US Vice-President J D Vance's unexpected phone call to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 8 has ignited speculation about a potential diplomatic overture, possibly seeking India's support amidst the escalating US-Iran conflict and a shifting global power landscape, suggests Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'In a volatile global market, India is pursuing a low-risk, low-return policy, akin to a SIP -- slow, steady investment.' 'Pakistan is following a high-risk, high-return policy.'
'The West Asia or the Gulf crisis has shown that what we develop as national infrastructure when things are not as bad as they could be, we forget to plan for adversities.'
Notwithstanding the economic complementarities and the host of agreements for deepening economic relation on a host of areas, both sides share common viewpoints on the foreign policy domain and seek common grounds to serve as a counterweight to China, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The United States and India are on the verge of finalising a landmark bilateral trade deal, aiming to boost trade to USD 500 billion by 2030, according to US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bethany Poulos Morrison. The agreement seeks to open India's 1.4 billion-strong market to American goods on reciprocal terms, with ongoing high-level discussions to recalibrate the pact after recent changes in US tariff policy.
Modi highlights the potential for large-scale employment generation for women and youngsters.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday announced the launch of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Experience Zone and Design Studio in London, and said its continued investments in the UK will create 5,000 new jobs across the country over the next three years. Currently, TCS supports over 42,000 direct and indirect jobs across the United Kingdom. In FY2024, TCS contributed 3.3 billion pounds to the UK economy, according to a regulatory filing by the company.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President JD Vance have expressed satisfaction with the progress made in negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement. The two leaders met in New Delhi and discussed a range of bilateral issues, including cooperation in energy, defense, strategic technologies, and other areas. They also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
India has been on an FTA-signing spree of late. Since 2021, it has signed eight trade agreements, three of which -- with the UK, Oman and New Zealand -- were finalised in 2025 alone.
India and the UK on Thursday inked a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) that will cut tariffs on British whisky, cars and an array of items, besides boosting bilateral trade by around $34 billion annually.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
India and the UK have announced a series of defence cooperation initiatives, including a USD 468 million deal for the supply of lightweight multirole missile systems to enhance India's air defence capabilities.
The state is in the process of grooming a supplier ecosystem, for which India is almost entirely dependent on imports.
'This agreement will help the Indian workforce to move to non-traditional sectors of employment like teaching, nursing, and manufacturing.'
India and the UK on Tuesday sealed an ambitious free trade deal along with a double contribution convention with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the landmark pacts will catalyse trade, investment, growth and job creation in both the economies. Modi made the announcement on the agreements after a phone conversation with his British counterpart Keir Starmer.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has revised upwards its estimates of worldwide unemployment, and called for a "global jobs pact" to address the current crisis.
France today increasingly resembles the Italy of the past, when governments fell with bewildering regularity, prime ministers came and went in rapid succession, and political instability became the norm rather than the exception, point out Krishnan Srinivasan and Manoj Mohanka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Keir Starmer discussed the need to prevent the misuse of democratic freedoms by extremist ideologies. They also addressed terrorism and trade ties.
The deal fell through over unresolved disagreements over contentious issues, mainly on agriculture and automotive sector tariffs.
The US carmaker's entry into India is expected by the last quarter of the current financial year.
US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Washington D.C. to discuss a range of issues including trade, defense, and energy. The two leaders announced plans to finalize "wonderful trade deals" for both countries, and Trump emphasized the need for India to purchase US oil and gas. Modi congratulated Trump on his second term and highlighted the importance of working together to further strengthen the India-US relationship. The meeting also addressed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, with Modi reiterating India's commitment to peace.
I'...additional concessions, such as opening government procurement, reducing agricultural subsidies, weakening patent protections, and allowing unrestricted data flows -- demands India has resisted for decades.'
The agreement would divert China's attention and keep them busy in the Pacific theatre, probably resulting in a reduction in threat perception in our area of interest in the Indian Ocean, notes Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
India and the US have signed an agreement to promote innovation through increasing cooperation among startups, address regulatory hurdles and share best practices on fundraising by entrepreneurs, an official statement said on Wednesday. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) on enhancing innovation ecosystems through an innovation handshake under the framework of India-US Commercial Dialogue was signed on November 14 in San Francisco. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is in San Francisco.
With the new government taking charge in Britain, senior officials of India and the UK will hold the next round of talks this month for the proposed free trade agreement to resolve the pending issues and close the negotiations, an official said. The India-UK talks for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) began in January 2022. The 14th round of talks stalled as the two nations stepped into their general election cycles.
While Narendra Modi spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor -- 275 days versus Dr Singh's 306 - he has travelled more widely than any other Indian PM.
US-based chipmaker Micron Technology is expecting demand for semiconductors to rise significantly in the next few years, globally and in India, as memory consumption is going up, largely driven by the widespread adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). "Memory consumption is expected to double by the end of the decade and the biggest driver in this is AI. "While it's natural to talk about compute and GPUs (graphics processing units) in the context of AI, it is not to be forgotten that the true enabler for AI is memory ... in all the AI engines that we talk about, there is a lot of need to access memory quickly," Anand Ramamoorthy, managing director, Micron Technology India, told Business Standard.
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Govt says Information Technology Agreement will be beneficial to India only when domestic manufacturing is robust
The two-day G20 Summit saw the Indian side making "significant contributions" on resolve to counter terrorism and boost global trade and investment.
The trigger that led Japan and the Philippines to ink the deal was because of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea. China's coast guard increased the frequency and intensity of incursions into Philippine waters, provoking the Philippines to take countermeasures to deter China, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said Memorandums of Understanding worth Rs 1.37 lakh crore have been signed at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos in Switzerland and termed it as a "big achievement". This will generate employment for one lakh people, said Shinde, who was in Davos to seek investments in Maharashtra. "The MoUs will not remain just on paper," he said, adding that foreign investors have shown trust and faith in the state government.
The agreement provides for extensive cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector including in research and development for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, they said.
Obama has made combating global climate change a top priority of his presidency
The decision preceded long hours of tense negotiations and last minute hiccups from Argentina and Pakistan
'What we need is right skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling.'
President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. The US exited the pact after a mandatory year-long waiting period that ended on Wednesday.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has pledged that his administration would rejoin the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
Tamil Nadu secured investments worth Rs 1.44 trillion on Monday by signing of memoranda of understanding (MoU) with 60 companies, laying of foundation stones and inauguration of new projects.
Team Amazon would also educate and train the khadi artisans to directly sell their products to online customers.
