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What the Indian Supreme Court failed to do was ask for accountability for the nearly 3 years lost in timely delivery of infrastructure that was to be completed in 2021 for the $3 billion Metro subway for Mumbai. Work that was moving 24 hours a day 7 days a week under Ms Ashwini Bhide was stalled and left to stagnate. This is unconscionable for a country with 1.4 billion people and most under 35 years whose aspirations get repeatedly stuck in the mud by politicians and a mentality that has itself given into the way colonial powers looked at India of being undeveloped, dirty and disorganized. Mohandas Gandhi would have a hard time understanding that Hind Swaraj that he envisioned in 1910 could lead to this kind of stagnation. Mr. Jain points out that the Indian Supreme Court has left it to the Assembly Speaker to decide on the issue of disqualification of 16 MLA's- in effect leaving the new government in place which has a majority in the Maharashtra state assembly in India. The 2 party coalition was formed between Mr. Modi's party BJP in the state, the principal driver for infrastructure and 24 X 7 development in India, and Mr. Shinde's party on 30 June 2023.  From November 2019 to June 2023 for the period of the pandemic for 2 years and 8 months the state was under a government that stalled on major infrastructure projects in the state that were being done 24 hours a day. Such as a huge project that the WSJ called "audacious" run by Ashwini Bhide at MMRC with over $2 billion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for a new METRO subway for Mumbai taking it into the 21st century from an old broken British rail system. Unfortunately neither the Supreme Court or the press delved into the loss of 3 years that added this loss in infrastructure that was to be completed in 2021 to the losses from the pandemic. The project is back to operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week under Ms. Ashwini Bhide since the Shinde government was formed in June 2023 with pm Modi's party in the state.  ...

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Srinivasa Raghavan reviews 3 books in the Business Standard on Periyar, Kamaraj, and MGR. Brahmins are a caste in India that held sway under the British rule in Madras in the Madras Presidency and dominated the professions and local government. Madras presidency was named Tamilnadu after independence. Think of Brahmins like the Boston Brahmins as upper caste, and the Irish as another deprived caste the Vanniyars in Madras state.  Madras was a very caste conscious state Periyar led a movement of Self-Respect for the lower castes improving their social condition. Kamaraj was from the entrepreneurial Nader case and was part of Gandhiji's satyagraha in Tamilnadu in 1925, going on to lead the Indian National Congress Madras wing by 1940. Madras state was very poor in those days- with 80% of the population illiterate under British rule and with agriculture based extreme poverty. Kamaraj changed the face of Madras, adding schools and high schools, midday meals in schools, and set up industry with large public sector projects, brought dams and electricity to the state, between 1954 to 1963, 13 years of transformation, may be the biggest in India in the period 1950-1975. ...

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Putin's visit to India is intended to continue India Russia dialogue. One of the topics is trade. New trade deals are planned to take pre-pandemic trade from $11 billion to $30 billion by 2025. Trade would go beyond energy to include education, cybersecurity, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, railways, clean energy. By comparison US India trade for the same time period is $146 billion.

Afghanistan is a source of concern for both Russia and India and this will be part of the talks. Russia also participates in several forums with India including BRICS. 

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New details emerge on how India informed Pakistan that only terrorist bases were targets not the Pakistan military. India's Foereign Minister Jaishankar says this was to make clear that only terrorist bases would be struck in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on tourists. This was to be careful so that deescalatory steps could be taken. When Pakistan chose to attack military targets in India India did the same on military targets and air defense systems in Pakistan were taken out. At that point India insisted that for a stop to the war Pakistan's general would call India's general to end the war, which is what happened. Jaishankar made it clear that US Marco Rubio of JD Vance complied with India's request to the US that only after the Pakistan general called the Indian general would the conflict be stopped as India had not targeted Pakistan military.

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Malaria in India is a notifiable disease in 33 states. It is part of India's vision to be malaria free by 2027 and to eliminate the disease by 2030. Health Minister Mandaviya says it is a public social and economic challenge in India. And that India witnessed 85% decline in malaria cases in 2020 compared to 2019, and 84% decline in deaths during 2015-2022.

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Youth unemployment and forced migration plays a major role in the Nepal general election. Rapper music Balendra Shah 35 years wins in parliamentary constituency over ex-PM Oli and wins the Nepal general election. He formed the RSP party to voice student protests against PM Oli's government and corruption, which was forced to resign. His goal is to generate 1.2 million jobs and double the per capital GDP from about $1500 to $3000. Nepal reflects the general jump in aspirations of youth across the Indian region. 800,000 young voters voted for the first time.

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A committee constituted by the Indian Supreme Court headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Sapre in a 173 page report says that based on data from stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) it sees "no evident pattern of manipulation" in  the steep stock rise of Mr. Adani's companies that can be attributed to "any entity or group of connected entities."  It also said that it was not possible for it to conclude that there were regulatory failures  regarding price manipulations.

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PM Modi's Jal Jeevan mission In India for clean tap water for 1.4 billion people even in the Himalayan regions can be seen in the context of water scarcity across the developing world in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with 1 in 2 persons facing water scarcity. And there is further the problem of contaminated water. It shows that it is possible if there is the will to do it and the resources dedicated to do it. Not only is it harmful and reduces health with diseases it considerably undermines women and girls in society. This is shown in ads for Jal Jeevan mission with a mother and her daughter on Indian television with the daughter telling her mother that PM Modi and the government have brought tap water to the village and it need not be carried long distances from wells, the mom incredulous till she realizes it is true and hugs her daughter. It may be the most memorable of television public service ads on Indian  television in a long long time and shows the immense changes in the world's most populous region even overcoming the challenges of the pandemic. ...

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Narendra Modi is now the choice of the BJP party in India to lead it against the ruling Congress party of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. The corruption in government and the slowing growth have improved the chances of Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state in northwestern India, near Mumbai. Modi has done well in Gujarat state in a number of areas- from foreign investment in manufacturing, infrastructure development, and better governance. His plan is to replicate this at the national level. His slogan is minimum government and maximum governance.

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Andrew Lownie's book provides glimpses into the lives of the Mountbattens, Edwina and Dickie. Mountbatten was the head of the British government in India in 1946 as negotiations were started with Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah for independent India. The Cabinet Mission (including Cripps) plan of 1946 was  to setup a federation in India with provinces in A, B, and C categories. A being the Central Provinces, United Provinces, Bombay, Madras and other parts of what is now India, B being the Punjab, Sind and what is now Pakistan, and C being the region of Bengal, what is now Bangladesh and West Bengal.This was rejected by Nehru, Sardar Patel, and the Indian National Congress, leading to  Jinnah's call for action, a civil war, and the partition of India 9 months before the plan date of June 1948, in chaotic circumstances, in a hurried manner. The legacy of that two year period is with us today in the upheavals in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, drawing the U.S. and western nations also into endless wars. The period 1939-1941 is covered when Edwina's rather aimless life upto that point changed completely with service to war wounded and for the Red Cross. She also visited the U.S. in 1941 when Mountbatten was given command of an aircraft carrier at Norfolk, Virginia, visiting 28 states. Edwina made up for he aimless years by relentlessly pushing herself to be an equal to her husband in the war effort. This has given the couple their fascinating character. It was also a period of great change as the Labour party under Clement Atlee winning a post war election made the decision to end the British Empire in India. The war had depleted British wealth and Britain lacked the resources to continue the Empire in India. The job of managing the transition went to Mountbatten, a naval officer in the Royal Navy, coming in the tumultuous years of 1946-48 with the quick partition of India under Mountbatten in 1947. Mountbatten stayed after independence in August 1947 as the first Governor General of India.  Edwina and Dickie Mountbatten struck a friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, and this review in The Hindu shows Jawaharlal, Edwina, Dickie and their daughter Pamela having tea at the residence in Shimla, 1946. Nehru's rejection of the Cabinet Mission plan leading to the appointment of Mountbatten as Viceroy was partly based on his idea that priorities for India post independence was modernizing the economy and reducing poverty. Seven decades later the priorities are still the same, following the experience of Japan, South Korea and China at modernizing the economies in east Asia requiring a greatly accelerated effort.    ...

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Diesel prices are regulated and subsidized by the Indian government, but gasoline prices are deregulated since 2010, resulting in gasoline costing 64% more than diesel in India. As a result buyers are staying away from gasoline cars and shifting to diesel creating distortions in demand. The government is considering a tax on diesel cars and SUV's of between $3000 to $4600 to correct the distortion. Because lower income people woud be hurt by increasing the price of diesel it continues to be subsidized. Because of the uncertainty car manufacturers are shutting down production to reduce growing inventory of gasoline vehicles. High interest rates of 12% on car loans also reduces demand. Suzuki Maruti sales declined 6% in May 2012, Ford and GM showed sales declines of 14% and 20%. The year ending March 2012 shows Indian car sales growing only slightly by 2.2% to 2 million cars. Sales were rising at 29% only about a year ago. Gasoline costs 68 rupees a liter in New Delhi after a 11.5% increase in May 2012, compared to 41 rupees per liter for diesel. The increase in gasoline prices is a result of the government having difficulty paying the rising imports of oil, costing $141 billion for the year ending March 31, 2012. The sharp slowdown in the car industry and the problems in the energy sector have affected India's growth rate....

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The Economist points out serious problems at India's state owned banks. Following a $21 billion or 1.3 trillion rupee bailout from the government, and a new bankruptcy law to help banks deal with bad loans, the Indian banking sector was seen as recovering. Last week (Feb. 2018) showed new problems at three of the largest state owned banks. PNB, Punjab National Bank, is faced with fradulent transactions for 114 billion rupees, about a third of its market capitalisation. A jeweller, Mr Nirav Modi, had PNB employees issue letters of credit which were then used to borrow overseas, but the credit was not shown in PNB's books. The State Bank of India, SBI, is faced with losses after tackling bad loans. The Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank and bank regulator, has taken action to have banks recognize more bad loans to clean up the banking system.  The Bank of Baroda, the third largest state owned bank, is exiting South Africa after entering that market and lending to the controversial Gupta family that is seen as having undue influence on the government of ex- president Jacob Zuma of South Africa.  These events have battered the reputation of state owned banks in India. One private lender HDFC bank alone now has market capitalization worth more than the entire state owned banks in India. State banks are worth less than net assets in the market, showing a huge credibility gap. The bad loan situation that goes back to previous governments is affecting the growth rate in India's economy and creating new pressures on the government of prime minister Modi as it faces general elections in 2019. ...

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Indian salary growth is expected to be 15% a year and salaries for professionals doubling every 5 years based on GDP growth for Vikshit Bharat 2047 of 12% per year. This is why India will seek to limit migration to legal migration only and further limit the brain drain by creating attractive opportunities in India, including ones from GCC's or global capability centers of foreign corporations in India that are expanding as US reduces its overdependence on China for manufacturing and returns jobs and factories back to the US.

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India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar visits Sri Lanka. He says-  "We felt strongly that Sri Lanka's neighbors must take proactive steps to facilitate its recovery. India decided not to wait for others but to do what we believe is right. We extended financing reassurances to IMF to clear the way for Sri Lanka to move forward."  He emphasized the enormous renewable energy potential of the island nation which India supports. The larger region provides new possibilities for Sri Lanka to get the benefits of scale for energy development. He pointed out that India is " prepared to go the extra mile when Sri Lanka feels the need." India and Sri Lanka share a long history from the period of the first conversion by Mahinda from India of the island to Buddhism.

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The Indian public from retired businessmen, farmers, students, and the press are coming out in support of anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare's call for effective legislation to control corruption of public officials in India. This comes after a number of corruption scandals and lack of action from the Congress government. The government's bill in parliament - introduced after pressure from public opinion- sets up an ombudsman or Lokpal agency, which would exclude from its jurisdiction the very public officials over whom it was meant to exercize oversight. Under the government's bill the prime minister, the public officials in the bureaucracy and the judiciary would be excluded. This has set up a confrontation with an increasingly exasperated public, with Hazare's protest fast in central New Delhi as the catalyst for protest across the country. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that he sees it as an issue of parliamentary sovereignty, as Hazare's protest is for a version of the bill that he has drafted to be adopted. But the public's sense is that Hazare is only responding with his own draft of the bill because of the government's effort to make only a token effort by not giving the anti-corruption body the powers it needs to function effectively. The response has brought thousands of demonstrators from around the country to Tihar jail where Hazare is being held by the government after his arrest. The situation is reminiscent of the protests against the British imperial government by Mohandas Gandhi, and in this sense has serious implicatons for how the country is governed. Corruption was prevalent in India during the days of the license Raj in the period 1950-1990 when business needed government permits in the closed economy of the Nehru period, and corruption existed in the bureaucracy in its delivery of public services. Since 1990 as the economy opened up and the growth rate increased corruption at all levels of government has in some ways increased and become embedded in the bureaucracy and government. This hurts the poor and the middle class the most, as corruption acts as a tax on the delivery of public services and infrastructure development, both badly needed in an emerging market country....

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The Ayushman Bharat Mission (Swasth Bharat) launched by the Indian prime minister this week aims to fix the healthcare infrastructure that was neglected for decades since independence. It aims to increase investment to provide much of the rural population access to healthcare services. Investment in healthcare will increase over a six year period from 1.15% to 2.25% of GDP. The investment is of 64,000 crore rupees, about $10 billion over 6 years. By comparison the UK invested 5% of GDP in 1980 for healthcare spending which increased to 9% by 2017. This suggests that this is just the first step towards increased investment in healthcare spending to build medical colleges, hospitals facilities, and rural healthcare clinics from the smallest unit level in districts across the country.  The pandemic showed weakness in India's healthcare facilities particularly at the rural level. The Ayushman mission was launched in Uttar Pradesh India's largest state with a population of 250 million where healthcare facilities suffered most from neglect since independence. ...

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Geopolitical problems and installation of US air defense systems in South Korea led to Chinese restrictions on South Korea. This led Samsung to reduce its labor force in China from 60,000 to 18,000 in 2023. It shifted operations to India and Vietnam. It is Vietnam's largest exporter and makes 20-30% of its global smartphones in India. Apple is only now beginning to shift to India. This is called decoupling or de-risking after an excessive concentration of manufacturing by companies like Apple in China.

Xiaomi took a large share of the local market in China from Samsung, another reason Samsung reduced presence in China. It still gets advanced components from China. In India Samsung has a dominant market presence. Because India is a price conscious market Apple has only a small market share in India.

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Intel's efforts to bring a low priced computer to India. PC's priced 20% lower than the lowest priced Intel based PC's sold in India, will be marketed as part of a new Indian project. Intel chief Otellini announced this when he visited India recently. This follows an initiative by AMD in India. Intel's PC's would be sold by Wipro, HCL Infosystems and Zenith Computers. Interesting is the linkup to offer financing with ICICI Bank , an Indian bank. This would be available in a few months. The lowest priced computers presently cost Rs 10,000 or $220 according to the NYTimes. By 2007 inexpensive notebook computers will be made available by Intel to students and academic institutions for under $400. In addition it says Intel plans to provide free training in computer technology to 800,000 Indian teachers.

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Kate Conger NYT looks at working for Google in 2007 vs 2025 how tech or software jobs are not exciting anymore. Many of the so called Tech companies -as technology and science is the very basis of life since the year 1700 in UK, Europe and the US and today's "Tech" is a misnomer in that context- have become huge bureaucratic, and unresponsive. Computer coding is not the profession it once was, not even in India as Indian reports show it has also lost it's glamour there. This kind of "Tech" of Google, Apple, and social media was always a cultural fad that made things look cool so that the highest profit margins could be made and justified, ignoring the essential facts about science and technology over 300 years 1700-2000 in the UK, Europe and the US. Since the early scientific observation in the 18th century in UK and Europe science has underpinned our lives, and with the industrial revolution and machines it has covered every aspect of our lives with new inventions and scientists into the 19th, 20th and 21st century. As a cultural fad of the Google /Apple kind it came on the back of the largest deindustrializing of US and Europe in the late 20th and 21st century, and ignored the fact that science and technological application is part of everyday life, the very meaning of the word modern that Japan, China and India has aspired to, to copy the Europeans and Americans, not the prerogative of any corporation.   ...

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Eminent climate ecologist Nicholas Stern says India's commitment by 2070 demonstrates real leadership from Mr. Modi of India.The Guardian says India's commitment to net zero emissions by 2070 is realistic considering that it is decades away from its peak in economic growth and energy consumption compared to US or even China. Energy consumption is expected to grow faster than any other country in the next few years. India's population is also expected to pass that of China as the largest in the world. The Guardian says climate experts who did the modeling have said this was the most realistic scenario for India - to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. This also means India's peak energy emissions will be reached by 2030. Eminent climate ecologist Nicholas Stern says - "This was a very significant moment for the summit. This action might mean India's annual natural greenhouse gas emissions could peak by 2030. This demonstrates real leadership from a country whose emissions per capita are about one third of the global average."  Also significant is Mr. Modi's pledge to deliver on 5 commitments 1. 50% of India's power to be generated by renewable energy by 2030. 2. Increase of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy including solar by 2030. 3. Reducing carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030. 4. Reduce carbon intensity of the economy by 45% by 2030. This relates to how efficiently energy is used to generate 1 unit of economic GDP. With 1.3 billion people India is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide- at about 3 billion tons- after the US and China. In growth terms this means India is going to grow very differently from the way China did in 2000-2020 with its many highly polluting industrial plants. The head of the US Renewable Energy Agency Mr.Birol says in a BBC intervew that the cement and steel plants alone of China have more emissions than the whole of the European Union's total emissions. Much of this comes from old plants and old technologies with surplus production of steel from what is now a bygone era of excess, inefficiency and chaotic growth. India plans to bring climate change emissions and energy efficiency through renewables into its Gat Shakti master plan for the country's economic.development. ...

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This report shows how the H1-B visa system as it operated for many years till 2025 undercut wages of American workers in the computer and software engineering fields. Changes are being made to accomplish the original aims of such a program. More critical is the number of jobs over a span of years that are lost to US born citizens- in just 5 years 300,000 US born talented engineers and the 3 million workers they could train would simply not be there to power America's reindustrialization and re-modernization 2025-2030. The same is true for India as 300,000 India's talented engineers and the 3 million workers they could train would simply not be there to power India's industrialization and modernization 2025-2030. This hurts the modernization of the two of the most important economies of the world to the year 2030, which would be profoundly felt by 2035. As part of many actions taken by both the US and India this could lead to shrinking the development speed and development gap with China for the US and India to 2035. ...

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PM Modi pays homage to Atal Bihari Vajpayee who set India on the course of modernization and technological advancement, its course for unification as a parliamentary democracy under the Indian Constitution. "Atal Ji understood Indian democracy and also the need to make it stronger. Atal Ji presided over the creation of the NDA, which redefined coalitions in Indian politics. He brought people together and made NDA a force for development, national progress and regional ambitions. His Parliamentary brilliance was seen throughout his political journey. He belonged to a party with a handful of MPs but his words were enough to rattle the might of the all-powerful Congress Party that time.” “When it comes to the social sector, an initiative like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan highlights how Atalji dreamt of building an India where modern education is accessible to people across the nation, particularly for the poor and marginalised sections. At the same time, his government presided over many economic reforms which set the stage for India’s economic surge after several decades of following an economic philosophy which encouraged cronyism and stagnation.” ...

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India's economy is at 2.597 trillion dollars at the end of 2017according to World Bank figures, surpassing 2.582 trillion for France. India's economy has doubled in a decade and is expected to pass Germany and Japan in GDP by 2032, to become the third largest after the U.S. and China.

As China's growth has slowed India's is growing. It recovered by July 2017 from one time events designed to actually spur growth such as the effort to implement a nationwide tax for GST. Demonetization also contributes to growth by accelerating the shift away from cash to recorded and taxable transactions. The tax revenue is increasing as less of the economy is in the black market sector. Higher tax revenues enable larger investments in health, education and infrastructure.

New bankruptcy law and speedy resolution of bad debt of banks is also laying the ground for future growth with new investment.

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After denying clearances for development projects for three decades, the Indian Supreme Court green bench of Justices Gavai and Vikram Nath clears 118 development projects already delayed for 5 years for pending litigation. 118 projects were cleared, including 15 held up for 10 years, based on the "sustainable development" idea that takes a look at the bigger picture, the aspirations of youth, and the bigger possibilities for renewables and environment with a bigger economy. It shows how India which at one time in 1990 had about the same GDP as China, has today one fifth the GDP of China, and with it lacks the same scale of investment for renewable energy and climate change action that China has because of China's larger economy. In this sense the whole country of 1.2 billion Indians, including hundreds of millions of farmers and urban residents, the Supreme Court and India's institutions, have suffered more than the one lost decade the prime minister referred to in the Budget session of parliament. It is more like three decades since China pushed ahead after 1990. China having suffered from the Japanese invasion and civil war for three decades in the 1920-49 period and three decades of drift in economic direction following 1949. India faced its own period of failed governance that matches the failures in China by 1990. The SC bench stated- "The Supreme Court is flooded with applications after applications, seeking permissions to construct primary schools, public health centers, anganwadi centers, an other public utility buildings in remote areas. Himachal Pradesh is constrained to approach the Supreme Court even for seeking permission to connect villages in remote areas by roads. Needless to state, the citizens residing in the remote areas cannot be deprived of the developmental activities that are being done in other parts of the country."  The Supreme Court called it ridiculous that the states were required to rush to the Supreme Court to do the minimal developmental activities.  That the Supreme Court and other institutions have taken so long to say and do this is itself one of the reasons India has fallen behind China. It will need to accelerate its efforts, in the way that the rest of the country and the world is doing to create an environment in which development can meet the aspirations of the Indian people. Efforts for climate change action can take place at the same time with bigger investment capabilities from the larger economy and advanced technological capabilities. The two can and do go together, a point missed for far too long.  An approach even the US has grasped and is doing under president Biden. The US has gone through its own period of failed governance for four decades of neglect of manufacturing and infrastructure that president Biden talked about in his State of the Union address to the US Congress last week.  Biden now sees the problem itself as an opportunity to get it right. So can India.   ...