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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 India has also withdrawn some of its vehicles and troops from the front lines.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 World Food Program report says India is home to over a fourth of the hungry people in the world, about 230 million people. Purnima Menon of the Food Policy Research Institute in Washington D.C., says India ranks below two dozen sub-Saharan countries on a Global Hunger Index. It ranks Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India, as somewhere between Chad and Ethiopia. And serious hunger and malnutrion persists in states that have done better in economic growth, like Gujarat and Maharashtra. The number of children suffering from malnutrition in 2009 is in the range of 42.5% in India compared to about 7% in China, according to figures cited by Rieff.

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Navdeep Puri, India's former ambassador to Egypt, discusses the importance of India's relationship with the United Arab Emirates and particularly its relationship with the leaders of Abu Dhabi. Indian prime minister Modi has visited UAE 3 times and has built a close relationship with Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ). Interviews with MBZ in the NYT and indepth articles show that MBZ is a different leader in this part of the Arab world who has inbuilt in his nature both old Arab values and tradition that he respects with the modern world that he saw in Britain, and is simply striking out for a different path that sees modernity in the British way as a way forward for the entire region. MBZ is also seen as a mentor for Mohamad bin Salman of the Saudi country. MBS is also striking out  for a different path for the region. Saudis are financing development agenda for Egypt by helping rescue the Egyptian economy with investment and assistance at a critical time of the pandemic. This also extends to aid and assistance to Turkey. For MBZ and MBS the British approach to modernity and the American approach to modernity, with science, technology and both respecting and modernizing traditional ways, offer a way forward for the entire Gulf region. When these countries look around them they see India as also striking out in the same or similar direction. Both Arab and Indian traditions are being seen in a respectful way, without ever losing sight of the development goals and fully accepting the modernity that Britain has brought not just to Asia but long before that to Europe and the US. This may be the true foundation of the new relationship of the Gulf region with India - seeking a common path to modernity and development for all the people of their countries after the failures of the last 75 years. ...

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This NYT article on India's Olympics preparations focuses on Neeraj Chopra, in javelin. In actual fact the Indian Olympics efforts is now supported by the government of prime minister Modi with his personal involvement at many levels. Funding is now provided by the government to athletes on a scale and in ways that never happened before. India;s Olympics athletes batch was personally invited to the prime minister's residence and Modi gave apep talk to the athletes including some useful advice from him and from seniro Olympians. One of the pieces of advice from Modi was to concentrate on the task at hand and not get distracted by the many things happening in Paris and the excitement of being at the first Olympics. Modi has also told athletes as he has for India's Space program to the Moon that a loss or a failure to achieve on the first try means you only try harder and learn the discipline required to achieve what you set out to do.

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Friedman describes the development of a tablet computer by a team led by Prof. Kalra and two professors of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, which costs less than $50 to produce. The new price point is needed to reach over 200 millon students in India who need such a device to escape poverty and poor teaching. The new tablet computer enables them to reach out to knowledge in language, sciences and math, and the humanities in the world outside them. This is an I-Pad like, internet enabled, wirlessly connected tablet. The average Indian family in rural areas saves $2.50 a month, and government support for its educational benefit could subsidize a portion of the cost. The tablet would bring distance learning, teach English, to students and help track commodity prices for farmers. The invented device uses the Android 2.2 operating system, a 7 inch touch screen, 3 hours battery life, and can download YouTube videos, PDFs and educational software. The governmment is expected to subsidize wireless connections to students. The name of the tablet is Aakash, Hindi for sky....

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Asia's longest bidirectional tunnel is between Ganderbal district in Kashmir and Kargil district of Ladakh in India's Himalayan region at a height of 11,500 feet for 14.2 kilometres. Indian Express shows pictures of work on the tunnel which will cut time across the mountains from 3 hours to 20 minutes and connects Leh in Ladakh with Srinagar in J&K providing all weather connectivity. It will be completed months ahead of completion date of 2026. As part of the project 19 tunnels are being constructed at a cost of $3.5 billion.

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California gets 75% of its oil from imports and one third of imports from refineries dependent on Hormuz Straits. 20% of jet fuel comes from South Korean refineries, and 25% of gasoline from South Korean, Indian and Taiwanese refineries. This means things can get very tight if the war continues in the Middle East. This could happen as South Korean, Indian and Taiwanese refineries become low in their own stocks and export much less. California has not benefitted from the shale revolution in the Permian basin as pipelines do not exist for transporting that oil. Shipping oil on tanker ships from Texas to California costs more than shipping oil to California from Asian refineries. Over 20 years California lost 50% of its oil refining capacity by creating conditions averse to the oil industry, instead of adopting a two pronged approach of shifting to renewable energy with some flexibility for fossil fuels hat was adopted by the federal Biden administration, also run by Democrats. As a result Chevron which was California based for 144 years shifted its headquarters to Houston,Texas. There are no signs Governor Newsom, a Democrat is reversing his position to show more flexibility on fossil fuels during a transition phase to renewable energy.  ...

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India's New Education Policy completes its first year of implementation.  Multiple entry points for studies so that students can change disciplines and try new areas of study - offers opportunities in a broad array of disciplines, and new combinations of disciplines to open new pathways to knowledge and work in a future economy. This encourages  students to try new areas of study and not be stuck in one course of study. Engineering and science taught in different Indian languages. 18 Engineering colleges in 8 states in India now offer engineering and science studies in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bangla. India has a rich diversity of languages and this opens up opportunities for students who do better in their own home languages and brings opportunities to more people. Prime minister Modi emphasized the new approach has advantages- by breaking free of old conceptions of education, preparing for a New India in which youth of the country make their own systems, assure young people that the future is theirs to make. He stated that the New Education Policy is part of the endeavour of nation building, and the fate of India, how far and what height is achieved depends entirely on education received.   ...

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It is one of the great twists of history that a dedicated Indian Civil Service Joint Secretary, follower of Mohandas Gandhi,  at a time of transformation through education of India's Madras State in 1954-63 under visionary chief minister K Kamaraj, has shaped the life and thinking of his grand daughter Kamala Harris in profound ways. Gopalan had seen and been part of the huge transformation in India wrought by Gandhi in the 1930's and 1940's. Pictures of Shyamala Gopalan with her parents P. V. and  Rajam Gopalan, and her two daughters Kamala and Maya, shown in the NYT. Kamala Harris was the first child of Shyamala who came to the US from Madras state as a young graduate student in 1954, in one of the first batches of students coming from independent India to the US.  Madras, now Tamilnadu, was being led by one of its most far sighted leaders K. Kamaraj who was chief minister from 1954 to 1963. It was Kamaraj who set up the free school lunch program in Madras state and helped bring literacy to the state and a strong educational system that would support economic development. This is important because Kamala draws her strength from her mother and her mother draws strength from her father P.V. Gopalan, a Indian civil servant in the visionary Kamaraj government in Madras state. Kamala spent time with her grandfather on visits to India which have shaped the way she thinks and her view of life. P.V Gopalan was Joint Secretary Government of India Ministry of Labour, Employment and Rehabilitation, and was sent to Zambia as Director of Relief Measures and Refugees to handle an exodus of refugees from Southern Rhodesia to Zambia. The two experiences as Joint Secretary, and as Director in Zambia, during the period when Kamaraj led Madras State were profound life changing experiences for this young civil servant who shared his understanding of Asia and Africa with his granddaughter in profound ways shaping her views on life, and what it means to be a good Civil Servant in public service to the people. Passing on to a new generation the ideas of public service of Mohandas Gandhi that P.V. Gopalan had witnessed at close range in his lifetime. ...

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Friedman reviews Acemoglu and Robinson's new book, "Why Nations Fail." Acemoglu says that nations fail when wealth and opportunities are concentrated in the hands of few people, that a condition for societies to succeed is to create opportunities for more people. For this to happen it is important to create inclusive political and economic institutions. This is an important insight, but for Western society this is an insight as old as Adam Smith when he pointed out the importance of this aspect of western societies after the feudal period in his "Wealth of Nations." For Smith it was the failure to create inclusive societies that led to the gradual unravelling of societies in the river valleys of the Yangste and the Ganges, in China and India, of increasing poverty and the gradual disappearance of what constituted the middle class in India and China. Chapter 8 titled "Of Wages and Labor" in the "Wealth of Nations" makes specific reference to this.

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The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Security, Technical and Economic Cooperation is a big step forward in the Indian Ocean region. It offers the region a new opportunity to focus on rapid development after decades of faltering steps following independence. Challenges Mr. Modi described include, coastal shipping ecosystem, electricity grid interconnectivity, Master Plan for Transport Connectivity. Signing of the Charter provides the institutional architecture for BIMSTEC, said Modi. India provides leadership for the Security pillar in a multi sectoral effort and its experience in accelerated development will now be shared across the region.

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This report in the Indian Express shows the situation in Indian states. Only Delhi has a 90% recovery rate which means the virus spread is slowing and recovery is happening. All Indian states combined have a recovery rate of 70%. This means there are many new cases as others are recovering. Deaths are at about 2% and should eventually reach 1%.

Maharashtra cases exceed 500,000 and Tamilnadu 300,000, followed by Andhra and Karnataka in the top 4 states. By comparison the large states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have together 220,000 cases and about 2600 deaths much less than Tamilnadu or Andhra Pradesh. Cases are now distributed in northern and southern India in the same proportion. Maharashtra and city of Bombay have not recovered in the way Delhi is recovering. In Maharashtra the inexperience of the administration compares with the experienced administration in Delhi of Mr. Kejriwal.

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Karan Singh and the Indian Express's Manoj C. J. take us on a journey through time to the decisions made since 1927 by one of India's most famous princely rulers Hari Singh of Srinagar. Hari Singh represented the princely states of India at the Round Table Conference in London when Mohandas Gandhi was negotiating with the British for self-rule. Karan Singh was appointed Regent in the state in 1949 after Hari SIngh left the state and the princely states were being integrated to form a new nation Bharat following independence from Britain. He continued as chief of state till 1965 when he became governor of the state till 1967, then served for 40 years as a member of parliament.

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Ways in which PC's are sold in China and India. Close touch and eye to eye retailing across as many cities as possible through a large as possible retailing network is the way the Chinese and Indian market is described. But HP which lags Lenovo in China is the leading computer seller in India so there may be other things and factors at work. Still the markets in poor developing countries are going to be quite different in cultural and regional makeup and their needs may be quite different in what is most important to customers and what companies must do to respond to these needs to get established.

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Coal India, is a state run monopoly which is a huge stumbling block for India's economic development. India lags behind Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in the percentage of the population having electricity. Production methods do not use modern technology similiar to mines in other countries, and the average age of the 333,000 employees is 45-50 years. An eight hour shift at some mines produces as much coal as a mine in the U.S. does in 5 minutes, because of the lack of modern technology. About 300 million Indians lack electricity. The Modi administration's focus is on improving efficiency, introducing competition, and bringing major technological changes to the coal industry. Piyush Goyal, India's Coal minister faces one of the biggest challenges in the Modi administration. His focus is on efficiency, and the Modi administration has set a target of 1 billion tons for 2020, a 15% increase in production each year for the next 5 years.

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Ford executes new strategy for reaching the younger first time buyers of small cars in India. The car is a hatchback called the Figo designed with the help of Indian engineers for the Indian and overseas markets. It has done a$500 million expansion of its plant in Chennai, India, doubling production to 200,000 vehicles ayear, and 250,000 diesel engines a year by 2010. Mullaly says: "literally India is designing the small car for the world." Separately Ford is building a new car plant in Chongquing, China, for 300,000 cars, midsize and suv's. The change is huge and dramatic for car production. CSM Worldwide predicts car sales in India 45% higher in 2011 compared to 2007, and 39% growth in China, 26% in Brazil. In contrast, car sales in North Americaand Europe will not have returned to 2007 levels by 2011. Considering declining levels in Japan and Germany sales may be on a slow downturn. See links to this. For instance Ford predits Ford's production in North America will decline to 35% of global production by 2015 from 54% in 1997. ...

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Bellman and Dayal in WSJ give this amazing report of how vaccine travels from Pune to remote region of Mizoram hills in India's northeast near Burma. This is the story of the largest vaccination drive in the world that aims to have the vaccine supplies by July to vaccinate the entire population of 1.2 billion people by December 2021. It all began with Oxford University and Astra Zeneca with the decision to make the vaccine available to such a vast population and to people in all parts of the world not just Europe and the US. Bharat Biotech and India's pharmaceutical manufacturers have now joined efforts with the help of the Indian government to produce enough vaccine at affordable cost and make vaccine supplies ample and accessible. This will then be extended to all parts of the world.

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Next to what Brzail is doing under President Da Silva with a program to aid the poorest in Brazil pay for food and necessities, this program is a commendable one and could turn ou to be a big achievement as it becomes popular with the poorest people in India. It certainly will be true over the next 5-10 years that by improving the conditions of the poorest 300 million people it will go a long way towards creating and enhancing the conditions throughout India, and bring millions of people who could become new markets for the nation's consumer and other companies. The task of providing better nutrition along with hospital care could also be tackled with similar programs and also schooling so that the lives of the next generation can be significantly improved and children do not have to live the drudgery and difficult lives of their parents who are struggling for a living. Important thing is for a small cost of $1 billion people it carries the whole nation and its poorest 300 million people forward....

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New rules for foreign direct investment in India will allow foreign multibrand retailers to own upto 51% of joint ventures in India. Rules set earlier allowed foreign retailers like Wal-Mart to only setup wholesale joint ventures. The move by the Indian government lets Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro Group and other retailers open supermarkets. The rules were also changed to allow 100% ownership for single brand retailers such as Nike stores. Prior rules limited single brand retailers to 51% ownership. This is a major step because of the growth in the Indian retail market, and the small portion of the overall market that is occupied by large retail chains with well developed supply chain management. Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a consulting firm in New Delhi, estimates that the Indian retail market has sales of about $470 billion a year, with only about 5% of this or $27 billion in modern organized retail operations. In the five year period 2012-2016 sales are expected to grow to $675 billion, with $85 billion coming from organized retail. Companies with operations in India that are expected to expand operations include Bharti Wal-Mart, Tesco which has a agreement with Tata Group's Star Bazaar stores, Germany's Metro Group AG. according to these numbers, even with competition from the organized large stores, smaller stores will still occupy 88% compared to 95% of the retail space in 2016. And the growth in the overall market means that the smaller mom and pop type stores will still have growth from $443 billion today to $590 billion in 2016. A government backed study by ICRIER shows that smaller stores lose about 23% of sales in the first year, but recover quickly in following years because of growth in the overall market. The introduction of modern supply chain management, modern refrigeration methods, and large investments by leading global retailers is likely to change the way food and other products are stored and marketed, a revolutionary change for India where these methods and investments lag far behind the developed world. For this reason this may give major impetus to modernizing the Indian economy....

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The Biden administration takes steps to open up the potential for US India civil nuclear cooperation by removing Indian scientific and nuclear entities from "restricted lists." This will enable cooperation between Indian nuclear entities and US companies. It comes 20 years after Indian PM Manmohan Singh signed the India US nuclear deal with president George W. Bush of the US in 2004. NSA Jake Sullivan was in New Delhi to meet PM Modi.

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Modi and Delhi election- Modi's party the BJP wins 50 of 70 seats Feb 2025. Of the hundreds of lines of text in this takeaway on local politics in the Times of India not one line can be found on how it relates to Vikshit Bharat 2047, the goal of a developed economy and modernization of Bharat. Being so close the TOI cannot see the forest, just the trees. Surely Delhiites will not have not noticed the idea of Vikshit Bharat 2047? The 10-15-20 year target of modernization of the Indian economy in the nation's capital. The question in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024 was whether after struggling to keep up with Europe's changes in the modern scientific observation mind during the Renaissance period in the 15th century amid invasions from western Asia, and losing its independence by the 17th and 18th centuries, India would see its modernization blocked by a lack of clear focused development without a majority party in charge. The setbacks in Maharashtra and in Uttar Pradesh for Modi and the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were reversed in Maharashtra within 1 year in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024 with a BJP landslide. This win in the nations federal capital Delhi now added to the win in Mumbai the commercial capital (Maharashtra) brings together the entire regional capitals Mumbai- Ahmedabad-Jaipur-Delhi-Indore-Lucknow together as one region for modernization and investment for the first time in 75 years. Large investment in Bihar and Orissa, Andhra Pradesh in the Eastern states in 2024 and 2025 Indian Budgets create a new Way Forward for India to Vikshit Bharat 2035, and onto Vikshit Bharat 2047. ...

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Prime minister Modi's visit to the US comes at a time when US president Biden is eager to show the US is fully engaged in the Indo-Pacific region with its allies in the Quad 4 countries- Australia, Japan and India. The recently announced Aukus defense agreement brought together 2 members of the Quad 4 the US and Australia, plus the UK. Aukus is designed to strengthen US presence as a naval power in the Indo-Pacific region in the Indian and Pacific oceans around India, Southeast Asia, China, and across the Pacific. After a futile engagement in Afghanistan the US is reorganizing its presence where it is strongest- in the oceans. In a way that Britain once did in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the US is dominant in the high seas. US naval power far exceeds that of all navies in the world combined. This is meant to reassure India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and Japan, which together have close to twice the population of China, that the US has not diminished its presence in any way from that it had in the 1950's following the Second World War. With this new framework India enters discussions that will focus on health to deal with the pandemic and its after effects, with security and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, with trade, technology, new supply chain manufacturing structure in which India plays a key role. With this new focus and clearing past engagements made by other US  presidents, including some mistaken policies, the US emerges as a new force in the Indian ocean, China seas and Pacific ocean region.  On September 23 Modi meets Tim Cook for what could be new supply chain arrangements that Apple could be preparing as it and other US corporations build new supply chain structures to rebuild US manufacturing technologies capabilities that were lost to China over the period 2000-2020. During that period manufacturing technology knowhow was shifted out of the US in a mistaken policy that assumed design and invention were sufficient for the US to keep. The first step in this direction was a change of CEO's at Intel Corp with US president Biden pushing for new US technology reclaiming policy. Following that the new CEO at Intel Corp, Patrick Gelsinger, completely reassessed Intel's mistaken policies of ceding its entire semiconductor manufacturing technologies capabilities to Taiwan and China. Intel made a U turn and is now investing all or most of $50 billion in the US instead of in China or Taiwan.  On September 24 Modi meets Mr Biden to discuss trade, investment, defense, and security. On the same day the leaders of Japan, Australia, Mr. Suga and Mr. Morrison join Modi and Biden for the Quad 4 talks. Indian infrastructure capabilities and Indian economic growth would be key goals to strengthen India along its land borders along Tibet occupied region and Himalayas as part of the overall effort to build a new US and allied presence in Asia.  On September 21 Modi attends a Covid Summit that will look at the way forward in the aftermath of the pandemic and ways to vaccinate the remaining unvaccinated population in the world, as well as vaccination passports.  ...

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Moody's Investors Service estimates the cost of fuel subsidies to increase to 1.7 trillion rupees or $24.7 billion for the Indian government in the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2013, up from 1.6 trillion rupees the prior year. This is the result of the rapid depreciation of the rupee in 2013. The rupee depreciated by 8% between Aug 25-Aug 28, and is now at 68 rupees to the dollar. A new Food Security bill that passed the lower house of parliament provides subsidies for grains to about 70% of the people, and will cost $20 billion, up from $16 billion for the prior year. Government borrowing costs are up. Th yield on 10 year bonds maturing in 2023 was at 9.44% on Aug. 21. The rupee depreciation is a result of the wide current account deficit of about 4.8% and India's dependence on foreign borrowing to finance the deficit. A pull back of foreign investors from emerging markets is happening after the U.S. Fed announced it was planning a winding down of its easy monetary policy and low interest rates. Because India imports 75% of its oil, the depreciation of the rupee will hurt government finances. The danger lies in what this does to the growth rate at a time when growth is alreeady slowing. In the current year ending March 31, the growth rate declined to 5% from 6.2% the prior year. A poll of 18 economists conducted by the WSJ found growh estimated to be 4.6% for the second quarter of 2013. India is the second most populous country in the world and faces huge needs for infrastructure and development, and needs to create millions of jobs for new graduates....