Politics=Economics BSE=DOW

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/BSE-Sensex-to-rise-15-pc-in-2010-Poll/articleshow/6566728.cms

I have been truly enamored with previous posts by my classmates. So much so, that I had a hard time not focusing on the Caste Systems and educational follies of India. That being said, I like what my classmates have posted, so I am going to focus on politics from an economic point of view. Maybe I am a nerd, but I'd be very interested in what everyone has to say.

"BSE Sensex to rise 15 pc in 2010: Poll" is an article about the Indian stock market and what we can expect to see in the next few years. First off, the BSE Sensex is a small but extremely important gauge of the full Indian stock market. It is similar to the DOW Jones Industrial Average here in the United States. Like the DOW, the BSE only follows a small number (30) of publicly traded Indian businesses. However these thirty companies make up the whose-who of the Indian economy and is therefore a great indicator for the larger economy of India. This article argues that the BSE will show only limited growth for the rest of 2010, but will then return to its glory days by the middle of 2011. This is truly remarkable, as India was hit hard by the global recession just like the rest of the world. However, unlike much of the world, India has already set itself up to be in good economic standing for the boom that is expected to follow our current economic downturn. Which is really impressive when you compare it to other developing countries like Brazil and Latin America.

I have probably already passed my length limits, but this article did leave me wondering a few things that other people may be able to help me with. The first is that I found that the BSE was started in 1979. I know India was a very young commonwealth at that point, but was there any form of Indian stock market before then? Second, Reliance Inc. has a huge share in the Indian economy. They have three companies on the BSE alone! Is this good for the economy of India? I can see how it spurs growth, but I would also think it would limit competition (and therefore capitalism) which would impede growth in the country over the long run. Reliance certainly has major political clout, but do the have more than Wal-Mart here in the U.S.? Or how about the Bell Companies before they were broken up in the 1980s? Both seem similar to Reliance but yet they are both very different. I do believe that all politics is economics, but I am having a difficult time comparing the structure of the BSE and Reliance to those in the Western world. What does everyone think?