions, views or perspectives on topical issues of interest in international business. The first paper in this section is on ‘Composition and product-wise promotional strategy’ by Dr. M. M. Sury that provides insights how promotion strategies can be used for growth of Indian exports from high value creating and employment-generating sectors with a strong domestic manufacturing base. This paper discusses some of the promising product areas in India’s exports and the promotional strategies followed to augment them. The second paper in this section is

by Shankar Jyoti Doley on ‘India’s Look East Policy’that has been a major part of India’s international engagement since its economic opening in 1991. The paper analyses the impact of the India’s Look East Policy on the growth and development of North East region of India and and finda that the potential benefits of the Look East policy are not being fully utilised because of inadequate infrastructure and political ignorance.

               I hope that our readers find this issue of FOCUS interesting and insightful, and provide their constructive feedback to us so that we continue to improve in terms of scope and nature of papers and see the journal scale new heights.

Dr. Niti Bhasin

Editor