In a dynamic world where information is abundant, understanding India’s global representation is essential. This edition of “India in Global Media,” spanning to May 19 – May 25, offers an in-depth exploration of India’s portrayal through the lenses of international news outlets. Delve into this weekly compilation as we navigate the narratives that frame India’s image on the world stage.
New York Times – Wall Street Lands on India, Looking for Profits It Can’t Find in China
- Mumbai, India’s financial capital, has seen a lot of new faces over the past year. The heads of global banks have been trooping through, visiting its stock exchanges, buying property and hiring new staff.
- A post pandemic boom has pushed the value of India’s stock market to about $5 trillion, putting it neck and neck with Hong Kong’s. India’s economy is among the fastest growing in the world. Wall Street can’t ignore India anymore.
- The point of entry is Mumbai, a port city of 26 million people, counting its suburbs. Mumbai has been given a makeover: Suspension bridges span its seaways, as well as its infamous slums, and new metro lines have been carved beneath its Art Deco and Indo-Saracenic facades and rumbling commuter railways.
- Mumbai has been India’s commercial hub for eight decades, but it was relatively unfamiliar to global finance until the past two years.
- The simple reason for investors’ enthusiasm is India’s economy, which has strengths other big emerging economies are currently lacking. Foreign clients, an Indian bank executive said, “gravitate to India because it is showing reliable growth, its currency is stable, it’s showing fiscal discipline.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he works closely with the government.
For detailed report click on : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/business/india-foreign-investors.html
Reuters – India’s fast economic growth lays firm ground for next government
- India’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 7.8% year-on-year in the first three months of 2024, helped by a strong performance in the manufacturing sector, and economists expect the momentum to continue this year.
- The highest growth pace among the largest economies globally will bolster the economic record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hoping to win a rare third term in the national election, with results set to be released on June 4.
- Investors are looking ahead to the election outcome and the full-year budget in mid-July to see what steps the new government might take to boost the economy.
- The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) record surplus transfer of 2.11 trillion rupees ($25.3 billion) will help the next government to increase state spending to bolster growth.
- Garima Kapoor, economist, at Mumbai-based Elara Securities, said the growth figures come amid subdued inflation and a forecast of a normal monsoon, which could help boost consumer demand.
For detailed report click on – https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-march-qtr-gdp-growth-78-yy-2024-05-31/
BBC – Tackling water shortages with ‘Star Wars’ tech
- When a severe drought hit the Indian city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, in 2016, residents including student Swapnil Shrivastav had access to a limited amount of water each day.
- “We were rationed to two buckets of water a day, which we collected from water tanks,” he says.
- While he says it’s not uncommon for water supply issues to impact parts of India, it was a tough month for Mr Shrivastav and others in the region. “It was a very humid area; it was unmanageable.”
- Mr Shrivastav was already interested in water scarcity having won a student competition in 2012 on imagining the future of water in cities, but the experience pushed him to explore solutions.
- “One element of inspiration was from Star Wars where there’s an air to water device. I thought why don’t we give it a try? It was more of a curiosity project.”
- Several years later, in 2019, that idea led him, Govinda Balaji and Venkatesh Raja to set up Uravu Labs, a Bangalore-based startup.
- Their system converts air to water using atmospheric water generators that contain a liquid desiccant, which absorbs moisture from the air.
- Using sunlight or renewable electricity they heat the desiccant to 65C which releases the moisture, which can then be condensed into drinking water.Mr Shrivastav says the whole process takes about 12 hours. Today each unit produces about 2,000 litres of drinking water.
For detailed report click on : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11nnwp646o
Gulf News – Indian space startup Agnikul launches country’s second privately built rocket
- India’s Agnikul Cosmos launched its Agnibaan rocket for the first time on Thursday, powered by the only Indian rocket engine to use both gas and liquid fuel is the country’s second flight of a privately built rocket.
- On Thursday, the customisable, two-stage launch vehicle designed to carry a payload of up to 300 kg (661 lb) into an orbit of about 700 kilometres’ altitude (435 miles) flew for two minutes to a maximum altitude, or apogee, of 8,076 metres before splashing down into the ocean.
- “All the mission objectives of this controlled vertical ascent flight were met and performance was nominal,” the company said.
- The South Asian nation’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has not successfully flown a rocket with a so-called “semi-cryogenic” engine.”A major milestone, as the first-ever controlled flight of a semi-cryogenic liquid engine realized through additive manufacturing,” ISRO said on social media platform X.
- India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for the privatisation and commercialisation of the country’s space sector in the last few years.
- Agnikul, whose name is derived from the Hindi and Sanskrit word for fire, was founded in 2017 and runs India’s first private launchpad and mission control centre. All other launchpads are operated by ISRO.
For detailed report click on : https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/indian-space-startup-agnikul-launches-countrys-second-privately-built-rocket-1.1717062061871
Arab News – India’s key monsoon rains arrive early, promising respite from heat
- Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Thursday, two days sooner than expected, weather officials said, offering respite from a gruelling heat wave while boosting prospects for bumper harvests.
- Summer rains, critical to spur economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.
- The monsoon has covered nearly all of Kerala and most northeastern states, the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
- Conditions favored its spread to the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and the northeastern state of Assam during the next two to three days, it added.
- That spells relief from a stifling heat wave that has driven maximum temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in some northern and western regions.
For detailed report click on : https://www.arabnews.com/node/2520586/world
BBC – Heat kills at least 15 in India as temperatures near 50C
- Mahendra Kumar, district magistrate of Bhojpur district in Bihar told the Times of India newspaper that three election officers and a policeman had died in the city on Thursday due to heat stroke.
- “It was the hottest day, and despite having medical facilities at all centres, they collapsed. One home guard [volunteer policeman] became unconscious where he was staying,” Mr Kumar said, adding that the man died in the hospital while being treated by doctors.
- He also said that around 30-40 people had been admitted to the same hospital on Thursday due to heat-related ailments.
- Hospitals in the region are recording a rise in admissions due to heat-related ailments.
- On Thursday, a labourer admitted with a heat stroke died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Delhi.
- India’s National Centre for Disease Control calls heat strokes a “life-threatening” condition with a mortality rate of 40 to 64%.
For detailed report click on : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czddy30ezd5o
New York Times – Millions of Indians Living Abroad Have a Say in the Election, Even if They Can’t Vote
- The number of Indians abroad is small relative to the country’s population. Indian political parties want their support anyway.
- India’s 35 million-member diaspora, roughly equivalent in population to Delhi’s metropolitan area, represents a tiny minority compared with the nearly one billion people who are eligible to take part in a six-week voting process that ends on Saturday. Expatriate Indians also cannot cast absentee ballots under India’s electoral laws.
- This spring, Indians around the world have been hosting gatherings and rallies for their preferred political parties. Many Indians abroad are proud of India’s rise and associate Mr. Modi with it. So much of the recent activity has supported his bid for a third term.
- In the United States, which the Indian government says is home to more than five million people of Indian origin, there have been pro-Modi rallies at Times Square, the Washington Monument, the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks. “Save India,” some of the pro-Modi posters said.
For detailed report click on : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/world/asia/india-election-diaspora-expats.html
Gulf News – India set for wheat imports after six years, to shore up reserves
- India is poised to begin wheat imports after a six-year gap, to replenish depleted reserves and hold down prices that leaped following three years of disappointing crops, sources say, as the approaching end of general elections removes a key hurdle.
- New Delhi is expected to abandon a 40 per cent tax on wheat imports this year, officials and other sources told Reuters, paving the way for private traders and flour millers to buy from producers such as top exporter Russia, albeit in modest volumes.
- As the new-season wheat harvest rolls in, the government is likely to wait until after June to scrap the import tax, in time for Russia’s harvest, the sources said.
- “There is a compelling case for the removal of the wheat import duty,” said Pramod Kumar, president of the Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India. “That is the best possible way to ensure sufficient supplies in the open market.” The government is likely to concede to the demand.
- “The considered view is that the wheat import duty should be removed after June, so that the private trade can import wheat,” said a government source aware of the matter.
For detailed report click on : https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/india-set-for-wheat-imports-after-six-years-to-shore-up-reserves-1.1716983062649
(The Report is curated by Dr Vinay Nalwa)
