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Judicial interpretation of India's Constitution enables upward mobility, building the infrastructure that supports upward mobility without leakage of funds, and world social justice, says Chief Justice of India's Supreme Court D.Y. Chandrachud. He was giving the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai.  Prime minister Modi could not pursue India's rapid development program to benefit all parts of society without the help of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution in a way that supports India's development. "The identity of the Indian Constitution has evolved through the interaction of Indian citizens with the Constitution and has been accompanied by judicial interpretation... If you look at the Constitution, it does not favor unbounded economic liberalism. Rather, our Constitution seeks to find the right balance. When individuals can exercize their liberties and to be fairly rewarded for their efforts, then economic justice becomes one of the many inter-related dimensions of life. Ultimately, we share common faiths and destinies to the point that development of each individual fosters social justice in the entire world." "The basic structure doctrine of India's Constitution is that it guides and gives certain direction to its interpreters and implementers, when the path is convoluted. The craftsmanship of a judge lies in interpreting the text of the Constitution with the changing times while keeping its soul intact." This happened when Nani Palkhivala presented the idea before the Supreme Court in 1973 against prime minister Indira Gandhi's Emergency rule that parliament had limits to its powers when it came to amending the Constitution if by amending it the amendment would destroy the spirit of the Constitution or its basic idea. This includes freedom of expression, rule of law, separation of powers, freedoms guaranteed to all citizens. The amending power is limited and cannot be turned into an absolute power. Another way of looking at it is that parliament itself is organized by statutory authority. And it cannot destroy or dismantle the very basic features of the law (the Constitution) that created it in the first place.     ...

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Some of the most vulnerable populations in the world during coronavirus are in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the surrounding regions, in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, and in African countries. This report looks at the increase in poverty in Pakistan and increasing food insecurity with food prices increasing. Government priorities are a concern says this report. Malnutrition is increasing with estimates ranging and some as high as 40% of children. A PTI official of the government is cited here as saying that it could be as high as 50% of children suffering from malnutrition. One of the problems for food insecurity in the Indian region going back to the famines during the British rule in Bengal and the famines in Bihar during Congress rule after independence is that supplies are lacking of foodgrains or that the incomes have fallen so drastically that people could not afford to buy food. Governments stepped in after independence to provide foodgrains at subsidized prices. These programs need to be pushed to the forefront and and international assistance needs to be sought. Planning minister Asad Umar points out in this report in DW.com that millions of Pakistanis are falling below the poverty line increasing food insecurity at a critical time. He gives estimate that one out of four Pakistanis have had their diets reduced. There is every reason to support efforts for cross border supply of foodgrains between India and Pakistan as humanitarian approach in the coronavirus crisis even as differences exist over border regions- as such differences exist all over the world over borders but humanitarian approach has benefitted the entire region during the Bihar famines after independence with aid from the U.S. Johnson administration. At that time in 1966-67 the seriousness of the situation in Bihar was only gradually and reluctantly accepted by the institutions, officials and governments around the world, says Cambridge University Press looking back on that crisis. And it is to the great credit of the Johnson administration that it launched the subsequent efforts for the Green Revolution and foodgrain production involving Norman Borlaug and the Indian government. Something of this type needs to be launched again across the region.   ...

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The Indian 2024 election involved huge giveaways and caste based selection that takes India backwards, which explains some of the gains of opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, two large states. As the WSJ points out giveaways to buy votes for Rs 1 lakh for every woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh with population of 120 million women was part of the strategy used by a leading opposition party. Caste selection was carefully deployed by another large political party in Uttar Pradesh. Fears and misinformation about the BJP party changing the Indian Constitution to remove protection of lower castes enshrined in the Constitution by Ambedkar, was also a factor that swung votes to the opposition. The effects of the pandemic and the unemployment levels for a largely rural population in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in north and west of India played a role as the BJP failed to get an outright majority following its majority wins in 2014 and 2019. The Opposition parties and the BJP main difference is that the Opposition parties have accepted the leakages of funds as part of the culture that has prevailed since 1960 which makes rapid development and modernization impossible as the pool of funds for investment in infrastructure is diminished. BJP party under Modi has fought this leakage every step of the way and by executing projects of infrastructure with on time delivery created the prospects of India modernizing and industrializing the way Japan and China have achieved. The other difference is the execution and the Master Plan Gati Shakti developed by BJP and Modi and a 20 year execution model developed in Gujarat state by Modi from 2001 to 2021. This has made India the fifth largest economy in the world with plans to make it the third largest by 2030 and do what Japan and China have achieved in Asia. It is not really about religion or so called Hindutva that is driving the hard work it is about making India a modern industrial nation with the standard of living of US, Europe, Japan and China.   ...

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Indian foreign minister Jaishankar describes the highly eccentric situation of lack of US India close economic and defense cooperation for over 50 years, when the natural flow of cooperation one would expect between the land of Washington and Lincoln and the land of Vivekananda and Gandhi was interrupted. The current form of cooperation has existed for about 14 years and accelerated after prime minister Modi was elected in 2016. This was a turning point in the US India relationship and in India US economic partnership. After president Trump was elected Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump held a huge public gathering in stadiums at Houston and Ahmedabad, in a way that was never seen before between an Asian country and America. What changed? For one thing India had a great weight lifted from its shoulders with the removal of the erratic Nehru policies of post independence India of forming a non aligned bloc with countries like Egypt and Yugoslavia. These were policies that had no connection to India and its history as the civilization where the East has its roots in Vedanta and Buddhism. It also resulted in alienating the Dwight Eisenhower administration and administrations that followed after John F. Kennedy, as the Cold War intensified and most of Eastern Europe came under Soviet domination. India never gauged the effect this had on America after the Berlin crisis in 1948, the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and similar uprisings in East Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Britain was no help even with the British Commonwealth, as the British perpetuated the idea that India was too divided to make up one country, having failed to grasp India's ancient civilization and  culture, and having built the Empire in India by using the division in the country. Mohandas Gandhi described this in Hind Swaraj in 1910 and told Indians that it was they who had invited the British into India, with rulers using military garrisons of the British commercial East India Company for help in their internal wars. Americans still unfamiliar with India till after 2000 simply accepted British colonial ideas about India. The new administrations in the US, the Trump and Biden administration, and the Modi administration in India have shaken this up and changed perceptions all around. Biden recently during the Modi visit to Washington DC said India US relations as he sees it would be "the closest on earth." So that today we have an ancient civilization roused to its depths in its youth for modernization, that extends from India to Indonesia all the way to Japan rooted in India's ancient civilization of Vedanta and Buddhism, with a population of about 2 billion people. That faces the US on its Pacific coast, united in its determination to build a new and common future with ideas of parliamentary democracy, participation of the people, and of modernization with science and technology, contributing to the betterment of all peoples. ...

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Elected to the Politburo in 1980, Gorbachev became president of USSR in 1985. In the six year period to 1991 he launched a movement to free the USSR from the rigid constraints of communist party rule called Perestroika to improve productivity, freedoms and quality of life. He came from a peasant family with Ukrainian origins and was born in 1931 during the period of upheaval in Russia. The rapid removal of Soviet rule was something Russia was not able to adapt to in the early years with no experience in democratic process. By 2000 after drop in life expectancy and fall in the standard of living Mr. Putin emerged as president.  Russia's economy recovered under Putin's three terms till the miscalculations in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that were itself a result of a sense that Russia had lost something with the fall of the Soviet Union and the advancement of NATO and the European Union. Gorbachev's sense in his memoirs was that Russia would do best under democracy. Even in 2017 he wrote that Russia and its people were "ready for a real multiparty system, fair elections and a regular rotation of government." Yet he was too much of an optimist and not enough hands on to grasp that Russia was a large economy and safeguards had to be put in place for the rule of law to prevent lawless elements that could control companies, safeguards for the vulnerable sections of society such as pensioners and older people, and limited self government through elected assemblies and parliaments were needed for a decade before democracy to take roots. Gorbachev's knowledge of American and British democracies, constitutions and parliaments and their evolution over centuries was non existent, with little contact and education of this sort under the Czar or Soviets. The democracies in Germany and Japan were established with American power and extensive education, the Marshall Plan, and unlimited imports by the US from Japan to prevent economic catastrophes of the kind experienced by the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1920's. No plan from western aid and assistance, limited self government of the people was introduced as training ground as in India. In India the British introduced limited self-government or Swaraj in the 1930's with elected assemblies in Indian states, in the pattern of Dominion states such as Canada and Australia. Mohandas Gandhi negotiated the rights of indentured Indians in South Africa in this arrangement and studied British law and constitutions. This led to the catastrophic failure of the rule of law in Russia after 1979, lawless elements emerging under Yeltsin  that controlled companies and the state, high unemployment, failure of the economy, and drop in life expectancy between 1979 and 2005. How this led to the Putin years and now led to the war in Ukraine is covered in more detail under the Lyrarc article on Gorbachev and how he is seen in Germany. ...

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The $17 discount for Russian oil to Brent crude is a result of the president's efforts with sanctions plus tariffs on China and India to cut oil purchases from Russia. This puts a strain on Russia in financing the war with Ukraine. Bothe China and India have cut purchases of Russian oil in recent weeks and the Indian refinery at Jamnagar no longer gets Russian oil, according to recent reports. DJT was criticized for his stance on Indian tariffs as inconsistent with the agreement with China on rare earths. It now appears that China and India have both agreed to stop financing the Russian war effort with big oil purchases and are shifting it to other places such as Brazil, Guyana and Canada. India plans large oil purchases and arms purchases from the US and this is part of the trade agreement being negotiated with India. About one third of the additional 240 million barrels of oil on the seas in tankers is Russian oil being stored for lack of buyers with total oil on waters at 1.4 billion barrels. This has led to a 48% increase in tanker costs to $125,000 a day. All this makes it harder for the Russian economy to sustain the war effort as the US pushes both sides to settle the Ukraine conflict in the 28 Points Peace Plan negotiated with important Russian negotiators in Washington DC over 3 days last week. ...

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Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh, concluded a visit to India with an agreement for cross border electricity and rail lines. Bangladesh borders the Indian state of West Bengal, and 53 rivers flow into Bangladesh from India making sharing of river waters a major issue, which remain unresolved especially for the Teesta river. Bangladesh signed agreements for $5 billion in loans, including $1 billion for a Russian built nuclear plant and $500 million for arms imports.

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Indian security officials say Chinese troops have moved back several miles at 3 disputed border patrol points in one of the Himalayan areas. Reduction is not substantial but it shows intent of the two armies said the official cited in the WSJ report. China also removed two dozen armored vehicles. India has also withdrawn some of its vehicles and troops from the front lines. This is after the two sides met for de-escalating tensions. In 2017 for 2 months there was a standoff in  a stretch of land near Bhutan. This one is near Ladakh region in the high Himalayan mountains. The border is 2000 miles long in the mountains of Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan. This one was near the Pangong Tso lake which is pictured in the WSJ report at a high altitude. India has tried to match Chinese road building and infrastructure efforts in the area in recent years.

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A drop in the positivity rate to below 5% and cases dropping to below 100,000 after peaking at 400,000 in May. This report in the Indian Express looks at the details behind India's successful effort at bringing down the cases that was done over a period of 30 days with a combination of effort from the central government, state governments and healthcare workers. The turnaround was achieved effectively in Uttar Pradesh a state of 210 million people so that per thousand population had dropped to below that in the US state of Michigan about 2 weeks before that was achieved in Michigan. This was the result of an extraordinary effort at all levels in India.

Risks of the new variant exist in all countries that are reopening aggressively. Talk about huge open air concerts and filled sports stadiums in the US show that complacency can happen as countries reopen.

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The story of Milkha Singh, India's fastest runner, is told wonderfully here in the Indian Express.

Milkha Singh came through a period of life growing up in a poor part of the Punjab, then partition, and finding a place in post independence India on track and field. He joined the army on his third attempt. Finished fourth in the Rome Olympics, just 0.1 seconds behind Pence and with it missing a Bronze medal.

He said after this - that he was taken for an interview, and he could only say in whatever English he knew, "your son has fulfilled his duty, and I demand this from every youngster in the country." This could be the message to all the youngsters in the country that are volunteering for the PM's effort for 100,000 trained healthcare youngsters to help with Covid work in villages and towns throughout India.

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AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria says it is critical to do three things to prevent a possible third wave from becoming a serious threat in India. The three steps are- to adopt covid appropriate behaviours such as mask wearing, social distancing and washing hands and to not fall into the habit of thinking that the virus has gone away when it is spreading and developing into new mutations. To do testing, tracing and micro containment zones quickly to isolate infection prone areas and prevent transmission. Gene sequencing analysis would enable understanding variants quickly to respond. And to vaccinate rapidly the entire Indian population, a program which is being tackled by the federal government.

These tasks are critical also to let the economy recover and let all segments of society recover soon from the pandemic. It is through mutual responsibility and fulfilling one's duty by every citizen that this becomes possible.

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Mulayam Singh Yadav was mentored by Indian Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia who was an activist in the Independence Movement after Quit India was launched by Mohandas Gandhi. Lohia is rare in India's independence struggle because he studied at Humboldt University in Germany 199-1933 and did his doctoral thesis on Salt Taxation in India following the Salt Tax protests of Mohandas Gandhi with Dandi March in 1931.  Lohia contested elections in parliament with Mr. Nehru in 1962 in Phulpur constituency Uttar Pradesh. In this sense Mulayam Singh continued the work of Lohia to provide India with an effective opposition for its democratic framework covering a billion people with as many languages as Europe and a caste system. This report shows pictures of Mulayam Singh Yadav during a difficult period when the Opposition parties began to form governments in the northern states of India and at the federal level in the years following 1990.

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Some of the major decisions that are shaping the development of a modern state and advanced economy in India come from legislation and judicial decisions taken by Justice Khanwilkar of the Supreme Court of India. Laws on effective governance by preventing leakages and corruption, on the climate and rivers, on foreign interference in elections, on women's rights, setting historical events as in Gujarat in the right context, and the Central Vista project were upheld and judicial decisions written by Justice Khanwilkar. It is these contributions from this eminent jurist from Maharashtra, along with that of able administrators in government ministries such as Sitharaman, Jaishankar and Vaishnaw, and many others under the leadership of the prime minister that made possible much of the work of the last decade to make the Indian economy meet the aspirations of young people and look to 2030 with confidence to become the third largest modern economy in the world. ...

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The federal government in the US is providing internet connections to rural part of America through its Internet for All program. The Biden administration has committed $60 billion to this program. At what point is satellite service that is less reliable but more cost efficient an alternative, asks this report in WSJ if service in Montana can cost $300,000 per location, or in a Indian reservation in Nebraska at $54,000 per household. These are remote locations and require drilling in mountainous areas and under the Missouri river. For the majority of locations the  average FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund location cost is $1753, the Treasury Capital Project Fund $3313, and the tribal projects are outliers for isolated spots. The government prefers fiber optic cables because this is good for generations to come for upgrading, and the benefits of this service will make rural areas of America attractive to live in for decades to come, say officials.

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Latin America makes up about half the world's deaths in the last 2 weeks of June with over a million infected in Brazil, and millions pushed back into poverty.

Mexico's antipoverty agency says 10 million, Peru 2.5 million says the central bank will be pushed into poverty. A entire generation of gains on poverty could be wiped out in 2020.

Goverments not just in Brazil, but also Mexico have not played an active role. Contrast this with India where the Indian prime minister said around March 21 that in stark terms India could be set back 21 years in the next 21 days or do the lockdown completely and be able to withstand it. And Merkel in Germany when she said back by the end of March that the virus could take the lives of millions of people in Germany if the country did not lockdown effectively.

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There is an acute need for foreign trained workers in European Union countries. Germany, Netherlands and Italy discourage migrant untrained workers illegally entering the country. Employers are asking the government to address labor shortages. Germany needs 400,000 trained foreign workers, Italy 280,000.  Germany will increase visas for Indian workers from 10,000 to 90,000 a year showing how quickly action is being taken first to stop illegal entry and second to increase legal visas. German Labor Minister Hubertus is shown here talking to students in Delhi during Scholz's visit to India recently.

Governments in Europe will now say they are getting trained foreign workers by legally bringing them into the country compared to the chaotic entry of less skilled migrants that caused deep discontent in the countries of Europe. Employers will guide this process in each country as they compete for the best talented educated workers.

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Vindu Goel of the NYT gives this report on IBM's expansion in India including an interview with Vanitha Narayanan, chairman of IBM India. In 2017 IBM had 130,000 employees in India, at operations in Pune, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore and other cities, double that in 2007. The U.S. operations have about 100,000 employees. As IBM's revenues have declined with technology disruptions, it has concentrated on expansion in India with its vast base of knowledge workers and costs of about one half to one fifth of what it would cost in the U.S. IBM has 380,000 employees worldwide, with 26% in the U.S. and 34% in India, and 40% in other countries. Microsoft employs 8000 employees in India and 124,000 total worldwide, Google has 1800 in India and 72,000 worldwide.  IBM removed operations in India in 1978 after a dispute with the Indian government. In 1993 it started operations in India in a joint venture with Tata. By 2004 the operations had expanded and IBM took full control. A $750 million 10 year contract was signed in 2004 with an Indian phone company Bharti Airtel. As Goel points out the shift is happening towards expansion in India with the growing demand from industry and government in India. The Watson venture has expanded in healthcare in India with contracts including one with Maniphal Hospitals. In 2016 this had reached $38 billion in hardware and software, services, to Indian industry and the government agencies. IBM's work is not simply in offsourced work from American companies. High tech and cutting edge research is also taking place and expanding. IBM is now uniquely positioned to get an expanding share of the business as more tech services are provided to the hundreds of millions of people in India who did not have access to tech and tech services before. Research concentrates on doing this at a fraction of the cost and in new ways suited to the local region, so that services can be delivered with a wider reach. This report provides a new perspective on how the next decade could see American companies with a long term focus take advantage of the rapid growth in the fastest growing large economy in the world, with advantages for both the U.S. and India. ...

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Unemployment in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is 6.8%, and 14,600 workers are looking for a job. Peters and Wessel talk to employers in this midwestern U.S. city and find that employers are looking for people in manufacturing with just the right set of skills, in other cases the benefits and parttime local school system jobs paying $8-$12 per hour with no benefits go unfilled because of the lower wage.

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India's statement in the border dispute with China in the Doklam region, says that the road building activity by China would significantly alter the status quo with security implications. India's foreign ministry adds that the situation in the six week standoff remains unchanged. The Indian statement also said that future bilateral relations with China would require peaceful relations in the border regions.

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NY Times analysis shows upper and middle income groups support 33 year old Zohran Mamdani,  black and Hispanic residents support Cuomo for NYC Mayor. Mamdani has a good ground presence with 50,000 volunteers knocking on 1.6 million doors in an unprecedented effort in one American city as it became less and less affordable (WSJ). Paradoxically large numbers of higher income resident and middle income residents favored Mamdani over Cuomo, and Cuomo did better in black and minority neighborhoods. Mamdani promised better housing, freezing stabilized housing rents and going after landlords who do not fix rental properties, free buses, and city run lower cost grocery stores, free child care. For the funding Mamdani says $5 billion by making corporate tax 11.5% similar to New Jersey, and by a wealth tax of 2% on incomes over $1 million (which at $20,000 would not affect their standard of living), as the property owners supported Mamdani. Mamdani is a immigrant who came to America from Kampala, Uganda at the age of 7 with Indian parents. His father taught at Columbia University, Mamdani attended Bowdoin College in Maine. ...

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India shows national solidarity and collective resolve to fight the pandemic as it responds to prime minister Modi's call for all lights to go off and people to light a candle for 9 minutes on April 4 at 9.00 pm. A huge show of resolve across the whole nation of 1.2 billion people.

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Indian trade with Latin America 2025 of $40 billion sees a catchup effort to China's $480 billion trade. Efforts by Brazil's Petrobras and Argentina's YPF to increase exports of oil and LNG to India and increase imports of pharmaceuticals, automobiles and textiles.

Sabrina Olivera from the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI) says-

"The fact that India is the only democracy in Asia gives it an advantage in Latin America, where most countries in the region are democracies, trust in India is stronger than in China."

Brazil's president Lula and Indian PM Modi worked closely for G20 Summits in New Delhi and Rio de Janeiro. This cooperation and a need for Latin America to diversify from concentration of trade with China, increasing potential with India, can lead to a doubling or tripling of trade with India in a few years.

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PM Modi says Indian Rail is an important part of the vision for Vikshit Bharat or Developed India 2047 as he opens the new Jammu division of Indian Railways. PM Modi described the infrastructure laid for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link USBRL, the Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge, and the Chenab Rail Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir.

PM Modi says-

“I was watching a video of the new sleeper version of the Vande Bharat train running at the speed of 180 km per hour in trial. It makes me feel good. The introduction of high-speed Vande Bharat trains and the expansion of metro networks demonstrate India’s commitment to world class transport systems,” the PM said.

“This is just the beginning as the time is not far when the first bullet train will run in the country.” 

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This Indian religious festival draws tens of millions every day to ancient cities Prayagraj, Nashik, Hardwar, Ujjain, on sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Shipra. It happens every 6 years as half Kumbh. The Mela or gathering in 2025 is in Prayagraj on the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati river waters where they meet. It is the Maha or great Kumbh Mela that happens once in 144 years. Much preparation went into the gathering by the Indian government and some estimates of the total over 45 days are 600 million religious devotees seeking a bath in the holy river. 

BBC News shows different aspects of this Kumbh Mela religious gathering in Prayagraj, India. For the first time millions of people have come to India from all over the world for this Mela or gathering for Lord Shiva. Today is Maha Shivarathri, the day of Lord Shiva.

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Indian exports to US drop from $8.8 to $5.5 billion May to September drop of 37%. A trade agreement is likely and should be similar to Japan's or EU where with Japan it is now 15% and with EU it is 10%, both key allies of the US. India is also a key ally in Asia requiring the DJT administration -once it gets over Modi-DJT differences on the nuclear aspect of the India-Pakistan 48 hour conflict in 2025, and India reverts to getting oil and energy from non Russian sources as it did in 2019, and issues of agricultural exports to India- to drop this tariff of additional 25% for Russian oil and drop the basic tariff of 25% to 15% as the US did with Japan. At 15% Japan and India will still be able to compete with China's 47% (dropped from 57%) to export to the US.  The result can be positive for India as it improves it's cost effectiveness to export to the US and EU, with rapid investment to improve logistics, and streamlining import of technologies and machinery to rapidly cut costs of production. ...