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India's chief of Defense Staff Chauhan talks to Admiral Paparo, Chief of US Indo-Pacific Command in Singapore Dialogue meeting in 2025.  He says China in northern borders no unusual activity had taken place. He also says after the loss of an aircraft, India was able to use different models of planes to tackle air bases in the opposite side in the Punjab region. At no time was there any thinking about nuclear options in this brief air war. “I think there’s a lot of space before that nuclear threshold is crossed, a lot of signalling before that, I think nothing like that happened. There’s a lot of space for conventional operations which has been created, and this will be the new norm.” “It’s my personal view that the most rational people are people in uniform when conflict takes place. During this operation, I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts as well as actions. So why should we assume that in the nuclear domain there will be irrationality on someone else’s part?” On China's involvement -“While this was unfolding from (April) 22nd onwards, we didn’t find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right.” ...

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Innovation and competition in India's cellphone industry as rural areas are next big market for companies.

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In three months since August 2011, the Indian rupee has fallen from 45 rupees to the dollar to 52 rupees. Analysts at HSBC see a decline in the value of the rupee to 58 rupees to the dollar. Foreign investment in India declined from $6.5 billon in June 2011, to 616 million in September 2011. The Indian economy is expected to see a sharp slowdown with growth estimated at 7.2% in the current fiscal year down from 8.5% in the prior year. Inflation is at over 10% for the last 12 months. The sharp drop in the value of the rupee is expected to worsen inflation. India's imports exceed exports by $80 billion. Any increase in exports in a slowing global economy will be offset by higher cost of imports. India pays for oil and other commodity imports in dollars, and subsidizes fuel and fertilizers, which would lead to a worsening of the large fiscal deficit. It is in this environment that the Congress led government decided to open up the retail sector by allowing 100% ownership in single brand retailing, and 51% in multibrand retailing. Foreign retailers will be allowed to setup stores in cities with more than one million people, of which there are 53 cities in India. Other restrictions are 50% of the required over $100 million investment has to be in back end infrastructure, and 30% of goods sold must be bought from small companies, according to Commerce minister, Anand Sharma. Each of India's 28 states would compete to individually permit retailers to open stores in their state. The investment in the retail sector will come over a number of years....

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The Indian government's chief economic advisor, Kaushik Basu, says the opening up of India's retail sector would have benefitted everyone including middle traders. This would happen because the retail sector would go through a vast expansion creating room for more players even though the per unit margin from products would go down. Experts say the infusion of new technologies and investment in India's supply chain and cold storage setup would help reduce food prices and inflation. Basu made the comments at the launching of the New Oxford Companion to Economics in India in Feb 2012. Basu is co-editor and it has contributions from Ratan Tata, Pranab Mukherjee, and Nandan Nilekhani.

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Kohli, Sharma, Rahul and spinners Kuldeep, Chakravarthy get India the win in Champions Trophy 2025 defeating Australia and New Zealand.

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Indian exports to China declined in the covid pandemic years when China experienced little or no growth. This has worsened the trade deficit, yet this is temporary. Imports have worsened with Chinese dumping of products into the country. This should not alter India's policy of building close trade and investment relations with the US and the European Union as its main partners. This is also consistent with the prime minister's Atman Nirbhar Bharat policy. The author of this report in Hindustan Times says policy should integrate India with China and Factory Asia, yet this ignores India's growth trajectory as it is only now building up momentum and will for the next decade see the kind of growth Japan and China made in their peak growth period, even as China slows down and forms a smaller part of the global supply chain. US policy is for India to form the major part of the supply chain replacing China at some point as the leading supplier, even though it is moving gradually to get there. India should make policy as Modi has done for 2030, then 2047, and reach its own potential acting in concert with US and EU. ...

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VW hopes to expand in India with a plan to increase market share from 2% to 10%. VW has a plant in Pune, and Skoda has a plant in Aurangabad. In contrast to China where buyers look for high tech features such as mobile connectivity, buyers in India are looking for affordable cars of good quality. VW is interested in the Indian market because further growth of car sales is expected doubling from 3 million cars in 2016 to 6 million in 2030, according to CAR automotive research center. As part of the long term expansion VW has formed an alliance with Tata Motors, a leading Indian automaker.

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Geoff Lemon compares the  youngest batters on the Indian and Australian Test cricket teams and their graceful batting, Shubman Gill and Cameron Green. Shubman Gill's century gave India a good start against Australia leading to superb batting from Kohli with 186 and his partnership with Axar Patel in the fourth Test match against Australia.

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The Indian drone deal with the US that helps secure the border with China by providing a 24 hour all weather surveillance from Ladakh in the Himalayas all along a long border that goes to Arunachal Pradesh in the north east. Drones also would support India, Japan and Australia in the Indo-Pacific ocean as part of the Quad.

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A former High Commissioner of India to Singapore and Pakistan looks at the Indo-Pacific policy following the visit of French president Macron. He says this follows the policy of working with ASEAN countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, and the policy of connectivity establishing closer links to countries connecting India with ASEAN such as Burma and Bangladesh. Indo-Pacific is a new concept and introduces a new way of the Look East policy of India that brings in maritime considerations in the Indian Ocean region. This follows efforts by the U.S. Japan and Australia to balance the growth of China's presence in the Indian Ocean region.

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Key Indian projects in Sri Lanka or Ceylon are the Kankesanthurai harbor in northern Sri Lanka and the Ind0-Japanses East Container Terminal at Colombo port. In Maldives it is the Greater Male Connectivity Port.With its expertise and leadership in solar energy India is also launching solar initiatives in Sri Lanka. India has focused efforts on developing human capital and employment intensive sectors. This contrasts with the non concessional loans that finance infrastructure projects often with Chinese labor that do not generate the jobs Sri Lanka or Ceylon so desperately needs. Earlier period of Chinese infrastructure projects led to the debt trap with building of Hambantota port and facilities which Sri Lanka could not effectively utilize, and led to buildup of interest on loans. Sri Lanka now has the opportunity to make a new beginning as part of the SAGAR (Security and Economic Cooperation for All). The whole range of intitiatives in many areas show India's long experience in working with Sri Lanka since 1900 when early development projects were initiated. India has a long list of projects to help Sri Lanka keep up with India in its development- two education tourism projects, ITEC Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, and Technology Adoption Project. This opens a new path for Sri Lanka to make steady progress on a wide range of projects for the next 10 years for sustainable development. As India grows this will expand the range of possibilities for Sri Lanka that it could never achieve on its own. Many new projects can also be done with the economic cooperation and assistance of UK, U.S. Japan and India to broaden the range of possibilities and financing. ...

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The Indian economy is expected to grow by 8.5% this year compared to 6.5% in 2009. But a major problem looms in the high inflation facing India. The poor monsoon in 2009 led to higher prices for foodgrains, lentils, and sugar. And the government's cut in the fuel subsidies will lead to more efficient use of energy, but will lead to one additional percentage point in wholesale price inflation according to the Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank. The whoesale price index in India went up by 10.5% in June from the prior year, and this after a 10.1% increase in May. Bloomberg's tracking of consumer prices in the Asia-Pacific region shows India at the top of 17 countries in inflation, and consumer prices paid by industrial and farm workers in India are shown to be increasing at 14% annually. The government is coming under criticism for not releasing more grains from its stocks to soften the impact of last year's monsoon. The Manmohan Singh government finds inflation at above 10% unacceptable and is looking for further action from the central bank. Reserve Bank of India governor Subbarao has raised rates 3 times since March 2010 to 5.5%, and a further increase is expected at its next meeting on July 27. A better harvest in September, from a better monsoon season, could help lower food prices. If this does not happen, more tightening by the central bank could hurt economic growth, putting the government in a quandary....

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Hardeep Puri writes in the Indian Express that one of the biggest problems in development in India was that government programs for development just kept getting delayed, and there were leakages of funds that could never be tracked. It is the sign of a developing country that it remain perpetually a developing country when it does not find a way to overcome this situation. Most of Asia, Japan, South Korea, China has found a way out, and it is a sign of character in a country and its administration that real implementation takes place to transform a developing country into a modern country organizing and combining the inputs of land, capital, technology and human resources. Just one example is the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to build housing in India's cities to promote quality of living. In the last 7 years Puri writes in the Indian Express that 11.2 million houses were sanctioned, 4.9 million built and the rest to be built by March 2022. Compared to 1.2 million in the prior 10 years. To do this investment jumped by about 10 times. In the US infrastructure was neglected in the last 2 decades. In India urban infrastructure was delayed by never ending delays and leakages of funds. Across a range of projects from Metro urban transport to rail, bridges and road, infrastructure was slow and wobbly in India for most of the decades since 1947. The Smart Cities Mission is being financed with an investment planned of Rupees 2 trillion or over $200 billion to change the urban landscape with people centred priorities. As Puri writes silently, non performers are being weeded out, loopholes plugged, targets set, in scrutiny and monitoring of projects all the way to the prime minister in a way that has never happened before. There is relentless focus on monitoring the missions, problems to overcome, targets and dates of completion. Bringing to life a new national character and spirit for India during the pandemic. ...

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PM Modi will meditate for 3 days and nights at the Vivekananda rock in the Indian Ocean on May 30 to June 1, 2024. In 1892 Swami Vivekananda meditated on a rock in the ocean at the tip of India in Kanya Kumari, as he set India on a path to modernization for the next 100 years and beyond. Many Indians including prime minister Modi have Vivekananda's mission for India's modernization as their clear objective, and this is behind the everything the PM does including the vision of Vikshit Bharat, a developed country by 2047 on the 100th anniversary of independence. Gandhiji read all of Vivekananda's writings and his freedom struggle against British rule was based on Vivekananda's ideas for India's regeneration and renewal leading to his book Hind Swaraj in 1905. The Bhagavad Gita was translated by Swami Swarupananda, a disciple of Vivekananda, and formed the basis for Gandhiji in the freedom struggle against the British.  Europe faced colonization on the Iberian peninsula and invasions right up to Budapest and Vienna by the 14th century, India faced the same and this was followed for India and China by the expansion of the British into Asia when China and India failed to grasp early the importance of science and technology and the new ideas that happened in Europe by the 18th and 19th century. Vivekananda wanted to see science and technology and the advances of modernization brought to the people of India a process happening as India modernizes all aspects of its economy. Vivekananda was also the inspiration for Indonesia's freedom struggle by Sukarno against Dutch rule. India and Indonesia today make up the largest population in the world larger than China and Japan combined, with a common culture and heritage and are together modernizing every aspect of the life of people.  ...

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The Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government Mr. Anantha Nageswaran, makes these comments on the economy of India before the presentation of the new Budget for April 2023 to March 2024. The Economic Survey of India states that "India is prepared to grow at its potential once the one-off shocks of the Covid pandemic and of the supply chain recede." He sees the sweeping effects of the reforms across multiple dimensions taken from 2016 to 2022 having a lag effect and now making their impact. This means that potential growth can go up to 7 or 8% with macroeconomic improvement, fiscal improvement, infrastructure efforts, women's employment, and getting rid of LIC (License, Inspect and Compliance) across local, state and central levels. He says the central bank estimate of 6.8% retail inflation for 2022-2023 is outside its target range but yet not high enough to deter private consumption, and no low enough to weaken the inducement to invest. He says slower growth in the world including the US will bring two advantages for India- low oil prices and a better current account deficit situation.  ...

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India experienced heat waves in March 2022, with the affected areas including Gujarat, Uttarkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh. The IMD, Indian Meteorological Department declared India's first heat wave on March 11, and several heat waves since then.  IMD declares a heat wave when temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit at low elevation. A heat wave is also considered to be taking place when temperatures are 4.5 degrees above normal, with 6.4 degrees called "severe." Senior climate scientists at IMD say heat waves in India are now more frequent and severe with unusual weather conditions in 2022.

2021 and 2022 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that South Asia  faces conditions for heat waves and humidity related heat stress in coming decades. Marine heat waves are also more frequent.

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S&P forecast is for India's economy to be the third largest by 2030 at 6.3% annual growth. Positive consumer sentiment, domestic demand and increasing state investment are increasing growth to 7.8% and 7.6% in the second and third quarter 2023. A stable government that is focused on economic growth and capital investment projects increases the economic prospects of the Indian economy into 2024. Most of the northern and northwestern, and middle Indian states have investment coming from a coordinated push by state and federal government run economic sectors. Underlying this effort is building of infrastructure, shipping, transport and logistics, that will support growth of key industries to 2030, when the Indian economy is expected to be the third largest in the world. 

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Apple CEO Cook and manufacturing base in China deference to China security laws to keep a foothold in China. Under Cook Apple held off on diversifying its manufacturing base in China, leaving a legacy sure to be questioned as concentration of supply chain in China has serious repercussions on the manufacturing base of US, EU and India. No participation from Apple in reversing the dangerous deindustrialization of the US, not even an open discussion at Apple and its partner companies, a legacy that will come more and more in the spotlight long after he is gone.

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India lags way behind China in electric vehicles. About 1.35 million electric automobiles on Chinese streets compared to about 6000 on Indian streets. Where India is ahead is in the electric rickshaws, 3 wheeled vehicles that form an important part of public transportation in India. About 132,000 electric rickshaws are added each year and annual sales of $1.5 billion are expected to increase by 9% by 2021. These electric three wheeler rickshaws are cheaper to operate, cleaner and more profitable to operate, making it attractive for operators of gasoline rickshaws to switch to e-rickshaws. Kinetic Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra are the largest manufacturers in India.  About 695,000 three wheeler electric vehicles were sold in India for the fiscal year ending in March, with a 24% increase over the prior year. India's Ministry of Finance is planning to invest 40 billion rupees or $600 million over the next 5 years to promote charging infrastructure and e-buses. The government's focus is on promoting electric vehicles for taxis, buses and two or three wheeler vehicles. This is expected to reduce air pollution in Indian cities. ...

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Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman gives the following remarks in parliament on the White Paper presented to the 18th Lok Sabha in January 2024, describing the dire condition of the Indian economy by 2013 with mismanagement and "big ticket" corruption. India's Finance Minister Sitharaman describes the situation in three key areas by 2013 that left the economy of India in a fragile state, with projects stalled, development delayed, and capital investment not taking place. She gives as 3 main points of focus- the state of affairs at Defense Ministry, at the Environment Ministry, and for Energy supplies. At the outset she says PM Modi had suggested the need for such White Paper by 2015 so that future generations would know what had happened in India that failed the country at a time when China had already joined the community of developed nations. The issues go back to the coal scandal when coal auctions had to be cancelled by the Supreme Court for irregularities, the misuse of state owned banks leading to a large increase in non performing loans, and the mismanaged Commonwealth Games under government before 2014.  Sitharaman told parliament this had the effect of national security being compromised, Environment as a Ministry becoming a bottleneck, and the leadership failing the country. In the military there was a critical shortage of ammunition and equipment. She cites the Defense Minister at the time having the attitude that independent India has had a policy for many years not to develop the border areas, as an undeveloped border was better than a developed border. She also says Ministry stated that 92% of the Defense Budget was used up and major acquisitions have to wait for the military. Following this Sitharaman cited the scandals of that period and leakages of funds that weakend the country and failed its people. She compared capital expenditures today of 6.22 lakh crores in 2024 thre times the number in 2013 of 2.53 crores. HAL now makes Tejas jets and helicopters in Made in India production. At the Environment Ministry the delays that were 86 days reached a high of 316 days by 2013 for approval of development projects, with 355 projects pending, the nation brought to a standstill with the effects of the coal supplies to thermal power plants being wholly inadequate and Coal India in poor shape. The root of this was said Sitharaman- what everyone in Indian business knew, the term "genteel facts," as the cost of business going up. She cites the changes since then of aiming for Balance and Development- Transparency, Online Green Clearance, Standardized Environment Impact Studies, A new Department of Climate change, International Solar Alliance 2015, Mission Life 2022, Green Hydrogen, Namami Gange, Rooftop Solar. India set ambitious goals at the last Climate change Conference.    ...

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A live interview by BBC Hindi with Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi. In the interview Kejriwal says there are 55 deaths from the demonentisation by removal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes in India. When questioned about this and proof, Kejriwal says BBC is biased. The effort by the the Modi government to  remove these rupee notes is an effort to get people in the informal economy,  the deals in real estate, and people in other parts of the economy which pay little or no taxes to bring the cash to banks and pay the taxes due. This is intended to increase government revenue for investments in infrastructure and education, healthcare. services. The large scale of the shift has caused difficulties for ordinary people, and the upper classes, and the government is working to work through these problems. In India the black money as it is called is estimated to run to about 1 trillion dollars. It is also the result of corruption and has deprived the economy of needed investments and modernization. ...