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Sir Edwin Lutyens and Baker- design of Central Delhi North and South Block Secreteriat in New Delhi opened in 1931 under the British Empire and were the offices of the prime minister and ministries till 2025. Independent India emerged only 18 years after Lutyens designed the new capital with broad avenues and huge brick structures in symmetrical lines east to west. The shift to Kartavya Enclave, new parliament buildings takes place in 2025 94 years later. North and South Block buildings will be converted into museums, for years they had become hard to operate as government offices with designs from another age.

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China GDP growth forecast at 5% in 2025 and first half actuals at 5.3% with frontloading. The frontloading is because of surge in exporting before tariffs hit by May.  China is waiting to put fiscal stimulus as it fears tariffs will lower growth and increase unemployment. The housing sector is in deep slump. At this point fiscal stimulus is determined in Washington DC. The actual growth in 2025 may turn out to be much lower than 5% considering the weakness in the economy and the issues of tariffs and tough trade negotiations with the US and a changed environment for trade with the European Union.

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India with one third and Japan with one tenth of their oil supplies from Russia are making efforts to cut purchases of Russian oil in October 2025.

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UK's Starmer adopts Danish system for asylum and illegal migration November 2025 to attack the problem of illegal migration and Channel crossings by boat.

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This is the first 5 match Test series since 1991-92 Tour of Australia by India- 34 years. It starts with Pat Cummins leading his Aussie team against  the Indian team led by India's captain Rohit Sharma on November 22, 2024 in Perth. India is coming off a 3-0 loss to New Zealand. Wicket takers for Australia in the last 2020-21 test series Cummins and Hazelwood, for India Siraj and Ashwin. Run scorers Labuschagne and Smith, Pant and Pujara.

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The top 20% of Americans own 87% of the stocks powering most of the spending in 2025. Upward trends in the stock market in the US with resilient markets overcoming the Liberation Day tariffs announcement, are powering the spending by higher income professionals and business people. WSJ looks at the people owning stocks ages 36 years to 77 years, and their spending on cars, furniture, home renovation and travel. The situation is not so good for middle class Americans living from paycheck to paycheck, students and young people.

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NITI Aayog does much of the development planning for India. It's CEO Parmeswaran Iyer, says about one third of the population of 1.2 billion people has reached the middle class. The poverty level has dropped to about 16% of the population. He describes the steps taken to achieve this. First inflation control by keeping inflation below 6%- it was 5.7% in December 2022. The decline of loan rates for education, buying home and appliances to about 8%. Second the pioneering action of One Nation One Tax under GST that has saved Rs 18,000 lakh crore or Rs 12000 per household annual saving. To create small micro business in a country the size of India with a large informal economy action was taken. 120 million of 380 million beneficiaries are from the  middle class for PM Mudra Yojana who received Rs 7 trillion in collateral free loans. This is designed to provide non farm small loans of 10 lakh rupees (about $8000) to micro unit enterprises at the bottom of the development pyramid to encourage an entrepreneurial culture and micro enterprises. Non Performing assets (bad loans) or NPA were reduced from 11.1% of the banking system to 5.8% in 2022. This is critical to support future growth as banks that well capitalized can make the loans needed to support growth. In health and education  a large network of new universities and medical colleges, hospitals is being built. The Ayushman Yojana provides health screening to millions of people and aid is channeled to people for low cost generic medicines. It is the size of these efforts that is making the difference in the lives of ordinary people. For technological advancement the government has moved quickly on digitalization, and 5G implementation to be done by 2024. ...

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WSJ poll in January 2025 shows DJT has the support of the American people to make changes and at the same time not enough support for major changes the president elect has promised to make. Deport all migrants with criminal records 75% support. On large scale deportation of migrants 70% disapprove deporting long time residents who have no criminal records. Does this long time resident mean people who are here before 2021 when for the first time migrants reached 200,000 in mid year 2021 exceeding the 150,000 peak in DJT's first term, is not made clear by this report on the WSJ poll. This is the point mid 2021 when Biden was supposed to have removed Mayorkas as Homeland Secretary and come up with new legislation with Republicans to close the border before a surge.  Ending birthright citizenship- 64% disapprove 31% approve. Set tariffs on all foreign goods- 48% approve 46% disapprove Eliminating programs for healthcare, education, social safety net- 60% disapprove 34% approve. Eliminate the Department of Education, and eliminate replace career civil service officers- 60% disapprove. ...

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Plans of the Biden administration to bring back workers to the workforce in 2023 by increasing worker benefits. The place seen where America is lacking is participation of younger women in the workforce and older people who chose to retire during Covid. Increasing child care and benefits for child care is one line of action. Other approaches are being explored by Brian Deese of Biden's National Economic Council.

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The effort by prime minister Modi under Rozgar Mela to create 1 million new jobs in 2023 to mitigate the effect of the lockdowns during the pandemic and its effects on jobs. 71,000 new job appointment letters were given in a virtual event. Modi emphasized that "transparency in recruitment and promotion inspires confidence in the youth."  He called the process streamlined and time bound to demonstrate good governance.

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China has made an astonishing turn away from covid restrictions. Yet this comes after three years that hurt growth which will affect the recovery says this column in WSJ. China is looking for 5% growth in 2023. Problems in the way are a public affected by the lockdowns, a covid surge, housing that will take time to recover, and diversification by Foxconn and other companies away from China to India, Vietnam.

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Overdevelopment of the office market in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, cities in Texas, presents a problem in combination with the increase in remote work. The office vacancy rate in Texas is 25% in the third quarter of 2023, according to Moody's Analytics, compared to 12% for New York and 17% for San Francisco. The oversupply of buildings for office space was decades in the making, says WSJ.

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The Lula government in Brazil gets off to a good start. The economy grows by 1.9% in the last quarter and growth is expected to be 2.5% for 2023. New budget rules passed the conservative Congress providing funding for infrastructure and social programs. Brazilian cooperation makes it possible to add Argentina to the BRICS membership at the recent BRICS meeting in Johannesburg. Brazil also attended the recent G-7 meetings.

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The BBC shows pictures of the blue supermoon from different parts of the world including Brazil, Israel, Japan, Russia, US, England. It is a unforgettable sight in the night sky that people all over world were able to see on August 30, 2023. This one is over an old fort in Israel. Other pictures show it with a flower in Srinagar, India, and spectacular over the ancient temple of Poseidon in Greece.

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Huge orders made in 2023 for new planes from Boeing and Airbus now place India in the top ranks of the world civil aviation market. A large growing middle class is using air travel for business and tourism. The government is investing billions of dollars to build new airports in smaller and midsize cities in addition to Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore. A new aircraft industry is also coming up in Gujarat state.

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HV.1 and EG.5 are the dominant Covid variants in November 2023 each taking up about 25% of cases in the US. Paxlovid works against these variants. The new Pfizer vaccine also works against these Covid variants. More than any single variant the rapid rate of virus evolution, the many mutations, are the chief concern of experts. Overall they combine to produce the threat we face in public health.

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Dilan Isigloz is unusual in the Netherlands or in the EU. She leads the Democracy and Freedom Party of prime minister Rutte into the Dutch 2023 elections with the highest likely vote of 18%, tied with the New Social Contract Party. She is both a woman and an immigrant herself who is trying to curb immigration so that the Netherlands can absorb the immigrants it already has including good housing and other services.

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Indian prime minister Modi is the guest of honor on France's national holiday, the Bastille Day July 14, 2023. On this day French revolutionaries freed prisoners of King Louis XVI at the Bastille in Paris. By October this led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen the first formal document of rights of the people before the American document on these same rights a few years later.

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Demand for political risk insurance in China increased from 25% in 2019 to 68% in 2023, according to insurance broker WTW. Out of 50 insurers only 5 are offering political insurance for China and only for $50 million when most companies needing this insurance are large companies. The Ukraine war and China-US tensions over Taiwan are making it difficult for American or European companies to do business in China.

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IEA says 5500 gigawatts of renewables energy will be added in the next 7 years 2023-2030 three times the amount added in 2017-2023. With 60% of it coming from China.

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Guerrero Jr from the Dominican Republic who hit home runs to get Toronto Blue Jays to the baseball World Series finals in 2025. They now face the LA Dodgers.

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Blue Origin's plans for moon landings. The Blue Moon Lunar cargo Lander is expected to launch for US 2024 moon mission in a contract with NASA.

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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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IMF forecasts for Greece's growth rate are proving too optimistic. The IMF forecast is for zero growth in 2013, and increases of 2.3% and 2.9% in 2014 and 2015. Even in its pessimistic projections the IMF forecasts a 1% downturn in 2013 and growth of 1.3% and 1.9% in 2014 and 2015. The government sector was a large part of the economy. Now that this is shrinking, the export sector which only represents 20% of GDP is too small to generate needed growth. Greece also lacks the competitiveness and the large foreign enterprises that operate in Ireland, making growth less likely. A major problem is also the 40 billion euros Greeks have withdrawn from their banks in recent years. Even the figure of 120% of GDP that is expected in 2020 under the March 2012, 130 billion euro bailout is a very hypothetical figure, having no sound basis. Landon Thomas cites a confidential study the IMF had circulated in February 2012, showing the long term prospect for Greek debt if growth does not materialize because of lack of competitiveness. It would increase the debt to GDP ratio to 178% by 2015, and leave it at the current level of 160% of GDP in 2020. Some experts say the whole debt sustainability analysis makes no sense, with the question being insolvency in the case of Greece, not illiquidity. And requiring a focus to bring debt to manageable level to create prospects for growth. The Wall Street Journal emphasizes this in its editorial on Feb. 29, 2012....

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Modi speech for the ages to the people of Barrackpore, West Bengal, April 27 2026 surpasses any but the best of Gandhi's speeches for a century since the 1930's. "Shakti ki Bhakti" pilgrimage for the ages for the women and children and families of Bengal and India. A plea for freedom of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa as a north star for India, in the task of urbanization, modernization industrialization, and scientific revolution of India. "Purvi Bharat ka bahvisya sudhar kanrna chunav hai." This northeast that is key to the future of India's 1.4 billion people in this election in West Bengal of May 4, 2026 after 5 decades of failed governance, of failed industrialization and failed modernization in a region of 300 million people, half the size of the European Union. Impatience in Modi's voice with the pace of change that has failed the aspirations of a young generation of India.  This has left the northeast region as a backward agrarian economy. Change in federal  overnment for rapid modernization in India came in 2014 with Modi government. It was stalled for a few years by the Covid pandemic. The effort for modernization of the Indian economy after 5 decades of failed good governance is thus in its first decade and in that decade impeded by the state governments of Maharastra and Rajasthan in the western region that also includes Gujarat. In the northeast failed governance continued in West Bengal , Bihar and Orissa. In Delhi and the Punjab a similar situation. It is only now that Maharashtra and Rajasthan are aligned with federal government in industry and modernization goals. And it is only now that Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal are aligning themselves at the state level with the federal goals for modernization and rapid urbanization plus industrialization. In the south Tamilnadu (Madras region) and Kerala (Kochi), and Karnataka (Bangalore region) are also lacking in aligning with the efforts at the federal level. As a result the changes that are happening have the potential to bring a new wave of industrialization and modernization in the north, northeast and western regions of India with the federal government and the state governments in alignment on industrialization and modernization. This could bring to the world economy a development similar to China's second decade of development from 2000 to 2010 when a new surge happened in China's modernization. India's modernization will happen with the reindustrialization in the US and the European Union  and will set the pace for the world economy in the decades to come. ...