India must sharpen focus on domestic drivers to sustain 7%–8% growth, minister says
India remains committed to a strategy centered on deregulation and infrastructure investment, Rao Inderjit Singh, junior minister in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, said in parliament.
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
At 23, she set out to modernize the spice trade. Now she's navigating Trump's tariffs
In 2016, turmeric lattes were all the rage, but Sana Javeri Kadri thought the ones in San Francisco, where she lives, tasted nothing like the fresh spices she grew up with in India. A former line cook who was doing marketing for a Bay Area grocer, Javeri Kadri 'knew [her] way around spices', but was new to the industry. Still, she booked a ticket home to Mumbai, hoping that she could get richer flavors into US pantries. After reaching out to a number of growers, she met an organic turmeric farmer and, using her tax refund and a loan from her parents, bought a batch of the crop. It became the foundation of Diaspora Co, which Javeri Kadri launched the following year at just 23. From the outset, Javeri Kadri aimed to bypass industrial spice farms, whose products she found bland, and instead source from farmers using regenerative practices. This meant working directly with the producers and paying them a living wage. 'By rough math, I probably reached out to around 2,500 farmers,' she said. After two years of growing a US market for her turmeric, Javeri Kadri added black pepper to the mix. For a while after that, it was an 'exponential growth curve', she said. Today Diaspora Co has 24 employees and sells around 40 different spices and blends, sourced from 140 different farms in India and Sri Lanka. Diaspora Co is part of a wave of new spice companies, including Burlap & Barrel and Spicewalla, that center sourcing from sustainable farms, paying producers a living wage, building a more transparent (and streamlined) supply chain – steps they say allow them to put noticeably fresher spices on the market. Javeri Kadri said it was common knowledge in the industry that because of the long supply chains, it can take years for spices to reach consumers, meaning they are 'expired before they even get to you'. She said Diaspora Co farmers rotate their crops, maintain plant diversity and use water-retention systems – regenerative practices that not only minimize the farms' carbon footprint, but also make them more resilient to climate shocks. That meant when extreme flooding struck Tamil Nadu, India, last year, Diaspora's cardamom farm 'had such great aerated soil and such good irrigation, they were only in standing water for a few hours before the soil and the property was able to flush itself clean', minimizing losses, she said. Javeri Kadri stressed that her partners were already practicing sustainable agriculture before she arrived on the scene, but she connects them with each other. 'If you get them talking, they problem-solve themselves,' she said. 'They're all experts.' Diaspora Co enjoys low worker turnover and lasting partnerships, something Javeri Kadri attributes to the company's commitment to fair wages. 'Once we build a relationship with them, it never goes anywhere,' she said. In 2022, Diaspora Co launched a fund for farm workers, offering financial literacy workshops and providing seed money to open bank accounts, among other things. At a cardamom farm, workers asked for a community room and kitchen, which Javeri Kadri admitted wasn't what she expected. But 'it's what they need, not what we think sitting in America that they need,' she said. 'Really the point of it is that we listen to the workers directly.' Franco Fubini, a Diaspora Co board member and founder and CEO of sustainable food sourcing platform Natoora, said Javeri Kadri wasn't just 'trading spices', she was building a unique supply chain and helping to catalyze demand for products that 'are created in harmony with nature'. He added: 'Whenever you have a company that is creating a market by stimulating demand, buying the right product, paying the right price for it, and creating a healthy farming ecosystem – that is what revolutionizing the food system is all about.' Diaspora's efforts to, as Javeri Kadri puts it, 'decolonize the spice trade' have also proven profitable. She's raised about $2.5m from angel investors in the last few years, and though she declined to share revenue numbers, she said the company had grown twentyfold over the past five years. Its spices are now sold in 400 US stores, and last year, with help from Natoora, Diaspora Co expanded into the UK. Rather than pressuring existing partners to produce more and more, which could tax the land (and workers), Javeri Kadri said she plans to keep adding new farm partners in order to continue to boost production. Javeri Kadri has other projects on the horizon, including a new Masala Chai tea blend, another blend developed with the former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, and a cookbook featuring recipes from partner farms. 'A lot of people tell me, 'Oh, Indian food is intimidating or heavy or complicated,' and the whole premise of the book is, how do we make it as bright and fresh and accessible as possible?' Javeri Kadri said. She plans to roll out these projects while managing an altogether new challenge: This month, Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on Indian products to 50%, a move that Javeri Kadri predicts will cost her company between $100,000 and $200,000 by the end of the year, leaving her no choice but to eventually raise prices. (She said they had already paid about $20,000 in tariffs since April, when the US imposed its initial levies.) Javeri Kadri's entire business model is built on sourcing spices from the areas they are indigenous to in south Asia, which means she couldn't pivot her supply chain even if she wanted to. 'People will say, 'Well, we don't need those exotic ingredients anyway,'' she said. But, she added, 'there's nothing as American as apple pie. And apple pie relies on cinnamon. An American classic is vanilla ice cream; we don't grow vanilla. A lot of these ingredients are inherently not exotic, but they come from elsewhere.' Tariffs could have an especially devastating effect on mission-driven companies like Diaspora, which operate on small margins even as they prioritize single-source farms and fair labor, said David Ortega, the Noel W Stuckman chair in food economics and policy at Michigan State University. 'These tariff price increases can really jeopardize those priorities.' With the higher tariffs – and the economic uncertainty surrounding trade policy – Javeri Kadri acknowledges that it may be hard to grow in the US market over the coming years. Her approach? 'We grow elsewhere. We go where we're not penalized for doing business,' she said. 'It's very simple.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Indian miner IREL seeks Japan, South Korea partnerships for rare earth magnet production
NEW DELHI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - India's state-owned miner IREL is seeking to collaborate with Japanese and South Korean companies to start commercial production of rare earth magnets, a source familiar with the matter said, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on China. The company is looking at both Japan and South Korea for rare earth processing technology, potentially through government-to-government channels, the source said, declining to be named as the discussions are not public. The miner aims to formalise talks with other countries on rare earth mining and technology partnerships and plans to seek IREL board approval for commercial magnet production this year, the source said. IREL and the Department of Atomic Energy, which oversees the company, did not respond to requests for comment. India currently lacks commercial-scale facilities to refine and separate the full range of rare earth elements to high-purity levels. China, which controls the bulk of global rare earth mining, suspended exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets in April, upending the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, and semiconductor companies among others that use them. IREL has also approached Toyotsu Rare Earths India, a unit of Japanese trading house Toyota Tsusho (8015.T), opens new tab, to seek help in reaching out to companies in Japan for processing of rare earth materials, the source said. The source said IREL had an initial meeting with Toyotsu to explore whether it could engage Japanese magnet manufacturers, with one proposal involving the possibility of a Japanese company setting up a plant in India. Toyota Tsusho and Toyotsu Rare Earths India did not immediately comment. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in charge of rare earths, did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment. In June, Reuters reported that India asked IREL to suspend a 13-year-old rare earth export agreement with Japan to conserve domestic supplies. IREL is prepared to supply rare earth element neodymium oxide to a technology partner, who would then produce the magnets and send them back to India, the source said. The state miner currently has the capacity to produce 400–500 metric tons of neodymium annually, the source said, noting that output could increase depending on the terms of the collaboration. IREL also plans to expand domestic rare earth mining and processing. In India, rare earth mining is restricted to IREL, which supplies the Department of Atomic Energy with materials for nuclear power and defence-related applications. The company is also exploring potential rare earth mining opportunities in Argentina, Australia, Malawi and Myanmar, the source said.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Men celebrate fourth anniversary of Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan
Thousands of men gathered across Kabul on Friday to watch the scattering of flowers from helicopters, but Afghan women were barred from attending the celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban's return to power. Three of the six 'flower shower' locations were already off-limits to women, who have been prohibited from entering parks and recreational areas since November 2022. The Taliban seized Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, as the US and Nato withdrew their forces at the end of a two-decade war. Since then, they have imposed their interpretation of Islamic law on daily life, including sweeping restrictions on women and girls, based on edicts from their leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. Friday's anniversary programme, which also included speeches from cabinet members, was only for men. An outdoor sports performance, initially expected to feature Afghan athletes, did not take place. Rights groups, foreign governments and the UN have condemned the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls, who remain barred from many jobs, education beyond sixth grade, and most public spaces. Members of the United Afghan Women's Movement for Freedom staged an indoor protest against Taliban rule on Friday in the north-eastern Takhar province. 'This day marked the beginning of a black domination that excluded women from work, education, and social life,' the movement said in a statement shared with the Associated Press. 'We, the protesting women, remember this day not as a memory, but as an open wound of history, a wound that has not yet healed. The fall of Afghanistan was not the fall of our will. We stand, even in the darkness.' There was also an indoor protest in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Afghan women held up signs that said 'Forgiving the Taliban is an act of enmity against humanity' and 'August 15th is a dark day.' They were fully veiled, except for their eyes, in the photographs. Earlier in the day, the Taliban leader had warned God would severely punish Afghans who were ungrateful for Islamic rule in the country, according to a statement. Akhundzada, who is seldom seen in public, said in a statement that Afghans had endured hardships and made sacrifices for almost 50 years so that Islamic law, or sharia, could be established. Sharia had saved people from 'corruption, oppression, usurpation, drugs, theft, robbery, and plunder'., he said. 'These are great divine blessings that our people should not forget and, during the commemoration of Victory Day (Aug. 15), express great gratitude to Allah Almighty so that the blessings will increase,' said Akhundzada in comments shared on the social media platform X. 'If, against God's will, we fail to express gratitude for blessings and are ungrateful for them, we will be subjected to the severe punishment of Allah Almighty,' he said. Last month, the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for Akhundzada and the chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls. The ICC said there were 'reasonable grounds to believe' they had ordered policies that deprived women and girls of 'education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion'. This year's anniversary celebrations are more muted than last year's, when the Taliban staged a military parade at a US airbase, drawing anger from President Donald Trump about the abandoned American hardware on display. Afghanistan is also gripped by a humanitarian crisis made worse by climate change, millions of Afghans expelled from Iran and Pakistan, and a sharp drop in donor funding.
