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India's efforts to reopen parts of the economy- agriculture, some manufacturing and construction, industries where shifts can be run and workers can be isolated. 

Smaller factories had difficulty reopening because they could not meet stringent workplace requirements. About a third of rail employees were asked to return to work, but attendance was poor because of the difficulty of getting to work. 

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The reasons for pessimism are the effect of the global credit decline which makes it harder for Indian business to get access to credit, and the impact of shrinking export markets overseas. The lower inflation and less need for oil subsidies with the fall in the oil price are positive factors. The biggest positive factors though are the fact that exports amount to a much smaller amount of GDP, about 22%, smaller than other Asian exporting countries, as the export markets shrink. The resilience of its democracy and the energy and dynamism of its young people, added to the demographics that show about half the population is below the age of 25, and 40% under the age of 18, so there will be more wage earners and savings to support growth for decades to come. What experts including at the Economist see as the major advantage is the high savings rate which has risen from 28% in 2003-2004 to 35.5% in 2007 according to the Economist statistics. With this the investment rate in India has grown from 25% in the 1990's to 35% in the last five years since 2003 with Indian manufacturing growing at arate of 12% in 2007. And the Indian investment rate has been covered mostly by domestic savings. The two areas that hobble growth are the education levels and the state of the infrastructure which are challenges for organizations inside and outside the government and for business and will remain so for many years. With the global financial crisis the Indian growth rate is expected to fall to somehwere in the range of 5-6% for 2009 by experts. ...

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Sundar Pichai is known for managing the development of the Chrome operating system. He later assumed responsibilities for the Android mobile operating system. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India, has a masters degree from Stanford University and a MBA from the Wharton School. He joined Google in 2004. He has a low key style and prefers to smooth over differences, and build good relationships to move important projects forward. Google Founder Larry Page says Pichai has a great ability to see what's ahead and get teams mobilized around the big stuff for Google. He has assumed responsibilities for most Google areas in Oct. 2014, leading to the CEO position in a planned transition.

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The variant first identified in India called the Delta variant is 60% more infectious than the Kent variant found in the UK. The Delta variant is now the dominant variant in the UK. There is concern that this could lead to another wave just as the UK is reopening in the summer. There are over 6000 daily cases in the UK this week. The estimated R number is now 1.00 to 1.2 following the number being 1.00 to 1.1 in the earlier week. A R number over 1.0 suggests greater spread of the coronavirus. An R number of 1.1 suggests the number of cumulative cases is taking off meaning that the UK is at risk of a sudden surge in the coronavirus in June or July 2021. India faced a wave from the new variant's higher rate of infectious spread. leading to a sudden surge in May 2021 to 400,000 daily cases before it was brought down by June 1 to about 100,000 The number of hospitalizations in such a wave is estimated to be higher in UK than the previous waves, requiring the government to be more vigilant today. Restrictions on travel from Portugal are being put in place in UK as a precaution. After repeated waves as a consequence of complacency with the coronavirus the lesson now is to take steps early and take aggressive action in advance. ...

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Xi Jinping is seen in this WSJ report as putting China on a course as a competitor of the US compared to other leaders such as Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, yet these prior leaders faced a enoromous gap in technology and capital to make it ludicrous. The shrinking of this gap is a result of free markets theory that took no account of the national interests of the US or of the European Union in shifting manufacturing lock stock and barrel to China.  A deeper look at China requires looking at it from putting oneself in China's situation since the period of the 1912 revolution and the 1919 May 4th movement for Science, Modernization and Democracy, to better understand its motives and realities. Jiang Zemin could not pose the question of competing with the US at the time because China's per capita GDP was less than $100 in 1990 and by 2000 during Hu Jintao's term still about a tenth of American per capita GDP.  Even today with population in North America of about 500 million in the economies of US, Canada and Mexico, China lags far behind in technology and capital resources. The Biden administration does not believe in this idea of free markets theory, wrong from the beginning that prevailed incredibly and puzzingly for too long, that it does not matter where you make as long as it is made at the least cost anywhere. It ignored what China and the US under Biden both believe for the US or China that the US is its people and the people is the country. For the US the Civil war itself as Lincoln said in rallying people to the Union, was fought because labor was more important than capital. When looked at the situation in China as stated by Xi at the party congress recently is for having made progress for the overriding goal of Modernization to build a moderately prosperous socialist economy. Huge problems in China remain hidden- ensuring self governance that is honest and accountable to the people, creating jobs and opportunities for hundreds of millions of young people even as supply chains shift after the pandemic in Europe and the US, India and other countries to their home countries for Made In USA, Made in Europe, and Made in India. China is not such a believer in the flawed free markets theory of the non existence of national interest to not grasp the natural aspects of the US and EU, India wanting to build their own manufacturing up again to the fullest. In this situation it also probably realizes the need for a pause to the rampant free markets type of growth that has damaged China's water, air and environment as much as it has damaged the world through climate change. Quality of growth is the new ethos and this gives the US and China, India, the EU and other countries a common frontier to shoot for. The nuclear aspect is also there and managing this well is a common interest for all countries exercizing responsible leadership. ...

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In commenting on Rishi Sunak, a former hedge fund manager's sudden rise from anonymity three years ago when Boris Johnson became prime minister to leadership of the Tory party and prime minister, The Hindu cautions that it is of limited symbolic value, this kind of connection between India and the UK. The Tories are a house divided against itself, with many factions. Truss was brought down by Gove and others on the backbench who were not included in the government. Other Conservatives on the backbenches today, and Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg, represent factions that are not represented in this government as was evident in questioning by Opposition leader Starmer in QA in the House of Commons. Other problems remain also evident in Starmer's questioning for Labour in parliament, including questioning about non domicile status in the family for tax purposes. Privileged Tories with connections to free markets such as Jacob Rees Mogg or Sunak without an awareness of the pain of ordinary working families, are not what a country with a cost of living crisis sees as leaders who can point to the way forward for Britain. As The Hindu points out he faces the same difficulty that Johnson with his style and personality was able to sidestep, that Truss naively tackled with quick unraveling of tax cuts for the upper incomes, and which Sunak with his experience with financial hedge funds may appear to have grasped but find escaping his grasp. This is the difficulty of matching traditional Tory policy of tax cuts and austerity, at a time when all major countries of Europe and the US are providing significant cost of living assistance to working families. Even small bits of austerity policy, or lack of conviction to help working families may now be seen by the Opposition, Labour, and even within some part of the Tory party and the vast majority of working families as oppressive.  Starmer is keen to remind working people of where Sunak stands as he did with the question in parliament Q&A about the comments made by Sunak at a small gathering that he had transferred money from poor districts to more affluent Tory districts. Would Sunak correct these erroneous funding formulas, Starmer asked. The Hindu also mentions Suella Braverman's appointment as Home Secretary only weeks after her resignation. It was poor judgement shown by Johnson in an appointment that cost him Tory support a few weeks before his resignation. Starmer brought this up from the beginning of parliament Q&A- asking whether a deal was made for her appointment to get far right wing Tory support from Braverman's faction in the party. For India and the Indian people there are so many genuine connections with Britain and the British people, some set when Mohandas Gandhi won the hearts of English working families during his visit for negotiations with the British that are are a better basis  and that will be remembered forever in the hearts and minds of the British people. ...

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The higher US tariffs ranging from 41% to 345% on Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia will make it difficult for China to use these countries for factories that then dump highly subsidized product  (solar panels, other product) in US markets, at prices that are below production cost. India and the US are nearing a trade deal that gives India a chance to become a major manufacturing center for fair trade supplying the US. India will plan a partnership with US in which US goals and manufacturing are supported while at the same time making some parts at cost competitive with China.

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Iranian missiles and drones flying low and close to the ground avoided detection by Saudi and American air defense systems. The missiles and drones hit Saudi oil facilities stopping about half of the Saudi oil production. Iranian cruise missile technology was used for the attack, according to U.S. officials. The attack also showed how vulnerable the oil supplies from this region are to disruption. The U.S. is not dependent on Saudis for oil as it has increased its production from shale. China, Japan, South Korea and India are dependent on Saudi oil supplies. Yet the U.S. is shouldering a greater burden for ensuring reliable supplies to Asian countries, something the Trump administration sees it should be compensated for. Tougher sanctions on Iranian oil hurt its economy, resulting in actions taken by Iran to disrupt Saudi oil supplies. The Saudi intervention in Yemen is another source of tensions in the region. The Trump administration says it is not interested in endless wars in the region, yet its tougher oil sanctions on Iran are pulling it into the conflict in unpredictable ways. China, India, and other countries had sought sanctions waivers to import Iranian oil, and see the sanctions as hurting oil supplies. India with limited supplies of its own was affected by the oil sanctions. ...

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Millets are small seeded grass grown since ancient times in India and Africa that have the advantage during climate change of being resilient to drought, adverse weather patterns, require less water, and provide high nutritional value. In India known as bajri and ragi, in Sri Lanka as Kurakkan, and in America as finger millet, these ancient grains similar to ones in Eastern Europe that also lost popularity, were during the Industrial Revolution replaced by wheat and rice over most of the planet. The return of hope with a path for climate change action, a path out of inflation, also includes a path to better health through a transformation in food habits and in agriculture for Europe, the US, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Here Lyrarc brings to readers the UN Exhibition at the delegates entrance in New York Feb 15-17 that showcased millets. Dr.  Arun Nagpal says we often feel that healthy products involve a compromise in taste- "However millet products carefully crafted and combined with other ingredients can bring taste and value to almost every world cuisine today. From flours to breads, cookies to pizzas, pastas, cakes, breakfast cereals, smoothies and so on." He emphasizes that millets don't have to be forced into our diets but can easily be integrated into an existing style or pattern across ages and cultures, across cuisines and nations, and across the dietary preferences. ...

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The current economic expansion in the U.S. in April 2014 is at 58 months from the beginning of recovery in 2009. In this exceptional account Josh Zombrun of WSJ compares the current expansion to previous expansions since 1950, with the views of experts such as Stan Hall of the NBER committee, which studies turning points. This expansion is forecast to go for 90 months into 2016 by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and 102 months into 2017 by the CBO. Sooner or later, says Stan Hall, some adverse unpredictable event takes place that ends the expansion. So far the expansion has been slow and protracted, as predicted by economists Reinhart and Rogoff from previous financial crises in the last century, giving it room to grow as corporate earnings continue to improve. Fed chairwoman's sense of slack in the economy also provides room for employment and incomes to grow in the later stages of the expansion. This is good news for the emerging market economies such as India and China, and for the European Union, faced with slowing growth. So how does this expansion compare with earlier ones. The expansion of the 1991-2001 of the tech boom was 120 months, 1961-1969 of the Sixties 106 months, 1982-1990 of the Reagan era 92 months. The controversial one on shaky foundations is the recent housing boom 2001-2007 of 73 months ending in a huge bust with the 2008 financial crisis. The shorter expansions are the 1975-1980 Post-Vietnam one for 58 months, and the 1970-1973 spurt before the OPEC price surge. Figures are from the NBER, CBO and the Federal Reserve's Summary of Economic Projections....

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Mead points out that the world with an effective U.S. leadership based on democracy and the values we cherish is needed now more than ever, after the failures of the Bush and Obama administrations to provide the kind of balanced leadership all Americans can stand behind. A world without an effective and enlightened leadership from the U.S, is one in which the world could fall apart in regional rivalry, one in which the hundreds of millions of people in the poorer parts of India, China, Russia, Brazil, and other developing countries of the world, will have less opportunity to meet their aspirations for a better life. This is because a focus on development requires less regional rivalry and because serious missteps can reverse in a few years decades of economic progress as shown in the 2008 global financial crisis. More so because we live in an increasingly interdependent global economy. It is also the kind of world where suppression of freedoms and suppression of the opposition as in China and Russia, provides a wrong kind of message, a world in which we or our children would not want to live in. Russia, India and China, are too driven by rivalry and lack the deep experience to go it alone, multipolar is more likely to end up being multipolar rivalry leading to a race to the bottom, which would be bad for all, especially for the poor in Asia and the developing world. The 2008 crisis showed what some serious economic mistakes could do to employment and incomes in the world with output dropping by a third in most places. Political missteps could lead to a slippery slope of this magnitude but more difficult to correct. Greater participation in the political process and more enlightened leadership is needed in all countries to allow many voices and greater interaction across boundaries, focussing on the dangers of such multipolar rivalries. The world of the G-7 is already moving to the G-20 where many voices are heard and serious discussion of differences takes place, but participatory is different from multipolar....

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How financing for ambitious infrastructure and Atman Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliant economy) development is being financed in India is explained here. The central bank acting as debt manager for the government of India is pushing government securities to trade in lots of 5 crores or more, seven crores being about 1 million dollars. This is now being traded among commercial entities. These are essentially 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month treasury bills, and long term debt instruments for the government that run to maturities of 5 to 40 years. Retail investors are being provided opportunities to participate in a different pathway. Currently institutional investors such as banks, mutual funds, insurance companies are major participants.The government needs 1.2 million crores or $175 billion from the financial markets to fund its ambitious capital expenditures for 2021 financial year. To do this it turns to financing such as government securities. Higher demand for capital leads to higher interest rates. The RBI and the government want to keep interest rates down and one way its to broaden the base of investors for government securities which it is now doing. ...

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This Editorial in Le Monde says the French president faced a contradictory challenge he did not quite resolve and which gets worse in his second term. He has called for dissolution of the National Assembly as a result. That challenge was to reduce he far right vote but he had done little to implement a policy that would remove the causes of people supporting the far right. It is not only immigration. Immigration has also been tackled across Europe by agreement across all parties to keep out migrants. The lingering issues of worker discontent stem from struggles to make a living during cost of living crisis, and this is true across Europe and also in the US, even in India in the last elections. The other issue is loss of manufacturing that has led to deindustrialization and affected standards of living across Europe and the US. Small and midsized towns in France and in Europe have suffered from the stress of loss of manufacturing and public services without the local revenues to build better living spaces and communities. The policy to reverse this has started in the US, and requires more investment across Europe in infrastructure and public services, timely delivery, so that people across France and Europe can see the results in their daily lives. This then is the challenge for France, and for Germany, and for Europe. It is also the challenge in the US and in India. ...

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Kamala Harris is profoundly influenced by the Gandhian ideal of public service coming from the influence of her mother Shyamala and her mother's father P. V. Gopalan, who was a leading civil servant in the transition to independence under Gandhi in India in the late 1940's. P.V. Gopalan was 31 years old during the Quit India Movement launched by Mohandas Gandhi in 1942. In this sense what even Martin Luther King Jr experienced about Gandhiji from a distance came to her directly in ways that may be inscrutable even to Kamala herself.  Robert Draper looks at Kamala Harris at different points of her childhood, university education and work as District Attorney for Alameda County, California, and Attorney General of California. He describes her as a daughter of highly educated yet stoic parents and one with a reverence for law and order, methodical and diligent, a caring and compassionate person to the people in the communities she lived in. As one who would experience disrespect as a woman of color many times she chose not to complain but to do something about it in bringing about a better life for all Americans. Not only did she do this, Kamala Harris also was always striving to do better for the people she served, putting all her energies into that task, always keeping in mind "We the People." ...

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The British Army is taking steps to counteract anti-vax propaganda and disinformation about the vaccine being spread in the UK and other countries. An "elite information warfare" unit has been mobilized in the British Army. There is alarm that large sections of the British public are being given disinformation about the vaccines being developed by Britain, India, and the U.S.

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Angela Merkel left Germany dangerously dependent on Russia for energy supplies that may simply be shut off after maintenance on the Nordstream pipeline. She did even worse on China says this report in The Times that says that it leaves Germany on the hook for billions. There are $200 billion of German investments in China and German business concern is snowballing with new restrictions on operations in China and the deteriorating business sentiment. Worse the entire supply chain for solar energy and other renewable energy products to tackle climate change is dependent on Chinese components. Another failure to prepare for the future under different scenarios. And 46% of German business have supply lines that include components made in China. By grossly underestimating the risks of such dangerous dependence on Russia and on China, and ignoring warnings from the US, Merkel has hit Germany's new elected government of Scholz, Baerbock and Habeck with very serious problems that may take the next five to ten years to sort out. On energy and how to build a whole new supply chain in Asia with the US and its allies Japan, India and other countries. The ultimate irony was that Merkel felt that she was the leader of the free world, and a free world that excluded the US and India. Such is folly. And how she was presented as a good leader in the media is today hard to comprehend. ...

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Cornavirus has hurt workers in the wage categories of less than $16 an hour to a much greater degree than workers who earn more than $16 or $28 as shown in this chart from the WSJ. Workers earning more than $28 are more likely to be working from home particularly workers offering professional services such as in software, legal, accounting. These are people who are well educated and well off, compared to people earning less than $16 an hour who are less educated and less well off. The worst hit are workers in restaurants, in the tourism industry, airline workers, who face uncertain prospects 6 months into the pandemic for the next 6 months. Government help to these workers is also uncertain and diminished because of budget constraints after the trillion dollars already injected into the economy in the U.S, and separately in Europe, and the significant help provided in other countries including India. This applies to the informal economy workers in India and Latin America who are the hardest hit outside U.S. and Europe, including street vendors. The informal economy is a large part of the economies of the countries in Asia and Latin America. China has reintroduced the informal economy in some cities as a way to take the pressure off the formal economy after the drop in demand for manufactured products from the U.S. and Europe. ...

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This op-ed in the WSJ calls for increased trade and investment and closer U.S. ties with Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island nation of 21 million people at the southernmost tip of India. This follows the election of Maithripala Sirisena as the new president in the recent election. Formerly called Ceylon, this nation and India share a long tradition of democratic processes and free press since independence for almost 7 decades. These are the only 6 nations with British influence that have preserved democratic processes and mutiparty systems, including a vibrant free press, gradually established during the period of British rule- the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Ceylon or Sri Lanka as it is now called. These institutions were transferred to 2 nations during a short period of American rule- Japan and Germany. Western Europe, and Eastern European countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall have joined this core group of countries. All these countries have a common bond and interest in building and strengthening democratic institutions and shared prosperity in a larger global neighborhood. Other countries in the British Commonwealth have struggled to develop multiparty systems and free press such as Malaysia, Ghana and Kenya, or had periods of military rule as Nigeria. Indonesia and South Korea have emerged from periods of military rule and are developing effective democratic processes to join what is now a large community of nations with a common interest in democratic process, truly functioning democracy, respect for the opposition, and freedom of people to express their views to participate in the working of government....

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Inspirational talk given to Prime Minister's Office Staff on June 10, 2024, by Indian PM Narendra Modi. In this video Modi tells staff about the nature of the PM's office as a catalytic agent for creating new enthusiasm and energy for the nation's development efforts. Before 2014 prime ministers before him considered this as a power center, says Modi. He tells staff that the development effort was hard work for achieving the vision of a modern developed nation Vikshit Bharat 2047. That this was work 24 hours a day 7 days a week to accomplish goals set to meet the aspirations of 1400 million people in India. He says three points to remember was that work had to be done with concentration on the goal without getting distracted and determination to achieve it, second to have the character to do this in real life setting priorities and tasks. Third, the frame of mind that is always learning, always studying, always acquiring new knowledge about the tasks ahead.  ...

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  The state of Kerala is on the southwest coastal region of India south of Goa, and had its first encounter with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. It is also the state with one of the highest literacy rates in the country. It lagged in industrial development after independence with a large number of people migrating to other countries. Prime minister Modi inaugurates the first Kerala Vande Bharat high speed train between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod. He also inaugurates today the Kochi Water Metro with  electric boats covering 38 terminals over 10 islands. Kochi is the commercial capital of the state. Modi said: "Our government emphasizes cooperative federalism and considers the development of the states as the source of the country's development. If Kerala develops then India will develop faster." "Kerala is a state of aware and educated people. Hard work and humility of people here is part of their identity." ...

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France's finance minister Christine Lagarde met with Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, in Brasilia. She gave assurances that as head of the IMF she would go ahead with efforts to give emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil a greater say in the running of the IMF. She said she would speed up the reviews- that now take place only every five years -on recalculating the weight member countries have in the management of the IMF.

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States in America's Deep South have a much lower rate of people having taken one shot of vaccination, in the 30-40% range by May 2021. This report says states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and others in the South are at risk of seeing a new wave of the coronavirus  because people will spend more time in airconditioned spaces in the summer. In contrast to the north with cold winters and indoor heated spaces people in the southern states can spend more time outdoors because of the warmer weather in winter. This may have protected southerners during the winter and spring months. This may reverse with more time spent in airconditioned indoor spaces in close proximity where the coronavirus infections can increase. This report comes as new reports show the Indian coronavirus variant becoming more prevalent in the UK and other countries. This variant spreads about 50% more rapidly than an earlier UK variant, say experts. Another analysis in The Times of London shows that the imperceptible rise phase of the new coronavirus variants is the most dangerous part of the coronavirus as it dulls the sense of danger in the population that makes it take notice and prepare countermeasures early enough. India is an example of how this can happen as the sudden rise actually started with a first imperceptible increase in March and early April 2021 that changed into a rapid escalation of the virus in the population by May 2021. The vaccinations give a strong sense of confidence, however the vaccination rates vary widely state by state in the US. ...