Poor Piush Behl. With the CII-Ficci rivalry threatening to travel across to China, this head of CII's Shanghai office is being forced to flaunt his Chinese antecedents, to show he is more Chinese than rival Ficci's China director, Atul Dalakhoti.

Dalakhoti, Ficci sources tell you, went to China when he was six years old, and has stayed their since, getting educated there and speaking fluent Mandarin. Behl, you are told, was just born in Hong Kong, and speaks Chinese like a foreigner.

Quiz Behl, and he tells you that he was three weeks old when he went to China, and then spent a little under two years there.

He then learnt Chinese through a certificate course at Delhi University while studying in St Stephens College, and even got a scholarship of Rs 150 a month for topping his Chinese class. And now, he is learning to speak it all over again.

For now, however, who will win the fight will depend on who gets more time with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and his Cabinet colleagues -- External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Telecommunications Minister Arun Shourie.

While the prime minister will give a keynote address to the China-India Economic Cooperation and Development Seminar organised by CCPIT (China's government-controlled apex trade body), Ficci is promoting this as part of its programme since it has signed a MoU with CCPIT.

Rival CII, meanwhile, says it is a CCPIT show and everyone is involved. Ficci's senior vice-president YK Modi, however, gets to address the gathering, after the PM leaves.

An IT exhibition in Shanghai, Ficci's programme says, is being co-organised by Nasscom, Ficci, CCPIT and "others". The "others", it appears, is CII.

CII has got IT minister Arun Shourie to inaugurate its new rep office in Shanghai, while Ficci tells you this office is actually being re-opened, since CII had earlier shut down its China office -- Ficci's China branch, by contrast, has already got 86 members enrolled.

CII's new office, Behl says, will even house the government's India Tourist Promotion Centre, and so in a sense, CII will be the nodal point for disseminating all information about India as a tourism destination.

In addition, for a fee of $10,000 a year, members can get 4 square metres of space in the 600 sq meters CII will take up for its India Club.

They can use this to exhibit their products throughout the year, and CII will have its officers to service the needs of all clients -- in that sense, they can have unmanned offices in China.

In addition, CII will regularly provide market intelligence on China to India Club members, telling them of market opportunities, and bringing them in touch with potential investors/buyers.