India undeterred by Trump threats
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite US President Donald Trump's threats of penalties, two Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday, not wishing to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
On top of a new 25% tariff on India's exports to the US, Trump indicated in a Truth Social post last month that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil.
On Friday, Trump told reporters he had heard that India would no longer be buying oil from Russia. But the sources said there would be no immediate changes.
"These are long-term oil contracts," one of the sources said. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight." Justifying India's oil purchases from Russia, a second source said India's imports of Russian grades had helped avoid a global surge in oil prices, which have remained subdued despite Western curbs on the Russian oil sector.
Unlike Iranian and Venezuelan oil, Russian crude is not subject to direct sanctions, and India is buying it below the current price cap fixed by the European Union, the source said.
The New York Times also quoted two unnamed senior Indian officials on Saturday as saying there had been no change in Indian government policy.
Indian government authorities did not respond to Reuters' request for official comment on its oil purchasing intentions. However, during a regular press briefing on Friday, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has a "steady and time-tested partnership" with Russia.
"On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," he said. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
India's top supplier
Trump, who has made ending Russia's war in Ukraine a priority of his administration since returning to office this year, has expressed growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks.
He has threatened 100% tariffs on US imports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.
Russia is the leading supplier to India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, accounting for about 35% of its overall supplies. India imported about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1% from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by sources.
But while the Indian government may not be deterred by Trump's threats, sources told Reuters this week that Indian state refiners stopped buying Russian oil after July discounts narrowed to their lowest since 2022 — when sanctions were first imposed on Moscow — due to lower Russian exports and steady demand.
Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources told Reuters. Nayara Energy — a refinery majority-owned by Russian entities, including oil major Rosneft, and major buyer of Russian oil — was recently sanctioned by the EU. Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
19 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Govt suspends mobile data service in Balochistan province for three weeks
QUETTA: Pakistan government has suspended cell phone data services for three weeks in Balochistan province in a bid to block communications among terrorists behind a surge in recent attacks, an official said. Terrorists have stepped up attacks in recent months, particularly on Pakistan's military, which has launched intelligence-based operations against them. In an order on Wednesday seen by Reuters, the government said the services would be suspended until the end of the month because of the law and order situation in the province, home to key Chinese Belt and Road projects. 'The service has been suspended because they (terrorists) use it for coordination and sharing information,' Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said on Friday. Officials said there are 8.5 million cell phone subscribers in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by size, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. But it is thinly populated, with just 15 million from a national population of 240 million. No casualty reported: Jaffar Express: pilot engine attacked in Balochistan The news follows Pakistan's ban on road travel to Iran late last month, citing security threats. Terrorists primarily attack Pakistani military or Chinese nationals and their interests, but have recently started targeting senior army officers. The military said an officer and two soldiers were killed in a roadside blast set off by the terrorists on Tuesday. The attack targeting a vehicle was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA),a terrorist outfit in the province, which has also claimed responsibility for several attacks on senior officers in recent weeks. The region is home to the Gwadar Port, built by Beijing as part of a $65-billion investment in Pakistan in the Belt and Road programme designed to expand China's global reach. Islamabad accuses arch-rival India of funding and backing the terrorists in a bid to stoke instability, as Pakistan seeks international investments in the region, a charge New Delhi denies. In March, the BLA blew up a railway track and took hostage more than 400 train passengers in an attack that killed 31, including 23 soldiers.
Business Recorder
19 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
India tech giant TCS layoffs herald AI shakeup of $283 billion outsourcing sector
BENGALURU: Indian outsourcing giant Tata Consultancy Services' decision to cut over 12,000 jobs signals the start of a broader AI-fueled trend that could end up eliminating around half a million jobs over the next two to three years from the $283 billion sector, experts said. While TCS pegged the move to shed 2% of its workforce to skill mismatches rather than AI-related productivity gains, experts viewed the largest-ever layoffs by India's top private employer as the beginning of things to come in the labour-intensive sector. Roughly 12,200 TCS middle and senior management jobs will be lost. The industry, which has played a crucial role in creating a middle class in India, is increasingly seeing AI being used for everything from basic coding to manual testing and customer support. The sector employed 5.67 million people as of March 2025 and accounted for over 7% of India's GDP. It has a huge multiplier effect due to the direct and indirect jobs it creates and the cars-to-homes consumption it drives in the world's fifth-largest economy. It has historically absorbed a majority of India's engineers but that will change as rising AI use ekes out more efficiencies and demands newer skills that many current employees lack, according to half a dozen industry veterans, analysts, and staffing firms. 'We are in the midst of a massive transition that will transform white-collar work as we know it,' said Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research founder and chairman Ray Wang, echoing other experts who warned that more layoffs are likely on the cards. India's TCS to cut 12,000 jobs The most vulnerable employees include pure people managers with minimal tech knowledge, those in charge of testing or identifying bugs and ensuring user-friendliness before delivering software to clients, and infrastructure management staff who provide basic tech support and ensure networks and servers are working well, experts said. 'About 400,000 to 500,000 professionals are at risk of being laid off over the next two to three years as their skills don't match client demands,' tech market intelligence firm UnearthInsight's founder Gaurav Vasu said, adding that about 70% of those layoffs would impact workers with 4-12 years' experience. 'This (fear stemming from TCS layoffs) may hurt consumer demand for tourism, luxury shopping and even delay long-term investments such as real estate,' Vasu said. TCS and its peers Infosys, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, LTIMindtree, and Cognizant collectively employ over 430,000 workers with 13 to 25 years of experience, according to staffing firm Xpheno. 'At the moment, they may appear like the big fat middle layer,' Xpheno's co-founder Kamal Karanth said. None of the IT firms responded to Reuters queries seeking comment. 'With cost optimization being the key driver for new deal wins, clients are asking for productivity benefits - a trend which is also growing due to the rise in AI adoption. This requires IT firms to do more work with the same number of employees or the same work with fewer employees,' Jefferies analyst Akshat Agarwal said in a research note. Adapt or perish TCS, which had more than 613,000 workers before the layoffs, said in its late July announcement it was gearing up to be 'future-ready' by investing in new technologies, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for its clients and itself, and realigning its workforce model. It did not answer Reuters queries on how many layoffs were tied to AI adoption and why it could not redeploy the affected employees. 'This is very devastating news,' said a 45-year-old, Kolkata-based TCS employee affected by the latest layoffs. 'It is very difficult for people my age to get new jobs.' Some others who are still at TCS fretted over its mediocre performance bonuses for senior employees in recent quarters, a new 'bench policy' that limits the time somebody could be without a project regardless of personal circumstances or past performance, on-boarding delays, and the emotional turmoil caused by the layoffs. 'All these developments have tanked the morale of mid-career folks like me,' a Pune-based TCS employee said. The Indian outsourcing sector has been a key employment engine since the 1990s, offering upward mobility to millions of engineers. But revenue growth has weakened recently as its clients, stung by inflation and U.S. tariff uncertainty, defer discretionary spending and demand better cost management. 'The tech industry is at an inflection point, as AI and automation move to the very core of how businesses operate,' industry body Nasscom said. During past tech revolutions, disruption was felt at the organisational level. 'With AI, for the first time, the onus is on the individual to reinvent or re-skill themselves,' former Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani said.
Business Recorder
19 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Indian automaker Tata Motors' quarterly profit plunges as tariffs, slow sales bite
Indian automaker Tata Motors' posted a 63% slump in first quarter profit on Friday, as U.S. tariffs hurt its business that was already reeling from weak sales at home and in its luxury car businesses. Tata Motors, India's top seller of electric and commercial vehicles, is battling weak urban demand at home while its profit-driving luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover logged a sales drop of 11% overseas, hit by a temporary halt in U.S. exports and the phase-out of older Jaguar models. Fresh U.S. import tariffs have further squeezed margins, piling pressure on the business. Quarterly volumes and revenue took a hit from a 27.5% U.S. tariff on UK- and EU-made cars, along with the planned phase-out of legacy Jaguar models ahead of a new launch, Tata Motors said on Friday, adding that the tariffs dealt a direct blow to profitability and cash flow. Tata will keep Iveco's industrial footprint, employees after acquisition, Iveco CEO says The Jaguar Land Rover-owner reported a profit of 39.24 billion rupees ($447.8 million), down from a restated 105.14 billion rupees a year earlier, which includes a 49.75-billion-rupee one-time gain from the sale of its financing arm to non-bank lender Tata Capital. Tata Motors kept its JLR guidance unchanged, saying a U.S.-UK trade deal signed in May will sharply cut the tariff hit. The pact lets the UK export 100,000 cars a year to the U.S. at a 10% duty, instead of the 25% faced by other countries.
