Latest news with #FederationofIndianChambersofCommerceandIndustry
ITV News
31-07-2025
- Business
- ITV News
Trump's 25% tariff on India exposes cracks in Modi friendship and threatens economic growth
In his latest diplomatic broadside, Donald Trump's decision to slap a 25% tariff on key Indian exports - combined with a provocative tweet teasing a new trade deal with Pakistan - has triggered not only economic alarm in India but also political unease for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose once-touted personal rapport with Trump now appears to be under strain. 'India has been taking advantage of the US for far too long. Time for a level playing field. New deal with Pakistan coming soon. Much fairer," the US President posted on Truth Social earlier this week. '25% tariff now live on Indian medical imports. American jobs matter more than cheap Indian drugs. Too much going to Russia, not fair to us!' The sudden tariff hike, targeting Indian pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and textiles, comes amid simmering friction between the two countries and has sent shockwaves through both the Indian diplomatic and business communities. India's Ministry of Commerce & Industry responded cautiously, saying it had 'taken note' of the US President's remarks and was 'studying their implications.' The ministry reaffirmed India's ongoing commitment to concluding a 'fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial' bilateral trade agreement with Washington. Indian business leaders, however, have not held back. Harsh Vardhan Agarwal, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), called the tariff imposition 'disappointing,' warning it would dent export performance and undermine the hard-won trust between the two economies. 'This move is unfortunate and will undoubtedly impact our exporters,' Mr Agarwal said. 'We still believe the two countries can arrive at a comprehensive trade deal that benefits both sides.' Adding to New Delhi's discomfort is Trump's recent and controversial claim that he helped mediate a ceasefire during the latest flare-up on the borders, a statement India has neither confirmed nor directly rebutted. The ambiguity has invited criticism in India. What has made the situation more politically volatile is Prime Minister Modi's long-standing public embrace of Trump. Their joint appearances at 'Howdy Modi' in Houston and 'Namaste Trump' in Ahmedabad were projected as symbols of a thriving personal and strategic alliance. That narrative is now under scrutiny. With Trump turning publicly confrontational, India's opposition parties have pounced. They are demanding that Modi push back against Trump's remarks on the ceasefire and take a firmer line against the tariffs, accusing the government of compromising national dignity for diplomatic optics. Meanwhile, the Indian medical and pharmaceutical sectors, among the worst affected, have voiced strong objections. Dilip Kumar, Chairman of the Medical Tourism division at the Chamber of Commerce, told Indian media that Trump was attempting to 'kill the market of the Indian economy.' 'But that's not going to happen,' Mr Kumar said. 'The American market is dependent on Indian and Chinese suppliers. The real losers will be the US patients, not Indian exporters.' He added that India would now look to strengthen its trade relationships with Europe and other regions. 'We are resilient. We survive and bounce back - even in the toughest times.' For New Delhi, the challenge now is how to safeguard its economic interests without triggering an open confrontation, especially with a leader who rarely pulls his punches, even with friends.
Scroll.in
30-07-2025
- Business
- Scroll.in
‘Catastrophic failure of foreign policy': Congress on US decision to impose 25% tariffs on India
The Congress on Wednesday called United States President Donald Trump's announcement on levying a 25% tariff on goods imported from India from August 1 a ' catastrophic failure of foreign policy '. 'An entire nation suffers from the consequences of one man's 'Friendship',' the Opposition party said on X. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh added that 'all that taarif [praise] between him [Trump] and Howdy Modi has meant little'. He also criticised Modi for not rebutting the US president's claims of brokering a ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan in May. Ramesh said: 'Mr. Modi thought that if he kept quiet on the insults…India would get special treatment at the hands of President Trump. Clearly that has NOT happened.' The head of the party's social media department, Supriya Shrinate, said that the tariffs would be 'disastrous for the Indian economy' and remarked that 'this comes despite Mr Modi bending backwards to woo Mr Trump'. 'This is a clear sign of how the BJP Govt and the Prime Minister have compromised India's national interest,' she added. Move will increase uncertainty, say industry bodies The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that the United States' decision will increase uncertainty for Indian exporters in the near term. 'We hope that this move is short lived and that the two countries will arrive at a mutually beneficial trade agreement soon,' the organisation's Senior Vice President Anant Goenka said. FICCI said it was hopeful that India and United States will make progress in their discussions on a trade deal and complete their negotiations by September or October. The organisation expressed hope 'that the final agreement will bring good results for both countries'. The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry said that the new US tariff rate would present a stiff challenge for India's textile sector. 'Without a doubt, the new tariff rate is going to seriously test the resolve and resilience of India's textile and apparel exporters as we will not enjoy a significant duty differential advantage vis-à-vis many other countries, except Bangladesh, with whom we compete for a larger share of the US market,' CITI chairperson Rakesh Mehra said. Mehra added that the lack of clarity on the 'penalty' amount added to the uncertainty for businesses. Trump's announcement on Wednesday came after Indian markets had closed. However, NDTV Profit quoted traders as saying that they expect the Indian rupee to open at 87.75 to 88 per dollar. The rupee on Wednesday settled at a five-month low to 87.42 per dollar, significantly down from 86.81 a dollar on Tuesday. Studying implications, says Centre The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Wednesday evening that the government is studying the implications of the United States' decision, and that it will take all steps necessary to secure national interests. 'India and the US have been engaged in negotiations on concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement over the last few months,' the ministry said. 'We remain committed to that objective.' US tariffs Trump on Wednesday cited 'far too high' tariffs on American goods, non-trade barriers and the procurement of arms from Russia as the reasons for imposing 25% tariffs on India. The US President also said that India will also have to pay a 'penalty' for buying a large portion of its military equipment from Russia. However, he did not specify the quantum of the 'penalty'. The United States has said it will impose 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of countries that have not negotiated separate trade agreements with it by August 1. Trump announced higher levies in April, before pausing those tariffs at a reduced 10% rate to allow time for negotiations. Despite an extended deadline, Trump has only secured a handful of deals. On Monday, the US president had said that he would likely introduce a global baseline tariff between 15% and 20% for countries that had not negotiated trade deals with his administration. Trump had said on June 27 that New Delhi could sign a 'very big' trade deal with Washington soon. On July 2, the White House said that the deal was close to being finalised and would be announced soon. An Indian team led by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had visited the US in May to negotiate the agreement. Following this, a team of negotiators from the US was in India for a week in June.
NDTV
10-07-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Can India Help Pull Putin Away From Xi? Or, Should It?
Last week, India's Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, confirmed what many defence observers had been saying, that China actively helped Pakistan during India's Operation Sindoor. Speaking at a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) event, Singh acknowledged that China was hurting India using its ancient military doctrine of "36 stratagems", one of which involved killing the adversary with a "borrowed knife". We already knew that China was Pakistan's main military and diplomatic backer and has decided to sell Islamabad dozens of its 5th-generation fighter jets. But it is rare for an Indian military or even senior government official to name China as its main threat, despite the country's strategic policy being primarily aimed at its powerful neighbour. Singh's comment came barely two weeks after US President Donald Trump hosted the Pakistani military chief, Asim Munir, at the White House. Earlier, the US Central Command chief, Gen Michael Kurilla, had described Pakistan as a "phenomenal partner" in counter-terrorism and insisted that America needed both Pakistan and India. Post-Pahalgam Reckoning India's military action against Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack failed to get unequivocal support from major powers, disappointing many Indians who expected world leaders to recognise India's right to defend itself after a horrible terror attack. They condemned the attack but didn't go beyond that, despite their knowledge of China's military help to Pakistan. People were dismayed that Western leaders hyphenated India with Pakistan despite New Delhi's efforts in the past two decades to come closer to the West and expand economic and defence ties. Munir's welcome in Washington emphasised that Islamabad remained important to US interests in the region. As India has not been a treaty partner with the United States, having maintained its strategic autonomy in foreign policy, the Western reaction or lack of support should not have come as a surprise to New Delhi. Nevertheless, this has highlighted a major problem for India. The Chinese Threat India needs to review its strategic relationships to tackle the challenge posed by the ever-deepening military relationship between Pakistan and China. There is now a strong case for strengthening our strategic partnership with Russia, while maintaining such ties with the United States. As this essay explains later, Moscow would also like to reduce its dependence on Beijing, which has steadily grown since the Ukraine war. The US and other Western countries will welcome that too. In recent weeks, many in India have wondered if it was right to rely more on the West in recent years and weaken relations with its traditional ally, Russia. They recalled how Moscow stood by India during the 1971 war when the West and China supported Pakistan. Although Russia's reaction since Pahalgam has not been different from the West's, historically, the former has been loyal to India. When we conducted the first nuclear explosion in 1974 and nuclear weapons tests in 1998, Moscow stood by us and did not join the Western countries in slapping sanctions on India. It remained crucial for India's atomic programme during the country's nuclear isolation by the West. It was only in the last two decades that the United States built its strategic partnership with New Delhi, partly to counter the Chinese threat. But India still had to rely on Russia for nuclear-powered submarines, which the US constantly refused to provide. Now, of course, India is building such submarines itself. The Su-57 Russia has now offered us the fifth-generation stealth fighter Su-57, virtually on our terms - seven years after India pulled out of the joint-manufacturing jet project. It's ready to produce the fighter in India, happy to share its full source code, and has even offered to transfer technology, which the US or any other Western country is reluctant to do. This will help India in its project to produce the fifth-generation aircraft. Of course, the political leadership must respect military experts if their assessment doesn't back the Russian fighter and they prefer the American F-35, which is also on offer. But we do have the Russian option to consider. Why India Could Be A Better 'Partner' Russians have been more willing to partner with India in high-tech defence projects than with China. Moscow is particularly reluctant to share its aviation expertise with Beijing, an area in which China is believed to be still behind both the US and Russia. India and Russia may even co-produce the S-500 missile defence system, following the success of the S-400 system against Pakistan last month. The two countries have already been jointly producing several defence platforms, such as the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile, which was used against Pakistan in the recent conflict. Thus, although India has diversified defence relationships over the past decade, Russia remains its single biggest partner. The last three years have been tough for Russia after President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, forcing the former to embrace China more tightly. Three weeks before the invasion, Xi Jinping announced his no-limits partnership with Putin. With the West providing Ukraine with the latest weapons and air defence systems, Russia came under pressure, which only increased further after Western sanctions. Although officially neutral, China has been supporting Russia in the war. According to US officials, Beijing has been providing Moscow with significant quantities of machine tools, drones and turbojet engines, microelectronics and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to produce propellants for weapons. Not All Is Rosy However, the China-Russia partnership also has its limits, and they view each other with suspicion. A recently leaked report from the Russian intelligence agency, FSB, describes China as "the enemy". The FSB assessment, reported in the New York Times last month, calls China a serious threat to Russian security. "Beijing is increasingly trying to recruit Russian spies and get its hands on sensitive military technology, at times by luring disaffected Russian scientists," it says. The FSB report warns that China is trying to encroach on Russian territory in the Pacific, where the two countries have a long-running dispute. It also says that China is increasing its influence in Central Asia and spying on Russia's vast territory in the Arctic. The warning by the Russian secret agency suggests that given an opportunity, Moscow could be persuaded to loosen its ties with Beijing. Although India is currently not strong enough to replace China, Russia would like to strengthen strategic ties with New Delhi. Beijing has not provided Moscow with its unflinching diplomatic support since the Ukraine conflict. Like India, it has also abstained in most UN resolutions on Ukraine in the past three years. China has also been putting pressure, though unsuccessfully, to dissuade Russia from selling some of its advanced defence systems to India, such as the S-400 anti-missile defence shield. Weaning Putin Away From Xi Trump, meanwhile, has also been trying to wean Russia from China with his continuing attempts to woo Putin. A strong alliance between Moscow and Beijing is a serious challenge to Washington. But if Russia can be persuaded, America can focus on the Chinese challenge. Even before his election in November last year, Trump had declared that he wanted to "un-unite" Putin and Xi. To achieve that, he first wants to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict so that Moscow's dependence on China could be curtailed. But Putin doesn't yet trust Trump or the American establishment, where he is not seen as a friend. America's European allies also see Moscow as a greater threat than China, at least for now. How The Ukraine War Benefits Beijing Xi Jinping, however, is concerned about Trump's attempts to pull Putin away from China. In February, soon after Trump intensified efforts to end the Ukraine war, Xi affirmed China's "no-limit" partnership. It is in China's interest that Russia stays engaged in the war. The end of the Ukraine conflict could lead to an improvement in Russia's relations with the US and a reduction in its dependence on Beijing. The war is also depleting a lot of American military equipment given the constant supplies to Ukraine, something that suits Beijing. Peace with Ukraine can also lead to the lifting of American sanctions and help Russia rebuild its economy and redevelop its arms industry, which is currently forced to rely on China for many components. This will also benefit India as Indo-Russian defence projects will get a new lifeline. Any reduction in the Chinese footprint in Russia will be good news for India. Since the Ukraine war, the Modi government has remained neutral despite pressure from the West. It has also been helped by a cheap supply of oil from Russia, which increased from just 2% before the war to 40% by last year. But Xi is unlikely to let Putin escape from Beijing's clutches so easily. Last year, Russia-China trade reached a record $245 billion, 66% more than in 2021, a year before the start of the Ukraine war. This increase was largely driven by a surge in Chinese exports of civil-military dual-use goods. China is now Russia's largest buyer of crude oil, ahead of India. Fears In Washington No doubt, India and Russia's closer strategic partnership will be seen with suspicion in Washington and other Western countries. But India should be able to convince its Western partners that unlike China, India is not ganging up with Russia to threaten them, and that the real aim is to weaken Moscow's dependence on Beijing. As part of its multi-polar policy, India must also continue to deepen its strategic relationship with the United States, the only power still capable of countering China. India and the US need each other to deal with the Chinese threat. Americans know that India has never posed any security threat to them. Pakistan may be useful to them, but it can harm its security, as it has done in the past. It is, after all, for this reason that the US is reluctant to sell its advanced military systems to Pakistan.
News18
04-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
Future Wars Could Involve 'Computer Nerds', Says India's Deputy Army Chief
Last Updated: Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Rahul R Singh, said India needed to prepare for fifth-generation warfare and highlighted the importance of drones. Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development & Sustenance), Lt Gen Rahul R Singh, said on Friday that future wars could involve a 'computer nerd controlling the entire thing" as the nature of warfare continues to evolve, as seen in recent conflicts in Israel, Iran and Ukraine. The top military official made the remarks while speaking on India's Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in May after a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April. Speaking at the 'New Age Military Technologies' event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Lt Gen Singh described Op Sindoor as a 'master stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time." The senior military officer elaborated on strategic thinking and intricate planning based on extensive intelligence gathering. The operation was deliberately designed as a tri-services approach involving the Army, Navy, and Air Force to 'send the right message that we indeed are an integrated force," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The official also emphasised that India needed to prepare for fifth-generation warfare, saying that future conflicts could involve 'a computer nerd, maybe perhaps sitting in one part of the country and controlling the entire thing." He also highlighted the growing importance of drone technology in modern warfare and called for increased investment in research and development. 'There are so many components that we still bank upon getting from outside. Secret technology, engines we are grappling with… we need to invest in these things," he added. Lt Gen Singh also said China gave Islamabad 'live inputs" on key Indian positions during the deadly conflict. He said Pakistan was the 'front face" during Operation Sindoor while China provided 'all possible support". The top official pointed to the adversaries India is up against and said while conflict was taking place on one border (western), there were three adversaries — Pakistan, China and Turkey, as the latter two provided military hardware and drones to the Pakistani army. Pakistani officials had previously dismissed allegations of receiving active support from China in the conflict, but have not commented specifically on whether Beijing gave any satellite and radar help during the fighting. (with inputs from agencies)
Hindustan Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
9 targets ‘prudent to engage': Deputy Army Chief's 5 big remarks on Operation Sindoor
Nearly two months after India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh has said that the decision to strike the nine targets was taken in the last hour before the operation started. Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh(ANI) The top Army officer said that India had narrowed down 21 targets, of which nine were considered 'prudent to engage', and were finalised in the last hour. He was addressing an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Here are five big remarks by him: Lessons from Op Sindoor: "The strategic messaging by leadership was unambiguous. There is no scope of absorbing the pain the way we did a few years important consideration was that we should always be at the top of the escalation ladder. When we reach a military objective, we should try and put a stop to it." Why Pakistan wanted ceasefire: 'There was a punch ready. Pakistan realised that in case that hidden punch comes through, they would be in a very bad condition. This is why they asked for a ceasefire.' Selection of nine targets: "The planning and selection of targets was based on a lot of data that was collected using technology and human intelligence. So a total of 21 targets were actually identified, out of which nine targets we thought would be prudent to engage... It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged." India's 'masterly stroke': "War is easy to initiate, but it's very difficult to control. So I would say that was a very masterly stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time". China, Turkey's support to Pakistan: "Firstly, one border, two adversaries. Pakistan was a front face. We had China providing all possible support, and it's no surprise because if you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese. So, it's no surprise... China perhaps has seen is that he's able to test his weapons against various other weapon systems that are there. It's like a live lab which is available to it." Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7, a fortnight after 26 civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in a deadly terror attack. Over 100 terrorists were killed as India targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and POK.
