Daily Briefing: Tariffs, Pak factor and the waiting game

Indian Express

5 days ago

Good morning!
Just hours before the August 1 deadline when US President Donald Trump's tariffs were to take effect, the White House announced a new set of 'adjusted' tariffs on more than 60 trading partners and the 27-member European Union. These tariffs will kick in on August 7.
In his executive order, Trump said that the new tariffs are based on additional information he has received on the 'lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships', recommendations on foreign relations and national security matters, and the status of trade negotiations with some countries. The tariffs range between 10 and 40 per cent. Certain EU goods will be exempt from duties. Countries not mentioned in the new list will be charged a baseline 10 per cent tariff. For India, the rate stands at 25 per cent, as was announced a couple of days ago.
Waiting game: Although the government has stated that it will study the implications of the 25 per cent tariff rate, the view in private is that India simply cannot afford to rush into a lopsided deal, an official told my colleague Anil Sasi. India has been striving to negotiate an agreement which maintains its edge over China. Notably, the July 31 order did not change the agreed-upon 30 per cent tariff on China.
As of now, confusion persists on overall tariffs on India, given that Trump is yet to specify the 'penalties' for buying Russian oil. With new announcements every few days and changing US policy, such as a proposed BRICS tariff, there's a giant question mark on the sanctity of any trade deal with the American administration. Given the current status of India's negotiations with the US, any agreement will likely be signed by September or October.
Pak factor: New Delhi has also factored in Trump's growing closeness to Pakistan. It's believed that Trump has not taken kindly to India's fact-checking of his claims that he brokered the ceasefire between the duelling nations. Whereas, Pakistan's outreach has included public praise, including a recommendation for a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump, and investments in the President's cryptocurrency business. Now, Trump has announced a new deal with Islamabad to develop Pakistan's oil reserves.
🎧 For more on the tariffs, tune in to today's '3 Things' podcast episode.
On that note, let's get to the rest of today's edition.
On September 29, 2008, a bomb went off during Ramzan in an area with a sizeable Muslim population in Malegaon, about 100 km northeast of Maharashtra's Nashik. The blast killed six people and injured nearly 100 others. On July 31, Special Judge A K Lahoti acquitted all seven accused in the case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit.
The court observed that while there was 'strong suspicion' about their role in the blast, that cannot be a substitute for 'legal proof'.
The investigation: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), led by IPS officer Hemant Karkare, first probed the case. They had filed a chargesheet in 2009, naming 11 accused, claiming that the perpetrators had held several meetings across cities. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case in 2011. In its 2016 chargesheet, the NIA criticised the ATS probe, re-recording witness statements and rejecting the accused's confessions to the ATS.
The trial: In court, witnesses turned hostile, especially on the point of conspiracy meetings. A crucial piece of evidence — recordings on an accused's laptop — was deemed 'unreliable'. Moreover, the court also raised doubts about the procedure adopted to record voice samples from the accused. Read all about how the case fell.
'Delhi is the national capital. And this is not how a national capital should be. Most people living here are from the labour class because things like electricity and water are free. There is nothing wrong with that. But India is a powerful country, and if its capital looks like a slum city, how are you going to project it?'
Lieutenant Governor of Delhi V K Saxena said the above words at the latest edition of Expresso, where we sit down with the who's who for an all-inclusive chat. L-G Saxena was joined by former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to talk about the challenges of urbanisation, making Delhi a world-class national capital and inculcating cultural literacy in the country. Read.
Pak links: India's security establishment is in the process of examining the devices — three mobile phones and two LoRa (long range) communication sets — recovered from the Pahalgam attackers killed in Operation Mahadev. Information in the devices is key to establishing the Pakistan link of the terrorists. Crucially, investigators have recovered photos of two Pakistani NADRA cards, which are national identity cards issued by the Pakistan government's National Database and Registration Authority.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)'s mass layoffs have prompted a pertinent question: In the artificial intelligence (AI) age, is the Indian IT sector still a beacon of opportunity? In today's Dis/Agree column, we asked two experts to weigh in.
Srinath Sridharan, a corporate advisor and author, asserts that India's IT story is far from over. He writes that the real test is how quickly India can embed AI literacy and advanced skills across its workforce.
Shashank Reddy, managing partner at Evam Law & Policy, writes that with the advent of AI, mass hirings in the tech industry may be a thing of the past. 'No longer can one sector take on the burden of upholding India's middle class and economic prospects…'
That's all for today, folks! Happy weekend-ing!
Sonal Gupta