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Even though ambitious targets are being set by the government raising from 50 million to 80 million in 3 years the target for new LPG connections to shift rural households from firewood to natural gas use, more needs to be done. The head of the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Modi of India. Bibek Debroy, asks questions about the Ujjwalla program in India to shift rural homes from firewood to gas use. Is the fixed subsidy of Rs 1600 enough? Is a 5kg cylinder what the market wants instead of the 14.2 kg cylinder? Are there externalities that favor use of firewood? Will rural households replace the cylinders at this subsidy level because the costs are still high?  The PMUY, or Pradhan Mantri Ujjwalla Yojana was launched in India in 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh under the Modi administration. The target for LPG gas use for firewood using households was 15 million in the first year and 50 million for the next 3 years. The government pays Rs. 1600 subsidy for a new connection reimbursing the oil company making the connection. The refill and cost of stove, is the rural household's responsibility. Separate guidelines were made for urban households. The government website mygov.in shows 41 million households have used Ujjwalla to get LPG and stop firewood use. The new target of 80 million means the goal post is moving higher. The 2011 Census is cited showing the rural household use moved up from 6% to 12% by 2011. For All India it was from 17% to 29%. About 100 million rural households use firewood, 62.5% of all rural households in 2011. A big issue is how this affects the health of women using firewood for cooking, and who collects this firewood. Firewood is still cheaper says Debroy, and there are negative externalities associated with firewood not understood enough. Changing the face of rural India is a project in motion, with new issues to tackle, new hurdles to overcome, every bit of progress showing how much more needs to be done. ...

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This Economist article looks at India-China relations and the Wuhan Summit between prime minister Modi and president Xi Jinping. It sees India's reluctance to follow a containment strategy in an historical light from the period in which India followed a non-alignment policy in the early post independence period under prime minister Nehru. During the period of the Eisenhower administration with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles India adhered to a strict nonalignment policy avoiding choosing sides in the Cold War. As a result U.S. policy tilted towards Pakistan during the Eisenhower administration. A balance was restored under president Kennedy, with Adlai Stevenson a close friend of India.  The short Sino-Indian war of 1962 led to a situation in which the U.S. backed India and improvement of relations. A semblance of non-alignment in foreign relations continued under Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi. By 1990 with the opening of the Indian economy to foreign investment, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the integration of China into the global economy, a new period of good bilateral relations with the U.S. and Europe was maintained. In 2017 the potential for a conflict in Doklam, Bhutan revived fears from 1962 in India. In 2018 After the U.S. administration of Donald Trump and Trade Representative Lighthizer imposed trade tariffs on China and restrictions on export of advanced technologies China pursued a policy of conciliatory relations with India. China's relations also improved with Japan and South Korea as the U.S. policy was unanticipated and seen as a significant change that would seriously affect China's economy. India's response was to pursue a policy of good relations with China and the U.S., even as the economies of the U.S. and India were drawn closer in India's pursuit of modernization.  ...

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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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Plastic use has increased with the tripling in parcels delivered in the last 4 years, up to 64 billion parcels. As much as 93% of the growth in trash in major cities in China in 2018 comes from this one source- an astonishing 850,000 tons of plastic waste in 2018 from the e-commerce and delivery sector. Food deliveries and Alibaba online deliveries add to plastic waste. The government is cracking down with new rules from the Environment Ministry. By the end of 2020 non biodegradable plastic bags will largely be banned from cities, and single use straws banned in restaurants across China.  This ban will extend to all cities and towns by 2022 and to markets selling fresh produce by 2025. Restaurants will have to cut use of plastic by 30% by 2025. In 2018 China stopped taking imports of plastic waste. China is beginning to realize the costs of letting single use plastic grow. The last regulation was in 2008 banning the giving of free plastic bags at retail markets and banning production of super thin bags. It has taken the sudden jump in use in package delivery and in food delivery for the government to finally act. Experts say China uses too much plastic. India has taken strong action against single use plastic in 2019 under the leadership of prime minister Modi. ...

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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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India's Supreme Court rules on Aadhaar, India's biometric identification program, saying privacy is a fundamental right. Aadhar was started in 2009 as a way to help the poorest citizens and prevent leakage of fuel and food subsidies, and to fight corruption. Using biometric technology the government of prime minister Modi has extended the program as a way to build a database of digital fingerprints, iris scans of most of India's 1.2 billion people as part of a way to extend this into a national id card system for driver licenses, bank accounts, travel on Indian railways, making financial transactions. The government contends that privacy is not a fundamental right in a poor country where most citizens suffer from corruption and leakage of services and subsidies, given that basic safeguards against abuse are introduced. The Court's decision says privacy rights should be taken into account against surveillance by the state and for protection of data, and that it was part of the intrinsic rights of citizens to life and liberty. ...

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Anton Harder in this Wilson Center publication of research uses correspondence between Jawaharlal Nehru and his sister Vijaylakshmi Pandit ambassador to the US in 1950, to show that the US made an offer for India to take a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. India had supported two resolutions on June 25, and June 27, first condemning the invasion by North Korea and second the organizing of a UN force of 29 countries to push back the North Korean invasion. Even though the US is not seen as actively engaging with India during that period and seeing through British eyes the colonial policies of encouraging  different powers in South Asia, that may not be true.  Who was India's foreign minister in 1950? Jawaharlal Nehru was both prime minister and foreign minister till 1964, which means there was less discussion of foreign policy than happens today during the Ukraine invasion with Jaishankar a career diplomat with 30 years experience, Rajnath Singh, and Mr. Modi, in talks with president Biden recently, and in further discussions Modi had with EU's Von der Leyen and UK's Boris Johnson, Kishida of Japan. Who was India's defense minister in 1950? Baldev Singh, a Sikh independence struggle leader was Minister of Defense for 1947-52 and tackled partition of Punjab and Kashmir issues. The rest of the years to 1957 when India faced the Chinese invasion of Tibet India's defense minister was also for most of the period Mr. Nehru, except Ayynagar in 1953, and Kailash Katju in 1955 and 1956. The controversial V.K. Krishna Menon was Defense Minister from 1957 to 1962, when Indian defenses were further neglected leading to the Chinese invasion of India in 1962, and his replacement by Yashwantrao Chavan. The purpose of this is to look back at what happened in earlier periods to understand where India stands today- and what choices it makes today. Clearly the US was looking for allies then and now. Nehru saw things from his own reading of history seeing China and India as both suffering from western invasion, not realizing that China's experience under Mao was different- that of Japanese invasion and bombing of China's major cities not just colonization of Hong Kong and other ports for trade under British trade based policies in 1850-1900. Thus a Communist Chinese version of China's defense involved taking over border regions such as Tibet putting China in direct and open opposition to India. Nehru never really grasped what was happening in Tibet and the war China fought against the Nationalists. American general Stilwell loved China deeply and had an understanding of its people as shown in Tuchman's account in her book Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-1945. Stilwell during that war had a better understanding of China, the strengths and weaknesses of Mao's China and of the Nationalists under Chiang, than Nehru. Some of these errors post 1950's and a concentration of foreign, defense and embassy positions in the person of Mr. Nehru and of Nehru family member such as Mrs. Pandit led to the Indian failure to act on Tibet and see it as see it for what it was -facing a Communist Mao led China that had fought the Japanese invasion as different from Bodhidharma's China of the history books. Bodhidharma's China will outlast Mao's China, yet it is Mao's China that India faces today. This also tells us that India has to think in new ways- as Lincoln said during a period when America was also making its own progress as an industrial nation in the 1860's. "The dogmas of the quiet past are not adequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew, we must act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and we shall save our country." India's values are values of democracy heightened not just by Mohandas Gandhi's ideas with Hind Swaraj written in 1910 just as powerful in 2022, but also by the heights of Ladakh where elections are held in remote regions of the Himalayas. India's values are values that are also shared in the best that America has in its values and culture and in the defense of freedom.    ...

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This report in the Hindusthan Times compares the relatively few comments from India's Ministry of External Affairs on the Dokalam standoff between India and China, and the frequent and patriotic comments from the state media in China. India took a firm position on the sensitive border area road construction by China, because the Doklam plateau is the narrow area in the mountains that allows entry to India's northern plains. India and China announced disengagement following the incident. This report points out that the resolution happened on the eve of a BRICS meeting in China. Indian prime minister Modi's absence from the BRIC's meeting would have been an embarrassment for China, says the Hindusthan Times. The resolution would have happened after both sides realized that the border issue escalation was not in the interest of China and India as both sides face more important issues- India in the focus on modernization and China on sustaining growth and maintaining trade relations with the U.S. Trump administration at a time when the debt to GDP ratios exceed by some estimates 280% and trade has become a sensitive issue in America's midwestern states. ...

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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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The low number of confirmed cases and small number of deaths in India and Pakistan is being analyzed for what to expect in the coming months from June to August. Some experts see this as just the beginning that the peak will come later on. India has about 75,000 cases and Pakistan 35,000. Testing has lagged behind with only 1.5 tests per thousand people compared to 26 per thousand in the U.S.  one reason the confirmed case count is lower. Some confidence is being drawn from the deaths- 2415 in India and 737 in Pakistan. This is because only 2.2% of cases in India and 3.3% in Pakistan led to deaths, compared to 14.3% in UK and 5.5% in China, 6% in U.S., using John Hopkins database. One reason given is that only 6.4% of India's population and 4.3% of Pakistan's is over 65 years age. Compare mean age in Italy 46 years to 27 in India and 23 in Pakistan. And there is plenty of sunlight which appear to destroy the virus. Other factors that may influence the virus- taking of the tuberculosis vaccine and routine exposure to more pathogens in both countries. Prime minister Modi in India is taking no chances considering the size of India's population. He has put forward a $280 billion economic package and is moving in deliberate carefully prepared steps to lift lockdowns with the current phase No. 4 allowing more reopening. The shift now is to a more self reliant economy in industrial production making "local more vocal."  During the lockdown the large rail network and postal networks with their millions of employees, IT technology driven banking with Aadhar identification for direct deposit to hundreds of millions of the most needy citizens, and farmers, proved to be the most reliable and supportive. ...

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India replaced a patchwork of 15 state and federal taxes with a unified single Goods and Services Tax to ease the hurdles for businesses to operate nationwide across state boundaries. This is a major a accomplishment for the Modi government as it is expected to increase economic growth by between 0.5% to 2%, according to experts. This removes the obstacles to growth and doing business when companies had to comply with a maze of different tax policies by individual states. Ironically the GST was introduced by the Congress party government in 2011, but opposed by opposition parties then and the Congress party in opposition now in the upper house, Rajya Sabha. By winning the support of smaller parties the Modi government was able to reduce the influence of the Congress party and get the constitutional amendment passed for the single GST tax system replacing the old patchwork taxes. The amendment has to be approved by the majority of state legislatures in India and by the president. Parliament must pass legislation to setup the new tax system, and state legislature pass their legislation. Issues at what rate to set up the GST remain to be solved, with the need to avoid sparking inflation and thereby hurting slow job growth with millions of young people entering the job market each year. ...

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India's ruling BJP party wins 103 seats and is leading in one more seat in the 2018 Karnataka state assembly elections. This compares with 40 seats in the last election in 2013. The Congress party won 78 seats down from 122 seats in the 2013 election. A regional party Janata Dal won 37 seats. 113 seats are needed to have a majority and form the next government. The elections here could influence the national elections in 2019. India's tech city of Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka state. For the BJP Party is was critical to win the state as it prepares for the national elections in 2019 to advance its rapid infrastructure development program in India, and increase foreign investment in India's economy.

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As the coronavirus pandemic reaches the 20 month mark in October 2021 and the government reaches a target of 1 billion vaccinations given in India, prime minister Modi talks about his experience handling the vaccination drive in this interview. It covers a wide range of topics from his initial experiences in development in Gujarat, translating this experience to the national setting, the multiple yojanas or projects from Swachh Bharat (Clean India), toilets for all, bank accounts for the whole population, cooking gas for women, decisions taken for Aadhar, digitization, GST. His 35 years spent in poverty as a social worker that gave him a clear idea of the aspirations of the working poor. On the achievement of one billion vaccinations- It was the careful preparation that happened as early as March 2020 that carefully anticipated all possible problems and tackled each one of them that made it possible. "Vaccinating such a large number of people comes with its own share of complexities. Ensuring proper temperature control of complexities, cold chain infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country, timely delivery from the manufacturing plant to the remotest vaccination delivery point, supply of needles and syringes, training of vaccinators and preparing for adverse reactions, from quick registration to certificate generation to reminder for next appointment. We needed to look at the entire logistics, planning, and progress of the vaccination drive." To understand the person completely one has to go back to the origins of his experience, skills learned, and his inspiration for the effort. Modi entered the chief minister's office in the western Indian state of Gujarat facing the Arabian sea in 2001. He entered office at the time of the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat and describes his taking the chief minister's office as accidental as he had been a social worker for 30 years. "Let alone reluctance to join electoral politics, I had nothing to do with the political domain itself. My surroundings, my inner world, my philosophy- these were very different. Right from my younger days,my bent was spiritual. The philosophy of "Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva" Serving the people is akin to serving the Divine, which was propounded by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda inspired me. It became the driving force in whatever I did." In 2014 it was with the inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and taking up Vivekananda's vision for the Indian people that Modi began his campaign to lead the BJP party. It may be looking back that Vivekananda guided Modi in all his projects for a Clean India, Jal Jeevan, Indian infrastructure that benefits the last man in the queue in the country, commitment to hard work. "Global experience says government should be there for those whom nobody is there. Government's whole focus should be on helping them." To do this, to meet the needs of that last person left out in India, he could see that old notions of opposites had to be set aside. "Outdated theories such as the private sector vs the public sector, government vs. people, rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, are still on people's minds and they try to fit everything into this." Governments since independence in 1947 followed the same political and economic thought. After Gandhi negotiated with the British government for self rule or Swaraj an experimental form was set up with provincial governments ministries with limited powers formed in the 1930's through elections. Many of these ministries had the same problems that were found after independence in 1947, as one sees in the writings in the Gandhi library. They lasted for a few years before they were dissolved by the British government. These problems were more evident under Nehru and Indira Gandhi right into the 1970's and beyond. This was followed by a period of relative stagnation. Most ministries failed to seriously address India's economic problems, urbanization issues and agricultural issues remained unaddressed, and industry building was done with a limited vision and scaled down goals. In some ways the elections created a political class interested in perpetuating itself and did not build administrations based on learning, hard work and delivering on projects with scaled up targets to match the dire needs of the country. One sees similarities with France before 1960, before De Gaulle. A mosaic of peoples all separate from each other, with agriculture the main occupation, and most agriculture done the way it was in the nineteenth century by hand and using horses and cattle- this is the picture of France shown in Nous Paysouns, We Farmers, a documentary on Le Monde French television in October 2021. It was De Gaulle who supported a shift to presidential form of government for France that helped with the transformation through modernization and infrastructure development. Tractors were introduced in 1960 to mechanize agriculture. Road, bridges, rail transport, logistics were planned in the way Gati Shakti master plan for India is now being executed. There can be no transformation without this. Unstable coalition governments in France and lack of clarity and decision making before 1960 made such development impossible. India entered such a period in the 1970's. "The politics of our country is such that till now, we have seen only one model in which governments are run to build the next government (sarkar banane ke liye chalayi jaati haye). My fundamental thinking is different. I believe we have to run the government to build the nation (desh banane ke liye sarkar chalani haye)."  Chalta haye, Chalne do. What is will not change. Families, farmers and workers in India, for a long time accepted this without questioning.  "I take decisions based on Gandhiji's talisman that sees how my decisions will benefit or harm the poorest or weakest person." "While taking decisions, I stop even if the slightest of vested interests is visible to me. The decision should be pure and authentic, and if the decision passes through all these tests, then I firmly move forward to implement such a decision."           ...

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A three judge special bench of India's Supreme Court led by chief justice Rajendra Mal Lodha, said the process of allocation of coal licenses by the coal ministry lacked accountability and openness. Lodha said: "There was no fair and transparent procedure, all resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth. Common good and public interest have, thus, suffered heavily." A report by India's federal auditor in 2012 stated the improper allocation of 200 coal leases to private companies cost the government about $30 billion. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh of the Congresss party headed the Coal ministry for part of the period when the improper coal leases were given, leading to intense criticism from the media. This was an issue in the elections leading to the defeat of the Congress party by the BJP party led by Mr. Modi.

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The US Saudi Strategic Alliance is modeled on the US Japan Treaty and commits US to defend the Saudi kingdom. A draft of the treaty is being negotiated. It requires a two thirds majority in US Congress. A parallel US Saudi Cooperation Agreement is also put in place by Biden and can be done by Executive Order. What motivates this at this time and why after 9/11 when most of the attackers were Saudi, and after relations with Saudi deteriorated under Obama and president Biden's questioning some Saudi actions? The two main reasons are the change Salman of Saudi is bringing to the country modernizing its internal society and and freeing it up from the religion based restrictions of an earlier period, and his focus on investment in the economic development working with India and partners in the region, a relief from the incessant wars from the period of Reagan/Bush as the US makes domestic policy benefits determine foreign policy under Biden. Unknown in most of the world and media a change of demeanor happened at the G-20 meetings in India when prime minister Modi brought Biden and Salman together on economic development plans of a development corridor linking India through Saudi andest Asia to Europe. Biden supported the effort and it showed the Saudis under Salman as leading a development plan along with Modi and other partners for development in the Middle East after frequent wars dissipating the resources of the region and of the US. since Reagan/Bush policy failures and escalation. It is this intervening period of three decades of war that led to China's gains in relation to the US, with twin strikes to the US of China's domination of supply chains, deindustrialization, and loss of manufacturing jobs for working classes in US and Europe. Coupled with this is the opportunity for Biden and Blinken to give Israel an opportunity it never enjoyed for most of its life as a free nation since 1948 to have peace with its Arab neighbors. It is even possible that the prospect of this happening without a settlement for Palestinian statehood that would leave things in Gaza and Palestine at status quo that propelled the sudden attack on Israel. Biden and Blinken want to do the Saudi deal with a new element of getting Palestinian statehood on a basis of respect for dignity of people and of economic independent country which would put to rest decades of Arab neighbor disapproval of Israel. This is both a new vision of West Asia, what we call the Middle East, and an opportunity to focus and also cope with on Asia with the rise of China, India, as the two largest economies with EU and US in the world. ...

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Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif faces a trial on corruption charges in Pakistan in 2018, just prior to new elections. The military and the judiciary both support the trial which involves payments for 4 upscale neighborhood London apartments owned by Sharif. 

Mr. Sharif's party leads in polls with about 36% support, higher than the next leading party Tehreek which has 24% support and is led by Imran Khan a former cricketer. The Pakistan People's Party of the Bhutto family comes in third. The result of this could be a weaker coalition government. The Supreme Court has banned Sharif for life from holding political office. Pakistan has seen governments toppled and military rule for half of its 70 years since independence. The rivalry with India and the role of the military has affected political institutions and democracy in Pakistan making peace with India difficult to achieve for any elected government.

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Anand and Fairclough describe the aspirations of millions of young Indians stifled by the last few years of inept governance under the Congress party in India. Economic growth dropped to about 5% as the government did little to increase investment and growth, leaving India further behind nations such as China, Japan and S. Korea. The speed with which foreign investment in plants in Gujarat by the Tata Group, Bombardier and smaller companies such as Germany's Duravit took place, contrasts sharply with the red tape under the federal government of the Congress party and prime minister Manmohan Singh. Duravit's head of its Indian unit says the process was corruption free, fast, and had to be seen to be believed. Tata Group's head Ratan Tata, was a strong supporter of Modi after the Tata Group built its plant for manufacturing the Nano small car in Gujarat. The decisive mandate from the election, including the decisive vote from young people, the strong support of the business community in India determined to move ahead after 3 years of stalled governance, and the low starting point in areas such as electricity development and regions of the country lacking essential infrastructure, gives Modi a unique opportunity to put India on the path of good governance and rapid economic development....

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What does Business in the Republican party think of J.D. Vance?   WSJ says the book "Hillbelly Elegy" is about cultural dysfunction not globalization or economic dislocation. Vance's book is about growing up in Appalachian part of Ohio around 2000. Lyrarc Retrospect shown on this page has a Wash.Post report of Robert Kennedy's visit in 1968 to poverty stricken Appalachian rural America in eastern Kentucky.  Running through Pennsylvania and Ohio to Tennessee. Mostly rural, mountainous low income and lacking roads, highways, and lacking schools, medical clinics. JFK and LBJ as presidents in the 1960's setup the Appalachian Regional Commission to lift it out of poverty. It increased income growth modest 4% above neighboring counties. Bush and Obama wars left this region and rural regions across the US neglected till Biden pulled out of Afghanistan and made rural America a top priority with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to invest in it. It is as tough to tackle as the poverty in a similar forested and hilly part of eastern India called Orissa and Chattisgarh, which is only now receiving the attention of prime minister Modi in his third term. WSJ says J.D. Vance called mere rhetoric as no answer to such intractable problems in his Yale days, calling mere reference to cultural issues and immigration as forms of cultural heroin that would do little to change the centuries old poverty of the region.  Of the 39 year old senator J.D. Vance migration to MAGA, WSJ says it reminds them of Obama with only 2 years experience in the Senate- Vance has only a little over a year- who with lack of experience contested for the presidency of the US only to find Republicans poking Obama for seeking the presidency with such insignificant experience. This led to one of the least effective presidencies for lack of bipartisan support similar to that of Bush, both distracted by wars neither had the wisdom to not enter in the first place or to end quickly.   ...

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Corruption is not a necessary factor for a market economy, it is one of its ills that if left uncontrolled or unregulated risks the downfall of the entire market system with loss of confidence among the people in a market system. This BBC report shows the staggering sum of $44 billion taken out of Saigon Commercial Bank. The report says 93% of loans  given by the bank went to Truong My Lan who set up the bank by merging 3 smaller banks, and shows the brazenness and the scale of the corruption. My Lan started with a market stall during Vietnam's shift to a state driven market economy in 1986 like China, and gradually acquired hotels and other property. Nguyen Phu Trong is the General Secretary of the Communist Party since 2011 and president 2018-2021. The risks to the Communist Party of such corruption have become evident and Nguyen Phu Trong as leader of the Communist Party in Vietnam started his campaign against corruption in 2016 after pro business prime ministers of the past had led to Saigon's economy being left unregulated after 1986 in then Doi Moi reforms. It is Vietnam- and China's- lack of familiarity or experience with the market system that has led to tolerance of outright corruption in the past. In no way does a market system need any corruption of any sort to function that damages the credibility of the system with the people. As it is insidious and can affect the whole economy it requires vigilance, oversight and regulatory checks. ...

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The state of India's fight against Tuberculosis is shown here by AID's Atul Gawande in NYT. He visits a homeless shelter in New Delhi and asks what can be done to prevent the number one infectious disease in India and globally. The disease affects 1 in 38000 in the US and 1 in 500 in India a huge contrast as poverty and poor health conditions increase spread of TB. It grows with depleted immune systems and poor food intake. This alone shows how important it was and continues to be that prime minister Modi put forward no cost (free) allocation of foodgrains, lentils and vegetables during the pandemic to hundreds of millions of needy households. This and Clean India campaign Swacch Bharat + Har Ghar Jal Clean Water Every Household  play a critical role in providing the basic environment for health in India at the ground level for nutrition+ clean water, and sanitation. India has allocated $1.7 billion for TB prevention and treatment. 4-5 TB vaccines are in test stages.  Nearly 90 percent of estimated TB cases are now being diagnosed with treatment success rates high, says Gawande. Prevention is also at a similar level.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The first year of the Modi administration in India brings a sense of moderation to high expectations following the election, considering the many problems that need to be tackled. It also brings some help in the form of lower oil prices coming at a critical time for the Indian economy, which is overly dependent on oil imports. This enabled the government to cut fuel subsidies and control its budget deficit. By April 2015 inflation declined to 4.87%. Foreign direct investment increased by 25% to $28.8 billion in 2014-2015 fiscal year. Major steps include deregulating prices of diesel, petroleum and cooking gas, increasing foreign ownership limits for defense and insurance sectors to 47%, and opening 125 million new bank accounts for poor households. Coalfield leases and telecom spectrum allocations which suffered from lack of transparency and sold at low prices under the previous administration were reallocated in a transparent process.