Tag: US

India-U.S. partnership is the defining moment of the 21st century

 Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal said that the India-U.S. partnership is the defining moment of the 21st century and reiterated the “ChaleinSaathSaath: Forward Together We Go” motto underscoring the depth of the partnership. During his Inaugural Address on ‘US-India Partnership: Forging Ahead’ at American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM) India’s 31st Annual General Meeting today in New Delhi, he talked about diversifying and deepening India-U.S. trade and investment ties for mutual growth and prosperity.

The Minister emphasised that the leaders of both the countries, Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and President of the United States of America, Mr. Joe Biden, understand each other and work smoothly together to find solutions to complex geopolitical problems around the world. Shri Goyal mentioned the 5Ts-Talent, Technology, Tradition, Trade and Trusteeship- identified by the Prime Minister as the vision for the India-U.S. relationship.

The Minister noted that the bilateral trade between India and U.S. has been the highest in the last couple of years and said that it is aimed to increase multifold in the coming years. He said that the target of US$2 trillion exports by the year 2030 is doable with the increasing eminence and recognition of India across the world and with strengthening partnerships with like minded countries having shared values like the U.S.

Shri Piyush Goyal cited the examples of many Indian companies operating in the U.S. and vice versa and highlighted how significantly they are contributing to each other’s economy. The Minister said that these business relations are deepening the partnership between the two countries. He expressed hope that more and more U.S. based corporations will work together with Indian companies in the near future.

The Minister encouraged companies from the U.S. to establish their base in India and expand to newer frontiers like the markets of Africa and South-East Asia. He said that India offers assured prosperity and growth to the U.S. companies with the recent policy reforms undertaken with focus on the fundamental  macroeconomic parameters, affordable labour costs, inclusive and sustainable development and increasing ease of doing business.

The Minister said that the businesses in both countries can work together to expand to the next level in many sectors like defence manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, textiles, engineering products, auto components, electrical products, agricultural products, etc. on the merchandise side while IT, accounting, business processes outsourcing, research & development, tourism, etc. on the services side. He said that the bilateral trade between both the countries is growing rapidly and has tremendous potential to scale further heights. He said that the technical and managerial talent offered by India to businesses around the world cements India’s relationship with the world; he cited the example of many U.S. corporations having Indian or Indian-origin CEOs.

The Minister said that Amrit Kaal is the defining period for India in which the demographic dividend is contributing to the growth of the economy bringing prosperity & future for the country. He said that the reform processes undertaken by the government in the last 9 years will turn India into a global manufacturing hub. He said that the efforts of the government towards improving logistics infrastructure like connectivity, power, etc. is leading to better quality of life for the people of India and enabling the aspirational youth to contribute to the rapid development of India. Shri Goyal stressed that it is important for the industry to stand on its own feet with delivery of high quality products and services with government interference in business to the minimum.

The Minister said that there is multifarious interaction between India and the U.S. at various platforms like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), U.S.-India CEO Forum, Quad, etc. He said that the comprehensive & strategic partnership between India and the U.S. is based on the strong foundation of shared values, commitment to the rule of law, transparency, freedom of business, freedom of media, independent judiciary, etc. The Minister said that there is complementarity between the India-U.S. economy and both countries collaborate to make prosperous and rational decisions.

He mentioned the significance of the recent visit of United States Secretary of Commerce, Ms. Gina Raimondo to India for the strengthening and deepening of the India-U.S. Partnership. He said that during her visit, Ms. Raimondo met the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and praised his visionary leadership in transforming India. He said that Ms. Raimondo noted the efforts of the Government in eliminating poverty and improving the lives of the people of India through the efficient use of technology and effective policy formulations.

The Minister said that India is committed to the fight against climate change and praised the performance of India as it performed better than the commitments it had made with being among the top 5 countries in performance on climate action. He said that India is consistent in the fight against climate change under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi who brought less developed, developing and developed countries together for the signing of the Paris Agreement.

The Minister appreciated the important role played by AMCHAM and the impetus provided by it for the India-U.S. partnership. He said that the collective effort between the leadership of both countries, warmth between people, etc. enables both the countries to partner in uncharted territories for mutual growth and development. The Minister also released two reports at the event: 1. The India edge – US Industries catalysing the growth trajectory and 2. Future of Urban Mobility- Integration of Platforms.

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US's list for religious freedom, Pakistan questioned why India not blacklisted.

Last week, Pakistan expresses strong exception to the United States recent decision to add the country to its religious freedom blacklist and exclude India from it, saying the decision is “detached from ground realities of Pakistan”.

Last week, the US added Pakistan, China and Latin American adversaries Cuba and Nicaragua, among others, to a blacklist — Countries of Particular Concern from 2021 — on international religious freedom, opening the path to potential sanctions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took no action against India, ignoring a recommendation by the autonomous US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF), which said that treatment of minorities was “significantly” worsening under Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s Hindu nationalist government. India is seen by the US as a key emerging ally.

Major geopolitical developments and it’s impact on India

Over the past several weeks, a number of important developments have taken place which may appear disconnected at a glance but in fact add up to a significant shift in regional and global geopolitics.

ONE, the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the complete takeover of the country by the Taliban. This resulted in chaos and overall disruption of the semblance of peace the country earlier possessed. With the Taliban claiming the residents of the country are happy with their takeover and the disrupted president on the run, the future of the country appears in shambles.

TWO, significant domestic political changes in the People’s Republic Of China. This includes the ideological and regulatory assault against its dynamic private high-tech companies and now recently, its real estate companies. As a result, it has a heightened risk perception among international business and industries which had seen China as a huge commercial opportunity until now. While the economical affairs of the country are entirely their own to manage and govern, there will be a lasting impact on the general job opportunities.

THREE, the announcement of the Australia-UK and US (AUKUS) alliance which represents a major departure in US strategy by its commitment to enable Australia to join a handful of countries with nuclear submarines. The alliance clearly portraits Australia’s strategic choice to firmly support USA despite its considerable economic and commercial equation in China.

FOUR, the convening of the four nation Quad physical summit (India, Australia, Japan and the US) IN Washington. This reflected a major step towards its formalization as an influential grouping in the Indo-Pacific going beyond boundaries and into a personal level of safeguarding.

These four developments together present India with both risks and opportunities. While the latter outweighs the risks henceforth. It would indeed be fitting to say a future of uncertainties awaits the entire world. Are these measurements a preparation of the unseen future or simply precautions is something only time will reveal.

Written by : Ananya Kaushal

Amazon CEO and other returns from their space voyage

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos returned to earth after his maiden space voyage. Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen were his other co-passengers in this journey. He spent total of 10 minutes in space. He went there on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft from its Launch Site One located in the West Texas desert (United States).

Jeff Bezos and his other co-passengers ( via Reuters)

Happy, happy, happy!,You have a very happy crew up here!

Jeff Bezos said in space

For the first time in the history a commercial company launched a privately funded and built spacecraft from a private launch range with astronauts on board.

Congratulations to all of Team Blue past and present on reaching this historic moment in spaceflight history. This first astronaut crew wrote themselves into the history books of space, opening the door through which many after will pass

Blue origin released this statement after safely return of the passengers on earth.

Private companies are competing in space travels and explorations, let’s hope this competition may result in affordable space travel ,well within reach of common man. Space travel is still dream of many people.

Contemporary International Relations

International relations have been a subject of fascination for most of us, the subject brings us into the different kinds of relations countries shared across the world. But have we ever stopped to think, why we should learn about international relations? Not really. International relations is a vast subjects, its main focus is on the relations shared between the different countries.

Its primary focus is to maintain peace and prosperity across the world. In international relations, peace is indivisible. The core objective of International Relation is to minimize the causes of war and create conditions for peace. We all are human beings, it is in the nature of human beings to share different and radical perspectives on the same thing, but what we should all focus is the need to eradicate a condition that can be a threat to our peace and prosperity.

An important objective introduced in the International Relations is the ‘Logic of Deterrence’. This logic was put into act during the cold war time. The time after World War II saw a lot of changes in the international system. There was an existence of two super powers, US and USSR.  There was tension between these countries and it has led to many proxy wars in other countries. But US and USSR never waged a war against each other, this was due to the logic of deterrence, both of the countries know that they have enough weapons to harm each other, and that there will no winner left standing. It could result in a lot of deaths without having a purpose and so they avoided a civil war at any cost, but it never stopped them from involving with other countries.

 The League of Nations was replaced by United Nations after 1945. This was because it couldn’t prevent the second world II. The UN was established with the motive of preventing any more world wars and in spreading conditions of peace and tranquility. The UN had five main members – US, USSR, France, UK and China. They were known as the big five and are the permanent members of the UN, while the others members of UN are temporary.  The landscape of International Relations has changed across the times, from the disintegration of Soviet Union to globalization paved its way.

Contemporary shape of the international relations has been a collective result of the following three factors. Firstly, with the disintegration of the soviet union, there was only one super power, it was the US. Times after was the US Hegemony, other countries and states were afraid of US. Countries who were not even part of the both the alliances were also very careful to keep themselves out of the way of US.

Second reason was the widespread ideology of liberalism. With communism out of the match, liberalism was seen as a better ideology across the world. Now countries were close to each other for economic reasons rather than political or cultural reasons. One of the example is the Look East Policy by the countries of South East Asia. Sometimes countries are forced into being slaves, not as colonies but in a new term called as neo-colonialism.

And finally, with an increase in the connections across the countries, it has put into effect a set of undesirable changes. Some countries had problems of their own and soon that become problems of other nations too, like terrorism, environmental issues etc. Globalization has set into motion a chain irreversible change. As globalization has set in, it gave a lot of opportunities as well as challenges too. It has become so much important to study about these in our day to day lives.

Secretary Pompeo urges more assertive approach to China

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech slamming China was an “angry lament” and “extended ideological rant” that would do little to change Beijing’s behavior, said Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Later Pompeo said Washington and its allies should use “more creative and assertive ways” to press the Chinese Communist Party to change its ways, calling it the mission of our time.

He also called for the engagement and empowerment of the Chinese people whom he described as “dynamic and freedom-loving people who are completely distinct from the Chinese Communist Party.”

He said “blind engagement” with China and repeated frequently leveled U.S. charges about its unfair trade practices, human rights abuses and efforts to infiltrate American society.

He said China’s military had became “stronger and more menacing” and the approach to Beijing should be “distrust and verify,” adapting President Ronald Reagan’s “trust but verify” mantra about the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Relations between the U.S. and China — the world’s top two economies — have been at their worst in decades. In addition to the countries’ ongoing trade war, both sides have recently sparred over a range of issues including the origin of the corona virus and China’s move to implement a national security law in Hong Kong.

Later he said one NATO ally, which he did not name, was unwilling to stand up for freedom in Hong Kong because it feared restricted access to China’s market.

While some conservative commentators praised Pompeo’s speech on social media and elsewhere, some other analysts were not impressed.

How to open a Franchise without money- US…

let’s talk about to open a franchise with no money so the first thing you can do, if you want to open a franchise with no money down is go to your friends and family look. I understand that that’s something that you may not want to do sometimes that’s a toughest conversation asking friends and family for money but I would assume if you’re willing to open a franchise and you have some skill sets you have a certain level of intelligence and a certain level of ambition so assuming that you have a good reputation and a good rapport with your friends and family then that’s the first place that you can go to get money to fund your franchise.

hamburger and fries photo
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

Now when you’re approaching them for the money it’s important to be tactical and strategic about it and you don’t just say hey! can I borrow ten thousand dollars can I borrow twenty thousand dollars can I have fifty thousand dollars you have to go into it strategically so go into it with a business plan this is the franchise that I want to buy this is the amount of money that I need to get started this is a lot the amount of money that I think I will make with the franchise this is the time period which I can pay the money back to you and get on that loan repayment plan, another way to approach getting money from feds and friends and family to fund your franchise is to ask them to be a partner with you so although they may not want to work in the franchise themselves maybe they’re more willing to give you money or lend you money for the franchise if they are an owner or an investor with you so maybe you’re the one that runs the franchise and you handle the day-to-day operations the sales managing the staff managing the overall business and they get a percentage of the profits as a way of paying them back.

close up photography of starbucks disposable cup
Photo by Adrianna Calvo on Pexels.com

The next way that you can fund a franchise is to get a loan and before you read about that real quick with the franchise so now in getting a loan to open a franchise business it’s important to note that one you’re going to need to have good credit and two you’re going to need to have an income that can support paying back. The loan and three the likelihood is you are still going to need money for the down payment on that loan if you get us an SBA loan which is Small Business Administration they require a minimum of 10% down from you in order to fund that business so what does that mean if you need $100,000 for your franchise business then that means you need to come up with $10,000 in order to here that loan so the question is how will you come up with that $10,000 and there’s a number of options that we’ll go over in a second of how you can do that one way you can do that is what we already talked about which is getting money from friends or family it’s so even with the Small Business Administration having a ten percent minimum requirement that you have to put towards the loan in order to open a business.

white and blue come on in we ere open signage
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

Most lenders that issue SBA loans are going to require anywhere from 20% to 30% in order for you to secure that loan so again in that example if you’re looking to open up a business that’s a total of $100,000 you’re going to have to figure out a way to come up with twenty to thirty thousand dollars in order to secure that loan and so in a second I’m going to tell you about a strategy of exactly how you can do that without having to ask your friends or family for money another way that you can fund a franchise without having any money so to say is seeing if you have any 401k or retirement plans now as someone who has managed over a hundred million dollars over the course of career as a financial advisor typically. I would not recommend for someone to take money out of their 401k and that’s not what I’m recommending to you. So, I want to make sure that you get that clear because there are severe penalties and tax consequences that you should consult the tax advisor about but there are ways that you can leverage your 401k so if you’re still working with your employer you can take out a loan against your 401k in order to fund a business and when you take out a loan there’s one thing that you have to be very careful about the thing that you have to be careful about is that if you leave that employer and you have an outstanding loan they are going to make you repay that loan within a certain period of time usually it’s 60 days if that is the case if you don’t come up with the money and repay the loan for the 401k they count it as an early distribution you’re going to have to pay taxes on that money depending upon if it’s a pre-tax 401k and you may have to pay some penalties. 2 guys opened up first location they were going to need 300 just over $300,000 in order to get first location open so they had a significant equity in their home at that time and want to went ahead and apply for a home equity loan they secured a three hundred and ten thousand dollar home equity loan use that home equity loan to fund the business and to pay for the business about a year or so later they actually wind up moving they sold their house the home equity loan was paid for paid off and now they own the franchise in the business completely outright don’t have any loans on the business and then the last way that you can potentially buy or open a franchise with absolutely no money is to talk to the franchiser again it’s not about the resources it’s about your resourcefulness so it never hurts to ask them and to make a pitch if you’re truly excited and confident about the opportunity.

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