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Google to Invest $10B in India

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Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China hasn't "blown" anything - it is set to compete with US head to head on the world stage not with India over US investments.

Not sure why you are being downvoted. China is clearly the one investing in foreign countries now, for instance see belt & road initiative. It is also clearly conpeting with US, with Trump administration exacerbating the conflict. Even if you don't like China, you should not pretend they are a in a weaker position than they are.

The belt and road initiative is heavily hyped but hasn't resulted in any real concrete shift in trade. China is still making its money the old way - through massive amount of exports to advanced economies.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

East Asian development was not based on protectionism, it was based on providing goods/services for export (even when "weak") which requires openness to competition on a global scale. Protectionism was tried in Latin America and even in India prior to the 1980s and 1990s, and it has consistently been a failure.

Please read your history, protectionism enabled the US to rise out of the dirt and become an industrialised nation at the time when British Empire dominated world stage. This is not even a subjective matter.

Tariff rates were used for government revenue at that time, that's why they had to be high. It had nothing to do with endorsing protectionism per se, and the U.S. got an income tax later on to fix this issue.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tax minimization is a form of tax avoidance rather than tax evasion (Not saying it’s good, rather just that google weren’t breaking any laws).

There's no such a tax avoidance rule that is allowed and tax evasion is not. Also avoid and evade are similar term. Avoid > keep away from or stop oneself from doing Evade > escape or avoid (someone or something), especially by guile or trickery. This is the reason why many US tech companies got fined in Europe (Apple and Google are one of them) P.S. can someone explain why I get down votes for something factual? Thi…

sole definitions of avoid and evade are completely irrelevant, "tax avoidance" and "tax evasions" are well understood syntagms, former meaning utilizing any legal means in order to reduce the amount of taxes paid. simply put, tax avoidance is good accounting. tax evasion is illegal and is an action in which you're directly breaking a law.

what tech companies were doing in europe was utilizing every possible loophole in order to reduce the amount of taxes paid. of course, that angered sovereign nations which (rightly) felt cheated and they acted by applying pressures to ireland and others. some (france) even fined some of the companies, those fines were most likely in a grey area, but tech firms knew very well what they were doing, understood the motivations behind those fines and generally concluded that it's a bad idea angering a nation in whose market you're operating. realpolitik.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#94
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything? Ambani can be dealt with a stroke of a pen when the goverment wants to. China on the other hand...

It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. And no, I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. Winning elections cost money and with the new electoral bonds, Ambani can easily fund the opposition in the next elections.

>>It's not China, it is Chinese VC money.

No difference in China. Do what is good for the fatherland or your fiances, you personally and your family will suffer.

>>I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity.

So like many he's wayyy to powerful to deal with. But at least he is a local, not jeopardizing India's geopolitics. Just as he can control politicians, they can control him, if/when they want to. They know what he did to become so powerful and can send 500 police officers to his offices to search for evidence if/when...

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#95
post #41
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man you're commenting full on since yesterday about Indian government. Is there something that bothered you a lot?

Why does speaking up about the Indian government inevitably bring up questions like this? Ambani's relationship with this government bothers me a lot (among many other things about any government, particularly this one).

Sonia Gandhi literally flies in Reliance jets for her Western sojourns but you are only flagging the existing Govt. dishonestly.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#96
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no such a tax avoidance rule that is allowed and tax evasion is not. Also avoid and evade are similar term. Avoid > keep away from or stop oneself from doing Evade > escape or avoid (someone or something), especially by guile or trickery. This is the reason why many US tech companies got fined in Europe (Apple and Google are one of them) P.S. can someone explain why I get down votes for something factual? Thi…

sole definitions of avoid and evade are completely irrelevant, "tax avoidance" and "tax evasions" are well understood syntagms, former meaning utilizing any legal means in order to reduce the amount of taxes paid. simply put, tax avoidance is good accounting. tax evasion is illegal and is an action in which you're directly breaking a law. what tech companies were doing in europe was utilizing every possible loophole…

I posted link below as reply to another comment. They were evading taxes and was charged in Italy and France and even on Ireland.

And no, it was not technically legal because many European countries do not distinguish between avoidance and evasion. There's no such a thing and is evasion (no matter how smartly you do that).

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/31/21044662/google-end-tax-...

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#97
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything? Ambani can be dealt with a stroke of a pen when the goverment wants to. China on the other hand...

It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. And no, I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. Winning elections cost money and with the new electoral bonds, Ambani can easily fund the opposition in the next elections.

Yeah, the Chinese government is far more involved with it's companies than India with any of it's non nationalized companies. China got Jack Ma to spinoff Alipay from Alibaba, screwing the other shareholders badly. I don't think there is anyy big company in China without CCP members high up in the ranks.

Ambani on the other hand, however powerful he may be, is certainly not a bigger threat than China. Companies being Ambani owned, while worse than a competitive market, is still much better than being Tencent owned.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#98
post #46

Is there even a way for Google to invest in a high-corruption country like India without paying bribes (which would break US anti-bribery laws)? I'm pretty sure such an investment would be impossible in e.g. Russia, where many a hand needs to be greased before anything can happen.

Google probably didn't do any bribing directly, but their local consultants might do it to make sure the project going smooth and will simply invoice the "lobbying" expense to Google later. At least that's how it goes in my country.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#99

Getting the feeling China has blown it and successful companies looking to expand into Asia are now looking at India instead. I also saw that Foxconn is looking to build Apple products in India now too.

If China has indeed "blown it," there's no imperative reason that India must be the subsequent option. Several other markets offer cheap labor and friendly host government policies toward foreign manufacturers.

India is one country with a lot of people. Other countries can be used but the smaller population means you have to figure out a new legal system sooner when you run out of cheap labor.

Re: Google to Invest $10B in India

#100
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is generally more culturally and politically similar to the west than China. Unless they decide to embark on some unexpected imperialist conquest, I don’t think they’ll have such an active movement to divest from them in the future.

India is so culturally dissimilar to the USA that it's almost laughable to suggest that they are similar. I'm not trying to be adversarial; I just don't see any logical basis -- aside from a few years of anglophone rule -- for your premise.

The parts of culture that matter to business is a small subset of the whole culture. For businesses India may as well be a western country. They speak English (we can ignore the exceptions just like we ignore the few Germans who don't speak English), they have similar rules of law, so contracts will work.

Businesses don't care about anything you do at home, which is most of where the culture is different.

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