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Trump takes action against Mexico, China and Canada for illegal flows of fentanyl and migrants across US borders. It is specific targeted and excludes EU, India, Japan, South Korea trading partners. For a decade some countries acted with impunity and American leaders did not respond to protect the people from illegal flows across borders. This action did not come in the first DJT term in 2016-2020 though tariffs were placed. Free trade has to be clean trade where such illegal flows are not in the picture or acceptable.

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The Biden administration is pushing ahead with a new supply chain at a virtual two day meeting of 17 countries. In addition to the US and the European Union trade and economy ministers of Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, Indonesia, will attend. It is an effort to build an alternative to the existing supply chain because of its dangerous dependence on China and Russia.

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The US, China, Japan, India and South Korea will release oil from their strategic petroleum oil reserves to dampen the steep rise in oil prices. The Biden administration will release 50 million barrels of oil from US reserves onto world markets. This is about half of the 100 million barrels of oil of daily world consumption. The effect on oil prices is muted because the move was expected.

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For the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus and its variants- the US, Brazil, India, Europe, Russia, China and Africa, the researchers and the frontline workers in South Africa are doing an incredible job. This report by Stephanie Nolan in the NYT shows the work of researchers at KRISPS advanced medical research center and the frontline workers in South Africa, who are making a difference. Shown are researchers and scientists at KwaZulu Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform in Durban, South Africa on whom the world depends for stepping up the fight against the coronavirus- Dr Tulio de Oliveira, principal investigator of the national genetic monitoring network, and Saleem Abdul Karim, epidemiologist. On the frontline workers who visit patients homes to make sure immune compromised patients have access to their medications is Sizakele Mathe, community health worker. Stephanie Nolan has provided a much needed account of what work is being done on the frontlines to keep us all safe. ...

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In the meeting in the Oval Office Biden and Modi had this to say about India US relations. Modi called it a "transformative" decade. Mr. Biden called it a "new chapter" in ties, taking on tough challenges in coronavirus vaccines for the rest of Asia outside India and China, tackling climate change, and ensuring rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region.  Biden's view- "I think that the relationship between India and the US, two of the largest democracies in the world, is destined to be stronger, closer, tighter, and I think it can benefit the whole world." A look at the US under the Biden administration shows a US that is very different from that of the US in the period of presidents since Harry Truman when he met Jawaharlal Nehru at the White House in October 1949. Biden sees the US needing renewal of its infrastructure, reviving worker incomes and families, regaining its leadership of the free world, for its role and place in the world. Throughout the period 1949 to 2020 for 70 years India was never seen as a modernizing nation of 1.2 billion people. For most of this period it lacked the good governance and speedy implementation of modernization of economy that is essential for a truly good relationship. By releasing the potential of the younger generation in a country where people under 35 years form the major part of the population, with good governance and development agenda, the Indian prime minister has changed the entire dynamics of the India US relationship. This is happening in the way China had done in its relationship with the US after 2000 by modernizing the country. India is now the country with huge potential and the country the US sees as helping it build its own role and place in the world. The sheer size of India and its population with countries around it in the east such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam with shared values in south and southeast Asia bring together a population of close to 2 billion people much larger than China, to determine the direction of Asia.  This is the new chapter that president Biden has in mind, and it is also the "transformative decade" in the eyes of prime minister Modi as India finally puts behind it years of bad governance, and speeds up modernizing its economy.   ...

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Indian prime minister Modi shown in a meeting together with Biden of the US, Fumio Kishida of Japan and Albanese of Australia at the Izumi Gallery in Tokyo during the announcement of the joint efforts for launching and promoting the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. The IPEF led by the US will have four pillars of trade and supply chain resiliency, clean energy and climate change action, taxes to promote investment in infrastructure, and good governance. Seven of 10 members of ASEAN have joined including Indonesia. India is a key partner of US and Japan for the new IPEF economic alliance. Prime Minister Modi of India says about IPEF- "India will work together with its IPEF partners to build an inclusive and flexible Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. I believe that resilient supply chains must be based on three pillar foundation of trust, transparency and timeliness, and I am sure that this framework will make these pillars strong and lead to prosperity, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region." Attracting large investments in India and other reliable partners in a new supply chain that shifts out of China are part of the Biden plan working together with Japan and South Korea. Investments directly into the US are also part of the same plan. Gina Raimondo US Commerce Minister says- "I would say, especially as businesses are beginning to increasingly look for alternatives to China, the countries in the Indo-Pacific Framework will be more reliable partners for US businesses." US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says the IPEF is intended to boost US manufacturing. By boosting US manufacturing and technological advancement with investments inside the US that directly benefit American workers and families the IPEF will serve the US and the free world in ways that will shape the coming decades to 2030 and 2040. With investments in the US will come investments in India as a reliable manufacturing partner to replace China by 2030 is envisioned by Jake Sullivan and president Biden. ...

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The English translation of the PM's speech at the Ayodya Temple is shown here from the Press Information Bureau of India. It covers the ancient paths and ancient traditions that were given to the lands south of the Himalayas on which the basis of a Just Society that serves the needs of all the peoples of the region can be laid down. Through the concept of Ram Rajya which in the Treta Yuga formed the social concept of a good and Just Society akin to what Abraham Lincoln laid down for America in the words "for the people, of the people, by the people." A reminder of what the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe are striving for after the pandemic. The task of modernity was done through modernization and Empire by Japan and failed yet now revived without Empire, through Communist leadership against the Empire of Japan in China which is in its current formation with an embrace of modernity and science. And now in India and Indonesia, all of South East Asia of over 2 billion people marking out a path to modernity and embrace of science and technology with the united efforts of the whole people with everyone's efforts, of Sabka Prayas- into the future for new generations venturing out, to today's children setting out on this journey. ...

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Kenzaburo Oe in his writings reflected the anti-nuclear Japan of post World War II. That period also saw the emergence of China as a major economy. China's activity in the South China Sea, North Korea's ballistic missile program, created the situation where Japanese Defense Forces are now seen very differently as part of the US, India, Australia Quad alliance to ensure peace in the Asia-Pacific region.

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This Politico report looks at the political career of Nikki Haley, 52 year old former governor of South Carolina. She comes across as a woman of resilience who did not at all let her situation as an immigrant's daughter in a southern state in the US faze her. Her parents come from highly educated background in India, and this may have given her that extra layer of resilience at home.

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The Yucatan Rail Project being moved forward by Lopez Obrador in Mexico is shown here in the WSJ. It moved forward during the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 and connects the Yucatan cities by rail. Yucatan cities  including Campeche and Merida bring about 8% of the country's exports and 10% of the country's GDP. Modern rail at 99 mph would connect the cities in the Yucatan to increase industry and tourism to develop the south east of the country. This is similar to the projects on the Brahmaputra river in the northeastern parts of India that are being opened up by new infrastructure rail and bridges for industry and tourism. Both the Yucatan and India's northeast are parts of the country that have much potential and have investment needs that were not realized in the past by previous administrations. The environmental impact in the northeast part of India and for the bullet train in the western region from Mumbai to Ahmedabad were held up by environmental concerns. A similar situation has happened for the Yucatan Rail Project. Even when enough trees were to be planted to help Mumbai residents for its Metro construction also shown in WSJ, he project was held up for political reasons. The bullet train project after its delay for political reasons will now cost nearly double that it would have cost before. It is supported by Japanese aid at very favourable financial terms that pay for the project, including direct government aid and Japan's rail technology. It is now moving ahead in 2022.  Infrastructure plays a key role in developing economies such as India and Mexico, yet it requires resolute conviction and perseverance as much of the political setup as shown in Mexico leads to leakage of funds meant for infrastructure and very little being done at great cost to the ease of living of ordinary people. In Mumbai and other cities in India. The same is true for Mexico which at this time of the pandemic needs to bolster its spirits and move ahead with much needed development work to help people in all parts of the country. With the Yucatan Rail Project Mexico can move to the next phase with wind farms on the Yucatan out to sea, and solar energy projects that could with new technology be transmitted to other parts of Mexico and to the US. It is important to keep trying and persevere on these new projects and look to a brighter future. For Mexico US relations better living conditions in Mexico also relieves the burden of illegal immigration and problems related to it in neighborly relations. Mexican officials should increase contacts with Indian officials working on the projects in the Assam region and  along the Brahmaputra river, in Indian states in the northeast, to exchange ideas and notes to gain from each other's experiences in integrating regions that were previously not integrated into the Indian and Mexican economies. This is a topic to be added to the G-20 topics to be discussed at the next meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on November 15-16, 2022. For Mexico it is an opportunity to also widen its infrastructure work to learn from what India is doing in solar and wind energy and build collaborative efforts. ...

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India's Foreign Minister told a conference that China's forward deployments at Galwan in violation of 1993 and 1996 agreements was an attempt to change the Line of Actual Control. China after years of peaceful development under previous administrations, during which China had gained from the trade relationship with the US and foreign investment from the US business community, sought  to put India at a disadvantage using its larger economy and technological assets obtained through American business assistance. This was done by making forward deployments right at the Indian border to change the Line of Actual Control in progressive steps. Jaishankar made it very clear. "It is hard work, very patient work, but we are very clear on one point, which is we will not allow any unilateral attempt by China to change the status quo or alter the LAC. I do not care how long it takes, how many rounds we do, how hard we have to negotiate- this is something we are very clear of." Going back to the period of independence with Nehru in 1947- China's occupation of Tibet was an occupation of a peaceful country that led to the situation that India faces today of a border stretching from east to west on the Himalayas that faces China. Faced with the partition and refugees from that partition India under Nehru was not in a position to respond effectively to that occupation. Does China gain anything from being at that border through the occupation of Tibet is a serious question? Why? Because it faces a Vedanta and Buddha driven culture and people with population of 1.8 billion stretching to the Indonesian islands that were and still are the fundamental source of  China's own Buddhist culture and tradition.  US business has allied with one country after another Japan, China and now India. The US has faced wars with Japan, and sometimes in a failed attempt to understand the aspirations of  Southern Asia allied with British ideas of the region which were based on the policies of British Empire to divide the region on religious and language, caste based barriers. US business also lacked a true perception of the importance of working class and families in the US as it sent factories and surrendered its own manufacturing to China. The world is now changing following the pandemic and new supply chains and manufacturing policies of the US are being structured. It is in this context where India's pace of economic growth and technological advancement will change its capabilities and its capacity to meet the aspirations of 1.8 billion people in Asia with a common tradition and culture. It is in this context that one can ask the question does China have anything to gain from the occupation of Tibet and being on the border with a country and cultural tradition of 1.8 billion people stretching across South and South east Asia?  ...

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The U.S. and Australia setup naval cooperation in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean with ships of both countries in naval exercises.

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As Governor of South Carolina for two terms 2011-2017 Nikki Haley played a major role in getting Boeing to expand its operations in the state and attracting auto companies and other manufacturing industries. South Carolina had suffered from the decline of its textile industry from an earlier industrialization era. She personally helped recruit smaller companies such as Kent Cycle to set up plants in the state.  Nikki Haley's father Ajit Singh Randhawa  is from Amritsar, India, and went to the University of British Columbia on a scholarship for advanced studies in 1964. He was a professor at Punjab Agricultural University before going to Canada. His wife Raj Kaur had a law degree from University of Delhi and after getting a Masters degree in education taught in public schools in South Carolina for 7 years. Ajit Singh moved to South Carolina as a professor of biology at Voorhees College after receiving his PhD. in 1969. Nikki Haley graduated from Clemson University in 1994 with a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance. After working for FCR she joined her family's clothing business started by her mother. From 2005 to 2011 she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives. The report from Politico on Haley's career shows her to be resilient and sticking with her beliefs and principles even as she found herself to be the only immigrant  prominent in southern state politics of South Carolina. She also served as US Representative at the United Nations 2017-2018 following two terms as governor of South Carolina.  ...

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In a historic visit Chinese president Xi Jinping visits Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram). Chinese Buddhist scholar and monk Xuanzang spent time in India, arriving in 627 AD to look for Buddhist manuscripts in Nalanda and other places, returning to China in 643 AD, where he translated these manuscripts deepening China's knowledge of Buddhism. Bodhidharma the son of a Pallava king in southern India left for China in 527 AD bringing Buddhism to China. The Pallava dynasty ruling in southern India at this time had trade, religion and cultural connections with  Fujian province in China. Chinese president Xi was a governor of Fujian province and has a strong interest in history and culture. This follows a visit by Xi to Ahmedabad with its Gujarati culture, and prime minister Modi's visit to Wuhan, China in 2018 to bring the two leaders together in personal relationships. India and China are also increasing cultural contacts and tourist visitors with easy visa arrangements. The idea is that currently a huge gulf in understanding exists between India and China, which contradicts the historically close relationship with the spread of Buddhism from India to China, Japan, and South east Asia. Mamallapuram is now a UNESCO historic site.   ...

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Surjit Bhalla, executive director for India at the IMF, looks at different trajectories of growth in India to 2030 and 2047. He looks at growth for per capital incomes that India can achieve over the next 2 decades to meet the aspirations of a young population of over 1 billion. With next generation technologies and acceleration in growth after certain parameters are met including logistics capabilities, manufacturing in advanced technologies, infrastructure improvements, rule of law in some states, federal and state governments working together, much of the work to achieve per capita incomes similar to Japan and South Korea can be achieved in the next decade by 2035.

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The first trips by the Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin show the Biden administration's priorities. Efforts to strengthen ties with Japan and South Korea giving the Indo-Pacific region top priority with the emergence of China as a challenge to US interests. Next stop is India. Even before the trips to Korea and Japan, a virtual summit was setup between the Quad countries, the democracies of Australia, US, Japan and India that are committed to an open and free Indo-Pacific region.

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There is a marraige strike in South Korea. Daycare centers and kidergardens are being converted into nursing homes. Hawon Jung, former Agence France-Presse reporter in Seoul, is the author of Flowers of Fire. Here she says feminism is not the problem when it comes to declining birthrates in South Korea with the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.79. She says feminism that gets women a better deal in raising children and better quality of married life is the solution. Violence against women in South Korea's existing culture, women doing three times the chores for raising children than men, and sexism at work that discriminates against young women who are married, are problems that need to be tackled for women to accept marraige as an attractive option, says Ms. Jung.  There is little realization in South Korea that the UN warning of South Korea's population dropping to half of the 51 million today requires solutions of behavioural change more than money ($210 billion have gone to encouraging marraige and births). She says today's response of the Yoon government leveraging the sentiment against women's activism is not going to reverse the marraige strike in South Korea.  Looking at it from the outside world from Europe and the US, from India, Indonesia and Japan, there is no room for  violent gender based violence in modern society. ...

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The Adventures of Amir Hamza is a story much like the Odyssey but set in the Persian, Central Asia Islamic world. It was born as far back as the 9th century. It has a South Asian version since the epic is retold in different settings and has a oral tradition of being recited by dastangos who used to recite these myths and legends . Amir Hamza is supposedly the uncle of the prophet Mohammed. Its South Asian version is in the Hamzanama that was commisssioned with painted manuscripts by the Mughal emperor Akbar. It has 1400 illustrations and formed the basis of Mughal art which was a fusion of the artistic worlds of Hindu India and Islamic Persia and Central Asia. In those times the Persian speaking world extended from Tabriz to Hyderabad in south of India and the Hamza Adventures were told around campfires and in the outdoors. The Hamzanama paintings commissioned by Akbar were shown at the Sackler Gallery around the time of the Iraq invasion in the summer of 2002 and show a world long forgotten. The Saudi type of Wahhabi Islam and religious zealotry is a far cry from this more open world of art and legend and life in central, south and western Asia, of commerce, trade and ways of life intermingled and flow of people across a large region in Asia. What it may suggest is that the current wave of religious zealotry is a kind of phase that like a passing wind comes and then is dispersed, maybe its a reaction to western interventions, maybe a failed response of tradition with modernization, maybe something else, a clinging to old outmoded patterns in areas that are most left behind by change, with ethnic and other strife mixed in with it. No single or simple response to it makes sense and a lot of patience is needed. Conflict of civilizations talk and the like may simply be overdone and way oversimplified things....

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The French British collaboration effort will bring a new vaccine to the global effort against coronavirus. This vaccine was expected in February 21. It will be ready by the third quarter of 2021 just as vaccine supplies are being ramped up. The Sanofi Pasteur unit and GSK Glaxo SmithKline are the two companies in this vaccine venture. This vaccine will address the problem of new mutations of the virus in the British and South African versions and can be stored at normal temperatures. 
 

The new vaccines will boost supplies just when the situation is bleak for vaccine supplies in Latin America and Africa, South East Asia, places left out in the vaccine race in advanced countries and in India. Britain has ordered 60 million doses. 

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In inflationary times in the world's largest populated country- that Rs 40 or about 50 cents US still gets you a South Indian vegetarian meal at Sangeethas restaurant chain in Chennai, India is the result of the efforts of many people. On its 40th anniversary the 34 branches in Chennai (and 23 overseas) has struggled with inflation to offer the 40 Rupee meal in India. Partly from the dedication of P Suresh and Sanjana Suresh, the founders.

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India is joining Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Britain, France, Russia, and many other countries in calling for an investigation by the World Health Organization into how the coronavirus crisis escalated into a pandemic with millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths and how adequate the response of the WHO has been. 

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The British Energy Institute shows how countries are doing in fighting climate change by reducing fossil fuel use. 

Poland is poor at 88% fossil fuels in energy mix. Algeria, Singapore, Bangladesh, Oman at 98%.

In Europe Norway leads at 72% for renewqble energy in the mix. Brazil at 50% keads SOuth America, Nw Zealand 43% and Vietnam at 23% in Asia Pacific. 

Of 6525 coal fired power plants China has 3168, India 845 plants and US 408. Older plants are being retired.

Planned construction of new coal power plants 707 in China, 165 in India, 2 in the US, 23 in eastern Europe, 0 in Northern Europe and 4 in Southern Europe, 0 in Western Europe, Latin America is 6.

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What this Editorial board opinion in the Indian Express is saying is that India should concentrate its efforts on modernizing its economy on a scale that is similar or surpasses that of China because of its access to the latest technologies. Just as China capitalized on the opportunity presented by its entry in the World Trade Organization in 2001, through an economy wide effort to build a manufacturing and export logistics base. India is presented with the opportunity of building its own manufacturing and export logistics base as supply chains are being redesigned in 2023. This requires a longer term plan with clear thinking and concentrated effort with the entire resources of the nation. What looks like a small or gradual shift in supply chain with the US and EU adding India and Vietnam to their Chinese manufacturing base is going to change with every change in world events, as the US concentration of manufacturing in China becomes a situation that is impossible to to maintain. The only logical way for the US and following the US the EU to create a proper balance in its political relationship with China is to change fully its lopsided concentration of manufacturing in China. Biden is only making the initial moves, the EU is only waking up to the need to make its own changes to reduce this concentration. How much distance does the US need to cover to reduce its concentration in China? By a large amount because the shift of manufacturing was excessive and ill advised done as companies in the US raced in a competition to shift outside over 2 decades and simply outdid themselves and performed a disservice to the workers and families of America whom they served. Just for the US to get workers and families to benefit from return of good manufacturing jobs to the US and restore its manufacturing base that has shriveled, it will have to be a massive enterprise, where day by day it becomes more evident that more and more needs to be and accomplished in an accelerated way. What this also means where appropriate to leave a progressively year after a year larger base in India, and also Vietnam, much larger than is envisaged today. This situation is even more acutely felt in Japan which to bring a proper balance in its political relationship with China needs to even more urgently reduce its concentration of manufacturing in China. It must be the task of the Modi government to have a clear view of the road ahead- build the needed logistical base for exports using the latest technologies and set higher and higher targets for manufacturing.  If you look at the map of Asia this is the Global South- India is 60-70% of the Global South with its population of 1.4 billion people mostly young with aspirations for a modern economy like that of the US and Germany. Add to that Indonesia and Vietnam, and other nations already in the redesigned supply chain in 2023 and you have 2 billion people in Asia. Concentrate on this for the next 2 decades for a complete transformation of India, that is what the younger generation demands of its government. ...

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A Kyodo News poll shows about 60% of Japanese want the Olympic games cancelled. Japan faces another wave of the pandemic with a surge in Osaka and other cities. The government's handling of the pandemic is disapproved by 71% of Japanese in a Kyodo News poll. Over 80% are unhappy with the slow vaccine rollout.   India faces a surge in cases public dissatisfaction that is similar to Japan and other countries in Europe. France and Germany have a slow vaccine rollout. In India vaccination drive is affected by a lack of supplies as in France and Germany with shortages of vaccine. The European Union in April signed contracts for over a billion doses with Pfizer and India has plans for ramped up supply of its Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to 2 billion doses by December 2021. This shows how difficult it is for advanced countries and major pharmaceutical producing countries such as as India to vaccinate their populations quickly in the initial stages of the vaccination effort. In July the vaccine effort would be in its 7th month and vaccine supply constraints are expected to ease as a result of aggressive action by governments in EU, France, Germany and India. This will also enable addressing needs in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. ...

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Apple relies on Chinese suppliers for about 90% of its products. So reliant is Apple on China that it is slow to make changes to adapt to president Biden's policies for a new US Asian Economic Framework that builds new supply chains. By contrast Samsung has largely stayed out of China using supply chain manufacturing in Vietnam and other countries. India and Vietnam are major alternatives and only India can offer the well trained workforce and supplies of land, labour, incentives and facilities that China offers. This makes Apple a laggard in the changes that are happening today to supply chains bringing manufacturing closer to home and making products in countries allied to the US in Asia. This includes South Korea, Japan, India and Vietnam as production hubs for parts and assembly of advanced technology products. Apple is only now beginning the task of building supply chains outside China and returning manufacturing to the US which will bring back US technological leadership by 2030, American policy set by president Biden. ...