RSS affiliate rues surge in Chinese imports, calls for boycotting foreign goods
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), the economic wing of the RSS, on Friday conceded that despite a call for boycott of Chinese goods in the past, imports from the country have increased.
'It is true that despite the patriotic public boycotting China and other foreign goods, imports from China have increased in the last few years,' SJM's convener Ashwani Mahajan said. The outfit blamed this trend on e-commerce platforms and foreign brands violating rules, apart from 'poor confidence' of India's business community in the country's manufacturing capabilities.
Mahajan announced a nationwide campaign for promoting indigenous goods, which he sought to link with national security in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor. He said the campaign was inspired by PM Narendra Modi's call in Gandhinagar earlier this week that traders must take a pledge to not sell foreign goods.
On Tuesday, Modi had made a veiled attack on imported goods by pointing out how 'small-eyed' Ganesh idols were coming from abroad. 'We must encourage village traders to pledge that no matter how much profit they make, they will not sell foreign goods,' he had said.
Suggesting that this statement was in context of Chinese products, the SJM said, 'Our forceful retaliation to Pakistan's misadventure has also brought to light our friends and foes. It is a welcome decision to snap or reduce trade relations with those countries which have helped our enemy in this recent war.'
India's imports from China have surged significantly in the past five years, with a cumulative trade deficit exceeding $387 billion from 2018-19 to 2023-24. India's imports from China have grown from around $70 billion in 2018-19 to over $101 billion in 2023-24, while exports have been relatively stagnant around $16 billion annually. 'The reason for this (surge) is that Chinese goods are also sold in India in a disguised manner; sometimes by removing the Chinese label and putting the Made in India label, sometimes by e-commerce companies and foreign brands violating the rule of origin and sometimes by importing from China in the form of intermediate goods,' Mahajan said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
28 minutes ago
- NDTV
"Mediation Between Two Unequals Not Possible": Shashi Tharoor On Trump's Claims
Washington: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said that to suggest one can mediate between two unequals is not possible because there is no equivalence between terrorists and their victims, amid repeated claims by US President Donald Trump that he "helped settle" the tensions between India and Pakistan. Mr Tharoor, currently in the US leading a multi-party delegation on Operation Sindoor, made the comments in response to a question during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations here Thursday. "…Mediation is not a term that we are particularly willing to entertain. I'll tell you why not. The fact is that this implies, even when you say things like broker or whatever, you're implying an equivalence which simply doesn't exist," Mr Tharoor said. He said there is no equivalence between terrorists and their victims. "There is no equivalence between a country that provides safe haven to terrorism, and a country that's a flourishing multi-party democracy that's trying to get on with its business," he said. "There is no equivalence between a state that is a status quo power that just wants to be left alone by its neighbours, where the neighbours don't agree with us, and a revisionist power that wants to upset the geopolitical arrangements that have existed for the last three-quarters of a century. There is no equivalence possible in these cases, and in these circumstances, to suggest that you can mediate between two unequals is not possible,' Mr Tharoor added. Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a 'full and immediate' ceasefire after a 'long night' of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over a dozen times that he 'helped settle' the tensions between India and Pakistan. He has also claimed that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America would do a 'lot of trade' with them if they stopped the conflict. On being asked how he would characterize the American role in the conflict, Tharoor said he is "guessing to some degree' that the American role would have been first of all to keep themselves informed, conversations on both sides, and 'certainly my government received a number of calls at high levels from the US government, and we appreciated their concern and their interest.' He said that at the same time, the US must have been making similar calls at the highest levels to the Pakistan side, and 'our assumption is that's where, because that's the side that needed persuading to stop this process, that may well have been where their messages really had the greatest effect. But that's guesswork on my part. I don't know what they said to the Pakistanis.' Trump repeated the claim as recently as Thursday when during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, the US President said that he is 'very proud" that he was able to stop the conflict between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. 'I spoke to some very talented people on both sides, very good people on both sides' and said that Washington will not do any trade deals with either 'if you are going to go shooting each other and whipping out nuclear weapons that may be even affect us. Because you know that nuclear dust blows across oceans very quickly, it affects us," Trump said. 'You know what, I got that war am I going to get credit? I'm not going to get credit for anything. They don't give me credit for anything. But nobody else could have done it. I stopped it. I was very proud of that,' Trump added. About two weeks after the horrific April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. India has been maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
BJP slams Rahul Gandhi, calls him Pakistan's spokesperson
Rahul Gandhi (Picture credit: PTI) NEW DELHI: On the day when Rahul Gandhi 's surrender barb at PM Narendra Modi became a talking point in Pakistan as lawmakers and ministers used his remarks and statements to fuel their anti-India propaganda, BJP on Thursday attacked the Congress MP for alleging that Trump forced India to accept a ceasefire on May 10, with Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan saying he is promoting Pakistan propaganda. "Rahul Gandhi is Pakistan's spokesperson. Pakistan would not acknowledge this and he would deny this. But the Congress leader's conduct is the clinching evidence," Pradhan said, adding, "This is not a conspiracy theory, nor is it motivated by partisanship. The proof is in the public domain and for everyone to see. He has been Pakistan's trumpet." Pradhan said from accusing Hindus and Hindutva of violence to lying that India surrendered to foreign pressure to suspend Operation Sindoor , Rahul has unfailingly parroted Islamabad line. "He copies and pastes statements on Pakistan's website and exposes his stupidity," Pradhan said. Pakistan defence minister Khwaja Asif, in a viral video, could be heard speaking about Rahul's jibe at the Indian govt. "People of India are beginning to realise that their Prime Minister has surrendered," Asif claimed, in an attempt to save his own face after his humiliating takedown during Operation Sindoor. Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju also took note of the viral video and slammed the Congress MP for crossing the line, so much so that it seems to be going against the nation. "There is a limit to stupidity & opposition! There's nobody in Congress Party to tell him that being in the opposition party does not mean, to oppose the nation?" TNN
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Nvidia sounds the alarm: Chinese AI talent defecting to Huawei as U.S. chip curbs push them out the door
Nvidia is sounding the alarm about the unintended impact of US export restrictions on sending chips to China, as the company's senior VP of research and chief scientist, Bill Dally, said that the chipmaker is now witnessing an increasing number of former Nvidia AI researchers joining Huawei, a move prompted primarily by the tightening export controls, as per a PC Gamer to Dally's calculation, the number of AI researchers working in China has grown from a third of the world's total in 2019 to nearly half at present, reported PC Gamer, which cited a translation from the Taiwan Economic Daily report. The AI chipmaker's rationale is that without US restrictions, Huawei wouldn't be forced to focus so much on domestic AI solutions, but now it must do so to keep up, according to the PC Gamer report. However, this is not the first time Nvidia is pointing out that the US export restrictions for China are harming the AI industry in America. Even during Computex last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, "AI researchers are still doing AI research in China and if they don't have enough Nvidia, they will use their own [chips]," and he also spoke regarding Huawei specifically, saying the company has become "quite formidable", reported PC Gamer. While, it is not just the US national interest that has urged Nvidia to highlight all the possible negatives of export controls, as these restrictions have cost and will cost the chipmaker lots of money, according to the report. Nvidia had revealed that after billions of dollars lost due to the restrictions of its H20 chips to China in Q1, it's expecting another $8 billion to be lost for the same reason in Q2, reported PC Gamer. According to the report, Huawei's latest Ascend 910 and 920 chips, with the help of China's SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), would be a better option for Chinese AI companies than trying to get their hands on Nvidia chips, as per the report. Why is Nvidia concerned about its AI researchers joining Huawei? Because it signals that export restrictions might be pushing top talent and innovation into China, instead of slowing its progress. How much money has Nvidia lost from these restrictions? Nvidia says it lost billions in Q1 and expects another $8 billion in losses in Q2 due to blocked chip sales to China.
