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Insights from WSJ readers on causes for slowing growth in India, Modi and Gujarat, the education system, and anti-inflation policies of the central bank.

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Chancellor Merz New Year Message to Germany 2025, reflects on the events of 2025 with the DJT US administration distancing itself from Europe in favor of a peace agreement in the Ukraine war- with Europe left to take responsibility for defending it's region. By December 2025 the US asserted the Monroe Doctrine and made securing the western hemisphere the top priority, not Europe. Merz and SPD's Lars Klingsbeil removed the constitutional brake on spending placed by Merkel and passed a bill in parliament by December 2025 for a one trillion dollar infrastructure buildup and defense buildup. “Germany is a great country that has, time and again, reinvented itself, emerged stronger from crises, given rise to new cohesion and offers all of its citizens a livable and lovable home.” “We are not the victims of extraneous circumstances. We are not at the mercy of great powers. Our hands are not tied.” A similar situation is happening in South Asia as India faces China over a long border in the Himalayas and India puts up roads, bridges, tunnels and airstrips in the Himalayan border regions.   ...

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How crude oil flows are affected by the narrow waterway Straits of Hormuz if blocked, Kuwait's lack of storage, Iraqi production going from 4.3 million barrels a day to 1.3 million. China could use more coal, it has 300 days of oil inventory, US is self sufficient. Asia will have problems- India, Japan and South Korea.  Europe also faces a shortage of oil supplies. How will this be tackled? 

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India's Supreme court endorses the decision to abrogate Article 370 made in 2019. The Indian Express looks at the decision and the response of different countries leading to the Supreme Court decision in December 2023.

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As Indian pharmaceutical industry sees drug testing in India as an opportunity, conditions for obtaining the best results are being established by taking necessary steps. With ashortage of experienced people to run drug trials, Indian government has stepped up training, setting up partnerships with the U.S. FDA, Health Canada, the World Health Organization, and other similiar organizations, The emphasis should be on credible dat and the safety of subjects says A.K. Pradhan, India's Assistant Drug Controller. After the death of an infant in a Wyeth Pharmaceuticals drug testing effort, the Drug Controller of India though supportive of Wyeth has raised certain issues that Wyeth is addressing.

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Under a new program to increased spending on healthcare from 1.3% of GDP to 2.5% the Indian government plans to provide free pharmaceuticals at state run hospitals. This is expected to cost $5 billion over 5 years. Initially 350 drugs would be on a list of essential medicines and would be purchased from generics manufacturers in India. Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, heads the committee advising the Indian government on healthcare. He says this will help improve access to medicines for the vast majority of the people. Estimates show 70% of out of pocket medical costs for Indians come from spending on drugs. About 40 million people are pushed into poverty each year because of the high cost of medicines, says Dr. Reddy. He said that in 1984 31% of the medicines at government run hospitals were provided free to admitted patients, dropping to 9% in 2004. For outpatients this dropped from 18% to 5%. The free medicine program would be part of a larger universal health care program to be introduced over the next decade. India's large generics pharmaceutical industry makes the provision of free medicines on a large scale a feasible option in India because of the lower prices, with additional pricing advantages when purchased in larger volumes by the government. This would also have a major impact on the quality of healthcare in the country of 1.2 billion people for a relatively small investment. It also promotes a sense of fairness and equal access because the benefits of decades of modernization have been unevenly distributed and because of widespread poverty....

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Indian prime minister says on the lawn of the White House that India does not want to replace China in manufacturing, it wants to see India as the world's manufacturing centre in diversified supply chains where there is no overconcentration in one country which happened before the pandemic. Biden does not favor free trade agreements because in addition to undermining American workers and the environment, it also has the effect of shifting manufacturing to China because of loose agreement clauses about sources of manufacture and because many of the countries in the free trade agreements depend on China for manufacturing. India and the US are at a unique inflection point because both countries are gearing up for  new relationships in manufacturing and in the supply chains.

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Some estimates of the cost of the Iran War for the US are about $13 billion over 10 days of the war. US president DJT asks Congress for $200 billion to finance the war. Iran refuses to back down on the closing of the Straits of Hormuz. Much of the oil going through the Straits of Hormuz goes to Asia, 90% from Kharg Island in Iran goes to China. Oil from the UAE goes through the Straits to Japan and India.

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A look at Day 64 of India's lockdown in the Indian Express.

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The effects of the Modiji development guarantee and "Sab Ka VIkas, Sab Ka Saath," in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhatisgarh. In the Hindi speaking heartland and the northwest and west including Gujarat and Maharashtra it gives a new momentum to development efforts for the modernization of India. This helps set the roadmap for development  through 2024 and the years ahead. Compared to China the problems in India are how to integrate scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in a complex social fabric into the economic development efforts.

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In Asia hardest hit are India for LPG gas used for cooking by most people in a country of 1.4 billion people. Australia is hardest hit for oil and gas with only a 32 day supply and Vietnam. Australia, Vietnam, Japan all three getting 90% of their oil supplies from the Middle East, an untenable situation. These three need to diversify out of the Middle East for their oil supplies. India has the option (now supported by the USA in a 180 degree U turn during the Iran War) of getting supplies from Russia for oil and gas with its good relationship with Russia. Japan has managed Middle East supply by keeping over 254 days of inventory but this looks to be very risky as Germany learned from its dependence on Russian oil which went in the wrong direction under Merkel. Japan has released about 18% of its total reserve amount of the 254 days inventory (146 days in national reserves and 101 days in private mandated reserves). It uses 3.14 million barrels a day in 2026 down from 5.8 million barrels a day in 1996, using about half today through conservation and using renewable energy showing the potential for the US and Europe. ...

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The Times has this editorial on the fighting at the border between Ladakh and Aksai Chin region in the Himalayas between Indian and Chinese troops. It says China has occupied 50 square kilometres inside the Indian LAC and India is building its infrastructure to match China's in the region. It also points out that the border has no standing in international law, from the period of British rule and the Sikh Confederacy of Punjab region in the 1840's no real effort was made to demarcate the border, a dangerous situation that also arises from Tibet ceasing to be a buffer that existed for centuries between Indian side of the Himalayas and China's western provinces. This means infrastructure building is the only way India can maintain the Line of Actual Control.

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This is the 103rd anniversary of the Battle of Haifa which led to the liberation of Haifa from Ottoman rule. The battle was fought by the British with the help of the Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers who played a critical role in the battle. Little is known about this role even though it is an important contribution to the India-Israel relationship as it evolved over the last 200 years. The battle to liberate the port city of Haifa was fought during the British efforts to free people under Ottoman rule in 1940-1945.

This is only one aspect of the Indian army's role in two world wars in which it played a significant role stretching from North Africa to Asia. This is also significant as part of India's relationship with the democratic countries of the world and the Indian effort to fight Nazi and Japanese imperialist expansion under American and British leadership.

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The question remains why the defamation law has remained a part of the Indian Constitutional law and the Indian  Supreme Court has upheld it. Under Britain there must be the sense that this would have put the unified subcontinental government at risk. Under India post independence this could be seen as an effort to keep the unified country India that emerged from the British Indian rule together as one nation. It may not be individual to individual defamation that underlies the spirit of this law. Its spirit may lie in keeping together as one nation a country with many languages and people after centuries of foreign rule by not letting the spirit that keeps it together be undermined in any way or form. Gandhi and the independence movement before Gandhi created the spirit for a new nation from many peoples and languages, this has now taken the form of timely delivery of the services and infrastructure that these peoples are entitled without any dilution of any sort, after all the hard work, sacrifices and aspirational effort of an earlier generation of leaders. ...

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The modernization of the Indian Air Force proceeds with the phase out in 2 years of all MiG 21's to be replaced with Rafale jets from France and new Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft AMCA which will be made in India with advanced technologies for the Air Force and the Indian Navy.

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The experience of J&J and Novavax in vaccine manufacturing shows the importance of vaccine manufacturing and of Quality Assurance in the production of vaccines for coronavirus. The success of Pfizer and Indian companies in vaccine manufacturing shows how important it is to think early and plan early for vaccine manufacturing technologies, personnel and quality assurance. This is also why the US effort, India's billion vaccine target in 6-12 months of planning, is a great effort in thinking ahead of every aspect of vaccines and vaccinating, planning of all details, hard work, by Pfizer, by Indian pharmaceutical companies, and by the Modi and Biden administrations.