India, US aim for interim deal by Aug 1 deadline
"The Indian team is coming back," an official confirmed the conclusion of discussions. The latest round of negotiations holds particular importance as both nations are aiming to finalise an interim trade deal before August 1. This deadline marks the end of the suspension period of the Trump-era tariffs, steep additional duties of up to 26% imposed on several countries, including India.
US President Donald Trump had originally announced the reciprocal tariffs on April 2 this year. While they were scheduled for immediate implementation, the duties were temporarily suspended for 90 days until July 9, and later extended again until August 1, allowing time for ongoing trade negotiations with multiple countries.
During the fifth round of talks, key sectors such as agriculture and automobiles featured prominently. The discussions also covered matters related to non-market economies and the export control category known as SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technologies).
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India.com
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The UAE Iceberg Project planned to tow a massive Antarctic iceberg 6,480 nautical miles to Fujairah but faced major challenges and remains unfulfilled/ Representative Image In a region where rain is rare and water more precious than oil, the United Arab Emirates once had its sights set on an audacious engineering marvel: towing a gigantic Antarctic iceberg to its sun-baked coast to quench thirst, summon clouds, and maybe even reshape climate patterns. But as of 2025, the only glacier ice that has made it to Dubai is not floating off the coast but chilling highball glasses in rooftop bars, courtesy of a boutique Greenland startup. The UAE Iceberg Project : Cold Ambitions in a Hot Desert Launched in 2017 by the National Advisor Bureau Limited, a private Abu Dhabi-based company, the UAE Iceberg Project sought to tow a massive tabular iceberg, measuring roughly 2 kilometers long by 500 meters wide, from Antarctica to Fujairah, a coastal emirate on the Gulf of Oman. 3D concept of the iceberg stationed roughly 3 kilometers off the coast of Fujairah for harvesting/ Image: National Advisor Bureau Ltd. The logic, according to Abdulla Alshehi, the firm's managing director and the project's chief architect, was straightforward: an average iceberg holds over 20 billion gallons of fresh water, enough to supply 1 million people for five years. 'This is the purest water in the world,' he told Gulf News in 2017. 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