中国副总理回良玉最近访问新德里时，东道主赠送给他一驾由两匹马拉着的小型银制马车，还巧妙地说道，这两匹马代表中国与印度正将世界经济拉上复苏轨道。
大多数时候，这两匹马在往不同的方向使力。中国电信与电力设备对印度破旧基础设施的现代化至关重要，但印度却对自己日益依赖中国设备感到不爽。它已 对中国企业从本国引进工人，以修建管道与电厂的做法施加了限制。由于担忧人为压低的人民币推动大量廉价出口涌入，印度还对中国“山寨”手机、玩具与巧克力 施加了限制。
这种紧张也延伸至领土范畴。印度担忧中国对与不丹与西藏接壤的阿鲁纳恰尔邦(Arunachal Pradesh)宣称拥有的主权；中国政府在有争议的克什米尔(Kashmir)地区的干预；以及中国在印度洋与阿拉伯海的海军活动。中国与巴基斯坦结盟 并向后者供应军事装备，也让印度难以释怀。
中国官员则抱怨说，他们试图在印度一些高校开设孔子学院，以宣扬中国语言与文化的要求遭到了拒绝。中国增长迅速的电信公司华为抱怨称，外国技术供应商发现，在印度开展业务变得越来越困难。
为了让中印走得更近，首先需要解决两国间令人尴尬的贸易失衡。过去十年来，中国已非常迅速地成为（按照不同的计算方法）要么是印度的最大贸易伙伴， 要么是仅次于美国的印度第二大贸易伙伴。世界两大增长最迅速的大型经济体间的双边贸易，已从1990年的2.6亿美元，增长至了2008年的520亿美 元。
据中国估计，随着两国摆脱全球金融危机的影响，今年中印贸易预计将达600亿美元之多。
但贸易流动严重一面倒。印度并未对贸易迅速增长欢欣鼓舞，而是对绝对有利于中国的不断扩大的逆差深感不满。大约70%印度对华出口都是原材料，这些原材料随后会以高附加值成品的形式流回印度，对印度中小企业构成冲击。
在去年434亿美元的双边贸易额中，印度贸易逆差为160亿美元。
这种贸易失衡已上升至印度对华议程的最前列。印度各部长呼吁采取各项纠正措施，并已将自己的抱怨传达给中国总理温家宝。印度外长S•M•克里希纳 (S.M. Krishna)与印度总统普拉蒂巴•帕蒂尔(Pratibha Patil)，可能会再次传达这些呼吁。前者将于本周访问北京，后者将于今年晚些时候正式访问中国。
纠正措施包括，新德里希望北京撤销对印度信息技术、宝莱坞(Bollywood)电影以及新鲜食品出口的限制，并增加印度企业在中国医药与IT行业的投资机会。
有迹象表明，北京在倾听。印度对其目的明确的邻国的担忧，此前往往遭到北京的冷遇。但考虑到两国代表了全球近半数人口，中国的共产党领袖现在似乎愿意合作了。
回良玉承认了平衡贸易的必要性。他表示，中国不需要维持对印度的贸易盈余。他甚至提出了一个四点计划，旨在刺激中国消费者需求、鼓励印度在华投资，以及在农业、制造业、环保领域开展技术合作。
印度建议中国不要马上寻求参与电信、港口及其它关键基础设施等印度比较敏感的行业，以求在印度构建更大的信心。它还表示，中国也不应该试图输出低技 术劳工。一些政策顾问认为，中国应该以韩国为榜样，三星(Samsung)与现代(Hyundai)等韩国企业已强劲打入印度经济。
北京与新德里需要开始商讨细节，并着手消除各种非关税壁垒，以防不断扩大的逆差进一步侵蚀信任。
但那驾银制马车将前往何方？中印希望在未来25年期间实现8%到10%的年度经济增幅。它们所认为的在联合国哥本哈根气候变化谈判中与美国对抗取胜，仍然令它们感到兴奋，但它们也希望在气候、贸易以及世界金融架构多边谈判中，更紧密地协调双方的利益。
印度统治阶层内部对此观点不一。一些人预言会与中国闹翻，其他人——如印度活跃的环境部长、国大党领袖索尼娅•甘地(Sonia Gandhi)的亲密盟友扎拉姆•拉梅什(Jairam Ramesh)——则认为两国会结成伙伴关系。拉梅什提议说，无论印度在世界上要做什么，它都应该与中国联合行动。他认为，随着印度企业提高效率、而中国 更加开放，贸易纠纷将会有所缓和。
但拉梅什等一些官员也觉察出，深化与中国的合作关系，会加剧与其它地方的摩擦，尤其是美国。他警告称：“如果说美国发现中国令人头痛，他们会发现同时应付中印是一个噩梦。”中印马车可能会变得更加平衡，但道路不会更加平坦。
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By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA
Security researchers have monitored a spying operation in which China-based intruders pilfered documents from the Indian Defense Ministry.
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BY FUYUKI YUTAKA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/04/06
Children burn off energy in the playground at the new India International School in Japan campus in Tokyo's Koto Ward. (SHINGO KUZUTANI/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)
A disused junior high school in Tokyo's Koto Ward is again bristling with the sounds of children after its formal reopening Monday as the Tokyo campus of the India International School in Japan (IISJ).
The school building in the city's Ojima neighborhood was closed eight years ago in a move to consolidate ever-shrinking classrooms amid a declining birthrate.
Officials in Koto Ward, home to many Indian nationals, decided to rent out the school to the IISJ with the support of local resident associations. The monthly rent is 3.22 million yen ($34,000).
The school sits on a site measuring about 8,000 square meters, about half of which is the school's playground.
Classes began last Friday and children have been enjoying the jungle gym and other playground equipment.
"It is so large and open and I am really enjoying myself," said a third-grader.
Some 450 students attend the IISJ, which teaches classes from kindergarten through senior high school. The school also has a campus in Yokohama's Midori Ward.
Although it is not certified by the government as an official school in Japan, its curriculum has been approved by India's education ministry, meaning that students returning to India can keep the class credits earned in Japan.
The IISJ opened its doors in 2004 in a commercial building in Koto Ward. Overcrowding soon forced the school to move to another building in the ward.
Physical education classes were held at a ward gymnasium that was rented out. Students had to take a bus to get to the gym for classes.
The hope of school officials since the beginning was to find a site with enough space for a playground.
Principal Nirmal Jain submitted a request in February 2009 to Koto Ward asking about the possibility of renting out a closed school site.
About 900 Indian nationals live in Koto Ward, many in the Ojima neighborhood, where the school is located.
After three Indian residents were chosen as officers of an apartment residents association two years ago, local neighborhood associations threw their support behind having the school in their district.
A number of neighborhood residents were on hand for Monday's opening ceremony.
Hideo Matsudo, who heads the Ojima 1-chome neighborhood association, said: "There was no opposition to having them use it as a school. We hope they are able to enjoy making a lot of wonderful memories at the school."
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Strong Ties With India Goal of Trip By Geithner
By HEATHER TIMMONS and VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: April 5, 2010
NEW DELHI — Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, arrives in New Delhi on Tuesday for a two-day trip to inaugurate a new economic and financial partnership between two of the world’s largest and oldest democracies.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News
Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Treasury secretary, will visit India on Tuesday.
The New York Times
It is a return of sorts for Mr. Geithner, who lived for five years in New Delhi as a child.
Mr. Geithner has his work cut out for him, economists and policy analysts in both India and the United States say. Reaching economic agreements between the two countries has traditionally been an arduous task.
“On principle, they both agree on everything,” said Jahangir Aziz, chief India economist at J. P. Morgan in Mumbai. “It always comes down to the nitty-gritty and that’s where things get stuck. Part of the problem is neither of them wants to give the other side an inch.”
It took nearly 20 years for the United States to lift a ban on imports of Indian mangoes, for example, and a deal to allow energy-strapped India access to American nuclear technology, agreed to in principle four years ago, still has not cleared all the legal hurdles that would let American companies sign contracts here. The two countries remain far apart on American farm subsidies and India’s unwillingness to open its markets to foreign farmers, because they both want to protect their agricultural sectors. The countries’ disagreements there helped to scuttle global trade negotiations in 2008.
Indian officials expressed cautious optimism about Mr. Geithner’s visit.
“There is good reason to believe that there will be real economic outcomes to match the avowed ambition of such engagement,” Rahul Khullar, India’s commerce secretary, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions.
This should, in theory, be a fertile time for India and the United States to forge a new economic relationship. American companies, facing moribund sales at home, continue to flock to India, where the economy is projected to grow 8.5 percent this year.
United States businesses also remain the largest customers for India’s marquee information technology industry. India, for its part, needs billions of dollars in infrastructure, and could benefit from American technology.
Some companies like Google and Facebook, which have either left or been banned from China, have captured huge audiences in India.
“This doesn’t mean everything is perfect in India, but the challenges firms are facing in China are certainly causing companies to take a second look — with the benefit accruing to India,” said Ron Somers, president of the United States-India Business Council, a group based in Washington that promotes business ties between the two countries.
Those ties have grown significantly since India began to open its economy in the early 1990s. Bilateral trade has tripled in the last 10 years, to $37.6 billion. American private investment in India is worth $16.1 billion, about 10 times what it was in the late 1990s.
But India still lags far behind the United States’ most important economic partnerships.
Moreover, political leaders in Washington and New Delhi have often struggled to establish trust with each other. The Bush administration won over many Indian leaders because it championed the nuclear deal and was seen as tough on terrorism. But many Indian politicians and newspapers have a less favorable view of President Obama because they think that his administration is pushing India to open negotiations with Pakistan prematurely.
“This issue has generated doubts in Indians’ minds that makes it a lot more difficult to reach the comfort levels we achieved during the Bush administration,” said C. Raja Mohan, an Indian academic who is the Henry Alfred Kissinger scholar at the Library of Congress.
India and the United States need to have a “total tectonic shift” in the way they look at each other, suggested Amit Mitra, the secretary general of Ficci, India’s main chamber of commerce. From a business point of view, that means removing India from a list of countries that cannot be sold numerous American-made technologies, among other things, he said.
“Americans aren’t in the big picture in the big projects in India,” he said. Japanese and Korean companies, for example, are collaborating to build a nearly 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai.
Some of that work should be going to companies from the United States, he added.
During a briefing last week, Treasury officials said trade would not be high on the agenda during Mr. Geithner’s visit. But he is expected to discuss infrastructure financing.
He is also expected to encourage Indian officials to raise the limits they have placed on foreign banks and insurance companies, but New Delhi seems reluctant to allow more foreign banks into the country unless the Federal Reserve allows more Indian banks to set up branches in the United States.
Any argument Mr. Geithner makes for a greater opening of financial markets is likely to be quickly shot down by Indian officials, who have said that the country’s conservative regulations helped it avoid the worst elements of the recent crisis that started on Wall Street and engulfed many Western financial markets.
“He should not publicly press India to open its financial sector,” Arvind Subramanian, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote on the institute’s Web site. “India will open up its financial sector but at its own pace,” he said.
One executive in Mumbai said policy makers in both countries needed to open up their economies. While India limits foreign investments in several industries, American immigration policy restricts the free flow of people. “Policy makers in both countries will need to combat internal barriers and expedite action on pending reforms to open up new sectors,” said Harshal Shah, chief executive of Reliance Venture Asset Management, an investment firm based in Mumbai.
Recently, the Indian authorities have given new banking licenses to Credit Suisse and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. But India has not allowed most American and European banks to open many new branches in the country.
Mr. Geithner appears to understand the nuances of the Indian-American relationship.
Speaking to Indian reporters in Washington before he left, he praised Indian policy makers for their management of the economy. He also said the United States could help the country set up a corporate bond market. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that India needs a well-functioning bond market to help finance $1 trillion in infrastructure investment.
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