Daily Briefing: The European turn

Indian Express

a day ago

Good morning,
Chai, snacks and political bonhomie flowed on Tuesday evening as members of the multiparty delegations, back from their world tour, gathered to discuss their visits with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No member, regardless of political affiliation, was left behind as Modi went from table to table, engaging and gathering feedback from leaders of different teams. Sources told The Indian Express that the PM listened intently when senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor spoke at length about his experience. Seven such delegations were tasked with bringing India's fight against terrorism to the global stage after Operation Sindoor. There was a unanimous consensus on the success of these visits. My colleagues Deeptiman Tiwary and Jatin Anand have more details.
On that note, let's get to today's edition.
The 90-day pause period on the US's sweeping reciprocal tariffs is set to end in less than a month. India is in the process of brokering a trade deal with the Trump administration to buy concessions. Both sides have discussed tariffs on their respective goods of interest. On Tuesday, US negotiators concluded a nearly week-long visit in New Delhi, wrapping up another round of talks.
Update: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on an official visit to Belgium and France, told French daily Le Figaro that India hoped to reach an agreement before July 9, when the tariff suspension ends. He added that India saw the US as 'acting in line with its immediate self-interest', and that he 'would do the same with them'.
Opportunity: As America turns inwards and becomes unpredictable, India may do well to capitalise on its ties with the European Union. Contributing editor C Raja Mohan underscores the importance of an EU-India alliance in enhancing the prospects of a multipolar world amid growing bipolar domination by the US and China. During his time in Brussels, Jaishankar asserted that even though India and the EU may not always share identical perspectives, there was an opportunity to forge deeper ties. This came after the First Strategic Dialogue between Jaishankar and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas.
Progress: India and the EU made significant progress in their trade talks, a week after the former announced a trade deal with the UK in May. A status report released by the EU revealed that five of the 23 chapters covered in the bilateral talks have been wrapped up. India's deal with the UK is significant amid these negotiations, given that London and Brussels are competitors in several product categories such as spirits, medical equipment and cars.
When the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was consecrated, it put a long-standing, divisive issue in the country to bed. However, emboldened by the Supreme Court's verdict, many such claims for temples in different places have cropped up. In an interview with The Indian Express, Nripendra Misra, the Ayodhya Ram temple's officer-architect-in-chief, advocates for 'limits' on correcting historical wrongs. He says, 'We cannot seek justice for the past. It has to be forgotten.'
New heights: On May 9, Lieutenant Commander Yashaswi Solankee became the first woman officer to be appointed as an Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the President of India. She spoke to The Indian Express about how she has prepared to take on the role.
Water wars: India's Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan restricted hydroelectric projects in the Indus river basin from including any significant water storage capacity. Now that the treaty is in abeyance, the government plans to increase the storage capacity for hydro projects, which are still in the initial stages.
Sonam's story: Growing up in the narrow bylanes of Indore's Kushwah Nagar, Sonam Raghuvanshi dreamed of an MBA degree, expanding her father's plywood business, and breaking out of the regimented life set by her family. Today, she stands accused of conspiring to murder her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi. My colleague Anand Mohan J profiles the 'sanskari bahu'- turned-murder accused.
Space travel: The highly anticipated launch of the Axiom-4 mission, which will carry Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), has been delayed again due to a technical snag. The crew was set to lift off this evening. SpaceX has yet to announce the next launch date. But what does it take to get the astronauts to the ISS, and what will their journey look like? We explain.
Also read: The story of Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go to space
Artificial intelligence (AI) 'reasoning' may not be all it's cracked up to be. The AI industry may be grossly overstating its models' capabilities. Folks at Apple put models like OpenAI o3-mini, DeepSeek-R1 and Claude-3.7-Sonnet (thinking) to test. They found that these models are prone to 'overthinking' and 'fail to find correct solutions' beyond a certain complexity threshold. Their findings have been published in a new research paper outlining these inefficiencies and scalability limitations.
🎧 Before you go, don't forget to tune in to the latest '3 Things' podcast episode. Today's lineup: India awaits census, Ahmedabad's 'vanished lakes', and an impeachment motion against a High Court judge.
That's all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
Sonal Gupta is a senior sub-editor on the news desk. She writes feature stories and explainers on a wide range of topics from art and culture to international affairs. She also curates the Morning Expresso, a daily briefing of top stories of the day, which won gold in the 'best newsletter' category at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2023. She also edits our newly-launched pop culture section, Fresh Take.
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