‘EU Complicit In Israeli War Crimes, Von Der Leyen Blocking Gaza Sanctions,' Reveals Josep Borrell
/ Aug 05, 2025, 09:10AM IST
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell blasts Brussels for its silence on Israel's war in Gaza, accusing the bloc of complicity in war crimes and favouritism in sanctions. With tens of thousands dead, he warns that EU inaction could irreparably damage its global credibility.#GazaCrisis #EUComplicity #WarCrimes #Borrell #IsraelGaza #HumanRights #VonDerLeyen #GazaUnderAttack #SanctionsNow #MiddleEastConflict
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Mint
15 minutes ago
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Aadhaar: Digital foresight gave India its identity leadership
India's digital identity project has had, throughout the life of the Aadhaar project, more than its fair share of criticism. Almost as soon as it was announced, it had to deal with angry opposition from all quarters, raising concerns about the fact that it was going to invade personal privacy and the surveillance that could result in if its database were to be misused. So widespread was the discomfort with Aadhaar that every time I travelled outside the country, I found myself having to explain why we were building it. This was particularly the case in Europe, where, in the data protection circles I inhabit, no one had any qualms expressing their disapproval with what we were attempting. While I could understand how their lived experience during World War II might have made them nervous about any attempt to establish a citizen ID database, what was disappointing was that so much of their concern came from an imperfect understanding of how Aadhaar had been designed. Also read: Mint Explainer: Would you make Sam Altman's eye scanner your online ID? It has been nearly 15 years since the first Aadhaar number was issued and all the fears that it would lead to mass surveillance have, for the most part, not come to pass. Aadhaar has largely been used to deliver subsidies, provide benefits and ease public access to services. Not only did the technology not 'fail at scale,' as we were warned it might, none of the widespread exclusion we were told would result came to pass. At the time of writing, over 130 billion Aadhaar authentications have taken place, suggesting that, at the very least, the system must have worked 130 billion times. The digital public infrastructure (DPI) revolution that Aadhaar launched dramatically improved financial inclusion in the country. In 2011, just 35% of the population had bank accounts. Today, almost nine-tenths of our population aged 15-plus has a bank account, even if some accounts go unused. Direct benefit transfers now reach millions of beneficiaries across 300-plus schemes, and during the covid lockdowns, Aadhaar enabled 11 million daily micro ATM transactions and took banking to India's remotest villages. But beyond these numbers, perhaps the greatest vindication of Aadhaar is the fact that once-fierce opponents of the very idea of a digital identity are now implementing it in other countries. In what is, for me, perhaps the most dramatic turnaround, the EU last May mandated that all its 27 member states should provide digital identity wallets to their 450 million citizens by December 2026. The eIDAS 2.0 regulation represents one of the most comprehensive digital identity roll-outs in history, with cross-sector interoperability and acceptance by both public and private service providers. Through its ID4D initiative, the World Bank is investing $1.2 billion in national ID projects across more than 30 countries. Paul Romer, a former World Bank chief economist, once described Aadhaar as 'the most sophisticated ID programme in the world" and argued 'it could be good for the world if this became widely adopted." Across the world, 26 countries have implemented identity systems using the MOSIP platform, and over 130 million digital IDs have already been issued globally. The Philippines alone has registered 90 million citizens, while Ethiopia intends to reach 70 million residents through its Fayda ID system. Also read: Digital public infrastructure: A dubious way to foster competition Today, it is widely accepted that a digital identity is essential in an increasingly digital world. Countries without such ID systems risk being left behind, as they would be unable to deliver services efficiently and facilitate the digital transactions that modern economies need. This was clearly evident during the pandemic, when countries with robust digital identity infrastructure could respond three times more effectively than those that had to rely on paper-based systems. As for the debate about privacy being traded off for utility, most countries have voted in favour of the latter, realizing that a robust digital ID system does more to enhance democratic governance than threaten it. According to McKinsey, a digital ID can unlock economic value of up to 4% of a country's GDP by reducing identity fraud and streamlining everything from banking to healthcare access. Today, the question is no longer whether a digital ID programme is necessary, but how quickly the country in question can implement it. The case for one is overwhelming: nations with strong digital ID systems can deliver services more efficiently, respond to crises more effectively and enable financial inclusion. Those without will increasingly find themselves unable to offer their citizens the level and variety of services expected of a modern economy. In under a decade-and-a-half, things have come full circle. Countries that were once critical of India's digital identity system are now implementing identity systems of their own. Its opponents have largely fallen silent, as the dystopia they had predicted would inevitably befall us has not materialized. To be clear, I am not doubting their motivations or questioning their intent, but just pointing out that they failed to appreciate how rapidly the world was digitizing and how essential a digital identity was going to prove in the future that was to come. Also read: DPI integration with AI will elevate the quality of public services as well as risks Ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, famously said, 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." India saw where the future was going to be. And built accordingly. The rest of the world is now following suit.
Business Standard
18 minutes ago
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Nifty below 24,650; oil & gas shares decline
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Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
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America's tariff avalanche catches Switzerland unawares
THE FIREWORKS in celebration of the Rütlischwur, the foundational oath of Switzerland on August 1st 1291, had just subsided when Donald Trump announced that Swiss exports to America would soon face tariffs of 39%. It came as a shock to Europe's most stubbornly independent country. After consulting with businesses and holding a crisis meeting on August 4th, the government announced it will make America a more attractive offer. Switzerland had negotiated early and swiftly. The deal it offered 'was not so different from that of the European Union', says a senior Swiss official. It contained similar pledges to invest in America, an overall tariff rate that was lower than the EU's, a few concessions on agriculture and various other offers, such as collaboration in training American manufacturing workers. Switzerland could hardly open the Swiss market any further: the country had already cut tariffs on nearly all industrial goods to zero, and its currency is overvalued by about 50%, according to The Economist's Big Mac index. What sealed Switzerland's fate was its outsize trade surplus with America. The Eidgenossenschaft (oath confederation), as the Swiss call their country, exported goods worth about $48bn more to America in 2024 than it imported. That comes to about 5% of Swiss GDP—too much for the deficit-obsessed American president, who bizarrely thinks this amounts to 'stealing money' from Americans. The country was lucky that he did not take as his baseline early 2025, when Switzerland's trade surplus with America ballooned to a whopping $54bn in the first quarter alone. What sealed Switzerland's fate was its outsize trade surplus with America. The culprit behind that surge was Mr Trump. Upon his inauguration, uncertainty over America's economic policy rose sharply, leading investors to seek safety in one of Switzerland's main exports: gold (see chart). The country is responsible for about a third of global gold refining, and typically exports around $4.5bn-worth of the precious metal to America each year. But in 2024 America imported $12.5bn-worth of gold from the country. Switzerland's role as a refiner can make trade flows look deceptively big. Although its gold exports amounted to $116bn last year, it also imported $100bn-worth of the metal. With some 1,000 workers in total, the industry is not exactly a jobs-booster. America charges no tariffs on gold imports, and Mr Trump is not likely to impose any on his favourite metal. Switzerland's gold exports, along with the watches and jewellery it sells to America (worth $7bn in 2024), may simply have convinced the president the country is rich enough to bear more. Pharmaceuticals are the other Swiss export that aroused the president's ire. The Swiss shipped $35.5bn of these to America last year. 'We want to be making pharmaceuticals in our country,' Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, said after the tariff announcement. America is also keen to bring down the prices of medicines. Mr Trump sent letters to 17 pharma CEOs, including those of Novartis and Roche, two Swiss companies, to demand prices in line with the lowest in comparable economies. 'I don't think it was a coincidence that we had a tough call with the president 20 minutes after he had sent out his letters to the pharma industry,' says the Swiss official. Luckily for Switzerland, tariffs on drugs will remain at zero until America makes decisions about its global pharma policy. Because of the exemptions for gold and (temporarily) pharma, Switzerland faces an overall effective tariff rate of just 12% for now. But businesses other than gold and pharma must pay the 39% rate, much to their dismay. They might end up as the main victim of Mr Trump's economically misguided focus on bilateral trade balances. Half of Switzerland's overall trade surplus with the world is with America, because its specialties—pharma, gold, luxury items and high-end machinery—fit American demand. Thermoplan, the sole supplier of coffee machines to Starbucks, a coffee chain, is reluctantly considering a partnership with an American firm to lower the tariff burden. 'There is a wide range of responses among businesses. Some say they will just increase prices, others have already lost half of their orders from America,' says Daniel Kalt of UBS, a bank. Switzerland is likely to face a mild recession, should the tariffs stick. Many hope negotiations will bring down the rate. And Switzerland's flexible economy will be able to adjust. The Swiss will also look more eagerly to co-operate with others. The EU's better deal is helpful because Swiss firms are integrated into European supply chains, and the country trades far more with Europe than America. Yet politically, being slighted by America hurts. The country is moving towards a referendum on a permanent package of agreements with the EU, in place of its long-standing patchwork of temporary deals. Eurosceptics who want to reject that proposal will find their case harder to make. 'Their narrative is breaking down now, being alone out there has not paid off,' says Mr Kalt. That was also the central insight of the Rütlischwur more than 700 years ago.
