BBC offers a look at India

For those of you with a satellite radio, the BBC has been airing an excellent series, India Rising, which profiles that complex country. India figures into ag trade, cotton politics and the pace at which some developing countries are modernizing. In the perception of most Americans, India is overshadowed by China in terms of size, population and economic growth. While there remain swaths of abject poverty across the subcontinent, it has made strides in technology that wouldn't have seemed possible 2 decades ago.

A few Indian companies are now strong enough to actually begin buying some of their Western competitors. Late last month, for example, India's Tata Steel paid over $11 billion for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus.

One odd numeric fact came out of the report I heard this morning that goes a long way toward putting India's population in perspective. The total television audience of India - keeping in mind that many poor people there don't have TV sets - is larger than the population of Europe.

• AgFax News, Downloads
• Subscribe to our reports