This article is an on-site version of the India Business Briefing newsletter. To receive it in your inbox\u00a0regularly, sign up<\/a> if you\u2019re a premium subscriber, or upgrade your subscription here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Good morning. The monsoon rains are soaking Delhi, the Air Quality Index has dipped well below 100 to breathable levels, and India\u2019s MPs are due to convene for Monsoon Session next week. I\u2019m stepping in for Veena this week, and boy do I have big shoes to fill. (Actually, Veena\u2019s shoes are petite and stylish, so please delete that mental image!)<\/p>\n This week, my team is digging deeper into what Saturday\u2019s report on the tragic Air India crash means for the carrier and its owner Tata. But first, a few words on one of our top running news stories: trade. <\/p>\n India\u2019s trade negotiators are back in Washington in pursuit of a framework deal ahead of Donald Trump\u2019s new August 1 deadline. In recent days, the US president has not shied away from pulling the tariff trigger, targeting<\/a> America\u2019s three biggest trading partners \u2014 the EU, Canada and Mexico. <\/p>\n What might make India different from US neighbours and allies, however, is the two countries\u2019 fast-expanding ties in defence, technology and trade \u2014 areas of co-operation which both countries see as a hedge against China. Speaking in Jaipur in April, Vice-President JD Vance fulsomely declared<\/a> that \u201cthe future of the 21st century is going to be determined by the strength of the US-India partnership\u201d.<\/p>\n As Delhi\u2019s ink-stained economics reporter wretches (including yours truly) try to game out what\u2019s next, the question is whether India will prove \u201cspecial\u201d enough to avoid the looming 26 per cent US levy.\u00a0According to people briefed on the talks, New Delhi and Washington are arguing over what finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman calls \u201cred lines\u201d<\/a>: mostly, opening up its protected, politically sensitive grain and dairy markets to US exporters.<\/p>\n In the closed-door trade talks, the Indian delegation has almost certainly pressed the point that any significant climbdown on farming would be politically precarious for Narendra Modi, who Trump has described as a \u201cgreat friend\u201d. If there\u2019s no deal soon, the August 1 endgame will unfold when parliament is in session, giving opposition politicians like Rahul Gandhi an easy talking point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s going to be an early harvest \u2018lite\u2019 deal because the stakes are quite high for India,\u201d says Biswajit Dhar, a trade economist. He is betting that the two sides will pluck \u201clow-hanging fruits\u201d, with India opening up to more US manufactured goods such as automobiles and minor farm commodities like nuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n To avoid backlash from farmers on both sides, many details may be left deliberately murky, as my colleague Anantha reported<\/a> happened with Vietnam.\u00a0Trump, too, needs to keep American farmers happy, with many of them also voters in Republican states. After upending world markets, he will also be eager to present Maga supporters with a big export market he can claim to have \u201copened up\u201d. India would comfortably fill the bill.<\/p>\n Will India and the US strike a preliminary trade deal? Hit reply or email me at <\/em>indiabrief@ft.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n A report into the fatal Air India crash has left the airline and its owner Tata facing mounting questions over what went wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n The FT\u2019s editorial board argue for focusing AI regulation on \u201cmitigating specific real-world harms<\/a> and ensuring real accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Sheikh Hasina\u2019s daughter Saima Wazed<\/a> is \u201con leave\u201d from her World Health Organization job following accusations of fraud. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n Jane Street has deposited<\/a> more than $560mn in a step to lift India\u2019s trading ban.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Trump\u2019s Maga base is split over his administration\u2019s handling of files relating to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Is Narendra Modi\u2019s government massaging data to make India look good? As we like to joke in my profession, two is a trend, and for the second time in two months, his officials have been criticised for making flawed but self-flattering statistical claims.<\/p>\n In May BVR Subrahmanyam, who leads the government think-tank Niti Aayog, declared that India was the fourth-largest economy, a position held by Japan.\u00a0Indian reporters and fact-checkers pointed out that his claim was based on forward-looking projections for the fiscal year ending in March 2026. While India\u2019s economy will almost certainly overtake Japan\u2019s in size in the coming years (maybe even this year!), it has not yet done so.<\/p>\n Then this month, the government\u2019s Press Information Bureau appeared to double down on Subrahmanyam\u2019s assertion and went on to say that India was \u201cone of the most equal societies today\u201d. Citing a World Bank report on poverty published in May, the agency said India\u2019s Gini Index \u2014 a widely quoted measure of inequality \u2014 made it \u201cthe fourth most equal country in the world\u201d.\u00a0This time, the opposition National Congress pounced on the claim, accusing the PIB of focusing on consumption-based measures of inequality rather than income-based ones, which are more commonly used to gauge inequality. <\/p>\n The World Bank responded in comments to local media that while there was \u201ccorroborating evidence that household welfare has improved since 2011\u201d, about 5 per cent of India\u2019s population \u2014 more than 70mn people \u2014 still live in extreme poverty. Some observers noted that leftist economist Thomas Piketty\u2019s World Inequality Lab had last year reported a rise in top-end inequality in India, with the share of the country\u2019s top 1 per cent of total income \u201camong the very highest in the world\u201d. In response, a senior government official told me the lab\u2019s figures were \u201cvoodoo numbers\u201d and said the World Bank figures were more credible than \u201cPikettian propaganda\u201d. <\/p>\n As my team have reported<\/a>, how data is interpreted and used in India can be both controversial and politically freighted.\u00a0But while it is self-evident that Modi government opponents should criticise it, if there\u2019s any weight to their cavils, there\u2019s an impact for business too: Banks, rating agencies and consumer goods companies need to understand the India they are transacting with.<\/p>\n Ukraine has for the first time replaced India as the world\u2019s largest importer of arms in the first half of this decade, according to the Stockholm-based group SIPRI<\/a>. India\u2019s old friend Russia still accounted for 36 per cent of its total imports in 2020-24, followed by France with 33 per cent and Israel with a 13 per cent share. <\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s percentage share of global arms imports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n India\u2019s percentage share of global arms imports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Russia\u2019s percentage share of India\u2019s arms imports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI find productivity is high on days that start productively. The early morning meeting routine that has been part of my work life for the past 25 years now prepares me well for the day. I also find setting daily and weekly goals helps me avoid distractions. I believe healthy work-life balance and physical wellbeing are critical to maintain focus and high energy levels.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashish Gupta, chief investment officer, Axis Mutual Fund<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Each week, we invite a successful business leader to tell us their mantra for work and life. Want to know what your boss is thinking? Nominate them by replying to <\/em>indiabrief@ft.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of Britain\u2019s politicians and chief executives have been showing their vulnerable side<\/a> recently. Should leaders show their emotions at work, or keep them bottled up? Let us know in the poll below<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, we asked: If you go to Paris this summer, what are you free to do that you weren\u2019t legally allowed to for the past 100 years?<\/p>\n The answer is\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009take a dip in the Seine<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ram Teja <\/strong>was the first to write in with the correct answer, followed by Aniruddha Dutta, Sushant Jain <\/strong>and Ranjan Kumar Sinha<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Congratulations! <\/p>\n Thank you for reading. India Business Briefing is edited by Tee Zhuo. Please send feedback, suggestions (and gossip) to indiabrief@ft.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nDeal or no deal for India with Trump? <\/h3>\n
Recommended stories<\/h3>\n
\n
A slanging match over numbers<\/h3>\n
Go figure<\/h3>\n
8.8<\/strong><\/h3>\n
8.3<\/strong><\/h3>\n
36<\/strong><\/h3>\n
My mantra<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Ashish](\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F32e86b62-dfa1-4ccc-bf91-3b0a898eb309.png?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\nQuick question<\/h3>\n
<\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Buzzer round<\/h3>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is an on-site version of the India Business Briefing newsletter. To receive it in your inbox\u00a0regularly,…\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":34266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}