'Surprise': Putin's Men AMBUSH Ukrainian Troops To Capture Donetsk Settlement; Zelensky's Men Flee
India has sharply increased crude oil imports from the US during President Donald Trump's second term, marking a major energy policy shift. In the first half of 2025, US crude imports rose over 50% year-on-year, reaching 0.271 million barrels per day. The April–June quarter saw a 114% surge, with the value rising from $1.73 billion to $3.7 billion. In July, imports rose 23% over June, increasing the US share in India's oil mix from 3% to 8%. LNG imports nearly doubled to $2.46 billion, and LPG imports also grew. Talks are ongoing for a long-term LNG deal. Despite growing energy ties, a setback emerged as Trump announced 25% tariffs on Indian goods, effective August 7, citing trade barriers, imbalances, and India's ties with Russia. He posted strong criticism of India on Truth Social, dismissing its economic relationship with the US and calling for separation from Russia-linked economies.#crudeoil #indiaustrade #trumptariffs #energytrade #indiarussia #lng #lpg #truthtalk #geopolitics #internationalrelations #toi #toibharat
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Economic Times
13 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Indian cloud companies to storm local skies with low-cost advantage
Synopsis Indian companies are competing in the cloud market. They offer local data storage and infrastructure. These firms aim to undercut global giants on cost. Airtel, Jio, Tata Communications, and Yotta are key players. They target the public sector and regulated industries. Experts note challenges in technology and migration. Hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon are also expanding in India. Agencies Indian corporates are building muscle to challenge bigger global rivals in the fast-growing cloud market, with offerings that store data applications and related infrastructure within the country, referred to as sovereign cloud. These homegrown firms are underlining lower costs as their biggest advantage against the foreign competitors. Bharti Airtel's Xtelify, Reliance's JioCloud for SMEs, Tata Communications' Vayu, and Yotta's Shakti are tailored for local enterprises, especially in public sector and other regulated industries. And they are aiming to take on hyperscalers Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform, positioning themselves as affordable and secure alternatives with cost savings of 30%-50% over the global giants. Hyperscalers are large cloud providers offering massive computing resources and infrastructure. However, factors such as limited technology depth, lack of ecosystem maturity, and high migration costs from the global cloud providers are limiting the ambitious growth plans of the Indian companies, say experts. They added that interoperability between cloud providers is almost non-existent, making migration costly and technically complex."The emergence of indigenous cloud platforms represents a market response to India's sovereign cloud policy framework, creating domestic alternatives for regulated sectors," said Jitesh Karlekar, director-research at real estate research and advisory firm JLL. "However, these nascent providers will need to rapidly build technical sophistication, security credentials, and operational scale to effectively compete with established global platforms." According to an IDC study, 15-20% of Indian companies are adopters of some sovereign cloud solution for ensuring compliance and security of their core applications and data. "Sovereign cloud is still in the early stages with little adoption in India," said Rajiv Ranjan, associate director, cloud and AI at research firm IDC India. "A key reason for not migrating to sovereign cloud could be higher costs and the risks associated with migrating applications which might be time consuming and cause business disruptions." He added that enterprises in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space need to be also fully confident with adequate security and compliance norms being met with the domestic offerings. Meanwhile, hyperscalers have rapidly grown their footprint in India through pacts with mobile phone operators. In 2019, Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with telecom market leader Reliance Jio for co-development of affordable cloud-based solutions, particularly targeted towards SMEs and startups. For its free consumer cloud storage, Jio has netted over 35 million active users. A year later, second-ranked telco Bharti Airtel signed a deal with AWS to develop differentiated Airtel Cloud products. It also tied up with Google Cloud the same year to offer G-Suite services such as Gmail, and Google Docs to to a study by policy body Centre for Internet and Digital Economy, India's $8.3 billion cloud market revenue is dominated by international vendors, with Microsoft (27%) and AWS (15%) together having a 42% share, with all other competitors, including Salesforce and SAP, having shares of less than 5% each. In the pure infrastructure space, Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud have a combined 87% market share. Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its sovereign cloud, with its vice chairman, Gopal Vittal, stressing that the telco's offering will lead to cost savings of 30-40% over rivals due to its mix of network and cloud the Centre for Internet and Digital Economy study on the competitive landscape in the Indian cloud market showed new entrants are struggling to match the free cloud credits and startup support offered by global global companies provide large sums in cloud credits and access to accelerator programs, giving them a strong edge in customer acquisition, said industry experts. In contrast, local firms often restrict credits to a small circle of existing clients and face difficulty competing for cloud-native startups. However, Indian providers are attracting small and mid-sized businesses by offering 30-70% cost savings and greater billing transparency, areas where hyperscalers fall short due to complex pricing and poor cost visibility, the study showed. The global rivals with technical strength though are better equipped to forecast and manage cloud costs, offering better expense visibility to their clients, compared with their smaller rivals.
India.com
15 minutes ago
- India.com
RICH Alliance: Trump's Tariff War Backfires? Russia Backs India And Hints At Emerging Ties With China
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India Today
15 minutes ago
- India Today
Modi misread Trump: Now India pays the price
A war of words has erupted between New Delhi and Washington, exposing the fragility of what was once hailed as a geopolitical success story. India has hit back hard at US President Donald Trump's threat to hike tariffs on Indian goods over continued imports of Russian oil, calling the targeting "unjustified and unreasonable" whilst slamming what it perceives as Washington's double The so-called Modi-Trump bromance, once paraded as diplomatic triumph, is now cracking under the weight of harsh reality. What began with mutual praise and public spectacle, from the "Howdy Modi" event in Houston to the grand "Namaste Trump" reception in Ahmedabad, has devolved into accusations, tariffs, and transactional Fatal MiscalculationOne of New Delhi's fundamental missteps was assuming that warm handshakes and mega-rallies could override hard economic interests. Modi's outreach to Trump was personal, public, and passionate, but Trump doesn't separate business from bromance. The "great friend" narrative gave India false confidence that proved Modi threw his weight behind Trump, literally sharing the stage with him in Houston and Ahmedabad, it was a bet on personal chemistry over policy complexity. India saw Trump not as a volatile businessman-president, but as a dealmaker who'd favour "friends." The reality? Trump doesn't do friendships, he does leverage. And India misread that playbook temples in Varanasi to villages in Gujarat, people performed pujas praying for Trump's victory. Modi had pulled off spectacular diplomatic theatre, and India felt it had America in its corner. Yet Trump's loyalty lies only with the US balance sheet, viewing India as a trade surplus machine rather than a strategic Russian Oil WedgeIndia's dependence on Russian oil has become the new wedge in this deteriorating relationship. With crude prices volatile and energy security paramount, India turned to Moscow for discounted supply, with Russia now accounting for up to 40% of India's oil imports. Trump, who views foreign policy through a profit-loss lens, sees this as lashed out, accusing India of undermining the West's Ukraine strategy and "helping Putin," with tariffs becoming punishment. Worse still, he's framed it as India profiting from global chaos. Modi's government finds itself caught in a trilemma: oil security, global optics, and Trump's offensive 4th August 2025, India's Ministry of External Affairs dropped a diplomatic bombshell in response. Calling Trump's tariff threats "unjustified and unreasonable," the MEA emphasised that India's oil purchases are driven by survival, not sympathy for Moscow. With Middle Eastern oil redirected to Europe after the Ukraine war, India had little choice but to buy discounted Russian crude to shield its economy. India's anger wasn't merely economic, it was moral. The statement highlighted US and EU hypocrisy, pointing out how the West continues trading heavily with Russia in everything from uranium to fertilisers, yet singles out India for 25% Tariff HammerTrump's imposition of a 25% tariff on all Indian goods wasn't just economic muscle-flexing, it was a warning shot. The US goods trade deficit with India stood at $45.7 billion in 2024, which Trump views as theft, plain and simple. His administration has revived old complaints about high tariffs, restricted market access, regulatory red tape, and "unfair" practices in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and most jarring for India was Trump's renewed outreach to Pakistan, military meetings, energy cooperation discussions, and vague proposals of "regional balance." For a country that expected Trump to be firmly in its anti-Pakistan corner, this felt like betrayal, exposing another blind spot in India's strategic Path ForwardIndia must now abandon illusions of personal diplomacy. Trump is a negotiator, not a friend, he respects leverage, not loyalty. New Delhi must shift from sentimentality to strategy, from ceremonial displays to pragmatic biggest lesson? Don't tie national strategy to individual leaders. American policy is shifting toward hard realism, and India must do the same. This means engaging not as a junior partner seeking approval, but as a sovereign power navigating a multipolar obsession with optics, handshakes, stagecraft, mega-events, must give way to tough negotiations, quiet diplomacy, and pragmatic positioning. Because Trump isn't here to dance at "Namaste Trump" events, he's here to deal. And if Modi wants to succeed, it's time to stop praying and start playing hardball politics.- Ends
