SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Tuesday, April 15, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
The Taliban banned Afghan girls from school. Low-paid carpet weaving is now their lifeline (BBC)
BBC [4/15/2025 12:49 AM, Mahjooba Nowrouzi, 69.9M]
At a workshop in Kabul where carpets are made, hundreds of women and girls work in a cramped space, the air thick and stifling.
Among them is 19-year-old Salehe Hassani. "We girls no longer have the chance to study," she says with a faltering smile. "The circumstances have taken that from us, so we turned to the workshop."
Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, girls over the age of 12 have been barred from getting an education, and women from many jobs.
In 2020, only 19% of women were part of the workforce - four times less than men. That number has dropped even further under Taliban rule.
The lack of opportunities, coupled with the dire economic situation the country faces, have pushed many into long, laborious days of carpet weaving - one of the few trades the Taliban government allows women to work in.
According to the UN, the livelihoods of about 1.2 to 1.5 million Afghans depend on the carpet weaving industry, with women making up nearly 90% of the workforce.
In an economy that the UN warned in a 2024 report had "basically collapsed" since the Taliban took power, the carpet export business is booming.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce noted that in the first six months of 2024 alone, over 2.4 million kilograms of carpets - worth $8.7m (£6.6m) - were exported to countries such as Pakistan, India, Austria and the US.
But this has not necessarily meant better wages for the weavers. Some the BBC spoke to said they had seen none of the profit from a piece sold in Kazakhstan last year that fetched $18,000.
Within Afghanistan, carpets sell for far less - between $100-$150 per square metre. Needing money to help support their families and having few options for employment, workers are trapped in low-paid labour.
Carpet weavers say they earn about $27 for each square metre, which usually takes about a month to produce. That is less than a dollar a day despite the long, gruelling shifts that often stretch to 10 or 12 hours.
Nisar Ahmad Hassieni, head of the Elmak Baft company, who let the BBC go inside his workshops, said that he pays his employees between $39 and $42 per square metre. He said they are paid every two weeks, with an eight-hour workday.
The Taliban has repeatedly said that girls will be allowed to return to school once its concerns, such as aligning the curriculum with Islamic values, are resolved - but so far, no concrete steps have been taken to make that happen.
Mr Hassieni said that, following the rise of the Taliban government, his organisation made it its mission to support those left behind by the closures.
"We established three workshops for carpet weaving and wool spinning," he says.
"About 50-60% of these rugs are exported to Pakistan, while the rest are sent to China, the USA, Turkey, France, and Russia to meet customer demand."
Shakila, 22, makes carpets with her sisters in one of the rooms of the modest rental they also share with their elderly parents and three brothers. They live in the impoverished Dasht-e Barchi area, in the western outskirts of Kabul.
She once had dreams of becoming a lawyer, but now leads her family’s carpet-making operation.
"We couldn’t do anything else," Shakila tells me. "There weren’t any other jobs".
She explains how her father taught her to weave when she was 10 and he was recovering from a car accident.
What began as a necessary skill in times of hardship has now become the family’s lifeline.
Shakila’s sister, 18-year-old Samira, aspired to be a journalist. Mariam, 13, was forced to stop going to school before she could even begin to dream of a career.
Before the Taliban’s return, all three were students at Sayed al-Shuhada High School.
Their lives were forever altered after deadly bombings at the school in 2021 killed 90 people, mostly young girls, and left nearly 300 wounded.
The previous government blamed the Taliban for the attack, though the group denied any involvement.
Fearing another tragedy, their father made the decision to withdraw them from school.
Samira, who was at the school when the attacks happened, has been left traumatised, speaking with a stutter and struggling to express herself. Still, she says she would do anything to return to formal education.
"I really wanted to finish my studies," she says. "Now that the Taliban are in power, the security situation has improved and there have been fewer suicide bombings.
"But the schools are still closed. That’s why we have to work."
Despite the low pay and long hours of work these women face, the spirits of some are unbroken.
Back at one of the workshops, Salehe, determined and hopeful, confided that she had been studying English for the past three years.
"Even though schools and universities are closed, we refuse to stop our education," she says.
One day, Salehe adds, she plans to become a leading doctor and build the best hospital in Afghanistan. We Owe Afghan Women a Chance to Make Their Own Destiny (The Diplomat – opinion)
The Diplomat [4/14/2025 3:01 PM, Nazila Jamshidi and Annie Pforzheimer, 2K]
March marked the fourth year that Afghan girls were told their minds are still unwanted, and that education for any female over 12 was still impossible. Their tears and acts of self-harm are unheeded. International attention is now aimed at papering over the problem.
In the same month, in New York, the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) unfortunately was once again the scene of women of Afghanistan explaining the situation of their sisters trapped inside the country and unable to appear in person, victims of institutionalized gender-based violence, without support and protection.
This is a stark contrast to the image presented during the U.S. and international community’s intervention in Afghanistan after 2001, which was marketed in part as a mission to protect the rights and dignity of Afghan women. In those days CSWs were filled with stories of success, showcasing Afghan women’s capabilities to compete on international stages and win prestigious awards, one after another. The international community used Afghan women to put a positive face to their war efforts in Afghanistan.
We have both attended many international meetings focused on Afghan women – one of us as a woman from Afghanistan and the other as a former U.S. diplomat who served twice at the embassy there between 2009 and 2018. The contrast between past narratives of empowerment and the current cries for help is deeply personal.
We saw firsthand the dramatic transformation that investment in human rights brought to Afghan society. Women could work, study, and challenge oppressive customs in court. Democracy began to take hold after the excitement of the first presidential and parliamentary elections, fostering values like human rights, gender equality, and diversity across governments, schools, and workplaces. One of the authors, Nazila, joined a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting human rights and gender equality. Taking on this role as a young woman gave her the unprecedented opportunity to travel freely across the country and advocate for Afghan women. With every trip, she witnessed tangible progress in women’s participation in society.
The era of gender apartheid, social injustice, and oppression was slowly disappearing, thanks to the determined efforts of both Afghans and Americans committed to this transformation.
But in 2021, we both watched in sorrow as that future was stolen from Afghan women overnight. The Taliban’s return erased decades of progress made by Afghans and Americans, as the new regime reinstated a legal framework designed to eliminate women’s presence in public life. Over the past four years, the Taliban have systematically imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women, stripping away their rights in every aspect – from education and employment to freedom of movement and participation in daily activities. Whenever the world thought the situation could not deteriorate further, the Taliban devised new ways to deepen their oppression.
In August 2024, the Taliban introduced a law under the banner of "promoting virtue and eliminating vice," solidifying and adding to the litany of restrictions on women. Women are required to conceal themselves completely. Even voices are considered intimate and women are therefore prohibited from being heard in public through singing, reciting, or reading aloud. Women are forbidden from making eye contact with men who are not family members.
The Taliban’s policies are not merely oppressive; they threaten the survival and well-being of countless Afghan women and their communities.
In December 2024, the Taliban banned women and girls from attending both public and private medical institutes. This devastating directive comes as Afghanistan faces a severe humanitarian crisis. Maternal mortality rates are surging as the age of brides falls, making more births high-risk, while over a third of the population lacks access to healthcare and malnutrition levels soar. The exclusion of women from medical education will have catastrophic consequences.
What international avenues exist to support Afghans, who – even in the face of serious repression – advocate for their own rights? Unfortunately, only a few tools such as sanctions and non-recognition of the Taliban regime are still in place, and some appear ready to give even those away. In mid-February, the United Nations introduced a proposed "Comprehensive Approach for Afghanistan." Unfortunately, the proposal is similar to the failed "Doha Agreement" signed by the first Trump administration in February 2020. The pathway suggested consists of an engagement framework that links tangible "steps" to goals held by both sides.
There are two key weaknesses: first, the ludicrous inequality of negotiating items.
The Taliban’s obligations, such as acceding to Afghanistan’s international obligations, are long-term, complex, and enormous undertakings needing the reversal of hundreds of decrees, laws, and other actions, and are fully reversible, as would be similarly complex actions to comply with counterterrorism requirements or inclusive governance. But on the international community’s side, giving up Afghanistan’s U.N. seat, unfreezing its assets, or abrogating U.N. sanctions are swift and irreversible actions that threaten the last remaining areas of international leverage.
Second, there is a lack of transparency or formal process of consultation with Afghans. In fact, in one presentation document for the plan shared with various countries, non-Taliban Afghans are referred to as "stakeholders" – on a par with issue-specific experts in terrorism or banking. The structure of discussions therefore continues to envision the international community in the driver’s seat to negotiate on behalf of Afghans, rather than the actual terms of the Special Assessment, which envisioned international support for an intra-Afghan dialogue preparatory to a national political dialogue.
Where would this leave Afghan women? Even more powerless than before, with additional repression given the apparent blessing of the world community. Weak and inconsistent responses signal that Afghan women’s rights are secondary to geopolitical interests. Despite international commitments to human rights, the absence of meaningful enforcement allows regimes like the Taliban to operate with impunity. We urge the United Nations to bring Afghan women to the negotiating table, to be their own advocates and create their own destiny, before it is too late. Pakistan
Pakistan wants to deport millions of Afghans. In one region, they have no plans to go (AP)
AP [4/15/2025 3:39 AM, Riazat Butt, 456K]
Akber Khan is seeing a brisk trade at his restaurant in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. Staff fan skewers of grilled meats and dole out rice and salad.
As an Afghan, Khan ought to be leaving as part of a nationwide crackdown on foreigners the Pakistani government says are living in the country illegally. But the only heat he feels is from the kitchen.“I have been here for almost 50 years. I got married here, so did my children, and 10 of my family members are buried here. That’s why we have no desire to leave,” he said.
Khan is one of more than 3 million Afghans that Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third live in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or proof of registration.
It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the country.
Shared cultural, ethnic and linguistic ties
The provincial government — led by the party of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan — appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans. Mountainous terrain, sectarian violence and an array of militant groups have also challenged the central government’s expulsion ambitions.“Afghans can never be completely repatriated, especially from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they return using illegal channels or exploiting loopholes in the system despite fencing at the border,” said Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Many villages along the border are divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and people in the past three or four decades were never stopped from visiting either side.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s proximity to Afghanistan, together with shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties, make it a natural destination for Afghans. The province has hosted significant numbers since the 1980s.
Many Afghans have integrated, even marrying locals. The region feels familiar and it’s easier to access through legal and illegal routes than other parts of Pakistan.
While the provincial government was cooperating with federal counterparts, policy implementation remained slow, analyst Khan told The Associated Press.“The (local) government is sympathetic to Afghans for multiple reasons,” he said. “They share the same traditions and culture as the province, and former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his days in power consistently opposed coercive measures toward Afghan refugees.”
Authorities are also wary about unrest, with Afghans living in almost all of the province’s cities, towns and villages.
A slow repatriation rate
Although police were raiding homes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities in Punjab and Sindh province farther from the border, the “lack of aggressive enforcement” was the main reason for the slow repatriation rate, analyst Khan said.
Pressure on Pakistan to have a change of heart — from rights groups, aid agencies and Afghanistan’s Taliban government — could also be a factor.
More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April through the northwest Torkham crossing. It’s a far cry from the volume seen in the early phases of the expulsion campaign in 2023, when hundreds of thousands fled to beat a government-imposed deadline to leave.
Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents.‘We are going under duress’
At a highway rest stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, a truck carrying 30 Afghans stopped to give passengers a break before they left Pakistan for good. They had come from Punjab. Families nestled among furniture, clothes and other items. A woman in a burqa, the covering commonly seen in Afghanistan, clambered down.
Ajab Gul said the actions of Pakistani officials had forced them to leave: “We didn’t want to go. They raided our houses two or three times. We are going under duress.”
Another truckload of passengers from Punjab pulled over by the Torkham border crossing to speak to the AP.
Jannat Gul outlined the dilemma that awaited many. “Our children’s education (in Afghanistan) has been destroyed. We’re going there, but we have no connections, no acquaintances. In fact, people often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghan.”‘If they take him, I will stop them’
There were happier scenes at the Kababayan refugee camp in Peshawar, where children played and ate ice cream in the sunshine. The camp, established in 1980 shortly after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, is home to more than 15,000 people and has schools, a health center, electricity and drinking water.
School is a crucial reason Afghans want to stay in Pakistan, because the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Muhammad Zameer, a camp resident, said girls’ education was “non-existent” across the border.
Other camp residents have a different concern: their Afghan husbands. Afghan men face deportation, and their local wives are unhappy.
Some are fighting to get their husbands a Pakistani identity card, which unlocks basic public services as well as indefinite stay, property ownership, bank account access and employment.
Some wives said they are willing to fight anyone deporting their husbands.“I never imagined the government would treat my husband like this,” said one, Taslima. “If they take him, I will stop them.” Pakistan mulls US oil imports to ease trade imbalance, sources say (Reuters)
Reuters [4/15/2025 4:41 AM, Ariba Shahid, 5.2M]
Pakistan is considering importing crude oil from the United States for the first time to offset a trade imbalance that triggered higher U.S. tariffs, according to a government source directly involved with the proposal and a refinery executive.Countries are scrambling to find ways to lower their U.S. tariff burdens, including buying more U.S. oil and gas, as President Donald Trump’s sweeping import duties rattle economies and markets."It is one of the products being reviewed ahead of a delegation leaving for the U.S. to talk about tariffs," said a government source directly involved with the proposal to the prime minister to buy more U.S. crude."It is under active consideration. We are exploring opportunities and the structure to do it, but the PM has to approve it," he said.Trump has imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S. and higher duties on dozens of other countries. Pakistan faces a 29% tariff due to a trade surplus with the U.S. of about $3 billion, although that is subject to the 90-day pause Trump announced last week.The refinery executive told Reuters that the idea is to buy U.S. crude equivalent to Pakistan’s current imports of oil and refined products, or about $1 billion of oil.The sources declined to be named as the proposal is in its preliminary stage.Pakistan’s petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Pakistan imported 137,000 barrels per day of crude in 2024, mostly light grades from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among its top suppliers, data from analytics firm Kpler showed. Oil imports amounted to $5.1 billion in 2024, data from Pakistan’s central bank showed.In February, Saudi Arabia, through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), extended a $1.2 billion financing facility to Pakistan for the import of oil products for a year. The SFD has provided approximately $6.7 billion to Islamabad for oil products since 2019.Before Trump’s partial tariff pause last week, Pakistan said that it would send a delegation to the U.S. in the coming weeks to negotiate new tariffs.Several big energy importers are looking to buy more from the U.S. to ease trade surpluses.Last Friday, Indian state gas firm GAIL India Ltd issued a tender to buy a 26% stake in a U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and import LNG, while Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have discussed participating in an LNG project in the U.S. state of Alaska. Roadside bomb kills 3 in southwest Pakistan as 2 polio workers are abducted in the northwest (AP)
AP [4/15/2025 3:31 AM, Abdul Sattar, 456K]
A powerful roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security personnel in Pakistan’s restive southwest on Tuesday, killing three officers and wounding 18 others, officials said.
Separately, gunmen also abducted two polio workers in the northwest.
The first attack occurred in Mastung, a district in the province of Balochistan, according to government spokesperson Shahid Rind.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in the province as well as other parts of the country.
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with an array of separatist groups, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019, staging attacks.The separatists seek independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Balochistan has persisted.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, denounced the attack and vowed to continue the “fight against terrorism” until it’s eradicated
Meanwhile, gunmen attacked a vehicle and abducted two polio workers who were on their way home after visiting a health facility in Dera Islamil Khan, a district in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a local police officer Zahid Khan.
The kidnapping happened ahead of a nationwide anti-polio campaign which will begin April 21 to vaccinate 45 million children.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the abductions but authorities have previously blamed militants for such attacks.
Insurgents falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children despite the government and medical experts’ vehement denials.
Pakistan has reported six new cases of polio since January.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus has not been eradicated. Islamabad Demands Justice After ‘Brutal’ Killing of 8 Pakistanis in Iran (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [4/14/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K]
Pakistan has called on Iran to take swift action following the killing of eight Pakistani nationals in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
The victims, all workers at an auto repair shop in the town of Mehrestan, were reportedly shot dead by unidentified armed assailants on April 11. The attackers are said to have tied up the victims before executing them at close range and fleeing the scene.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the killings and urged Iranian authorities to apprehend and punish those responsible.
"The Iranian government must immediately arrest those involved in the killings, ensure they receive severe punishment, and uncover the motives behind this brutal act," he said.
He also emphasized the need for the immediate repatriation of the victims’ bodies to their families in Punjab, Pakistan, where all eight men were from.
The attack has sparked outrage in Pakistan, with officials calling for enhanced security measures to protect Pakistani citizens working in Iran.Iran has officially condemned the killings as an "act of terrorism." Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said in a statement on April 13 that Iranian security and judicial authorities are committed to identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators.
The Iranian Embassy in Islamabad also strongly condemned the incident, labeling it a "cowardly and inhumane attack" while emphasizing terrorism as a shared threat to regional peace and security.
Some reports allege the separatist group Baloch National Army (BNA) has claimed responsibility for the killings, alleging the victims were linked to Pakistani intelligence agencies. RFE/RL has not been able to independently verify this.
The BNA has a history of targeting Pakistani nationals and has carried out similar attacks in the past as part of its campaign against Islamabad’s influence in the region.
Iran and Pakistan have frequently accused one another of allowing militants to launch cross-border attacks from their territory.
In January last year, nine Pakistanis were killed in Sistan-Baluchistan province.
Armed opposition groups to the Islamic republic -- such as Jaish al-Adl -- have a long history of launching attacks in the Iranian province. Thousands of Sikh pilgrims visit Pakistan to celebrate Vaisakhi festival (AP)
AP [4/14/2025 9:56 PM, Babar Dogar, 777K]
Thousands of Sikhs were in Pakistan on Monday to celebrate Vaisakhi, a harvest festival that marks the start of the Sikh New Year and is mostly observed in Punjab and northern India.Pakistani authorities this year granted more than 6,500 visas to Indian Sikhs, a higher number than previous years. Visas to travel between the two countries are normally difficult to obtain, but the governments have a special arrangement that allows pilgrims to visit shrines and places of worship.The main Vaisakhi ceremony was held in Nankana Sahib, where the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, was born.Gurdwara Janam Asthan is one of nine Sikh places of worship at Nankana Sahib, which is located some 75 kilometers (46 miles) west of Lahore.Rinko Kaur traveled from India’s western Gujarat state, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from. She said she was initially hesitant about visiting Pakistan.“My family warned me about going ... and said I should be with a group to be safe,” Kaur said.But she said the people have been welcoming.“I saw people coming out of their houses, waving as a welcome gesture. We feel as if we are celebrities,” said Kaur, who plans to visit other Sikh holy sites in Pakistan in the coming days.Many Sikh holy sites are located in Pakistan after the British partitioned the subcontinent into separate nations in 1947 following two centuries of colonial rule.Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Vaisakhi was a time of “great joy for farmers.” The festival also encourages a spirit of hope, unity and renewal that inspires and unites communities, Sharif added. Pakistan names controversial Binance founder as crypto adviser (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [4/14/2025 10:02 PM, Adnan Aamir, 1191K]
Pakistan’s appointment of Zhao Changpeng, founder of Binance, as strategic adviser to its new crypto council has raised concerns, given that he was jailed in the U.S. last year over money laundering charges.The China-born Canadian billionaire and founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was appointed strategic adviser to the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) last week. Zhao stepped down as Binance CEO in 2023 and the company was subsequently fined $4.3 billion after it was found guilty of flouting U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.The PCC was formed in March to create a regulatory framework for the crypto industry. Following his appointment, Zhao, commonly known as CZ, held separate meetings with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s finance minister and chairman of the PCC, termed the appointment of Zhao as a landmark moment. "We are sending a clear message to the world: Pakistan is open for innovation," said an official press statement."Pakistan has roughly three to four times more investors actively trading and investing in cryptocurrency compared with equities on the Pakistan Stock Exchange," Shoaib Lalani, founder of FinPocket, an investment platform in Pakistan, told Nikkei Asia. "If implemented correctly, the [PCC] could improve governance and provide investor protection, especially to retail investors," he added.Zhao’s appointment has raised alarm bells in the financial and business community due to his controversial record. Zhao served a four-month prison term in the U.S. last year after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws.Ikram ul Haq, an economic and taxation expert, called the government’s move shocking."It shows either a lack of competence in background checks or a deliberate attempt for some personal gains," he said. "It once again confirms that state functionaries and elected representatives in Pakistan work mainly for self-aggrandizement rather than public interest."Ahsan Hamid Durrani, executive director of Islamabad-based Policy Research Center, said it was a calculated move."While CZ’s global reputation carries controversy, his role in shaping the global crypto ecosystem is hard to ignore," Durrani said. "Few individuals have the reach, technical insight and experience that he brings to the table."A government official told Nikkei on condition of anonymity that Zhao’s role with the PCC is purely advisory and not regulatory, and he would not hold decision-making authority."The involvement of Zhao should be seen as a signal of Pakistan’s intent to learn from global expertise, not as a compromise on regulatory integrity," the official added.Observers fear that Zhao’s U.S. conviction could impact Pakistan’s standing with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) framework, a global anti-money laundering watchdog.Pakistan has been placed on FATF’s grey list three times in the last two decades. Most recently, Pakistan was on the grey list from 2018 to 2022.The grey list is made up of countries under close monitoring by the FATF and are cooperating with the body to address systemic deficiencies so that money laundering, terrorism funding and proliferation financing can be countered.Pakistan’s economy suffered losses of $38 billion from 2008 to 2021 due to FATF grey-listing, according to a research paper by Naafey Sardar, an assistant professor of economics at U.S.-based St. Olaf College.Haq said Zhao’s appointment would have serious ramifications. "The FATF will view it very seriously, and this may put Pakistan under stricter monitoring and scrutiny," Haq said. "The risk is compounded given Pakistan’s recent history of being on the FATF grey list."Durrani agreed that Zhao’s appointment and Pakistan’s growing interest in cryptocurrency will certainly be noted by FATF, especially in light of ongoing global concerns around digital assets and illicit finance. India
Trump’s Trade War With China Could Be Good for India. But Is It Ready? (New York Times)
New York Times [4/15/2025 12:00 AM, Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar, 831K]
Even when India was staring down the barrel of a 27 percent tariff on most of its exports to the United States, business executives and government officials saw an upside. India’s biggest economic rival, China, and its smaller competitors like Vietnam were facing even worse.
India has been pushing hard in recent years to become a manufacturing alternative to China, and it looked as if it had suddenly gained an advantage.
Then India and its smaller rivals got 90-day reprieves, and President Trump doubled down on China, boosting its tariff to 145 percent.
The sky-high tax on Chinese imports to America presented “a significant opportunity for India’s trade and industry,” said Praveen Khandelwal, a member of Parliament from the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a top figure in the country’s business lobby.
India, with its enormous work force, has been trying to elbow into China’s manufacturing business for a long time, yet its factories are not ready. For the past 10 years Mr. Modi has pursued a goal he named “Make in India.”
The government has paid incentives to companies producing goods in strategic sectors, budgeting over $26 billion, and tried to attract foreign investments in the name of reducing India’s dependence on Chinese imports. One of its goals was to create 100 million new manufacturing jobs by 2022.
There have been successes. The most eye-catching one is that Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer, has started making iPhones for Apple in India, moving some work from China.
Yet the role of manufacturing in India over a decade has shrunk, relative to services and agriculture, from 15 percent of the economy to less than 13.
Manufacturing and the jobs it can bring are thought to be crucial to India’s rise as a global power. China, with an economy five times the size of India’s, is the biggest of the Asian countries to have sped toward prosperity by making and selling stuff the rest of the world wants to buy. But manufacturing accounts for a 25 percent share of most East Asian economies — twice as much as in India.
Public infrastructure has come a long way under Mr. Modi’s direction. But 10 years has not been enough time to train the country’s growing work force to match businesses’ needs. And the route remains bumpy when it comes to connecting India’s pockets of economic strength to one another.
Barely an hour from New Delhi on a new eight-lane elevated highway, the Rai Industrial Estate in Haryana occupies land that grew wheat and mustard crops earlier this century. Some of the factories on the dusty grid inside have been grinding out auto parts and processed foods for 20 years. Others are just starting, hoping for an imminent breakthrough.
Vikram Bathla, who in 2019 founded LiKraft, which manufactures lithium-ion batteries for vehicles, said access to technology was the most frustrating obstacle to his business. He depends heavily on imports, which need to be bought in bulk and take time to ship, and finds it difficult to hire the people he needs to do highly technical work.“We can buy the equipment, and we do” — and most of it comes from China. “What we don’t have,” he said, “is the skilled workers to use it.” For five years, he said, he has been trying to catch up with competitors that started 15 years before him.
Mr. Bathla, tall, mild-mannered and English-speaking, paces among LiKraft’s 300 workers, most of them migrants from poorer Indian states, quietly bent over brightly lit benches, assembling batteries. They start with cells imported from China, some of them turquoise cylinders labeled “Made in Inner Mongolia.”
Other workers operate larger machines, also imported from China, to weld cells and electronic components into batteries. The finished products will be marked “Made in India.” But the supply chain is foreign.
It is not just a high-tech phenomenon. Another factory, half a mile away in the same industrial park, depends on foreign inputs, too.
AutoKame designs, cuts and sews car-seat covers for the Indian market. Its high-precision fabric cutters, with whirring, robotic arms, are imported from Germany and Italy. The synthetic fiber also has to be imported.
Expensive raw materials are only the tip of the iceberg, said Anil Bhardwaj, the secretary general of a trade organization for manufacturing businesses. Also contributing to the problem, he said, are the high cost of land, a shortage of the right kinds of engineers and a lack of good financing from banks. Many difficulties that he and other owners face are about inconsistent government policy and red tape, problems that have dogged Indian industry for many decades.
Mr. Bhardwaj also cited a less obvious need faced by manufacturers: a well-functioning justice system. India’s courts are slow and their rulings arbitrary, he said, putting small businesses like his colleagues’ at the mercy of larger firms that can afford better lawyers and political influence.“That’s why people really fear the big companies in India,” he said.
Smaller companies can’t afford to confront them, or the politicians and regulators who accommodate them. India’s court system is so disastrously backed up — with more than 50 million cases pending — that any entanglement can turn deadly for a smaller player. So they avoid growing, and miss out on efficiencies of scale.
He and other experts acknowledge significant improvements in recent years. For instance, power, which was in short supply 10 years ago, has become plentiful in places like Haryana’s industrial parks, though it is not as reliable as the small factories there would like. Many government processes have been streamlined during Mr. Modi’s time in office.
And states have managed to replicate some parts of the production system that made China’s factories the world’s envy. A cluster of Apple suppliers in the state of Tamil Nadu is by some estimates producing 20 percent of the world’s iPhones. Until the past few years, nearly all were made in China.
Records from Tamil Nadu’s main airport show that in the weeks before Mr. Trump announced his 27 percent tariff, outbound shipments of electronics doubled, to more than 2,000 tons a month, as Apple and other companies stocked up. A decision on Friday by Mr. Trump to exclude smartphones and other electronics could tamp down the rush to ship iPhones to America.
Still, long-term changes are afoot. A person who works closely with Apple’s suppliers, who was not authorized to discuss their plans publicly, said the suppliers were hoping to ramp up production so India could make 30 percent of the world’s iPhones.
Mr. Khandelwal, the politician, said India was ready to seize the overnight advantage created by the 145 percent tariff against China across many industries, including electronics, auto parts, textiles and chemicals.
Smaller factory owners are eager for the same things. But they see big old Indian obstacles in their way, the very kind that have resisted reform for decades. India and China Discuss Resuming Flights, No Date Set (Reuters)
Reuters [4/14/2025 6:44 AM, Abhijith Ganapavaram, 24727K]
India and China have held one round of talks on resuming direct passenger air services, but no dates have been fixed yet, New Delhi said on Monday, as relations continued to thaw five years after a deadly border clash.
The neighbours agreed in January to work on resolving trade and economic differences, in a move expected to boost their aviation sectors, particularly China’s which has lagged other countries’ in rebounding from the COVID pandemic.
"The civil aviation ministry and our counterpart in China have had one round of meetings," Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam said at a conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi.
There were still some issues to resolve, he added, without going into detail.
Relations soured between India and China in the wake of the 2020 clash between troops along their border in the Himalayas, which killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese.
India imposed restrictions on Chinese companies investing in the country, banned hundreds of popular apps and cut passenger routes, although direct cargo flights continued.
Relations have improved since an agreement in October to ease a military standoff on the mountainous border, the same month that President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks in Russia. Three dead as protests against Muslim land law turn violent in eastern India (Reuters)
Reuters [4/14/2025 10:58 AM, Subrata Nag Choudhary, 62527K]
Protesters angered by a new law on land use they say discriminates against Muslims set fire to police vehicles in Kolkata, capital of India’s West Bengal State, on Monday after a weekend of violence claimed three lives, authorities said.The unrest began in the Murshidabad district, where Muslim protesters set fire to shopping malls, attacked a Hindu home and stabbed two people on Saturday, police said, forcing authorities to suspend internet services in the area.On Monday, protesters in the Bhangar area of Kolkata clashed with police after officers stopped a protest rally. A major highway was blocked by protesters during the disturbances.The protesters were angry about a new law passed by the Indian parliament this month, which makes sweeping changes in the management of vast tracts of land set aside solely for Muslim use, potentially stoking tensions between the government and minority Muslims.Muslim groups and political parties say the law, like many of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, aims to alienate and discriminate against Muslims. Modi and officials in his party deny the allegations, and have said the law is a "pro-Muslim reform".Modi’s party has accused the Trinamool Congress, its bitter rival which rules West Bengal, of appeasing Muslims in order to win votes. The Trinamool Congress denies this and says Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is polarising people on religious lines. Fugitive Jeweler Wanted by India Is Arrested in Belgium (New York Times)
New York Times [4/14/2025 4:14 PM, Suhasini Raj and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, 831K]
Mehul Choksi, a wealthy diamond dealer whom India has sought in connection with a fraud case involving one of India’s largest state-run banks, has been arrested in Belgium, his lawyer said on Monday.
Mr. Choksi, 65, is wanted on charges relating to an attempt to defraud the publicly owned Punjab National Bank of nearly $1.8 billion in a case that caused a national scandal when it became public in 2018.
Mr. Choksi left India shortly before the authorities there went public with the accusations against him that year. He has been living in the Caribbean and in Belgium since then, according to the Indian news media.
Police officers in the Belgian city of Antwerp, a center of the global diamond trade, arrested Mr. Choksi on Saturday, according to the Belgian public prosecutor’s office, which said it had requested the arrest.
The Belgian authorities did not immediately provide details of the circumstances that led to Mr. Choksi’s arrest, but his lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, said in an interview that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, the main government investigative agency, had asked for Mr. Choksi’s extradition.
Mr. Aggarwal said that he would seek his client’s immediate release, arguing that he was in ill health and undergoing treatment for cancer.“He is not a flight risk,” Mr. Aggarwal told a news conference in Delhi. “His medical condition is very precarious.”
Mr. Aggarwal has denied accusations of wrongdoing in the case. Since leaving India, he has also spent time in Dominica and Antigua, two countries in the Caribbean, according to the Indian news media.
Mr. Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi, once one of India’s most prominent high-end jewelers, was arrested in London in 2019 in connection with the bank fraud. Mr. Modi, who has also denied wrongdoing, had fled India weeks before officials there accused him, Mr. Choksi and others in the fraud case. Mr. Modi has fought Indian efforts to have him extradited, and remains jailed in Britain.
The case against Mr. Choksi and Mr. Modi reinforced a perception in India that taxpayer-owned banks were financing the lavish lifestyles of a rising elite. Attempts to bring the two to justice have captivated the Indian public. Indian billionaire jeweller arrested over alleged bank fraud (BBC)
BBC [4/14/2025 6:00 AM, Cherylann Mollan, 69901K]
Indian businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following India’s request for his extradition.
Mr Choksi, who left India in 2018, was arrested on Saturday, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told the BBC on Monday.
The diamond merchant is wanted by India over allegations of involvement in a case of defrauding one of the country’s largest banks of nearly $1.8bn (£1.3bn).
Mr Choksi has not commented publicly on the case, but his lawyer said they would appeal against his detention and also oppose his extradition to India.
"These are the obvious grounds [on which we will argue the case], that he is not a flight risk and secondly, that he is extremely sick. He is undergoing cancer treatment," Mr Agarwal said.
He added that they would "contest the extradition on grounds that there isn’t enough evidence against him and the extradition request is politically motivated and the trial in India may not be fair".
The BBC has reached out to India’s foreign ministry and financial crimes agency - the Enforcement Directorate (ED) - for comment.
According to a Times of India report, Mr Choksi was arrested on the basis of two non-bailable warrants issued by an Indian court in 2018 and 2021 - although it’s not clear why the action came now.
Mr Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a $1.8bn fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Mr Modi, who’s also been living abroad since 2018, is lodged in a prison in London and is awaiting extradition to India.
Both were high-profile diamond traders. Mr Modi’s jewellery was worn by several Hollywood celebrities such as Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. One of the biggest Bollywood stars, Priyanka Chopra, was his company’s brand ambassador.
Mr Choksi, meanwhile, was the owner of Gitanjali Gems, an Indian jewellery retailer which once had about 4,000 stores across India.
The ED has accused Mr Choksi and Modi of colluding with some employees of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai city to get fraudulent advances for payments to overseas suppliers of jewels.These funds were then allegedly diverted and laundered.
Mr Choksi and Mr Modi have denied the allegations against them.
After leaving India, Mr Choksi reportedly travelled to the US and later to Antigua - where he has citizenship.
In 2021, he was reportedly arrested in Dominica and deported back to Antigua.
Hariprasad SV, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who had in 2016 alerted authorities about the alleged scam at PNB, said Mr Choksi’s arrest was "great news".
"Apart from bringing him back, the most important thing is to get back all those billions of dollars he looted from India," he told ANI news agency. India Targets 300 Million New Users for UPI Payments Platform (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/14/2025 11:28 PM, Preeti Singh and Saikat Das, 5.5M]
India plans to bring hundreds of millions of new users onto Unified Payments Interface, its real-time payments system, while pitching the platform for wider adoption overseas.
National Payments Corporation of India aims to draw an additional 200 million to 300 million Indians to UPI to “break their cash memory” through initiatives including delegated accounts for children and household staff, who may lack access to traditional bank accounts, said Dilip Asbe, its managing director and chief executive.
The home-grown payments platform has in the past five years transformed how more than 450 million retail consumers pay for everything from holidays to a cup of tea using their smartphones. Users can scan merchant QR codes to make payments ranging from small amounts to up to 500,000 rupees ($5,817) from their bank accounts — thus far without paying transaction fees.
Such is the popularity of UPI that India today accounts for nearly 46% of the world’s digital transactions, after a 90-fold increase in retail digital payments in the past 12 years, according to a PwC report. Stakeholders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, NPCI and India’s central bank are now looking to capitalize on that success by touting the platform overseas.“The idea is to make remittances very affordable and real-time to all the diaspora,” Asbe said.
Global Expansion
NPCI’s domestic focus, as well as the delegated accounts, is also on expanding UPI’s multilingual and conversational chat features to widen access, Asbe said. The outfit is piloting vision recognition technology to encourage higher UPI usage in parking payments, he added.
Furthermore, it’s also looking at ways to expand its credit offering for retail customers. UPI already offers small-ticket loans, but Asbe believes its architecture could help lenders to make credit approval decisions based on customer repayment behavior, while also improving collections.“The credit-as-a-service model will also evolve and get some scale in the next three to five years,” Asbe said.
Abroad, the Indian government has roped in its embassies to help pitch UPI, according to Asbe, while RBI has reached out to several countries to push the platform.
The country’s diaspora transferred a record $129 billion back to India in 2024, the highest sum ever recorded by any country in a single year, according to a World Bank report.
Asbe said that besides remittances, UPI could also help with money flowing in the other direction, for example to help Indians pay for overseas education.
The Indian government has struck deals with some nations boasting a large Indian presence, such as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, but is yet to make headway with western nations like the UK, US and Australia.“It might take time because other countries are at a different stage of real-time payments system stabilization,” Asbe added.
Transaction Fees
Despite the rapid rise in UPI transactions, a potential challenge looms in the question of whether users should be charged a fee for digital payments. At the heart of the debate is the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) — a fee collected by banks from merchants at the point of sale for processing transactions.
UPI payments earlier carried an MDR of 30 basis points, but the government waived the fee in 2020 to accelerate the platform’s adoption. To compensate merchants, incentives were rolled out to cover operational costs, but those plummeted from 36 billion rupees in 2024 to 15 billion rupees the following year. Industry bodies have pushed to reinstate the transaction fee.
Such a move could pump the brakes on UPI’s growth. A recent LocalCircles survey of 32,000 respondents revealed that 73% of UPI users would stop using the service if a transaction fee is imposed.
The UPI ecosystem is working with the government and RBI to make the platform viable “by creating a small fee for the large merchants,” Asbe said. India develops ‘Star Wars’ laser gun to shoot down drones (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [4/14/2025 6:30 PM, Samaan Lateef, 126906K]
India has developed a Star Wars-like laser gun, which it tested on Sunday by shooting down a swarm of drones several kilometres away.
The 30-kilowatt laser weapon, known as Sahastra Shakti, burns through targets at the speed of light after initially detecting them by radar, according to Indian officials.The launch marks the country’s foray into the next generation of weaponry, using lasers to strike targets.
The machine was unveiled at the National Open Air Range in Kurnool city, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, which led the trial, said the weapon first picked up and tracked seven swarm drones at a range of 3.5km (2.17 miles), before locking on and destroying them.
It then knocked out a fixed-wing drone at an even greater range.
"[The laser] defeated a fixed-wing UAV and swarm drones successfully, causing structural damage and disabling the surveillance sensors," said Samir Kamat, the organisation’s chairman.
India has ramped up military spending in recent years amid rising tensions with China at the border and the ongoing threat of conflict with neighbouring Pakistan.
In February, India proposed defence spending of 6.81 trillion rupees (£60 billion) for the 2025-26 fiscal year, up 9.5 per cent from the previous year’s initial estimates.
The launch of laser weapons puts it in the same league as the United States, Russia, China and Israel.
"This is just the beginning of the journey. We are working on a number of technologies that will give us Star Wars capability. What you saw today was one of the components of Star Wars technologies," said Mr Kamat.
Unlike traditional kinetic weapons, laser weapons are cheaper, faster and more precise, making them particularly effective in attacking drones and incoming munitions.
The Sahastra Shakti – which translates to "a thousand power" – consists of six high energy lasers of 5KW each that converge into one beam to hit the target at 30KW. It is deployed across two 4x4 vehicles, one that targets and tracks the threat, and the other carrying the machinery that fires the beam.
"This type of cutting-edge weaponry has the potential to revolutionise the battlespace by reducing the reliance on expensive ammunition, while also lowering the risk of collateral damage," said Mr Kamat.
"The cost of firing it for a few seconds is equivalent to the cost of a couple of litres of petrol. Therefore, it has the potential to be a long-term and low-cost alternative to defeat the target.".
Officials say the plan is to further develop the weapon so it can fire multiple beams, allowing it to destroy swarms of drones. This 17th-century hatred is fueling India’s politics (Washington Post – opinion)
Washington Post [4/14/2025 6:15 AM, Rana Ayyub, 31735K]
In February, a Bollywood film called “Chhaava” (“Lion Cub”) debuted in India amid massive fanfare. In the film, actor Vicky Kaushal plays Sambhaji, a Hindu leader who took on Mughal ruler Aurangzeb in the 17th century. Aurangzeb is portrayed as a sadist who chains and tortures the valiant hero, whose fingernails and tongue are pulled out and who eventually (spoiler alert!) dies. Mughal soldiers also burn a shepherdess alive. Indian news channels showed viewers emerging from the theater sobbing, exclaiming that they were unaware of the gory history of the Mughals in India.Ironically, the film was released on Valentine’s Day, when many couples pose in front of the Taj Mahal, a symbol of love constructed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his favorite wife. Several other architectural wonders of the Mughal empire, which reigned in South Asia from the 16th to the 19th centuries, are among India’s most-visited tourist sites. Over the past five years, according to one report, India generated 548 crores, or about $64 million, in tourism revenue through the Mughal monuments.But these beloved places went unmentioned in the onslaught of acrimony that followed the release of “Chhaava.” On social media, Hindu nationalists expressed outrage over the treatment of Hindu leaders by Islamic invaders more than three centuries ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the film, prompting several states to make the movie tax-free. The chief minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand announced he was renaming cities and roads named after Muslims and Mughals. And the chief minister of Maharashtra state asked that Aurangzeb’s tomb, which is under archaeological protection, be removed. In the city of Nagpur, mobs demanding the removal of the tomb attacked homes and set vehicles on fire, killing a 38-year-old Muslim man during the rampage.The unrest following the release of the movie is one more example of how the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses ancient history to incite hatred against India’s Muslim minority. Mughal rule in India has long been used as a dog whistle by the Hindu nationalist party, which refers to the country’s more than 200 million Muslims as the “children of Mughals.”The Mughal era is famed for its cultural achievements, including not only architecture but also gardens, literature, poetry and painting. Persian was the court language, and, for most of the time, its rulers practiced religious tolerance. Aurangzeb, though, who ruled from 1658 to 1707, enforced sharia law and alienated non-Muslims.While foreign dignitaries visiting India, from Vladimir Putin to Queen Elizabeth II, are always taken to visit the Taj Mahal, some BJP politicians have complained that the landmark is not representative of Indian culture. Recently, one politician announced proudly that copies of the Hindu scripture — the Bhagavad Gita — was now being given to visitors instead of Taj Mahal replicas.It was not always thus. In the past, Indian films celebrated the Hindu-Muslim unity that defeated British rule in India. The 1982 film “Gandhi,” about the leader who brought down the Raj with support from Muslims as well as Hindus, won eight Academy Awards, including for best picture. “Lagaan,” released in 2001, showed Indians of all religions and castes joining to defeat British colonial rule. In 2008, “Jodhaa Akbar” depicted the love affair between Mughal Emperor Akbar, who fostered communal amity between Hindus and Muslims, and a Hindu princess. It was a huge success.However, since Modi came to power in 2014, Bollywood has made the Mughals the enemy. Even Muslim leaders long recognized as heroes have been caught in the historical crossfire. Tipu Sultan, the “Tiger of Mysore,” used to be celebrated for fiercely protecting his state from British invasion in the 18th century. Today, BJP leaders want to strip him of all honors.India’s regression into hate politics regarding centuries-old rulers is also impacting a new generation. After a recent school screening of “Chhaava,” students angry over the “Muslim invasion” chanted in favor of the film’s Hindu heroes. One leading news site, Scroll, interviewed eight teachers in four cities who warned that children are being fed historical narratives with no basis in reality. “In most Indian schools,” the report pointed out, “medieval history is taught during the middle school years, to children between the ages of 10 and 14. This period is a core focus for Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] supporters, given the fact that large parts of the subcontinent were ruled by Muslim kings and emperors at this time. In recent years, Bollywood filmmakers have selectively dipped into this period of history to churn out films in sync with Hindutva talking points.”The talking points celebrate Hindu rulers as symbols of indigenous resistance against foreign invasions. Kings who resisted Mughal expansion are elevated as heroes, and their actions framed as part of a noble struggle for the preservation of Hindu culture and sovereignty. The Mughals, despite their long rule and notable contributions to India, are portrayed as foreign conquerors.This rewriting of history serves a political agenda, one that distorts the complexity of India’s multicultural heritage. It not only inflames divisions but also diverts attention from the urgent issues facing modern India. As the United States announced 26 percent tariffs (now suspended) against Indian goods last week, India’s Parliament was passing a controversial bill that dilutes the power Muslims have over donated property that houses mosques, Muslim schools, graveyards and orphanages. The focus on centuries-old grievances, rather than present-day realities, is a tactic designed to mobilize political support while keeping the country divided. It’s India’s Fault Local Startups Are Trailing China (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [4/14/2025 6:00 PM, Mihir Sharma, 5.5M]
India’s minister for commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, set off a firestorm when he noted how dissatisfied he was with the nation’s startups, an unusual target for the ire of a government official. His trenchant criticism was both accurate and unfair.
Startups are more accustomed to being feted as an example of what has gone right in the economy. Officials often complain that legacy companies, especially in manufacturing, aren’t investing enough, but are happy to present these new players as a success story.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to talk about how the growth of the sector shows that India is “dynamic, confident and future-ready.” His ministers praise their contribution to employment generation and highlight how much foreign investment they attract. This is seen as demonstrating the effectiveness of Modi’s business-friendly reforms.
But on this occasion, Goyal’s diagnosis was, frankly, accurate. And that’s why it struck a nerve.The minister threw up a slide comparing India’s startups with China’s. The local apps were “turning unemployed youth into cheap labor so the rich can get their meals without moving,” he kvetched, while Chinese entrepreneurs were “investing heavily in self-reliance, building chips and AI models for the future.” Each of his five points contrasted Indian companies focusing on serving niche demand with counterparts in China that he claimed were building out deep tech and new industrial sectors.
Goyal isn’t wrong about the consumer-facing nature of local startups. But although he might have diagnosed the disease properly, he was wrong about what might have caused it. The anger in his speech is misdirected. If India’s startups aren’t in the same sectors as China’s, the fault lies with the economy and its stewards — with, in fact, the government.
New firms are created to serve the economy of which they are part. In India, there are some fields of innovation — space or semiconductor design for example — with multiple stand-out young businesses. But, overall, most startups are simply responding to the fact that growth in India is driven by consumer demand and not industrial production.
That demand has a peculiar segmented structure. As a recent and much-discussed report by the VC Blume Ventures pointed out, there are three Indias. An India-1 at the top, with a population of 150 million, consisting of globally benchmarked consumers and savers. One at the bottom, an India-3 of a billion “unmonetizable users.” And an India-2 in the middle, of 300 million people whom the report described as “heavy consumers and reluctant payers.”
Many startups promise investors the scale of India-3 with the revenues of India-1. But the successful ones leverage the capital of India-1 and the labor of India-3 to serve India-2, promising low margins but reasonable scale.
Goyal is right to argue that these, however effective they may be at implementation, are not necessarily breaking new ground. Nor is investor interest as great as many think. That became impossible to ignore two years ago, when a much-publicized conference in the innovation hub of Gurugram wound up attracting hundreds of founders and barely any investors.
If India doesn’t have the battery or electric vehicle entrepreneurs that China does, it’s for the same reason that its legacy manufacturing underperforms China’s: a business environment that’s simply unfriendly to bricks-and-mortar manufacturing. By now the government should know that this is, in large part, its own fault.
Companies are simple, predictable things. They respond to incentives. When any country’s private sector isn’t behaving the way the government expects, the state should always look within. Either its expectations are unrealistic, or it has set up perverse incentives.
India’s government has simply failed to reform manufacturing sufficiently. For batteries, robotics, or EVs to thrive, the private sector needs less state intervention, fewer restrictions on credit, more flexible labor laws, and a less problematic tax system. The delivery and betting apps that earned Goyal’s ire can simply short-circuit this regulatory burden; anything engaged in the real economy cannot.
Startups are just another business. They aren’t special. They will flock to sectors where business is easiest and entrepreneurship rewarded. If these aren’t the industries the government wants them to go into, it should indeed get angry — but at itself. NSB
Bangladesh Court Approves Arrest Warrant For British Ex-minister (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/14/2025 12:19 PM, Staff, 777K]
A court in Bangladesh has approved an arrest warrant for a British lawmaker over graft allegations tied to the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, to whom she is related, the public prosecutor told AFP Monday.Tulip Siddiq resigned as the UK government’s anti-corruption minister in January, denying any wrongdoing after being named in multiple probes in Bangladesh.She and several family members, including her aunt Hasina, are facing accusations over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka."The accused were absent, and that’s why the court approved the arrest warrant," Mir Ahmed Ali Salam, the public prosecutor, told AFP.A senior official at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said the warrant for Siddiq was expected to be signed Tuesday."The court approved our petition to issue a warrant," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity."After the papers are signed, we will proceed with further action," he added.Siddiq has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh in August after a student-led protest forced her to step down and flee to India.The British MP’s lawyers said the allegations against her are false."The ACC has not responded to Ms Siddiq or put any allegations to her directly or through her lawyers," Stephenson Harwood said in a statement."Ms Siddiq knows nothing about a hearing in Dhaka relating to her and she has no knowledge of any arrest warrant that is said to have been issued," the law firm said.The public prosecutor in Bangladesh said there was no obligation to inform Siddiq of the charges because the details of the case had been published in newspapers.Siddiq and other relatives have also been named in the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.A tribunal in Dhaka has already issued arrest warrants for Hasina, and the government has formally requested her extradition from India several times. UK politician says Bangladesh arrest warrant is ‘politically motivated smear’ (Reuters)
Reuters [4/14/2025 11:59 AM, Andrew MacAskill and Ruma Paul, 126906K]
The former British minister Tulip Siddiq said on Monday an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land are a "politically motivated smear".
A court in Dhaka on Sunday issued a warrant for 53 people, including Siddiq, accusing her of receiving the land when her aunt Sheikh Hasina was prime minister of Bangladesh.
"It’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me. There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong," Siddiq told reporters.
"No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time, they’ve done trial by media.".
Aminul Islam, the assistant director of Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission’s Prosecution Division, told reporters on Sunday that the court has asked for a report on the arrests by April 27.
Siddiq resigned as the minister responsible for financial services and fighting corruption in January after weeks of questions over her financial ties to her aunt, saying the focus on her risked diverting attention from the government’s political agenda.
She is the niece of Hasina who resigned last year after 15 years in power and fled the country following protests against her rule.
Hasina is being investigated in Bangladesh on suspicion of corruption and money laundering. Hasina and her party deny wrongdoing.
Siddiq was separately named in December in an investigation into claims that her family had embezzled $5 billion from infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. She has also denied any wrongdoing over those accusations.
Britain does not currently have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh. Tulip Siddiq decries Bangladesh arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated smear’ (The Guardian)
The Guardian [4/14/2025 10:59 AM, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot, 126906K]
The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.“I’m sure you’ll understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign with any … comments. It’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me. There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong.”According to Bangladeshi media reports, a judge issued the warrant for 53 people connected to Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt, who stepped down and left the country in August last year after a violent crackdown on protests.There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.A representative for Siddiq said there was “no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means”.Siddiq resigned as economic secretary to the Treasury in January, citing the risk of becoming a distraction and saying the government was being harmed by the furore over her use of properties given to her and her family by allies of Hasina’s government.Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, did not deem her to have broken any rules over her use of the homes and found no evidence to suggest that any of Siddiq’s assets were derived from anything other than legitimate means.He did, however, find a lack of records and said lapse of time meant he had “not been able to obtain comprehensive comfort in relation to all the UK property-related matters”.Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) has alleged that Siddiq, 42, received a 670 sq metre plot in the diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka, through ties to the country’s former rulers, according to the Sunday Telegraph.The allegation is that Siddiq persuaded her aunt to allocate three plots of land in the exclusive enclave for her family members, including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, her brother Radwan and her younger sister Azmina. The family are all based in Britain. The EU Should Press Bhutan to Free Political Prisoners (Human Rights Watch)
Human Rights Watch [4/14/2025 11:00 PM, Staff, 1628K]
The European Union should press Bhutanese authorities to release dozens of political prisoners held for decades in dire conditions, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. An EU human rights dialogue with Bhutan is scheduled later this month, just weeks after United Nations human rights experts issued a communication raising concerns over reports that the prisoners were "denied due process and fair trials, including access to lawyers," and allegedly subjected to torture.
The communication by six UN human rights experts, published on April 4, raises concerns that "the broad and vague definitions [of "treason"], combined with the severity of the punishments, have a severe chilling effect on the enjoyment of human rights … and consequently on democratic life and civic space in the country.".
"Bhutan portrays itself as a land of ‘mindfulness’ and ‘gross national happiness,’ but UN reports paint quite a different picture," said Smriti Singh, Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International. "Dozens are still detained, mistreated, and tortured solely for peacefully dissenting against the government’s policy, an ordeal Bhutan’s King could end at the stroke of a pen.".
Bhutan is seeking to enhance its international partnerships and economic cooperation, including with Australia, India, Thailand, and the EU. The relationship with the EU includes tariff and quota-free access for Bhutanese exports to the EU market under the Everything but Arms scheme, which is linked to international human rights obligations.
The EU is also providing assistance intended to promote human rights and civil society space, as well as investment in infrastructure development. The EU should insist that Bhutan shows its commitment and respect for human rights by immediately releasing all 32 political prisoners and others detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. On April 14, Members of the European Parliament holding key positions on EU political and trade relations with Bhutan formulated similar calls in a letter to Bhutan’s prime minister.
The UN experts’ communication examines the cases of 19 named individuals, "among others," expressing serious concern that their fair trial rights appear to have been violated, that they were "severely tortured, both to extract confessions and to punish them," then convicted under "vague" laws, and jailed in inhumane conditions.
In 2023, Human Rights Watch documented the cases of 37 political prisoners in Bhutan. Since then, 5 have completed their sentences, leaving at least 32 still serving terms of between 32 years and life without parole.
In November 2024, another group of UN experts, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, adopted an opinion on three of the prisoners’ cases, finding that they met the definition of arbitrary detention, which would make their detention illegal under international human rights law. Both groups of experts asked the Bhutan government to respond to the allegations but have received no response.
Most of the cases relate to events in or around 1990, when about 90,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese were expelled from Bhutan amid widespread rights violations and became refugees in Nepal. Those who remained in or returned to Bhutan, who publicly opposed the arbitrary citizenship determination, were arrested, tortured, and convicted in unfair trials based on coerced confessions. The longest serving political prisoners have been in jail since 1990, while others were arrested in 2008 after they re-entered Bhutan to campaign for the right to return.
Tens of thousands of Bhutanese refugees eventually received refugee resettlement in third countries, including in the United States. However, the Trump administration has deported close to a dozen of these resettled refugees, stating that they have been accused or convicted of crimes in the US. This is a clear violation of international human rights law, including customary international law and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which prohibits the transfer of any person to another state where the individual could be at risk of being subjected to torture.
The Bhutan government permitted the US government to deport them to Bhutan and then promptly expelled them to Nepal via India, suggesting that the Bhutanese authorities continue to discriminate against this community.
The new UN communication raises allegations that "[p]olitical prisoners are reportedly given inadequate food, water, heating, bedding and warm clothing" and that "detainees [also] suffer shortages of medicines and access to doctors. Those with physical illnesses – some as a result of alleged torture – do not receive necessary medical treatment, which may have contributed to the death of two detainees." The detainees are prevented from communicating with their families, they said.
The UN experts noted that in 1999 the former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck granted amnesty to 40 political prisoners, including some serving life sentences.
In 2022, the present king granted amnesty to a political prisoner serving a life term. "We implore the King to exercise His Majesty’s power to pardon and release from prison the remaining political prisoners, so as to demonstrate Bhutan’s commitment to upholding human rights and its international legal obligations," the UN experts wrote.
"Bhutan has adopted significant reforms since 2008, but the continued detention of political prisoners represents a major stain on its human rights record," said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Bhutan’s international partners and investors, including the EU, should make it clear that they expect Bhutan to comply with its human rights obligations and release them without further delay.". Nepal’s Former King ‘Saddened’ By Violent Pro-monarchy Protests (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/14/2025 3:01 AM, Staff, 777K]
Nepal’s former king has expressed sorrow over last month’s violent demonstrations by pro-monarchy supporters while lending tacit support to their participants in his first public statement on the protests.Gyanendra Shah, the last king of Nepal, was deposed in 2008 at the end of the Himalayan republic’s decade-long civil war.But public support for the restoration of the monarchy has grown in tandem with dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development.Thousands took to the streets in March for a royalist rally that turned violent, with two people killed and more than 100 arrested.In a video posted on Facebook late Sunday, on the eve of Nepal’s traditional new year celebrations, Shah said that while freedom of expression was a beautiful feature of democracy, it was a right that "must be exercised with restraint"."The recent violence, arson and vandalism during public demonstrations which caused significant human and material losses have deeply saddened us," he said.Shah added that he viewed "the growing awareness among Nepali people about the nation and its future positively"."Our belief has always been in a multi-party democracy and a constitutional monarchy that aligns with people’s sentiments," he said.Nepal adopted a federal and republican political system in 2008 as part of a peace deal that ended a civil war responsible for more than 16,000 deaths.Shah has largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics since, but recently made several public appearances with supporters.He was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.His coronation took place as a Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy. Sri Lanka: Police face outrage after man dies in custody (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [4/14/2025 4:14 PM, Jeevan Ravindran, 13.3M]
Sathsara Nimesh is not the first person to die under unclear circumstances while in the custody of Sri Lankan police, but his death seems to have inflamed the long-running debate on police violence in the South Asian country.
The 25-year-old from the Badulla district in eastern Sri Lanka was attending a training course for caregivers in Colombo, the island’s largest city. Police detained him on April 1 for allegedly breaking into someone’s home. Nimesh was then taken to the Welikada police station in the suburbs of Colombo and then to a mental health facility, where he died the following morning.
The police told his mother, Samanthi, that her son had tried to kill himself, claiming he struggled with mental issues. But Samanthi believes her son was only sent to the mental health facility to cover up the beating he took at the police station.
"I really think the police are lying," she told DW. She pointed out that her son had "a lot of wounds, scratches, and bruises everywhere on his body," adding that Nimesh may have been injured by both the police and the owners of the house he allegedly broke into.
"He had so many bruises and swelling on one leg. Who beat him?"
Authorities order second postmortem
Samanthi set out for Colombo after getting news that her son had been arrested. She said police gave her no information until suddenly asking if she was the mother of the person who had died.
While inspecting her son’s body, Samanthi said she noticed he was wearing clothes that did not belong to him. She claims she found Nimesh’s pants in one of the dustbins at the police station.
The family has requested Nimesh’s body to be exhumed for a second postmortem, a request the authorities have since granted. The exhumation is scheduled for April 23.‘We have no professional police’
Nimesh’s death sparked widespread outrage, leading to a protest demanding an end to police brutality, along with a candlelight vigil in his memory.
Senaka Perera, the family’s lawyer, told DW that he had been personally involved in four cases of custodial deaths since the beginning of 2025, including Nimesh.
The lawyer also claims that one of the senior officers at the Welikada police station had already been linked to the death of a domestic worker two years ago. After 41-year-old Rajkumari died in police custody in May 2023, the local media reported that the ranking officer had been transferred. It now appears that he was reappointed to the same post at Welikada and served as the officer in charge (OIC) during Nimesh’s arrest.
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka reported a total of 24 custodial deaths and 13 deaths during police encounters between January 2020 and August 2023. DW requested updated figures from the police but did not receive a reply.
"The same thing keeps happening," Perera said, adding that the police often fabricated reasons for custodial deaths. "We have no professional police."
Police say perpetrators will be punished
Police spokesperson Frederick Udyakumara Wootler confirmed to DW that this officer had presided over both deaths. However, he said the officer was once again transferred following Nimesh’s death, and two other police officers were suspended.
"We are not going to whitewash any of the police officers if they have been involved in this," Wootler told DW.
He added that "stern and stringent action" would be taken against any offenders pending the scheduled postmortem and investigation.
Decades of struggling with police brutality
The debate over police violence in Sri Lanka has been going on for many years, with a Human Rights Watch report in 2015 claiming that officers were routinely involved in the torture of people in custody.
In 2023, video clips were circulated showing Nagarasa Alex, a 25-year-old man from Sithankerni, claiming he had been blindfolded, beaten, covered with a plastic bag and refused food at the Vaddukoddai police station in northern Sri Lanka. He later died of his injuries.
Rajeev Amasuriya, president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, told DW that police brutality was a persistent problem "for several decades" in Sri Lanka and that the association had reached out to the police to assist in training officers on rights and liberties.
"We have seen this happening over a long, long period of time, and we need to find ways and means that these custodial deaths must come to an end," he said. Central Asia
Kazakhstan’s oil output down in early April, ministry says, still above OPEC+ quota (Reuters)
Reuters [4/14/2025 11:56 AM, Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Potter, 41523K]
Kazakhstan’s oil output fell in the first two weeks of April by 3% from the March average, the energy ministry said on Monday, confirming a Reuters report, but is still above the OPEC+ quota it has pledged to meet after months of overproduction.
Several other members of the OPEC+ group, including top producer Saudi Arabia, have been angered by Kazakhstan’s rising output, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters last month.
The central Asian country’s crude production, excluding gas condensate, was down 3% in April 1-13 from the March average at about 1.82 million barrels per day due to a decrease at the Chevron-led (CVX.N) Tengiz field, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Kazakhstan’s energy ministry confirmed the scale of the drop, but did not provide specific figures and declined to comment on which companies contributed to the decrease, referring further queries to those companies.
The fall still leaves Kazakhstan’s output on course to exceed its OPEC+ quota of 1.473 million bpd for April.
Kazakhstan, a top-10 oil producer, has persistently exceeded quotas set by OPEC+, an alliance between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers led by Russia, leading to complaints from other members of the group.
According to OPEC data, Kazakhstan’s crude production increased by 37,000 bpd in March.
The energy ministry said on Thursday that Kazakhstan would fulfil its commitments in April and partially compensate for earlier overproduction, according to Interfax news agency.
Several Western oil majors, such as Chevron (CVX.N), Shell (SHEL.L), ExxonMobil , TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), and Eni (ENI.MI) are active in Kazakhstan.
A production boost at the Chevron-led Tengiz oilfield, Kazakhstan’s largest, has been the main contributor to the country’s overall increase in oil output.
The source said daily output at Tengiz declined in April 1-13 to 111,000 metric tons (884,000 barrels) from March’s average of 119,340 tons (950,000 barrels).
Chevron declined immediate comment.
Kazakhstan has also faced challenges in exporting its oil, as the main pipeline, operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, has been beset by drone attacks and wrangling over terminal equipment at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorosssiisk.
Russia has said a CPC pumping station in the south of the country was attacked by a Ukrainian drone in February, while in March, a nearby oil depot was set ablaze also following a suspected Ukrainian drone strike.
Russia also restricted CPC’s exporting capacity at the Black Sea, which was partially restored last week.
According to two industry sources and Reuters’ calculations, CPC increased oil pumping in March by 0.6% on a daily basis from February to 6.602 million metric tons (1.69 million barrels per day).
Kazakhstan has said oil exports via the CPC pipeline have not been interrupted. Uzbekistan: Chasing tourist dollars (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [4/14/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Uzbekistan is accelerating plans to boost tourism, announcing major infrastructure investments and moving ahead with an expansion of the national airline’s passenger fleet.
According to a statement issued by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan attracted over 10 million international travelers in 2024, generating $3.5 billion in revenue for the country’s tourism sector. Plans originally called for Uzbekistan to increase the number of foreign visitors to 15 million by 2030. But now, the Uzbek president says the country can reach that goal this year.“Taking into account the historical, cultural and natural wealth of our country, the number of tourists can be increased 2-3 times more,” according to the presidential statement. It added that Mirziyoyev wants government agencies to develop “measures to identify local opportunities, increase the number of tourist destinations and improve conditions for tourists.”
Mirziyoyev revealed during an April 9 governmental meeting that over the past eight years roughly $6.5 billion has been invested in the tourism sector, adding over 130,000 hotel rooms. Over the past four years, 327 cultural heritage monuments and sites have undergone restoration work, but there are at least 485 still in need of repair, the statement added.
Among the new projects on the drawing board are the creation of winter resorts in mountainous areas of the southern Surkhandarya Region. Authorities are also developing an electronic platform to simplify procedures for tourists to obtain tickets and visas.To facilitate a rapid increase in foreign visitors, Uzbek officials have reached a preliminary agreement to purchase 14 European-made Airbus passenger jets and lease an additional five. In addition, officials are negotiating with the US manufacturer Boeing to purchase 14 787-8 Dreamliners worth about $2 billion.
East Asia and Central Europe are seen as the most promising markets to attract tourists to Uzbekistan, which can capitalize on its historical association with the Silk Road trade route. Indo-Pacific
Extended heatwave in India, Pakistan to test survivability limits, with temperatures reaching Death Valley levels (CNN)
CNN [4/15/2025 3:51 AM, Sophia Salfi, Rhea Mogul, and Aishwarya S. Iyer, 22.1M]
For hundreds of millions of people living in India and Pakistan the early arrival of summer heatwaves has become a terrifying reality that’s testing survivability limits and putting enormous strain on energy supplies, vital crops and livelihoods.
Both countries experience heatwaves during the summer months of May and June, but this year’s heatwave season has arrived sooner than usual and is predicted to last longer too.
Temperatures are expected to climb to dangerous levels in both countries this week.
Parts of Pakistan are likely to experience heat up to 8 degrees Celsius above normal between April 14-18, according to the country’s meteorological department. Maximum temperatures in Balochistan, in country’s southwest, could reach up to 49 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).
That’s like living in Death Valley – the hottest and driest place in North America – where summer daytime temperatures often climb to similar levels.
Ayoub Khosa, who lives in Balochistan’s Dera Murad Jamali city, said the heatwave had arrived with an “intensity that caught many off guard,” creating severe challenges for its residents.“One of the major issues is the persistent power outages,” said Khosa, who told CNN they could last for up to 16 hours a day.“This has intensified the impact of the heat, making it harder for people to cope,” he said.
Neighboring India has also been experiencing extreme heat that arrived earlier than usual and its metrological department warned people in parts of the country to brace for an “above-normal number of heatwave days” in April.
Maximum temperatures in capital Delhi, a city of more than 16 million, have already crossed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at least three times this month – up to 5 degrees above the seasonal average – the meteorological department said.
The searing heat is being faced in several neighboring states too, including Rajasthan in the northwest, where laborers and farmers are struggling to cope and reports of illness are beginning to emerge.
Maximum recorded temperatures in parts of Rajasthan reached 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) on Monday, according to the meteorological department.
Anita Soni, from the women’s group Thar Mahila Sansthan, said the heat is much worse than other years and she is worried about how it will impact children and women in the state.
When the laborers or farmers head out, there is an instant lack of drinking water, people often feel like vomiting, they fall sick, or they feel dizzy, she said.
Farmer Balu Lal said people are already falling sick due to working in it. “We cannot even stand to work in it,” he said. “When I am out, I feel that people would burn due to the heat outside.”
Lal said he worries about his work and how he will earn money for his family. “We have nowhere else to go,” he said.
Testing survivability limits
Experts say the rising temperatures are testing human limits.
Extreme heat has killed tens of thousands of people in India and Pakistan in recent decades and climate experts have warned that by 2050 India will be among the first places where temperatures will cross survivability limits.
Under heatwave conditions, pregnant women and their unborn children are particularly at risk. “There is unexplained pregnancy loss and early babies,” said Neha Mankani, an advisor at the International Confederation of Midwives in Karachi.“In the summers, 80% of babies are born preterm with respiratory issues because of the weather. We also see an increase in pregnancy induced hypertension, (which could) lead to preeclampsia – the leading cause of maternal mortality.”
India and Pakistan, both countries with glaring disparities in development, are expected to be among the nations worst affected by the climate crisis – with more than 1 billion people predicted to be impacted on the subcontinent.
The cascading effects will be devastating. Likely consequences range from a lack of food and drought to flash floods from melting ice caps, according to Mehrunissa Malik, a climate change and sustainability expert from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
Communities without access to cooling measures, adequate housing and those who rely on the elements for their livelihoods will feel the effects much more acutely, said Malik.“For farmers, the weather is erratic and difficult to predict,” she said. “The main challenge is the fact that temperatures (are) rising at a time when crops aren’t at the stage to be harvested. They start getting ready earlier, yields get lower, and in this dry heat they need more water… If your plants are still young, severe heat causes little chance of them making it.”
Tofiq Pasha, a farmer and environmental activist from Karachi, said summers begin much earlier now.
His home province, Sindh, which, along with Balochistan, has recorded some of the hottest global temperatures in recent years, suffered a major drought during the winter months and the little rainfall has led to water shortages, he said.“This is going to be a major livelihood issue among farmers,” Pasha said, explaining how temperatures also affect the arrival of pests. “Flowers don’t set, they fall, fruits don’t set, they fall, you have pest attacks, they decimate the crop, sometimes it gets too hot… the cycles are messed. Food production is extremely affected.”
Heatwaves have in the past have increased demand for electricity, leading to coal shortages while leaving millions without power. Trains have been cancelled to conserve energy, and schools have been forced shut, impacting learning. Twitter
Afghanistan
UNICEF Afghanistan@UNICEFAfg
[4/15/2025 2:17 AM, 132.6K followers, 2 retweets, 7 likes]
27 schools were completely destroyed when earthquakes hit Herat province in western Afghanistan. Thanks to flexible funding from @UNICEFinJapan, we installed container classroom units, enabling more than 1,000 children to continue learning in a safe environment. Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[4/14/2025 2:02 PM, 3.1M followers, 3 retweets, 10 likes]
The First Annual Overseas Pakistanis Convention, organized by OPF and the Government of Pakistan, has an active participation from overseas nationals from countries including Italy, Norway, KSA, and the UK, alongside the presence of key government ministers.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[4/14/2025 11:14 AM, 3.1M followers, 8 retweets, 19 likes]
PIA saw a remarkable recovery after years of challenges. This year, the Board approved its accounts, with an operating profit of PKR 9.3 billion and a net profit of PKR 26.2 billion, marking a significant achievement after 21 years.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[4/14/2025 9:32 AM, 3.1M followers, 11 retweets, 25 likes]
Government of Pakistan launches EPADS, a digital e-Procurement system ensuring secure, transparent, and fully online procurement. So far, 7,215 agencies and 26,587 vendors have registered. Pakistan is advancing into the digital era under the leadership of PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[4/14/2025 7:11 PAM, 3.1M followers, 43 retweets, 124 likes]
Pakistan’s workers’ remittances soared to historic high of $4.1 billion in March 2025, marking the first-ever instance of monthly inflows crossing the $4 billion mark. This represents a remarkable 37.4% YoY increase compared to March 2024, a strong sign of overseas Pakistanis’ growing confidence in the country’s economic direction.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[4/14/2025 7:24 AM, 621.7K followers, 1.5K retweets, 3.9K likes]
Only in Pakistan - Visiting three US Congressmen meet Army Chief Asim Munir, the real ruler of Pakistan.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[4/14/2025 4:11 AM, 76.3K followers, 3 retweets, 27 likes]
Pakistan, in partnership with the Republic of Korea, will co-host the Third United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial Preparatory Meeting in Islamabad from 15–16 April 2025, says @ForeignOfficePk
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[4/15/2025 1:45 AM, 8.6M followers, 14 retweets, 143 likes]
Pak-Bangladesh Friendship.Mrs Naeema Qais,who was a student of ICG Islamabad in 1971,visits her Almamater after 54 years. Her late husband Miraj ul Qais was enrolled in ICB G63 from 1965 to 1971.He became Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh in 2010. Welcome Madam Naeema to Pakistan. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/14/2025 10:27 AM, 107.5M followers, 2.7K retweets, 17K likes]
Here are glimpses from today’s programmes in Hisar and Yamunanagar. The key projects inaugurated today will add momentum to our development journey and further ‘Ease of Living.’
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/14/2025 8:21 AM, 107.5M followers, 5.8K retweets, 32K likes]
At today’s public meeting in Yamunanagar, I met Shri Rampal Kashyap Ji from Kaithal. He had taken a vow 14 years ago- that he will only wear footwear after I became PM and he got to meet me. I am humbled by people like Rampal Ji and also accept their affection but I want to request everyone who takes up such vows - I cherish your love...please focus on something that is linked to social work and nation building!
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/15/2025 1:23 AM, 3.4M followers, 57 retweets, 510 likes]
Good to be back in Lachras. Glad to inaugurate the smart Anganwadi and smart classroom there. Small steps can make a big difference.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/15/2025 1:21 AM, 3.4M followers, 46 retweets, 428 likes]
Visited Post Office Passport Seva Kendra, Rajpipla. Commend their efforts in providing smooth and efficient passport services at grassroots level.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/15/2025 12:11 AM, 3.4M followers, 77 retweets, 551 likes]
Delighted to inaugurate the new Gymnastic hall upgraded with modern equipment at Chhotubhai Purani Sports Campus, Rajpipla. Heartening to see young athletes and sports enthusiasts, even small children, making good use of these facilities. Such opportunities will allow the latent talent of our country to reach competitive levels. #FitIndia
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 9:55 AM, 3.4M followers, 131 retweets, 1K likes]
Encouraged to see steady development of tourism facilities in Ekta Nagar. Hotels, smart bus stops, shops, food courts, gardens and recreational spaces are expanding at a rapid pace. Good to see such progress on ease of tourism.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 7:12 AM, 3.4M followers, 91 retweets, 808 likes]
Pleased to visit Agar. Laid the foundation for the LDR Complex. Flagged off the vehicle for the local Navodaya School.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 4:07 AM, 3.4M followers, 149 retweets, 1K likes]
Did Bhumi Pujan for the Labour, Delivery Recovery Complex at Jetpor. Also laid foundation stones virtually for LDR Centres at Kolvan and Sagai. Flagged off new ambulance under MP LADS Scheme for SDH Garudeswhar. Part of continuing commitment towards improving health facilities in Narmada District.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 3:38 AM, 3.4M followers, 90 retweets, 619 likes]
Moved on to MPLADS projects in Amadla. The Health and Wellness Centre is encouraging more screenings and preventive measures. Smart Anganwadi in Amadla is ensuring higher attendance of children. Great to see students of 7th-8th Grade enjoying their studies in a Smart Classroom. NSB
Derek J. Grossman@DerekJGrossman
[4/14/2025 6:11 PM, 96.8K followers, 29 retweets, 78 likes]
If Bangladesh begins to favor/lean more heavily on China over India, then New Delhi will face the gravest threat to its security—a three-pronged threat of China, Pakistan, & Bangladesh—since before 1971, which featured China, West Pakistan, & East Pakistan.
Sidhant Sibal@sidhant
[4/14/2025 11:25 PM, 310.5K followers, 144 retweets, 874 likes]
Bangladesh’s Khilafat Majlis party plans to hold a march towards the Indian Embassy in Dhaka on April 23rd to protest Indian Parliament passing Waqf ammendment bill
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/14/2025 11:37 PM, 100.1K followers, 4 retweets, 7 likes]
Bhutan: The European Union should press Bhutanese authorities to release dozens of political prisoners held for decades in dire conditions, @amnesty and @hrw said today, ahead of an EU human rights dialogue with Bhutan scheduled later this month. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/eu-should-press-bhutan-to-free-political-prisoners/
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/14/2025 11:42 PM, 100.1K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
Earlier, six UN human rights experts issued a communication raising concerns over reports that the prisoners were “denied due process and fair trials, including access to lawyers,” and allegedly subjected to torture. The communication also raises concerns that "“the broad and vague definitions [of “treason”], combined with the severity of the punishments, have a severe chilling effect on the enjoyment of human rights… and consequently on democratic life and civic space in the country." Central Asia
Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ
[4/14/2025 6:35 AM, 3.4K followers, 2 likes]
94 residential buildings were completely #destroyed and 50 houses were partially destroyed in the #Rasht and #Tojikobod districts, and 61 other houses were slightly damaged. 3 secondary educational institutions and about 200 other various facilities were also damaged.
Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ
[4/14/2025 6:33 AM, 3.4K followers, 1 like]
In accordance with the instructions the volume, methods and means of providing assistance to the people and eliminating the consequences of this natural disaster should be determined as soon as possible, and work to eliminate the emerging problems should be accelerated.Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ
[4/14/2025 6:29 AM, 3.4K followers, 3 likes]
The #government commission is engaged in a comprehensive study of the consequences of the #earthquake the districts of the #Rasht Valley and determining the volume and types of urgent assistance to the affected people.
Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ
[4/14/2025 6:24 AM, 3.4K followers, 2 likes]
On the instructions of the President of #Tajikistan #Emomali #Rahmon, a government commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sulaymon Ziyozoda was deployed to the districts of the #Rasht Valley from the first moments after the #earthquake on April 13.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/14/2025 12:20 PM, 215.7K followers, 4 retweets, 17 likes]
Additionally, President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed tourism and urban development projects. Plans include the “Chorvok darvozasi” complex in Bostanlyk district, building an oceanarium in Yashnabad district, housing and business complex in Yakassaray district. The President stressed the importance of legal, financial, and infrastructure considerations and instructed the development of a detailed action plan.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/14/2025 10:14 AM, 215.7K followers, 17 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed a master plan for the “Sea Breeze Uzbekistan” international tourist center. The project includes phased development across 10 compact zones with recreation facilities and services. A bridge will connect both sides of the Charvak reservoir, with leisure areas created along the waterfront. The center will also include cultural, educational, medical, and sports facilities, making it a year-round living and tourist destination.
Mike Waltz@MikeWaltz47
[4/14/2025 11:01 AM, 92K followers, 110 retweets, 633 likes]
Recently I met with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Saidov and his delegation at the White House where we discussed our trade relationship and vital critical mineral collaboration, enhancing security cooperation and promoting more U.S. engagement in the region.Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[4/14/2025 11:37 AM, 24.2K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
A remarkable discussion of corruption in Uzbekistan, where bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, and favoritism have long undermined institutional integrity and eroded public trust. Kudos to Vatandosh TV for producing such compelling broadcasts in Tashkent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDGeqwwEIc Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[4/15/2025 3:44 AM, 76.3K followers]
In a bid to foster Uzbekistan - Pakistan bilateral ties, Uzbekistan’s national airline, Uzbekistan Airways, will launch direct flights between Tashkent and Islamabad starting May 2025, further strengthening air connectivity between Uzbekistan and Pakistan.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.