By TNV Desk

This is a weekly foreign media digest that tells you how India has been covered in the global media from September 03 – September 09

AP – Biden, Modi look to continue tightening US-India relations amid shared concerns about China

• President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are certainly putting in the time to cultivate their relationship.
• Less than three months after honoring Modi with a state visit to the White House, Biden is to arrive in New Delhi on Friday — a day before the start of the Group of 20 summit there — to squeeze in another round of one-on-one talks with the leader of the world’s most populous nation.
• There have been more than a dozen in-person or virtual engagements between the leaders since 2021 as both have looked to tighten the U.S.-India partnership amid shared major concerns. Those include an increasingly assertive China and monumental challenges posed by climate change, artificial intelligence, global supply chain resilience and other issues.
• “This meeting will be taking place at the prime minister’s residence — so it is unusual in that respect,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One. “This is not your typical bilateral visit to India with meetings taking place in the prime minister’s office.”
• Biden, a center-left Democrat, and Modi, a conservative Hindu nationalist, are hardly ideological soulmates. Yet, both leaders are increasingly drawn together by China’s military and economic maneuverings in the Indo-Pacific.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://apnews.com/article/biden-modi-g20-summit-57d279a3a80eb36a80a7e5165d70e61d)

BBC – Rishi Sunak makes ‘historic’ G20 visit to India

• Rishi Sunak has arrived in Delhi for the G20 summit – a meeting of leaders from the 19 biggest economies in the world plus the European Union.
• He becomes the first prime minister of Indian heritage to visit the country.
• No 10 say the “historic” visit will be “a powerful reminder of the living bridge between the two countries”.
• Mr Sunak is accompanied by his wife Akshata Murty, who was born and grew up in India and is the daughter of one of India’s richest men.
• The G20 is something of a diplomatic blancmange. Many of the members of it have very little in common beyond big economies. But that is the point of it – bringing together those countries that are the engine room of the global economy.
• The prime minister will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where it is likely they will talk about a UK-India free trade agreement.
• There is increasing optimism a deal can be reached soon.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66747346)

The Economist – The G20 summit will be a resounding success for India

• First it was Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who said he would stay at home. A few days later Xi Jinping, China’s leader, decided he would also skip the trip. For a moment on September 5th it seemed as though Joe Biden, too, would have to give it a miss, before he confirmed that he would, in fact, attend the g20 leaders’ summit in Delhi on September 9th and 10th.
• Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister and the host of the jamboree, will have breathed a sigh of relief. Mr Modi has staked his reputation on pulling off a successful g20. Since November last year, when India took over the rotating presidency of the group, Indian cities have been bedecked in g20 logos on wall paintings and billboards. Events have been held in dozens of Indian cities in every state of the union. The prime minister’s smiling face has beamed down from these ads. What does he have to show for it?
• From the perspective of binding the world together, then, India’s g20 may be a failure. Yet, as Harsh V. Pant of King’s College in London points out, “if the fault lines in the global political environment are such that they do not themselves allow for a consensus document then there is very little India can do about it.” Indeed, seen from the perspective of Indian foreign -policy priorities, of India’s position in the world, and of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp), the presidency has been a resounding success.
• The poor world, chiefly through its leadership of the Non -Aligned Movement. Under Mr Modi, India has renewed this focus through a promise to represent and lead what has come to be called the “global south”. At the start of its presidency, India convened a “Voice of Global South Summit” of 125 countries to inform its g20 priorities. As its presidency comes to a close, it has championed the inclusion of the African Union in the g20, which would do much to boost India’s claim to be a leader of the poor world.
• Second, the presidency has helped boost India’s image in the world in a year when it 7 outgrew China to become the world’s most populous nation and its gdp is among the fastest growing of any major economy. By holding events across India, the government has showcased the breadth and diversity of the country. In a recent interview Mr Modi boasted that over the course of the year 100,000 delegates from 125 countries experienced the magic of India, and 15m Indians took part in the events in some form.
• Lastly, the presidency has served as a vehicle for the personality cult of Mr Modi domestically, ahead of a general election next year. Like citizens of other big democracies, Indians have little interest in foreign affairs. The g20 has brought the world home, with nightly cable-news television debates giving it plenty of airtime. These tend to focus on Mr Modi himself as sage leader, not just of India but of the world, and attribute to him India’s rising importance. In a survey earlier this year by Pew Research Centre, an American pollster, 68% of Indians said they felt their country was growing in influence on the global stage. Among those who do not support the bjp, the figure was a still impressive 60%.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/07/the-g20-summit-will-be-a-resounding-success-for-india)

The Economist – The end of a remarkable era in Indian finance

• Most people would go to London, New York or Hong Kong to find the world’s outstanding financiers. But perhaps Mumbai deserves a look. After all, it is home to three men who rebuilt India’s banking system after its enfeeblement by a wave of socialist experiments that began in the 1950s. The last of these giants, Uday Kotak, announced his retirement from Kotak Mahindra Bank on September 1st.
• Each of the three giants played a part in recreating a dynamic private sector. The government had taken a sledgehammer to Indian finance, starting in the 1950s with the nationalisation of insurance firms, before taking over private-sector banks between 1969 and 1980.
• As India’s economy opened up in the 1990s, Mr Kotak started new subsidiaries: investment banking for public listings, then insurance and finally commercial banking in 2003. He was not alone in seeing opportunity. Thousands of financial institutions were established in India during the 1990s only to be wiped out by the global financial crisis of 2007-09. But Mr Kotak, along with Messrs Parekh and Puri, avoided the common mistake of providing credit based on political and personal criteria, and made it through.
• Kotak Mahindra’s market capitalisation peaked in 2021 at $59bn. It has since dropped to $42bn, despite superb growth, profits and credit quality. The peak came just after a rule on bosses’ tenure was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which set a firm end to Mr Kotak’s time in charge. (Mr Puri suffered a similar fate.) Rather than push on to the last day, Mr Kotak stepped aside a bit early, noting he had a large event to plan: his son’s wedding.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/09/07/the-end-of-a-remarkable-era-in-indian-finance)

Reuters – India seeks G20 consensus by noting Russia’s views on Ukraine

• India has proposed that a G20 statement condemning the war in Ukraine also accommodate the views of Russia and China to avoid an impasse for the divided bloc, Indian officials said on Thursday.
• Leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden gather in New Delhi this weekend for a summit aimed at boosting food security, climate action and debt relief for poor nations.
• But the deliberations of the world’s 20 biggest economies have been hindered by differences over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that have hardened since last year’s Bali summit, delegates said.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.reuters.com/world/india-seeks-g20-consensus-by-noting-russias-views-ukraine-2023-09-07/)

Bloomberg – Why This Year’s G-20 Meeting in India May Be a Turbulent Affair

• India is getting ready for the Group of 20 summit, to be held Saturday and Sunday in New Delhi. Russia’s war in Ukraine is expected to overshadow the gathering.
• US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are among those who have confirmed their attendance; Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming and Chinese President Xi Jinping isn’t either, though he’s sending Premier Li Qiang.
• More agenda items and deliverables are driven by the host nation. In India’s case these include taking a “human-centric” approach to issues like climate change and food security.
• Finding an agreement over emerging-market debt has proved problematic in the lead up to the summit and is likely to remain so, with China and India at odds on that issue too.
• Differences have also emerged between the G-7 nations and the wider group over a new commitment of billions of dollars in funding for developing countries to meet United Nations-backed targets on everything from hunger and education to clean energy and climate change.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-05/2023-g20-new-delhi-summit-dates-agenda-countries-and-more#xj4y7vzkg)

AP – Despite Xi’s decision not to attend G20 in India, China says bilateral ties are ‘generally stable’

• Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision not to attend this week’s Group of 20 summit in India, Beijing says that relations between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants remain “generally stable.”
• Relations between China and India remain frosty over their border dispute that led to a clash three years ago in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed. It has turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.
• Frictions between the two have also arisen over trade, technology and investment and India’s growing strategic ties with China’s main rival, the United States. Both India and China have expelled the other’s journalists and once-plentiful educational exchanges

(For detailed report click on the link – https://apnews.com/article/china-india-g20-xi-jinping-e5d8649d6f0644f7da5eeebc595fe42d)

Reuters – Who is attending the G20 summit in New Delhi?

• Leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies kick off an annual summit meeting on Saturday to coordinate policy on food security, debt problems of vulnerable countries and climate action.
• Here is a list of those attending and some key leaders who are skipping the meeting in the Indian capital, New Delhi.
• G20 LEADERS:

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

French President Emmanuel Macron

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Indonesian President Joko Widodo

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan

……

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.reuters.com/world/who-is-attending-g20-summit-new-delhi-2023-09-08/)

BBC – Chandrayaan-3: Isro puts India’s Moon lander and rover in ‘sleep mode’

• India’s lunar lander and rover have been put to bed as the Sun begins to set on the Moon, the country’s space research agency Isro has said.
• With that India became the first country to land near the lunar south pole. It also joined an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.
• Chandrayaan-3’s landing had been carefully planned to coincide with the start of a lunar day, which equals a little over four weeks on Earth. Isro had said this would allow the lander and the rover 14 days of sunlight to charge their batteries and work. It has now said that both have completed all their assignments.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66704451)

BBC – Aditya-L1: India’s solar mission sends first photos on way to Sun

• The Indian space agency Isro has shared the first images sent by the country’s solar observation mission as it makes its way towards the Sun.
• Aditya-L1 lifted off on Saturday and is on a journey that will take it 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from the Earth – 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.
• It will take four months to reach its destination, Isro says. India’s maiden solar mission came just days after the country became the first to land near the Moon’s south pole.
• On Thursday morning, Isro shared two photographs taken on 4 September by a camera mounted on Aditya-L1.
• One of the images shows the Earth and the Moon in one frame – while the Earth looms large, the Moon is a tiny speck in the distance. The second photograph is a “selfie” that shows two of the seven scientific instruments the solar mission is carrying.
• India’s first space-based mission to study the solar system’s biggest object is named after Surya – the Hindu god of Sun who is also known as Aditya.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66738230)

Arab News – With all eyes on India’s great moon landing, is it time for new beginnings?

• India made history last month as its Chandrayaan-3 Vikram landed on the south pole of the moon. There were celebrations all over the country as people watched history being made. The lunar landing was a spectacular breakthrough in space exploration and will undoubtedly open more avenues and opportunities for more such missions in the future.
• In 2019, Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan -2 had failed to land successfully. Since then, pioneering efforts were underway to achieve the feat of the world’s now-most-populous country and establishing its credentials on the exploration of outer space.
• These efforts were finally crowned with a remarkable success as no other country has so far been able to send any mission to the south pole. Not only for the people of India, but for all South Asians, this is a moment to rejoice at a monumental achievement. Indian scientists deserve to be congratulated.
• It is precisely these foundations that have ensured India’s huge success in governance, socio-economic emancipation of its people and above all, its unity in diversity– which has faltered greatly in recent times

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.arabnews.com/node/2367476)

Arab News – How Saudi-Indian relations gained momentum through G20 platform

• Relations with Saudi Arabia have been steadily gaining prominence on India’s foreign policy agenda over the past three decades. But their full potential has only lately been realized thanks to cooperation around the G20 platform.
• Saudi-Indian ties began to see a new level of engagement in 2019 following Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to New Delhi and the establishment of a strategic cooperation council.
• During Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations in 2020, the two countries started to forge new partnerships and programs and these developed further when India took over the presidency this year.
• When the working group meetings began in January, Saudi Arabia was engaged from the beginning, sending multiple high-level delegations, and also serving as patron and co-organizer of some key meetings — especially those contributing to policy related to sustainable development, food security, health, entrepreneurship, startups and technology.

(For detailed report click on the link – https://www.arabnews.com/node/2369446/world)

The report is curated by Dr Vinay Nalwa