The group is skilled at handling the country's sometimes slippery officialdom unlike foreign-based rivals, such as BHP Billiton and Anglo American, which have no presence in India.
Both companies are negotiating with the United Automobile Workers union to find ways to make their labor costs more competitive with foreign-based rivals like Toyota and Honda.
Executives at General Motors, Ford Motor and the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler have complained that rising health care costs and the jobs bank hinder their ability to compete with foreign-based rivals like Toyota and Honda.
Jobs, because the traditional Big Three -- General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group division of DaimlerChrysler -- argue that raising standards would benefit foreign-based rivals, particularly an automaker like Honda that does not sell the largest vehicles.
America's carmakers have been steadily downsizing for years in an effort to become more competitive with foreign-based rivals.
Joseph Hinrichs, Ford's group vice president of manufacturing and labor relations, said the agreement would push Ford's total labor cost per hour, including benefits, "into the ballpark" with foreign-based rivals.
In the past, GM could not make small cars profitably in the U.S., but new labor concessions ratified last week, in advance of GM's bankruptcy filing, enable GM to close the wage and benefit gap with its foreign-based rivals.
Are 1,000 U.S. foreign bases really necessary?
In his speech, which echoed themes of his just-published book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy" (Public Affairs Books), Mr. Soros asserted that the Bush foreign policy was based on two premises: that "the United States will not tolerate any military rival globally or in any region of the world, and, second, we have the right to engage in pre-emptive military action".
Electricity prices are going up; German companies are losing ground to foreign rivals; and carbon emissions are rising, not falling.
In this case the Chinese firms were still found to be lagging their foreign rivals.
