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Daily Maverick
24-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
How South Africa's poor continue paying for the privileges of the rich
It is South Africa's political-economic structure, its 'relations of power', that need transformation, if the objective is to reverse our shameful poverty, unemployment and inequality. This transformation begins with the rejection of what has shaped the fundamentals of our economy since 1994 – neoliberalism. The poor continue to be the constant losers regardless of the specific crisis afflicting the economy at any time. Some 20 years ago, for instance, the collapse of the rand against the US dollar, British pound and the EU's euro was offered as part of the explanation why most people were experiencing economic hardship. Then – as hard as it is to remember or imagine – the opposite happened. The rand began to strengthen, doubling its value against the dollar. But the hardships of most South Africans remained unchanged. Indeed, the very strength of the rand was presented as the cause of growing poverty and unemployment. Without our predilection for producing remedial plans for every problem, I wonder how many people have ever heard of – or remember – AsgiSA, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, launched in February 2006. The initiative was supposed to introduce policies and interventions to achieve sustainable economic growth of 6%, which would halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. No sooner was it announced than the global economic gurus, to whom our government is beholden, warned that too much growth was inflationary and then, as now, inflation was presented as a deadly disorder. Interest rates around the world accordingly began increasing to counter the excessive inflationary growth rate. Following this lead, our Reserve Bank claimed that a growth rate of only 4.1% was sustainable if inflation was to be controlled. Leap into the present and the same pattern persists. South Africa's 2025 Budget shows that only some of the particulars of the pattern have changed. The urgency of economic growth as the means to solving our myriad problems – growth being the only issue on which all members of the GNU agree – was central to the brouhaha over the new national Budget. All the GNU's 10 members claimed that the interests of the poor were primary in either shaping or opposing the first two versions of the Budget. The third and finally agreed version was supposedly based on the same objective, with creating jobs as the main one. The finally agreed Budget, however, still left most South Africans the victims of the same macroeconomic policies accepted by all parliamentary political parties since 1994, notwithstanding the occasional rhetoric of some of them. Under the headline of ' Education and health funding slashed while fuel levy increased ' – despite the appalling state of both education and health – Daily Maverick's Neesa Moodley details the impact of the Budget's austerity impact on additional items such as social grant recipients, the early retirement programme for the public sector, the zero rating of more essential food items, and Home Affairs. That VAT is the most regressive of all taxes didn't deter the ANC from wanting to impose a 2% VAT increase, or inhibit it from still seeing itself as speaking on behalf of 'our people'. Indeed, the wanted VAT increase caused the SACP such internal conflict that it pledged itself to stand against the ANC in the next national election – the municipal one in 2026. But, hedging its bets, the SACP remains loyal to its alliance with the ANC. Neoliberalism, with its standard characteristics – austerity, tax rates for the rich that are untouchable unless being reduced, conservative monetary policies, public debt that is unpayable yet remains both permanent and the primary budget line item, growing inequality and dependence on the global 'market' – remains sacrosanct (for those wishing to know more about my understanding of neoliberalism). There is one standout issue, however, that is permanently free from the austerity cuts and restrictions the government says are unavoidable, if, as it must, it prevents getting into even heavier debt by borrowing money. The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, the Mineral Resources Bill, the R100-billion Transformation Fund and the legally binding BEE legal sector code for the greatly enhanced involvement of black (ie African) lawyers are current examples of this exemption. 'SA is busy intensifying BEE', as the former editor of Business Maverick, Tim Cohen, noted in February 2025. He considered this intensification to be the movement from BEE's first wave to its second and third waves. A commitment to this intensification was a central theme of President Cyril Ramaphosa's keynote address at the Black Business Council's (BBC) Annual Conference on 5 June 2025. 'Transformation', apart from being a constitutional mandate as Ramaphosa reminded the BBC, remains legitimised by its claim to be designed to help 'our people' by the imperative of reducing poverty and unemployment. Transformation rich in reassuring rhetoric The reality is less righteous. It is the African rich who feed off the in-your-face African poverty as the rationale for still more measures to promote their wealth. Then-President Thabo Mbeki, rather than feeling the need to camouflage this reality, made it the key theme of his address to the Black Management Forum's annual conference in December 1999. He declared: 'I will speak only to the question of the challenge of the formation of a black capitalist class, a black bourgeoisie'. Despite such frankness, he still felt the need for euphemism. The implicitly all-inclusive 'black bourgeoisie' being one such euphemism. Yet only some five months earlier, the ANC had reaffirmed, at its 50th Annual Conference, that it had a much narrower understanding of who was black. In practice, as well as selected public use, it meant Africans in particular (Thesis 8 of the National Question in South Africa). This dual meaning of black has become sufficiently common for people to clarify their meaning when black is not used generically to include everyone who isn't white. Hence the term black African. President Ramaphosa's response to the question put to him in Parliament on 27 May 2025 by the leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Corné Mulder, is among the clearest and most comprehensive analyses demonstrating that the Budget was not alone in omitting the needs of poor Africans. Transformation does the same, despite the trillions of rands their poverty legitimises when spent on the creation, consolidation and expansion of the African bourgeoisie. Ramaphosa merits quoting at some length. Although himself using the formula 'black people in general and Africans in particular' in 2017, and, more especially when presenting the ANC's President's Political Report in 2022, he reverted to the more inclusive 'black people' in his answer to Mulder's 2025 Parliamentary question (as he frequently did in his aforementioned address to the BBC, in June 2025): 'I am rather surprised and taken aback when I hear that policies of black economic empowerment militate against the growth of our economy. That, I find quite surprising because I work from the starting point that our economy was held back over many years by the racist policies of the past. 'Black people were brought in as hewers of wood and drawers of water and they were just brought in as labourers. They were not even seen as consumers. They were not seen as active players in the economic landscape of our country.' The reality of apartheid, including the wholesale exclusion of black South Africans from the economy, could not be forgotten, as if it were merely 'a bad dream', Ramaphosa reminded Mulder: 'So I am really baffled, I am baffled by people who still hanker for policies of the past and to have you, Sir, say black economic empowerment is holding our economy back.' Ramaphosa was particularly incensed by the accusation that transformation was the major impediment to achieving the reduction of poverty and unemployment. All his GNU member parties agreed that cutting poverty and unemployment was the sine qua non for the way forward. They further agreed that this couldn't be achieved without economic growth. For him, there is no inconsistency between growth and 'black' wealth: 'Why can't black people be made to own productive aspects of our economy, why can't they be rich as well?' He claimed that both the World Bank and IMF had, in separate reports, agreed with him. Ramaphosa said that both institutions had identified an excessively over-concentrated economy as the roadblock to growth. Ramaphosa's still-intact apartheid mindset selectively equated this unhealthy concentration as being the continuation of apartheid, where the white minority enjoyed state protection of their ownership and management of the major sources of wealth. Given his misunderstanding of 'concentration', he was baffled by the new, sustained and growing fashion of attacking transformation, in both South Africa and the US. His expectation is applause for transformation, for its explicit intention is nothing less than forcing open the bolted doors of white wealth, with the keys still secured in white safes. His apartheid-cemented mindset made him unable to comprehend that, as used by both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (and economists more generally), concentration referred to sector/s of an economy dominated by a small number of very large corporations. These oligopolies, as they are called in standard economics, or monopolies in Marxian terminology, are sufficiently powerful both to set market prices and deter others from becoming competitors. (It seems that some of the established beneficiaries of BEE prefer not having additional competitors created by the continuation of BEE.) In either case, oligopolies are considered to constrain supposedly free markets, which is why most developed economies, including South Africa, have statutory institutions formally mandated to control such anti-competitive behaviours. Provided they don't take this mandate too seriously. If they do, even our (mostly) toothless Competition Commission is lambasted for 'thwarting growth '. This, despite the commission's acceptance of the normalisation of anti-competitive behaviour worldwide and the need for South Africa's corporations to be 'competitive' in markets controlled by much larger corporations than South Africa's large ones. Hence, too, the Treasury's response to pressure from Parliament's Finance Committee to expand the VAT zero-rated food basket. The Treasury explained that zero-rating was a blunt instrument, for it also benefited retailers and distributors who did not pass on the price reductions to consumers. Such additional profiteering was just presented – and accepted – as an unchangeable fact of economies. Capitalism on neoliberal steroids The effects of this modern-day economy (which dominates much of the world) go way beyond the austerity cuts and restrictions of South Africa's current Budget. As argued elsewhere, it is the South African form of neoliberalism that creates and reproduces the very poverty, unemployment and inequality the GNU is committed to reversing. Most of the 187 countries identified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2020 as austerity-stricken are committed to GDP-measured growth as the antidote to austerity. South Africa, along with the others, sees the antidote as being an injection of foreign capital into their economies. With the world awash with capital seeking profit-maximising investments – there are about 215 other investment destinations that capital can seek, according to Professor Adrian Saville of the Gordon Institute of Business Science – countries are obliged to be even more 'business-friendly' than their immediate competitors. The World Bank Group's President, Tim Young Kim, alerted governments as far back as 2017 to what this means: 'If the conditions are not right for private investment, we need to work with our partners to de-risk projects, sectors and entire countries.' 'De-risking' means maximising the freedom enjoyed by the capital of would-be investors. In addition to the Competition Commission's (standard) impotence, this is why profit shifting from the Global South continues unabated, despite the $242-trillion known to have been involved for the period 1990-2015 (constant 2010 USD). The global amount is $492-billion per year. A 2022 estimate for South Africa's losses is $329-billion over five decades. The Dennis Davis Tax Commission of 2022 put South Africa's losses at more than R100-billion. The free movement of capital is taken as given by foreign capital. This is why calls to tax the rich in the world's most unequal society can only but fall on deaf ears. This is why we are expected to celebrate when the export of food increases, while at the same time attacking the government – whether or not it's in a GNU formation – for the worsening unaffordability of food at home. This – along with a more generalised poverty and despair – is why some of us cry when mothers sell their children, while others applaud when the mothers and their accomplices are given life sentences. And we know well that the self-imposed restraints on budgets compel even well-meaning governments to increase the cost of petrol, notwithstanding their awareness that this will aggravate hunger and poverty, for the imperative of profit maximising will force businesses to increase their prices. The way forward? With the DA still being labelled a 'white' party, it is easy to dismiss their opposition to race-based laws because they oppose transformation that threatens their apartheid privileges. But, apart from such party-political opportunism, there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Willie Aucamp, the DA spokesperson – or most DA members, for that matter – when, in dismissing the anti-transformation accusation, he added: 'We believe that genuine redress must uplift all South Africans and remove the obstacles that continue to exclude millions from economic participation.' Given the reality of 'transformation', as Thabo Mbeki's brother, Moeletsi has noted: 'As the ruling party, the ANC had the role of nation-building. Instead, it has adopted policies that benefited only the African elite and alienated everyone else.' And because this reality is too discomforting for most of the ANC's political leadership and the more specifically business members of the 'black' bourgeoisie, they, too, probably sincerely endorse the sentiments expressed by the ANC's economic transformation subcommittee head, Zuko Godlimpi. Those opposed to transformation, he contended, have 'routinely tried to turn the legal system into their fighting stick against policies aimed at structural transformation. The grammar of this effort changes over time to be about inadequacies of this legislation, but the substance is the same: retain relations of power that privilege the same historically defined group in terms of economic access, employment opportunity, higher education access and overall social upward mobility.' South Africa's social stability, in his assessment, required nothing less than successful transformation. Ramaphosa developed these themes during his address to the BBC. While acknowledging that 'black African' households had experienced a 46% increase in real income between 2006 and 2023, the average income of 'white' households still remained nearly five times greater than African ones and, thus, failed to meet the demographics required by the Employment Equity and related acts. Since the persistence of 'poverty-stricken' Africans in post-apartheid South Africa is the fundamental rationale for African wealth, as expressed as recently as 9 June 2025 by CEO of Business Leadership SA (BLSA) Busisiwe Mavuso, with white-dominated institutions that 'look like outposts of Europe', Ramaphosa's playing with statistics is not surprising. It is to be expected that he would fail to mention that the 46% increase in African income reflected the huge inequality between the African rich and poor, an inequality that plays a major role in making South Africa the world's most unequal society. It is, indeed, most probable that he is not able to acknowledge this reality even to himself. Such a denial would be wholly consistent with the disjuncture between reality and his illusions on display in his glowing report to the BBC on health, education and unemployment. What he and the DA – like all the other parliamentary parties – are most fundamentally not able to accept is that it is South Africa's political-economic structure, its 'relations of power', that need transformation, if the objective is to reverse our shameful poverty, unemployment and inequality. This transformation begins with the rejection of what still remains nameless in Parliament, even though it has shaped the fundamentals of our economy since 1994: neoliberalism (as I've already revealed). While this first step to the DA's 'genuine' transformation remains beyond Parliamentary thinking, this is unlikely to apply to most of you, the readers of this article. After the experience of 31 years of neoliberal practice, it is a tiny step to guarantee its continued failure – and the consequential growing instability in all its many areas in our society. This knowledge is powerful. It makes it possible for us to increase in size sufficient for our voices not only to be heard in Parliament, but to be represented in Parliament. DM
NBC Sports
03-06-2025
- General
- NBC Sports
Luke Clanton touches down in Canada a pro, ready for his moment
Luke Clanton came prepared. Before he answered his first questions as a professional golfer on Tuesday afternoon at TPC Toronto ahead of his PGA Tour debut at the RBC Canadian Open, the 21-year-old Clanton opened with a two-page statement he had typed out a couple days earlier. 'I didn't want to forget anything,' Clanton said. He thanked his 'foundation' – dad, David; mom, Rhonda; and older sisters, Ray and Abby – all of whom 'laid the groundwork for this moment' with their 'love, belief and sacrifices.' He thanked his coaches, mentors and teammates, and then the various junior tours and organizations he cut his teeth on as a youth. Finally, as he's done faithfully, he thanked God. 'I know the professional game is a new world, and I cannot be more excited for this moment,' Clanton said in closing. 'I'm ready.' It's hard to argue. Clanton, who just wrapped up his third and final season at Florida State, has taken an unprecedented path to the big leagues. While Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent also debuts this week as the first player to graduate from the PGA Tour University's Accelerated program, it was Clanton who earned his 20 points with his play, not with help from awards. Clanton began last summer's U.S. Open at Pinehurst with no Accelerated points before matching Jack Nicklaus as the only amateurs to record three top-10s on the PGA Tour in a single season. Clanton did one better than Jack, though, notching four top-10s, including a pair of runners-up. When he made the cut at the Cognizant Classic last February, it marked the final point needed for PGA Tour membership. 'It was just kind of really quick,' Clanton said. 'It all happened very fast, and it was amazing.' Unique moment in Luke Clanton's press conference. Clanton began with an emotional opening statement, thanking everyone from his parents to the junior organizations that prepared him for this day. "Today my dream becomes a reality, a professional golfer on the PGA TOUR." In recent months, Clanton had blended back in with his team. He won four times this spring, including the NCAA Tallahassee Regional on the Seminoles' home course. He also captured the Hogan Award a couple weeks ago, a formality. But sometimes the perfect ending is hard to achieve, and Clanton found that out at last week's NCAA Championship; he closed in 4-over 76 after starting the final round inside the top 10 individually, and his missed birdie putt on his 72nd hole allowed Ole Miss to edge Florida State by a shot to earn the eighth and final match-play berth. A year after Clanton lost his match to Auburn's J.M. Butler as Florida State fell in the NCAA final, the Seminoles didn't even make it to Tuesday at La Costa. And Clanton's amateur career was over. 'It was a hard one to kind of wrap up,' Clanton said. 'Kind of coming back and hanging out with the guys for the last couple of days was definitely a bit rough. … But it's something we all chase for to become a professional.' When Clanton, with a fresh cut and no facial hair, boarded his flight to Canada, it finally hit him. All those nights rolling putts on the scruffy practice green at Country Club of Miami, a municipal in Hialeah, Florida, while David held an industrial-sized flashlight had paid off. David owned two businesses, in landscaping and glass treatment, while also teaching a few junior golfers, including his only son until Luke turned 17 years old and began working with instructor Jeff Leishman. So that Clantons could afford to put Luke through private school at American Heritage, David offered to do the school's landscaping. Rhonda worked as a flight attendant with Delta, which provided the family free flights and Rhonda the flexibility to home school her kids and travel with them to tournaments. Both David and Rhonda are now retired, ready to cheer on Luke as he lives out his dream. 'My dad and my mom never, ever get enough credit for what they did for me in my journey and my life, but I always think about it because it's what my dad set for me as goals,' Clanton said. 'Ever since I was a kid, he always told me I was going to be the best in the world, and he kept saying that to me every single day, and he made me believe it. Without that belief and without that trust in the process of what we were doing, 11 o'clock at night with a flashlight on plastic greens, it was definitely tough, but we did it. 'It just shows that if you have a dream and you have a goal, you can get there.' And now, Luke Clanton is here – and he's ready.
India Gazette
03-06-2025
- Business
- India Gazette
With Japan in the rearview, Indian envoy to US Vinay Kwatra says nation eyes $30 trillion economy by 2047
Washington [US], June 3 (ANI): India's Ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, highlighted the country's economic growth trajectory and its future goals, emphasising the importance of systemic stability for investors. 'You mentioned 4.1 trillion GDP that India touched recently. We now have Japan in our rearview. Prime Minister Modi has spoken about taking this to 5 trillion in the coming years, but the eventual goal which we are working towards is to take the Indian economy in the range of 28 to 35 trillion dollars by the year 2047, when we celebrate the centenary of our independence. When we talk of that, and if you position this in the perspective of an investor, for any investor, economic opportunity has to be one of the first drivers for a capital flow to happen. Suppose I'm a four trillion opportunity today looking to become 5, 10, and eventually 30-odd trillion opportunity; that whole journey is not enough in terms of numbers. In that case, it has to be combined with something which the investors truly value. First of all, I would say any investor would look for whether there is systemic stability in the economy, and whether there is systemic stability in the growth of the economy?' Kwatra said. He underlined that while India's GDP growth and economic potential attract investors, systemic stability in the economy and its growth is crucial to sustaining capital inflows. India recently crossed the $4.1 trillion GDP mark, overtaking Japan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi aiming to achieve a $5 trillion economy soon. The long-term vision is to reach an economy valued between $28 to $35 trillion by 2047, marking 100 years of India's independence. Kwatra's remarks highlight India's commitment to creating a stable and conducive environment for investors while pursuing ambitious economic growth targets. This vision aligns with the recent visit of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to Washington DC from May 27 to 29, where he held high-level meetings with senior US officials to bolster strategic and economic ties. Foreign Secretary Misri held wide-ranging discussions with counterparts across the Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defence, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The visit was a follow-up to the Prime Minister's visit to the United States on February 13, during which both sides launched the India-U.S. COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor was also part of the Indian delegation. According to MEA, at a luncheon meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, both sides reviewed the full spectrum of the bilateral agenda. They underscored that Technology, Trade, and Talent would be the key pillars shaping the India-U.S. partnership in the 21st century. In meetings with Deputy Secretary of Defence Steve Feinberg and Under Secretary for Policy Elbridge Colby, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to a robust and forward-looking defence partnership. Discussions focused on co-production and co-development initiatives, sustained joint military exercises, logistics and information-sharing frameworks, and enhancing interoperability between the armed forces, MEA said. Vikram Misri met with Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender, the Foreign Secretary and discussed ways to deepen economic and financial ties, including collaboration in international financial institutions and coordination in the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) processes. In his meeting with Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler, both sides reviewed progress on the India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement, cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, and the need to streamline ITAR and export control regulations. They agreed to convene the next meeting of the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue at the earliest opportunity, according to MEA. Consistent with the vision outlined in the COMPACT, detailed inter-agency discussions were also held on a range of strategic areas, including defence cooperation, energy security, the TRUST initiative, counter-terrorism, the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture, and collaboration through platforms such as the Quad, I2U2, and IMEEC. Foreign Secretary Misri, along with DNSA Kapoor, jointly chaired a roundtable with industry representatives, focusing on deepening bilateral collaboration in critical and emerging technologies. Additionally, they held a substantive interaction with members of the think tank community, covering the full breadth of the India-U.S. strategic partnership, MEA said. (ANI)
India Gazette
01-06-2025
- Business
- India Gazette
Defence, trade and technology discussed during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's visit to US
New Delhi [India], June 1 (ANI): Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Washington DC from May 27 to 29, where he held a series of high-level engagements with senior officials of the US Administration. Foreign Secretary Misri held wide-ranging discussions with counterparts across the Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defence, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The visit was a follow-up to the Prime Minister's visit to the United States on February 13, during which both sides launched the India-U.S. COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor was also part of the Indian delegation. According to MEA, at a luncheon meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, both sides reviewed the full spectrum of the bilateral agenda. They underscored that Technology, Trade, and Talent would be the key pillars shaping the India-U.S. partnership in the 21st century. In meetings with Deputy Secretary of Defence Steve Feinberg and Under Secretary for Policy Elbridge Colby, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to a robust and forward-looking defence partnership. Discussions focused on co-production and co-development initiatives, sustained joint military exercises, logistics and information-sharing frameworks, and enhancing interoperability between the armed forces, MEA said. Vikram Misri met with Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender, the Foreign Secretary and discussed ways to deepen economic and financial ties, including collaboration in international financial institutions and coordination in the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) processes. In his meeting with Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler, both sides reviewed progress on the India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement, cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, and the need to streamline ITAR and export control regulations. They agreed to convene the next meeting of the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue at the earliest opportunity, according to MEA. Consistent with the vision outlined in the COMPACT, detailed inter-agency discussions were also held on a range of strategic areas, including defence cooperation, energy security, the TRUST initiative, counter-terrorism, the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture, and collaboration through platforms such as the Quad, I2U2, and IMEEC. Foreign Secretary Misri, along with DNSA Kapoor, jointly chaired a roundtable with industry representatives, focusing on deepening bilateral collaboration in critical and emerging technologies. Additionally, they held a substantive interaction with members of the think tank community, covering the full breadth of the India-U.S. strategic partnership, MEA said. (ANI)
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Business Standard
01-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Defence, trade, tech discussed during foreign secy Misri's visit to US
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Washington DC from May 27 to 29, where he held a series of high-level engagements with senior officials of the US Administration. Foreign Secretary Misri held wide-ranging discussions with counterparts across the Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defence, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The visit was a follow-up to the Prime Minister's visit to the United States on February 13, during which both sides launched the India-US COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor was also part of the Indian delegation. According to MEA, at a luncheon meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, both sides reviewed the full spectrum of the bilateral agenda. They underscored that Technology, Trade, and Talent would be the key pillars shaping the India-US partnership in the 21st century. In meetings with Deputy Secretary of Defence Steve Feinberg and Under Secretary for Policy Elbridge Colby, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to a robust and forward-looking defence partnership. Discussions focused on co-production and co-development initiatives, sustained joint military exercises, logistics and information-sharing frameworks, and enhancing interoperability between the armed forces, MEA said. Vikram Misri met with Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender, the Foreign Secretary and discussed ways to deepen economic and financial ties, including collaboration in international financial institutions and coordination in the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) processes. In his meeting with Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler, both sides reviewed progress on the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement, cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, and the need to streamline ITAR and export control regulations. They agreed to convene the next meeting of the India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue at the earliest opportunity, according to MEA. Consistent with the vision outlined in the COMPACT, detailed inter-agency discussions were also held on a range of strategic areas, including defence cooperation, energy security, the TRUST initiative, counter-terrorism, the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture, and collaboration through platforms such as the Quad, I2U2, and IMEEC. Foreign Secretary Misri, along with DNSA Kapoor, jointly chaired a roundtable with industry representatives, focusing on deepening bilateral collaboration in critical and emerging technologies. Additionally, they held a substantive interaction with members of the think tank community, covering the full breadth of the India-US strategic partnership, MEA said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
