logo
S Jaishankar highlights deep India-Guyana ties during road project visit

S Jaishankar highlights deep India-Guyana ties during road project visit

Hindustan Times17 hours ago
As Guyana President Irfaan Ali commissioned Phase I of the Ogle to Eccles portion of the East Coast-East Bank road linkage project on Tuesday, the External Affairs Minister conveyed greetings on behalf of the people and government of India and said the new road will not only connect the East Bank and East Coast, reduce travel time and improving connectivity, but would remain as a symbol of "deep friendship" shared by two nations. "It is a bond of blood, deeply rooted in our shared history, our common values," said S Jaishankar.(AFP file)
In a video message for the people of Guyana, Jaishankar complimented Indian companies for the successful completion of the project. He said the project demonstrates "the aspirations of Guyanese people and is also emblematic of the able leadership and vision of President Ali's government towards Guyana's progress and prosperity."
In the video message shared by the Indian High Commission in Guyana on X, Jaishankar said, "During my visit to Guyana last year, I witnessed and experienced the warmth of our relationship and the unbreakable bonds of friendship that connect us. This new road will not only connect the East Bank and East Coast, reducing travel time and improving connectivity, but will remain as a symbol of our deep friendship, signifying the indomitable spirit of our people, which connects our two countries."
He hailed ties between India and Guyana, saying that the two nations have a "bond of blood" deeply rooted in shared history, common values, and a strong belief in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. He expressed India's happiness to see the growth and progress made by Guyana in creating excellent infrastructure.
Jaishankar said, "I am delighted to join you as we witness yet another milestone in the expanding partnership between India and Guyana. Guyana has a very special place in our hearts. It is not just another relationship. It is a bond of blood, deeply rooted in our shared history, our common values, and our strong belief in "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", or the world is one family. We are extremely proud of Guyana's economic and developmental transformation. We are delighted to see the impressive growth and progress being made in creating excellent infrastructure that should contribute towards Guyana's future development as one of the fastest-growing economies."
"This new infrastructure, the East Bank East Coast Road Linkage Project, reflects the aspirations of Guyanese people. It is also emblematic of the able leadership and vision of President Ali's government towards Guyana's progress and prosperity. I compliment you all for the people-centric, development-oriented and forward-looking approach, as India is also witnessing a similar rapid economic transformation with impressive infrastructure development. We are delighted to share our own experience and expertise and work with Ghana as a fellow democracy and a trusted friend to realise our goal of 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, sab ka prayas'. It is a sign of a healthy and flourishing democracy," he added.
Complimenting Indian companies for completion of the project, he said, "I would also like to compliment Indian companies, Ride and Ashoka Buildcon, for successful completion of this project. I'm sure that it will open a new chapter in our expanding economic and developmental partnership."
During his visit to Guyana in 2024, Jaishankar visited the site of the East Bank-East Coast Road Linkage Project. For the visit, he was accompanied by Guyana's Minister of Public Works, Deodat Indar.
At the time, Jaishankar in a post on X stated, ''Delivered by India' is a growing global infra reality. Paid a site visit to the East Bank-East Coast Road Linkage Project along with Minister of Public Works Deodat Indar. Interacted with workers and senior staff. Impressed by their enthusiasm.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Does Donald Trump have dementia? Expert points out 4 signs of cognitive decline
Does Donald Trump have dementia? Expert points out 4 signs of cognitive decline

Hindustan Times

time40 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Does Donald Trump have dementia? Expert points out 4 signs of cognitive decline

Questions about Donald Trump's cognitive decline are a widespread topic now, with one mental health expert raising concerns that the 79-year-old U.S. president may be showing signs of early-stage dementia. U.S. President Donald Trump deplanes Air Force One on July 01, 2025 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP) Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and long-time observer of presidential behaviour, during an interview on The Dean Obeidallah Show, suggested that Trump could be battling frontotemporal dementia, a condition that impacts both speech and motor functions. 'When we talk about deterioration from dementia, I was focusing on language because that's the thing we most observe, but also we always see deterioration in motor performance,' he said. ALSO READ| Elon Musk to be deported? Donald Trump responds amid feud Expert outlines four concerning signs in Trump Gartner's observations aren't based on just one incident or clip. He highlighted four specific red flags he believes point to deeper issues, per Irish Star Online. 1. Dr. Gartner has noticed Trump slowing down physically over the past few years. One particularly telling detail? The presence of what looked like a catheter tube beneath his right pant leg. 2. Trump's apparent struggle with stairs has not gone unnoticed. 'We found some of him doing athletic activities in the 80s. I have a film of him playing volleyball, diving to dig the ball and popping up and hitting a high shot, he was very coordinated,' Gartner recalled. 'And now, you know he really does have trouble getting up the stairs, he does trip and fall.' 'I hate to do a gotcha thing, 'Oh he tripped on the stairs,' but no, his gait is slow, he is falling,' he added. 3. Another alarming sign? Trump's odd walking pattern. Gartner claimed Trump swings his right leg in a semicircular motion. 'The other thing that's actually even more diagnostic, and I had a neurologist point this out and then several neurologists confirmed it, if you watch the way he walks, he has what they call a leg swing… like it's a dead weight, and he's just kind of swinging it around,' he explained. 'It's very apparent in some tape and not so much in others, but that right leg swing is considered to be very diagnostic of a specific type of dementia, frontotemporal dementia.' 4. Recently, Trump has been seen favouring his left leg, especially when walking up stairs. A video from Right Side Broadcasting Network caught him relying heavily on his left leg while boarding Air Force One after the NATO summit in the Netherlands. 'That left leg is doing all the heavy lifting. He's really making sure that it's firmly placed,' the caption noted. Other videos online have shown a similar limp or imbalance. ALSO READ| US halts some weapons pledged to Ukraine amid concerns of low stockpile What does the White House medical unit say? However, in April, White House doctors declared him in excellent health. 'President Trump exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,' wrote Captain Sean Barbabella in an official memo. The POTUS scored a perfect 30 out of 30 in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

Barred in own constituency, Manipur Congress MP slams buffer zone enforcement
Barred in own constituency, Manipur Congress MP slams buffer zone enforcement

India Today

time41 minutes ago

  • India Today

Barred in own constituency, Manipur Congress MP slams buffer zone enforcement

Congress MP from Inner Manipur, Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, has criticised what he called an "unconstitutional and imaginary buffer zone" enforced by security forces in parts of the conflict-hit at his residence in Imphal on Tuesday, Bimol raised serious concerns about being denied entry into a locality within his own constituency, alleging that such actions were violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Congress MP said he was stopped on June 29 by security forces while trying to visit Phougakchou-Ikhai Makha Leikai Keithel in Bishnupur district, an area that falls under his parliamentary constituency. "Stopping an Indian citizen - especially an elected Member of Parliament - from moving freely within his own constituency is a direct violation of Article 19 of the Indian Constitution," Bimol said, calling the move an example of growing authoritarianism and institutional bias. He alleged that security forces, particularly the 6 Assam Rifles, were actively enforcing a non-existent buffer zone that had originally been put in place in May 2023 to curb mob violence. According to him, the so-called buffer zone is now being used selectively to prevent Meitei individuals, including elected leaders, from entering certain areas while members of other communities are allowed free is not just about me being stopped. It's about covert, communal segregation being carried out under the guise of security. It's creating a dangerous precedent," Bimol said. Taking to social media, he highlighted the incident, arguing that such enforcement amounts to institutionalised discrimination between the Meitei and Kuki pointed to recent incidents of violence and obstruction against Meitei farmers, including an alleged attack in Imphal East on June 16 and another in Phubala on June 20, where farmers were reportedly prevented from accessing their land. Bimol claimed these actions reflect a coordinated attempt to intimidate Meiteis and deter them from farming on their own dismay, he stated that such barriers only serve to divide the people of Manipur and increase communal mistrust. "Manipur is not divided by communal ideology. The continued enforcement of this so-called buffer zone only deepens mistrust and weakens unity," he of now, there has been no official response from the security forces to the allegations made by the Congress MP.- EndsMust Watch

Eternal and Swiffy will quadruple the size of the business over next 3 years, while keeping losses in check: Kunal Vora
Eternal and Swiffy will quadruple the size of the business over next 3 years, while keeping losses in check: Kunal Vora

Time of India

time41 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Eternal and Swiffy will quadruple the size of the business over next 3 years, while keeping losses in check: Kunal Vora

Kunal Vora , Head of India Equity Research, BNP Paribas , says India's largely unorganized trillion-dollar retail sector, dominated by mom-and-pop stores, is witnessing a quick commerce boom. Driven by dark stores, companies like Eternal are achieving EBITDA breakeven. A land grab is underway, with major players investing heavily to gain first-mover advantage. Focus remains on strong growth while controlling EBITDA losses. In FY27, BNP Paribas expects Eternal quick commerce to get to breakeven at EBITDA level. In the case of Swiggy, it will take longer, about FY29 or FY30. Your report calls quick commerce a decadal opportunity. Help us understand what are the key factors that could determine who will win in this space over the next 5 to 10 years? Any important metrics other than the regular ones that you are tracking at the moment? Kunal Vora: The Indian retail industry is a trillion dollar industry in terms of size, but it is still largely unorganised. If I look at a category like grocery, more than 80% is still largely driven by 10 million mom-and-pop outlets. We have seen a modern trade making some inroads, but it has still been restricted to top cities and then we saw overall growth starting to stabilise in modern trade while e-commerce did not really make any meaningful dent when it came to the grocery segment. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo What we saw with quick commerce is a very strong growth over the last couple of years driven by the dark stores which provide convenience; pricing also has been reasonable and consumers use them more frequently. Also, they were able to crack unit economics with Eternal getting to EBITDA breakeven in 1H of FY25. What we have seen subsequently is a land grab phase in which everyone started investing more aggressively. We have seen that happening in three quick commerce companies. But other retail and e-commerce companies are also looking at this opportunity very closely. They are also starting to invest. It is really about chasing and getting the first mover advantage and we believe that the near-term metric to judge them by will be ensuring that they maintain a very strong growth, while at the same time keeping the EBITDA losses in check. I would not judge them by immediate profitability even if over the next couple of years, they get scale. What we are expecting is just between the two companies which we cover – Eternal and Swiggy – where the net order value will increase from about $4 billion in FY25 to $16 billion by FY28. That is quadrupling the size of the business over the next three years, while keeping the losses in check. We expect that the model in the case of food delivery is initially getting the scale and then focus on profitability will be replicated. Having said that, this is going to be a more competitive industry. The size of the industry is much larger compared to what the food delivery industry is and it is going to remain competitive. Right now, it is more a question of just getting the size and we expect margins to follow. Live Events You Might Also Like: Quick commerce apps stack up extra fees to curb losses How do you see unit economics evolving across food delivery and quick commerce as the market matures? Kunal Vora: In the case of food delivery, we have already seen that happening. In food delivery, if I look at over the last three years, this industry was making about $20 billion in EBITDA losses. In FY25, we have seen about $20 billion EBITDA positive numbers. In case of quick commerce, we believe that going forward, FY26 will remain a year in which there will be peak losses, but beyond that in FY27, we expect Eternal to get to breakeven level at EBITDA level. In the case of Swiggy, we expect it to take longer about FY29 or FY30. In terms of margins, we expect the food delivery margins getting closer to 5% now and on average order value, while in case of quick commerce we expect to take longer, but about 5% is possible in the medium term. The report states that the food delivery is more resilient than the QSRs. Now, is this primarily due to the capex like models or are there consumer behaviour shifts that are driving this advantage? Kunal Vora: In our report, we have done an extensive comparison and benchmarking between food delivery and quick service restaurants – both spaces which we look at very closely now. What we see is that the Indian quick service restaurant industry has seen an increase in EBITDA but they have not been able to generate free cash flow because whatever increase in EBITDA they have seen, largely that is getting reinvested in capex. The big difference between the two is that in the case of food delivery, there is almost no capex, there is no working capital. So, whatever EBITDA they are able to generate is getting reinvested in another very large high growth opportunity which is quick commerce. So, that is a space which we prefer between the two. Even in terms of growth trends, over the last six years – FY19 to FY25 –, QSR industry has seen about 13% revenue CAGR, but that has been driven by 14% store CAGR and that is fairly capex intensive. You Might Also Like: Reinventing Retail: How local kirana stores are adapting to India's quick commerce boom Many of the companies like Jubilant FoodWorks, the capex was about 1-1.5 billion per annum in FY19, but that number is now about 7 billion in FY25. So, while we have not seen a meaningful increase in EITDA, the capex intensity has been fairly elevated in QSR industry and that is the reason we believe food delivery is a better place to be in. In terms of the audience that quick commerce caters to, help us understand how you expect quick commerce to evolve into a true mass market channel? Or will it remain an urban value proposition in the near future? Kunal Vora: In our projections, we see the quick commerce industry catering more to the affluent consumers by FY28. But once they achieve scale, they will be in a position to go mass market as well. For now, our expectation is about 40-45 million households will be spending about Rs 5,000 monthly on quick commerce that can be across various different categories. It can be home and personal care. It can be consumer electronics. There are various products which they can start adding. And beyond that, once they achieve scale, which is about $16 billion just between the two quick commerce companies, they will have many margin levers which can help them bring the cost down. The margin levers we are talking about would include better pricing power when it comes to negotiating with the brands. We expect the advisement revenue to come in because the kind of details which these companies will have over the household consumption patterns will be very valuable for the companies and also, we expect the average order per dark store will keep on increasing over the next few years. Some of these will help them achieve a better level of profitability and some of that can get passed on to the consumer. As the pricing becomes more competitive, they can start going beyond the affluent 40 million households and into the mass households. You Might Also Like: Shadowfax Technologies files confidential DRHP for Rs 2,500 crore IPO with Sebi In what ways might large incumbents in the entire retail space like Reliance or Amazon retail could reshape the competitive intensity we are seeing amid the listed space? Kunal Vora: This is still going to be an evolving space and we do not expect a quick result in terms of market consolidation the way we have seen that in food delivery happening in case of quick commerce soon. The way we are looking at this industry is that everybody will look at their own sweet spots and their own target markets. Larger e-commerce players will continue to focus on a much larger assortment. For quick commerce, what really works is fast moving items which the consumer needs, but it will not be able to cater to industries in which there is a wide assortment, like fashion is not something which they are like well positioned or footwear is not something which they are well positioned to do. So, they will be doing the fast moving items. E-commerce will have a much broader offering and they will not be delivering within 30 minutes. They will have a larger assortment while delivery times could be longer. In the case of physical retailers, it is going to be about the consumer footfalls and they will look more at scheduled deliveries. While they will look to bring the delivery times lower, at the same time they would not go into the dark store model wherein they are close to the consumers in every location. With the heavy focus on the dark store expansion, how should players balance the speed of scaling with profitability discipline? Kunal Vora: After Blinkit achieved EBITDA breakeven, there has been a big burst of dark store expansion. The number of dark stores have doubled in FY25 across most players. I expect FY26 to be a year in which there will be some consolidation while the heavy growth will still continue, and at the same time, we will not see doubling of store count and the focus will be on driving efficiencies to bring the EITDA losses to lower levels compared to what we see. FY26 could be the peak year. After that we expect the dark store additions to get normalised while the focus will be on driving consumers per dark store per day. What kind of impact could Rapido's entry have into the food delivery space? How sustainable could Rapido's model be in terms of their pricing? Kunal Vora : I would not comment on Rapido and what they can do. But if I look at the economics of this business, it makes it very difficult to breakeven at Rs 25 or Rs 50 because average rider will want about Rs 20,000-25,000 per month which is about Rs 1,000 per day and if he is working for 10 hours, you need at least Rs100 per hour, Rs 50 per delivery. So, if someone is looking at like Rs 25, Rs 50 pricing, that makes it very difficult to work out and it will require a lot of cash burn. Today Zomato and Swiggy between them carry about 1.5 billion orders annually and at that scale, we see variable cost per delivery for these players at about Rs 60 purely for delivery and about Rs 80 in total. So, to beat them in terms of unit economics is going to be a challenge. Till FY22-23, Swiggy itself with its large scale was still reporting about 15 billion of annual losses. So, it seems challenging for any new entrant to make any meaningful inroad. We continue to see this as a duopoly which will keep generating healthy cash flows.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store