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All three countries in the South Asian neighborhood now face economic crisis of large proportions - Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, all turning to the IMF for help. In the case of Sri Lanka there was help from the beginning from India. It was lack of jobs and not enough jobs generated even with a decade of 7% economic growth. It was in protests over job quotas reserved for independence soldiers that led to the ouster of Sheik Hasina's government. This report in NYT shows overdependence on garment exports which generated growth for decades under PM Hasina as having a drawback during Covid. The disruptions in the supply chain during Covid hurt Bangladesh when garment earnings dropped. At one point the industry was closed for months. India provided assistance including vaccines during Covid and India is the largest destination for Bangladesh exports with economic ties to 5 Indian states. The recovery from Covid has not been strong and has led to reduction in foreign exchange reserves. In 2022 Bangladesh turned to the IMF for assistance. Not enough jobs were being created for a large population. In 2000 the population was 129 million, in 2019 before pandemic 165 million. Today in 2024 it is 171 million, increasing by 33% from 2000. By contrast in a communist state Vietnam population increased by 22 million to 99 million or 29% in 2024 from 2000   Foreign exchange reserves dropped during the pandemic to $23 billion in July 2023, in the last 11 months it dropped by $4 billion to $19 billion. By comparison Pakistan's are at $13 billion, up $4 billion in 11 months. Foreign remittances from Bangladeshis overseas are another source of foreign exchange. The major problem of getting tax revenues with people and business not paying taxes due is a problem for Bangladesh and for Pakistan. India has made huge gains through GST and digitization of economy to get tax revenues to support economic growth and infrastructure. And under the leadership of prime minister Modi there is discipline, girt, a strategic focus, with good governance, that is similar to what helped transform Japan and China into industrialized nations. This is missing in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh and in Burma. This gives some idea why in the present budget north and eastern Indian states of Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, with a combined population of 230 million people are in a specially designated region for development. It is a gathering momentum against centuries of foreign occupation and neglect similar to that seen in China. ...

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Experts in the U.S. say the U.S. made a mistake in not supporting the idea of a new financial institution to meet the urgent needs of development and infrastructure financing of Asia's developing countries. India, Australia, S. Korea, Britain, Germany, France and Italy are joining as founding members in 2015. China has offered leadership in providing resources for the new bank. Jane Perlez says China is looking for the best talent worldwide to help write the charter for the bank and to run it. It is a project pushed forward by China's president Jinping, and was discussed at the 2013 G-20 meeeting in Moscow as a critical part of the agenda. Laurence Brahm, who supported Chinese premier Zhu Rongji in 2001 for entry into the WTO, says it is natural for China to look for ways to use its extra capacity in steel, concrete and pipes to build projects in other parts of Asia, which would mutually benefit China and the region. Paul Haenle of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, says the U.S. lack of support is shortsighted, as the existing U.S. sponsored institutions World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are sorely lacking the resources to deal with the huge infrastructure challenges in Asia. China's Finance Ministry is looking for the best talent worldwide to write the charter and run the bank. Natalie Lichtenstein, a lawyer with 30 years experience working at the World Bank will write the bank's founding charter. ...

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During Singh's term in office 2004-2014 economic changes of a new type and with new leadership were taking place in state of Gujarat in western India under chief minister Narendra Modi similar to that of New York state under Governor Franklin Roosevelt before FDR assumed office as president in 1932. Modi of the same party as Singh's predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata party, added a new set of skills and confidence in industrial development for the state model in Gujarat to be adopted for the whole of India, when he won the national elections in 2014. Vajpayee and Modi were different from the politicians in India in 1947-2000, pushing Modernization, Nationhood, and corruption free effective government. Manmohan Singh was prime minister during a period of transition in India 2005-2014 from the socialist economy to the market economy. As head of the central bank and finance minister he earlier initiated the changes when India's reserves had dropped to record low levels by 1991. His biometric data initiatives and other actions kept the Indian economic initiatives in place that wold provide the base from which another prime minister Modi could launch India on a new trajectory for transforming the country into an industrialized nation. During Singh's term in office 2004-2014 economic changes of a new type and with new leadership were taking place in state of Gujarat in western India under chief minister Narendra Modi. Modi of the same party as Singh's predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata party, added a new set of skills and confidence in industrial development for the state model in Gujarat to be adopted for the whole of India, when he won the elections in 2014. Vajpayee and Modi were different from the politicians in India in 1947-2000, pushing Modernization, Nationhood, and corruption free effective government. ...

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Dulles with closeness to Churchill assumed a benevolent perception of the British Empire in Asia even with the enormous suffering and lack of development in China and India from the policies of the British. Such perceptions continued under Kissinger/Nixon, and Reagan/Rumsfeld. John Foster Dulles was Eisenhower's Secretary of State during the Cold War. He stated his ideas in Foreign Affairs in 1957 that were colored heavily by the China conflict (1949) Korean conflict (1950)  the Vietnam conflict (1954), the Hungarian Revolution (1956), and the struggle with the Soviet Union. Many of his ideas continued through the 1960's to the 1980's determining US policy in Vietnam, towards China and India, and in Rumsfeld's policies in the Middle East that involved the US in local and religious wars.  Dulles sought to respond to the aspirations of colonized nations in Asia - China, India, Vietnam- but lacked an understanding of the hundreds of years of colonial rule and suppression of freedom, increasing poverty by lack of investment in education, health and industry, faced by these countries in dealings with the British Empire.    ...

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As the first military plane with 100 deportees from the US lands in Amritsar in the Punjab state, there is this reflection in India on why migrants decide to come mostly from Gujarat and Punjab two of India's prosperous states, and Gujarat a centre for industrial development under Vikshit Bharat 2047. Modi visits Washington Feb 12 for meetings with DJT.  Times of India says agencies that track illegal migrants report 90,415 migrants illegally entered the US from Mexico or Canada between October 2023 to Sept 2024. Half of the 90,415 migrants were from Gujarat. The two leading states for migrants are Punjab, Gujarat followed by Haryana, UP and Maharashtra.  In the Punjab this report shows business communities and urban professionals as part of the illegal migrant flow looking for better life- for reasons of governance, and social security, including people from well to do families. And not for reasons of job scarcity. And this is changing demographis with decline in population in Punjab with it being made up by migration from Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar states into Punjab.     ...

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This NYT report looks at the transformation of Saudi Arabia with the investment projects of Prince Mohammad bin Salman who leads the country in modernization. In the past much of the oil money going from US, EU, China and India went into wars in the Middle East, Salman has focused on development. using the funding opportunities that need to taken to develop the region, funding which will no longer be there after the shift to renewal energy by 2035. The price tags are extravagant the coastal city and historic district of Jeddah remodeled $20 billion. New center of culture Diriyah near Riyadh, $63 billion. Futuristic city Neom. Red Sea tourism projects. 

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Key points in the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 to be approved by the Modi cabinet are that every citizen of India will have 50 mbps access to broadband by 2022. Key development institutions will have 100 mbps speed. 

10 million public wifi spots are planned for 2022. Expand the ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices by 2022. And attract $100 billion in new investment. Under National Digital Grid the National Fibre Authority will be created to have the supporting organization to achieve these goals.

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Indonesia is a country with a long history of Hindu and Buddhist culture before conversion to Islam through traders from Malaysia and Sufi saints in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Hanuman and other deities from India are also part of the existing culture and traditions. Communist influence has been alien to this culture and tradition as in India. It was part of the Dutch empire in the east and a source of European trade in spices from the seventeenth century. It is also a extensive island chain of Java, Sumatra and other islands with a population of 280 million very closely linked to India culturally and with links to America since independence. Indonesia was given a great deal of importance during the Cold War with Robert Kennedy and other leaders visiting Indonesia during the period after Sukarno in the sixties. By 2000 the US engagement with China had evolved to the point that neglected India, Indonesia and the entire south east Asian region in a preference for links with China.  The British division of India led to the US links with India and Indonesia being shaped by that division and the Cold War with Russia. The confusion of the struggle against colonial rule of the British and Dutch led to leaders such as Nehru and Sukarno who compounded the difficulties of the Cold War and perpetuated with it the old British idea of a divided South Asia on a religious basis that had supported British rule and set the conditions that made it possible for a small group of English civil servants to run the country. This led to the Indian and Indonesian relationship with the US being stifled as the US struggled to rid itself of the British obsession with a divided India. Culturally India and Indonesia are part of an extended region in Asia with development aspirations and a youthful population that aspires to better infrastructure, better education, healthcare and ease of living, and the better opportunities in life. This is what migration did for Europeans who left for America for a new life on the east coast and on the prairies of America. It has little to do with the obsessions of the British and the Dutch that divided the region between the Indus and the Ganges and divided the Indonesian islands. That phase is now coming to an end as China reverts to its Communist period leadership under a new generation led by Mr. Jinping, a son of one of the veterans of the Communist Revolution of 1949. The US has to evolve its relations with India, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries into new ties of trade, culture and technological exchange. This is needed as it winds down its close trade relations with China in its supply chain to rebuild a new supply chain after the trade wars and the pandemic revealed the deep flaws of that supply chain. What is needed is not the efforts of one changing adminstration after another, but an effort started by president Biden that will last through different administrations as the US engages with Asia in the way that it engaged with Europe after FDR and Truman for most of the twentieth century. And one that rids itself of the obsessions of divided regions from the colonial period of the Dutch and the British. The1.6 billion people in India and Indonesia share a  common aspiration of being a major part of the Free World with America. ...

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A heat wave over northern India with New Delhi recording temperatures never seen of over 50 degrees centigrade happens just as voters go to the polling places in May 2024. Results will be announced June 5 for parliament's 543 seats. Turnout is considered to be resilient in the face of the heat wave with only 20% of the voting seats having lower numbers of voters than 2019. The drop in voting was slight of 1.5 percentage points overall from 67.2% to 65.6%. The last phase starts June 1, and 485 seats have voting completed.This vote is all about development and delivery of infrastructure, jobs, and modernization, improving governance and rapidly developing the country held back for about six decades after independence during which Japan recovered from the war, and China rapidly modernized its economy, and India only setting the beginnings of recovery in the administration since 2014, with prime minister Modi setting the goal of a modernized country by 2047 or Vikshit Bharat. ...

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On October 2, birthday of Mohandas Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, looking back and looking forward- the connection Gandhi placed to cleanliness at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.  Gandhi made the clear connection of cleanliness to Independence. Cleanliness as indispensable and first condition for the path to Independence. In the same way Cleanliness has an indispensable connection to New India, the first step to New India.  For years the Sabarmati remained dry for 8 months in the year. Through improvements the entire river is regenerated and connection to the Narmada river ensures a flowing river all year long just as it once was in the 1950's, a river that we have seen, one that brought serenity to the mind walking on the old span Ellis Bridge.  Clean rIvers, and an environment that is clean so that we can maintain health and wellbeing. A river in Thiruvannamalai and Vellore districts in Tamilnadu, the Naagnadi river, is revived through the action of women villagers digging up canals, restoring not just the river but mental health that comes with seeing rivers flow. Every generation doing its work for cleanliness, for Clean India, for Clean India in all ways. This idea is taken forward with Economic Cleanliness as an indispensable condition for economic freedom, for development and modernization. Hundreds of millions of bank accounts for rural farmers and villagers and urban residents is part of this effort. So is the digital transformation of India with 3.5 billion transactions made over digital system UPI in August 2021. ...

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German foreign policy is seen as too dependent on China and too China focused, in this conversation of DW.com with experts at German Council on Foreign Affairs (DGAP), European Council on Foreign Relations. Germany had little focus on India and no clear policy to expand ties under Merkel. German foreign policy should take the example of France and other Scandinavian nations in building strong ties with India, says this report. Relations with China of the US and EU countries are strained following trade and technological competition. Merkel continued old policies from 2000-2010 in 2010-2020 even as the EU was losing its technological edge with China. This report says a new German federal government after the upcoming election has to decide what relations it wants to build with India, following the example of France, and Scandinavian nations. And what role the EU will play in India's rapid development in industry,  technology, shipping, transportation, renewable energy, other fields, and opportunities for co-operaton in many fields in 2020-2030. This is also about "Whats at stake for Germany?" in new foreign policy under a new chancellor from SPD or Greens, or some other coalition. And what role Germany will play in the rapid modernization transformation that is now likely to take place in India in the next 10 years. ...

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It took 75 years for a British prime minister to visit Gandhi Ashram on the banks of the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. George Bernard Shaw, the English writer, in a handwritten note at the Nehru museum in Allahabad after meeting Gandhi says "ask somebody 100 years hence" about Gandhi's contribution to the world. Today it is more clearer than ever. Mohandas Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj on a ship from South Africa to London in 1910 after negotiating with the British government on behalf of Indians in South Africa. In 1915 Gandhi returned to India and used his savings to buy 110 acres of land for the ashram on the banks of the river Sabarmati in Ahmedabad. By 1923 Gandhi was questioning the expenditures of the British government that did little for the development of the country and a budget that was focused on military expenditures, in his magazine Young India, with nothing for developing the country except for railways and transport. Gandhi launched his non cooperation movement for self-rule or Swaraj from the Ashram. By 1937 elections were held and the first provincial assemblies were set up in an experiment for self-rule. In 1930 the Salt March for noncooperation in the British salt monopoly, salt seen as the common man's right, was launched from the Ashram. In 1942 the Quit India movement was launched in the middle of World War II. In 1945 after Labour party's Clement Atlee won the election in a landslide against Winston Churchill the path opened for Britain to start negotiations with Gandhi for independence. In 1947 India was free. Why 75 years for a British prime minister? Much of the period after 1950's was lost in the recovery from partition, wars on Kashmir, China's entry into Tibet and the invasion of India. The non aligned movement under Nehru and Indira Gandhi and successor governments to 2000 appearing more as voicing a grievance for being left out led to an ambivalence of the US and UK towards India, and reflected a period when India was small in economic terms and lacked the opportunity to find its place in the world as a country with the largest population in the world. Which today with with Bangladesh and Indonesia sharing a common history of Hinduism and Buddhism represents 1.6 billion people. In the Nehru home museum in Allahabad there is a hand written note by British writer George Bernard Shaw who visited India and the Nehru home. It says it would take maybe 100 years before the world realized the significance of what Gandhi had done and only at that time would the world truly understand Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Boris Johnson's effort to make up for 75 years that went by without UK prime minister's visit to Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad is one such moment that George Bernard Shaw had seen coming.  George Bernard Shaw's handwritten not at the Nehru Museum in Allahabad says- "What is the place of Mahatma Gandhi in political philosophy? I do not know. Ask somebody a century hence. I recollect Gandhi as only a very likeable fellow- Mahatma from India. We did not talk Mahatma shop."       G. Bernard Shaw            28/6/1947     ...

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Geetanjali Shree win the International Booker prize for the best fiction novel translated from other languages into English. Her book Reti Samadhi is about an older woman coping with the effects of the 1947 partition of India and has what Geetanjali Shree calls the meandering mind of women spanning 725 pages in Hindi. "Woman are stories in themselves, full of stirrings and whisperings that float in the wind, that bend with each blade of grass," says Shree in the opening pages of the novel. Shree writes about a teenager who goes through the traumatic experience of partition as a teenager and experiencing depression at an older age decides to confront the experience by going to the place where it happened a second time. Shree is from Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh (UP).  UP a Hindi speaking state is getting into the international field as the experiences of the region are being shared in other languages. It is now at the forefront of rapid development in India under the Modi administration and a state administration that sees India's largest state in an international context. Bringing Hindi, its tone and rhythm, and the style and exuberance of the author to a English reader, is a challenge that was handled well by Daisy Rockwell of the US. ...

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This discussion in WSJ brings up an important topic- how can America get the most out of its infrastructure dollars, make the $1 trillion infrastructure go a long way towards fixing the nation's dilapidated and crumbling roads, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure? The three experts point out that there is lack of coordination between different government agencies, between agencies and the private sector engineering firms. They are all working in silos with little connection to delivery times and delivery quality of end product. There is a lack of transparency at all levels of infrastructure work and spending, so that the end delivery and problems are not seen in relation to final delivery of end product, visible to all on one site. There is a third problem say the three experts in the lack of investment in professional development and training and technology for the people in the government agencies.  The result is that the US with its higher costs for construction work and the delays for getting approval, and the bureaucratic hurdles, ends up with getting much less for the buck than other countries. Even a newcomer to infrastructure development if it gets it right can be ahead of the US. India is looking at the pitfalls of infrastructure development and eliminating hurdles. With its Gati Shakti Master plan given the personal support of the prime minister India is correcting precisely these three missteps that are cited in the WSJ for the US infrastructure buildup. Under Gati Shakti all government agencies at city, state and federal levels fall under one umbrella to work in coordination. The focus is always on end product and delivery of end product. The siloing of projects is considered a serious pitfall and avoided at all costs. Transparency is considered essential and so is visibility in that at any time one can turn on a site and see where a project stands in its delivery date of end product. If there are problems they are put on the site so that all participants can see it to come up with solutions. By doing this a country with fewer resources can make them go a long way to come up with the kind of infrastructure that is seen in rich countries with more waste built into the process.   ...

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900 million eligible voters in India means this is the largest election ever. The election will take place in 7 phases in April and May from April 11 to May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23. The election is for 543 seats in parliament, the Lok Sabha. Turnouts are high with 66% turning out in the last election that brought Mr. Modi and the BJP to power.  Unlike elections in Britain a lot is spent in each election, about $5 billion in the last election and double that this time. The U.S. elections in 2016 had spending of $6.5 billion as a comparison. Women vote at about the same rate as men and more women than men are expected to vote this time. Prime minister Modi won the last election with promises of development and infrastructure. He is delivering on infrastructure but building manufacturing and generating jobs in the formal sector remains a tougher task for any administration in 4 years. During the first term Mr. Modi made needed changes including introducing the GST tax to integrate India's fragmented market and get rid of a patchwork of regional state taxes. He introduced a whole range of projects and yojanas which are setting the stage for widening the middle class, and improving living conditions. Some of the problems such as the bad loans in the banking system date back to previous administrations and the government has taken steps to clean up this problem by refinancing banks and introducing a bankruptcy law. This has slowed GDP growth to about 7%. However this would have happened under any administration.  The brief war with Pakistan in February 2019 has added another dimension to this election with questions about whether this may help Mr. Modi because of his strong stand against terrorism camps in Pakistan.  In the end it all comes down to whether the public still believes the BJP party under Modi is best qualified to develop the infrastructure to modernize the country and improve services, and whether it can create enough of the manufacturing capabilities to generate jobs needed. It may not be that the BJP under Modi has  not made mistakes in the process of learning how best to tackle development, but whether a patchwork of regional parties led by the opposition Congress party is in a position to provide the strong decisive direction to make quick decisions on development. Getting the agreement of a number of regional parties such as the party in West Bengal state or the Uttar Pradesh state when it was under a previous administration of Mrs Mayawati means an even slower rate of decision making as it leads to lack of speedy decision making. Whether voters have short memories and forget the slow rate of infrastructure development under previous administrations or have a willingness to give the BJP a chance to show what it can do under Modi for development can eventually decide this election. An example of what this means is in how the Mumbai Metro is being pushed through to timely delivery- Metro Rail's head Mrs. Ashwini Bhide simply says she feels for the people of Mumbai who have suffered from delays in development of needed infrastructure for so long, with millions doing appalling rides in a creaky old rail system. In her view it should have been done yesterday. It is this attitude that can make or break the current administration, and whether it can get this message through to voters one more time. Most who have this attitude are aware that China is now laying enough concrete every two years than America did in the whole 20th century, as reported in the Guardian newspaper, and are equally passionate about delivery of services and rapid development of badly needed infrastructure.         ...

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Jaishankar on the connection between the Indian and Pacific Ocean region into one integral whole with the emergence of independent nations from the British, French, and Dutch Empires in the region, and the growth of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand. The growth of trade and use of sea lanes for supply chains, modern shipping and logistics, have created sea lanes that stretch from the Gulf and Suez to Hawaii and Seattle. India plays a critical role with the US, Australia and Japan to ensure international law and open shipping lanes for all nations in the Indo-Pacific. Jaishankar also touches on infrastructure developments such as the new Trilateral Highway that connects India's northeast to Burma and Thailand. This opens up ties on land between the three nations with connections into Malaysia and Indonesia. That would enhance the movement open people and goods, and cultural connect that would create a new northeast- southeast Asian connection. It restores what was the long lost connection that India once had with nations from Thailand to Indonesia, and Vietnam to Japan through China. This is the connection that brought Buddhism from India's north east in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to these countries.  Look East, Act East, the Quad, Indo-Pacific Economic Framework are all ways of saying the same thing of making the East connections the vital ones in India's social, economic and political, cultural life, restoring the connections in which India thrived and existed as one entity. It also brings life to the Gulf countries which are otherwise isolated in a sea of European nations on one side of the Mediterranean and Russia on the other side near the Black Sea that have different historical interests and cultures. This sees the central Asian connections through Afghanistan as being secondary and of less significance in the long history of nations such as India, China, Korea and Japan from the Buddhist era. That secondary connection brought an interruption of the long Buddhism and Vedanta civilization in India, intermittent wars, and the division of the country under the British Empire. It is a natural progression in a long history that seeks to restore the natural and intuitive connections to the Vedanta and Buddhist regions in the East that are part of the Indo-Pacific. These are now integrated with the settlers from Britain who sought to build better and fairer societies based on the rights of man in the new nations of Australia and America. This gives new life and meaning to this vast Indo-Pacific region. The British Empire and the other colonial empires simply bring back an orientation to the period of colonial wars of the nineteenth and twentieth century, which tore apart China and then Japan, and used resources in India for these wars, and which ended with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These wars also leave behind memories in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Korea that can only be truly be put behind by looking at Vedanta and Buddhist Asia as it once was from India to China to Japan. And to the regions of Australia and the US that brought new meaning to the modern scientific period and the rights of man in settler societies away from Europe. ...

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The purpose of the National Education Policy was to prepare India's young people for India as a developed modernized country and to meet the educational needs of such an economy. The idea was to break the idea of silos based education that separate the science, engineering, medicine, law, arts, humanities, languages based education into separate non mixable parts. It is based on the idea that in modernized economies one needs critical thinking abilities, creative thinking, that mixes the humanities and arts with sciences, with engineering, and other scientific fields.  Because of India's diveristy, history of disadvantaged populations, to build an inclusive economy is also a goal to tap into the widest pool of human potential and talent in a country with 1.2 billion people. For this to happen the goals are set for inclusivity for gender and disadvantaged populations.  What is not in NEP is the investment part, and the governance part, both critical for it to be effective. Investment at 4-6% of GDP is inadequate, as this Brookings report point out. For healthcare and education, India has to expand its share of GDP dedicated to these two areas to make it comparable to other advanced nations. This will pay off in infrastructure development and exports led growth as inputs of education are key to get productivity up in manufacturing and in R&D. Governance is essential part of this overall plan as the public school system in India as in Brazil, Mexico and other countries suffers badly from a lack of attention- with discipline, transparency, good government, increasing incomes and rewarding teachers at every level. ...

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India crosses the 10 million mark in coronavirus cases for the first time on December 18, 2020. The number of deaths is at 146,000. The U.S. is the only other country with over 10 million cases. U.S. has 17 million cases and 318,000 deaths on December 18. The daily cases in India peaked in September at about 94,000 and have declined to 27,000 in December. The U.S. meanwhile is hit by a second wave that is much worse than the first. Daily cases now are close to 250,000 on December 18, 2020. The daily cases in the second wave are much more severe than the first. They have increased by a factor of 5 to 10 times. Places which got through the first wave without severe damage are hit hard in December. This includes Germany, and California. In California daily cases exceed 50,000 and in Germany 30,000. In California, France, Germany, and UK, Spain, the daily cases far exceed earlier cases in the first wave by a factor of 5 to 10 times. For this reason India needs to be wary of a resurgence in the pandemic in a second wave. With its large population, need for economic recovery, and opportunity to benefit from the vaccine developments and its strict protocols for testing, isolation and social distancing, mask wearing, India can carefully and vigilantly prepare for the second wave. ...

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As farm product rotted on farms because of a lack of buyers, India has come up with new ways of getting farm agricultural product to buyers in urban areas. The Indian government has approved online sales direct from farmers to buyers outside the country. Within the country enterprising farmers  and app developers for farm produce sales directly to consumers in cities are changing the way agricultural produce distribution works. This report in the Guardian shows how sales are being made from remote Meghalaya state to buyers in cities for product ranging from turmeric, pineapple, jackfruit, and cashew. Prices are about 70% higher helping boost farmers incomes.  Several states have relaxed rules allowing farmers to sell anywhere in the country.  In other parts of the country this is happening with a proliferation of such apps creating a virtual marketplace. Other examples are a grape orchard farm in Gudahalli with sales made in Bengaluru at 30 apartment complexes. One site founder in Chandigarh says he has in 2 months sold 20,000 tons of produce ranging from avocados of the Nilgiris to papaya from Chattisgarh. His app Harvesting Farmer Network also helps with packaging and delivery. In other developments Gaia Agritech is helping farmers on the Konkan coast in Maharashtra hit hard by a pause in exports, sell to housing societies in Pune and Mumbai. This is part of a broader debate in India after coronavirus pandemic. One idea is that people have a family farmer just like they have a family doctor, encouraging organic agriculture, fresh produce for healthier living. By helping farmers it makes for a better economy, as about a sixth of India's GDP comes from farmers and most of the jobs are in farming and agricultural economy. ...

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US president DJT meets Indian PM Modi on the first day of his visit to the US. PBS shows the joint press conference of the two leaders as India and the US embark on a new journey. India to reach out for 1.4 billion people- and as a model for 1.7 billion people including Indonesia- reach out for Developed modern India by 2047, the 100th anniversary of India's independence from the British Empire. The US as the leading western economy meeting new challenges from China as it partners with India for 2.4 billion people living in South Asian and North American democracies and the UK/Canada/Australia/Japan the largest group of people with a common history and institutions of government based on a shared history with Britain and the Modern World it created by pioneering the Scientific and Industrial Revolution. And a shared civilization where the Bhagavad Gita meets the Authorized Version of the Bible in the religion and civilizations that provide a common heritage of the spirit. To conduct the affairs of man in ways that provide good honest governance and a shared interest in peaceful development for the welfare of humanity. ...

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India's vaccination drive which has passed one billion vaccinations is one of the great stories of our time. This report in DW.com looks at vaccination drive in a region that is densely forested. It is in central India in the state of Chhattisgarh with about 30 million people and about 7 million tribal people living in dense forests that make up 40% of the state's territory.  One such place is the Dandakaranya forest, Sukma district, 500 kilometres from the state captial of Raipur. It takes an arduous journey just to get to this place which has no electricity, no potable water and no road connectivity.  Block development officer Kapil Kashyap from Sukma tells DW.com how they worked hard, won trust among villagers and brought basic medical services to them. Astonishingly with such effort to overcome vaccine hesitancy, 95% of the people in the village here had their first shot, and 40% received two doses. It is such a kind of effort in every district that prime minister Modi has called for in the unrelenting effort needed to vaccinate fully 1.3 billion Indians. ...

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For National Governance Day the Library of Congress has recordings of the poetry and talks given by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in an audio page. These recordings were made by Vajpayee himself at his prime minister's residence in Delhi in 2001 and are in his own voice. As poet, philosopher, foreign minister, Leader of the Opposition and prime minister in India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee embodied the vision of the generation that started with Mohandas Gandhi in the 1920's through Govind Vallabh Pant and Lal Bahadur Shastri in the Hindi speaking heartland. A vision that is the basis of the sab ka vikas, sab ka viswas, sab ka prayas development drive of today based on good governance.  Ao phira se diya jalaem- come let us light the candle again, the sun dims, come let us light the candle again-  is one of the classics from Vajpayee as India looks to 2025 and ahead for National Governance Years. Jita jagata rashtrapurusha is a poem on national unity, more spirited than even the national anthem itself. ...

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A look at the Palestine conflict from 1947 to 2023. The British Mandate for Palestine gave Britain a role in administering this part of the Middle East after it took control of the region from the defeated Ottoman Empire in the First World War 1914-1918. The League of Nations set up the Mandate with intention to take the people in this territory to independence. The UN in 1947 gave about 56% of Palestine to the Jewish people and 44% to the Arab people. When the Arab people rejected this UN settlement and Arab neighbors Jordan, Egypt and Syria invaded in 1947 about 70% of the territory went to the new state of Israel. There have been repeated conflicts almost every 7 years since and there are factions within Israel and inside Palestine Arabs who have protracted the dispute, including over holy sites in Jerusalem, without seeking the kind of settlement that won peace for Ireland after hundreds of years of British rule and discrimination. The world with its billions of people in China and India who seek development and billions of people in Africa and Latin America who seek a way out of poverty, has no interest in prolonging small conflicts that distract from the importance of tackling climate change, infrastructure development and education, healthcare, ...

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India's roadmap for the first of 25 years to 2047 shows key goals of Inclusive Development and Empowered youth, women and all sections of society in growth. It builds on the work since 2014 of Leaving No One Behind.  Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ka Viswas, Sab Ka Prayas remain the key ideas behind it. With All, For Everyones progress, Confidence of All, Efforts of All. To provide essential nutrition as the floor foodgrains were provided to 800 million for 28 months and extended to Jan. 1, 2024, investing $31 billion. Building also on having achieved the doubling of per capita income to 2 lakh rupees, about $2500 since 2014, ensuring better quality of living and life of dignity for all citizens.

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The resilience of Indian democracy shows in the fourth phase of the election with 70% election voter turnout for parliament. The Election Commission says 67% over all four phases with the current heat wave 45-50 degrees centigrade. 150 million more voters over 18 years will vote this time in 2024 compared to 2019. 978 million people or 70% of the population eligible to vote. And 5.5 electronic voting machines, 1 million polling stations, 15 million election workers and security personnel. Compare this to the elections for European parliament with voter turnout in 2014 of 42%, in 2019 of 51%, and expected increase in June 6-9  election to 61%. Total seats are 720 compared to 543 in India. There are 3 debates, in Maastrict, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium, in May the last in English. With Ursula Von Der Leyen of CDU heading European People's Party, Zimmerman of Renew and Nicholas Schmit for Party of European Socialists and others. EPP met in Bucharest, Romania, PES in Florence, Italy in March, Greens in Lyon, France. Issues in EU Climate change, Security policy, Economy, Migration and Borders. In India issues are Vikshit Bharat 2047 modernization effort, State governance leakage of funds intended for development, Security, Backward Caste development. ...