and the farm country of the south. sydney is t only convenientlyocated onustralia's coast; sydnit is alsoly in the same time zone as most of mitsui's customers. thus, as asian economies boomed in the 1980s and '90s, sydney did, too. there's a lot of development going on there, and for that, they require a lot of resources, most of which can be provided from here in australia. so if anything, i would say that the asian markets are tending to replace our traditional european markets. and being based here in sydney, mitsui has access to an excellent business infrastructure, because sydney is a regional hub where a lot of asian customers come to do their business. narrator: even japan's slowdown and the asian crisis of the late '90s iled to hurtustralia. well, the australian economic perfoance

was rei ink austliahaalready n e asiaeconomic downturn. througa period of markelibelizations. byhe time of the asiaeconomic crisis, there was a lot of confideein. it had good international financial institutions there its stock marketfideein. puwas performing well, its currency was strong, its fiscal balances werekay. so imany respects, itas seesomewhat as a haven for asian money and asian investments. one consequence of that is that it actually received inflows of money at were perhaps wanting et out of asiaduring that perio. one consequence of that is that it actually received it was also a period of time whenustralia was cashing in on the pain... itas getting theains from the pain of the '80s well and truly so the industries thatereinterne as a result of the restcturings of the 1980s wereeally and competing well i busiss and property seices

with european anameri. wereeally andthere was alsol i busa property boom going on, and construconndustry will always be a strong generator ofmployment and income. so putting all those factors the australian economyeantt sort of flowed through-- not without small amounts of impact, but certainly it didn't suffer crisis the way thatome of t asian ecomies did dung thaperiod. narrator: austlia's asian connection has been steadily increasing for decades. airlines shied from primarilyerng europe in the 1970s has been steadily increasing for decades. to favoring asian citi in the '90s. closer links with caalso bn in telecommunications. among the millio of ice and dataransmissions which travel the world fiber-optic network every day, a steadily ireasinnumbare exce betweeaustlia and asian cities. the grow comes a steadily ireasinnumbare exce from major corporations doing business in the region. and major corporations, in order to do business,

from major corporations doing business in the region. require telecommunications-- good telecommunications-- to support their busin. narrator: the shift in australia's focus is also reflected in i immigration patterns. after the first british settlement more than 200 years ago, the go russ of the mid- and te-19tcentury saw a lae uxofor seeke the go russ of the mid- from britain, europe, anamerica and asia. hundreds of thousands fooof migrantswar ii left war-ravaged britain and europe hundreto settleusands fin australian cities. t now, t face of ausalia is changing. thiss ireld, auburb in the outer wesof sydney.

e 3years haee igti om countes like vietnam,cambo. o'connor: irfielway in the postw perio places tinusalia.ttled greeks, italian and yugoslav communities buileir first homes here. today, however, the community is made up maiy of people from asian countries. this illustrates at the connectionswith thr are important in the shaping of australiacies, narrator: even at times, theseages may hachanging demograicse can promote regionalieties. associated wh aujust like any other nations, any other communitiesarou. associated wh and we've seen in australians, ana numberfommunitiesarou. political backlashes against,articularly, and we'vasian migration,lians, in regionalhapsby some t and rul australia.

so aerson oking down aty fromut in the sh somewre might see a ci at's prosperous ansimultaneously a city so that's d to, insidi suppose, auaenvy,.ts whol one based upon iome but perhaps another one sed around ethnic or racial lines. narrator: but overal australia's growing asian population serves as a dynamic force for creating incrsed cuural and economiccon. the presence of asian ausalians, chiefly in our cities, is increasingly vald and priz-- know, od, dress, the businessonnectns.s wells you know, we have a new generation of asian-australia business people who are successfully using their own networks to forge newtrrelatio. narrator: relationshs th will further strengthen austraa's links to the region. much as australia's ysical geography shapes its economy,

austraa's links so will its changing demographics

iaconnecon captioned by media access group at wgbhte of thisaccess.wgbh.orguntry. annenberg media ♪ for information about this and other annenberg media programs call 1-800-learner and visit us at www.learner.org. annenberg media ♪

captioning sponsored by annenberg/cpb the region of south asia stretches mid-centas the world'slsive pst populated country. wea, isexing metropolisnansl atea i thhires millions of indians

away from e hardships of the rural countryside. here we see the effects of rural-to-urban migrion and the development of informal settlents. india's capital, delhi, has a population of between 13 and 14 million. commuters, camels, rickshas, buses, motorcycles-- delhi is a smorgasbord of sights and sounds. people of many different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups make the capital the city that it is today. but amid this cultural mosaic, this swelling city faces some serious challenges. delhi sits on the banks of two large rivers,

its lonvarious peopleself thave left their mark on delhi.. for instance, remnants of the islamic domination that started in the 12th century can be seen in old delhi. new delhi was built in the british colonial period at the end of the 19th century. its tidy grid-line streets and office buildings offer a sharp contrast to the narrow, bustling streets of old delhi. today the power that is shaping delhi is economics. beginning in the early 1900s, india made a strong push toward liberalizing its economy. with its strong international ties,

delhi has been quick in keeping pace with the changing environment. products aoming in frombroad, and on their stails come welements of ign cuure.onment. delhi's life-sty is cngg a. ( bus horn blaring ) drawn by the appeal of the city and the liberalized economy, more and more people are moving to delhi from the countryside. however, moving to the city does not necessarily mean that you can find work there. woman: they come to delhi expecting to earn money and find employment because they've heard that there's more opportunities there and it's a growing, booming metropolitan area. and when, in fact, they get there, there'massive unemployin thei. and unless they're very lucky, or extremely well connected in terms of the social networks they've set up,

they're out of luck, at least for a number of... an extended period of time until they can find something. if people can no longer really earn a livelihood in agriculture-- because you go into a form of agriculture that's export-oriented, that's big farms, that's mechanized just like the rest of the world-- and they come to the city as their next option but there's no employment for them in the city, what is going to happen to them? is how to house and employ all the people who come there. narrator: ten days ago this plasterer traveled 200 kilometers in search of work. ( speaking hindi ) translator: it's hard. i had hoped to work at least eight days. even two days' work would have been okay. but no work. narrator: from early morning to late evening, people wait here and hope for work.

some of the people who come to delhi have nowhere but the streets to live; many live in squatters' towns. most of the people who live in delhi's squatters' camps; have come from agricultural villages in search of a cash income. if they are lucky, they hold down many types of jobs and send money home to their relatives in the village. the problem is the sheer volume of immigration, which is overpowering the city's ability to cope. more than one-third of the population of delhi live in squatters' camps or slums. the land area covered by informal settlements in delhi has exploded in the last 20 years, and there's nobody that i've spoken with or anyone who's done research on it who has made the case that this is slowing down in any way and that people are being moved to more stable or legal areas. so, it's at least a third of the population at this point and it may very well be slightly more.

municipal governments are never thrilled, in general, with increases in informal settlements because they're always problematic from a governing point of view. when a third of your city of 13 million people are living in informal settlements, it really doesn't make any sense to believe that you're going to somehow discourage them or move them by simply denying them services. people in squatter settlements in india as in other places are extremely resourceful and are often able to "borrow"-- if i can use that word to describe how they get their services; but get access to water, get access to... arrange access to, uh... garbage collection or collect the garbage themselves and put it at a dump site where they know it will be collected eventually or get illegal connections to electrical wires... that over time ameliorate the kinds of conditions that they're in

and actually give them hope and allow them to stay in their localities for long periods of time. like in many places, the squatters in delhi, many of them have been there for a decade or more. narrator: continual population pressures have also led to an explosion in the number of cars on the road, degrading air quality and bringing traffic to a virtual standstill. at the same time, factories are spewing tons of pollutants into the air. i think nothing has frightened me more than the change in air quality that you experience nowadays when you travel to delhi. when you land in the city, the first thing that you are aware of as you exit your airplane is the thickness of the air that surrounds you. it almost has a physical presence in terms of its quality

because there's so much dust and particulate matter-- fumes from cars, industrial emissions and manufacturing emissions-- that the quality of the air is... is and feels very dangerous. it's not uncommon to go for a walk in delhi for half an hour and to come back with black coating around the outside of your nostrils or on your clothes. and it's really been assessed by the world health organization as one of the ten most polluted cities-- in terms of its air quality-- in the world, and that is a very recent phenomenon. i would say in the last 15 years air quality has become devastating in terms of what it's doing to people's health. man: ...delhi and the delhi metropolitan area are down... narrator: the national capital region plan board is attempting to solve some of these problems. it has formulated a comprehensive plan for the entire capital region.

in order to provide a congenial living environment, delhi cannot be planned in isolation, individually. it has to be planned in the context of a much larger area, which is the national capital region. narrator: the plan will work to extend the capital region to 20 times the current size of metropolitan delhi. within the new capital region, it is hoped that newly created satellite cities might help delhi's overburdened infrastructure. new arrivals could settle in these cities rather than add to the squatter camps on delhi's outskirts. these satellite cities are supposed to be connected by an expanded rail and highway system, but so far there's been little progress. daniere: most places in the world have been extremely unsuccessful at diverting growth from the main urban centers because they don't accompany or are not able to accompany those attempts with the same kinds of opportunities--

both economically but also politically and culturally, and education, in terms of education opportunities-- that these primary centers have. so while there was a plan to try to diffuse growth out of delhi to a variety of smaller cities around delhi, as far as i know, that has not been particularly successful. and what's happening is the delhi boundary is moving out and out and out into the surrounding provinces. narrator: some 20 miles south of delhi is the city of gurgaon. its development was a crucial part of the plan and holds hope for the future. today, gurgaon city has many factories and housing complexes. one of these factories manufactures automobiles and is a japanese-indian joint venture. automobile production became an important of india's economy, particularly in the 1990s.

multinational manufacturers such as general motors, hyunda volvo, mitsisnd volkswagen multall have assembly plants such asin india.motors, lack of a stable power supply has been one impediment to india's development. this plant generates its own power. machery hummg) one advantage of urban life, and an important reason for rural-to-urban migration, is that caste discrimination is much less in the cities. daer once people leave their rural villages, it's much more difficult to enforce the caste system upon their arrival in a big city. it becomes a much less potentially exploitive barrier because peoplearen't s, and many of the people who employ lower-caste employees are already educated to a certain extent themselves

about the kind of cruelty and exploitation and negative aspects of castes and don't necessarily enforce it themselves in their lives, even if they're sure about the relative castes of people. narrator: chauhan was born in an agricultural village and came to the company as an apprentice 11 years ago. he currently works as the assistant line manager on the assembly line. there are two shifts a day at the factory. chauhan worked the morning shift and is just now getting home at 4:30. chauhan graduated from a technical school near his village and migrated to delhi, where he married and started a family. he purchased his home with a loan from his employer. as a new member of india's growing middle class,

chauhan's migration to the city had a positive outcome. ( speaking hindi ) translator: you couldn't get a lot of things back home. today, some people in the villages have televisions and radios, but when i left, no one in my village had any of those things. you can buy all sorts of things here in delhi. you can buy everything you need. narrator: however, people sharing chauhan's dream continue to pour into the city daily, adding to the already burgeoning urban population. japanese geographer minamino takeshi puts the dilemma this way. ( takeshi speaking japanese ) translator: as to what is causing the problems of india's cities? basically, it's easier to live in the city than it is to live in the countryside. so what needs to be done

is to make it easier to live in the countryside. if it's easier to live in the countryside, then i believe that india will develop and prosper, and it can achieve some sort of harmony and balance between its urban and rural development. narrator: but for now, informal settlements continue to sprout on delhi's fringes. unless it can slow its population growth and curb rural-to-urban migration, delhi faces ever greater difficulty maintaining a stable infrastructure. as for the rest of the country, india's population is already one billion-- the second largest in the world, not far behind china. people-- they fuel both the hopes and fears of delhi's future.

inion of sousia,arina's puon s anlow-income agricultu here, the es he mononlimate stdermine harvest outcomes. inecencades,en ced derngrultural techni teffortronarrator:a, stnd. enwit is october. the monsoons that have brought welcome rain to the madhya pradesh state in central india, have finished. after four months of rain, the long dry season will begin; little rain will fall between now and next june. life in india's farming villages has alwa revold

around the southwest monsoons. since rain is so scarce during the dry season, the villagers must depend on well water and the rain that falls each summer. some yearsone-third ofome, the total land mass of india is frequently subject to serious droughts. always woring abouthe xt dht, the in governmengan a majoirgation project in 1947. e of the first to benefit was the madhya pradesh state. under it, the chambal river development plan the kota barrage-- was completed in 1960. two main canals branch off here to bring their blessings to the agricultural villages downstream. the village of dikhatpura lies about 200 miles to the northeast of the barrage.

water first flowed into the village in 1971. minamino takeshi, a japanese geographer, visits dikhatpura. he is researching how irrigation and water management have affected life-styles in india's farming villages. this yea water began coursing down therrigation canals inarly october the farmers quickly move io high gear as they prepare their land for nter crops. one of the farmers in the village is heeralal. he is preparing to grow mustard. translator: we useto grow crops only during the summer. now, with the irrigation canals, we can plant two crops a year.

narrator: water means that farmers can plant winter crops, which has led to more cultivation of wheat and mustard. early-harvest mustard can be seen all around the village. the seeds are harvested and sold to a factory where the oil is extracted. in 1966, the government promoted an agricultural plan called the "green revolution." it emphasized the introduction of high-yielding grains. many farmers moved away from subsistence agriculture and into cash crops such as wheat or mustard. heeralal used the money earned from thescrops to purchase a water buffalo. it will soon be giving birth, and he hopes that the baby will be a cow, so that he will have more milk to sell.

actually, most of heeralal's neighbors also raise water bfalo. their number in this village has tripled in the last 30 years. they have plenty of milk, which is a ready source of income. the government and agricultural ministry have been aggressively promoting water buffalo husbandry as a means of conquering poverty. milk collected by the villagers is sold to a milk broker. it is then taken to the nearest city, morena, which is ten miles away. produce comes to morena from all of the villages in the area. ( whistle blowing ) ( calling out )

narrator: residents are always eager to see the milkman. consumption of milk in the city has increased. this, of course, has spurred even greater emphasis on water buffalo in the farming villages. the scene is being repeated all over india and is sometimes called the "white revolution." narrator: irrigation water is the lifeline of the village. the main canal here is the main artery of that lifeline. management of the canals is mainly the responsibility of the irrigation bureau. however, the smaller distributaries are managed by the village itself. water is regulated by inserting or removing weirs. ( conversing heatedly )

narrator: disputes frequently erupt over the use of the water. this young boy needs water in his field downstream. but the elderly farmer, whose farm is upstream, has put up a weir so that he can water his ownield. a major contributor to disputes over water rights is a lack of set rules over, and controls on, water use. unfortunately, the canals are often not properly managed. water should be flowing through this canal. another major problem is the amount of war lost to leaks in the system. in one village near dikhatpura, the water table has risen due to seeping water out of the canals. this vilge, formerly subjecto droughts, now has problems with boggy soil.