New Delhi: India “shows signs of emerging as a potentially significant place to manufacture products” as an alternative to China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington, The New York Times correspondent Peter S. Goodman writes in his report, ‘For American brands worried about China, is India the future?’.
Goodman lays the context for a volatile marketplace, saying “Multinational brands that have for decades relied on Chinese factories are expanding to India as they seek to limit the vulnerabilities of concentrating production in any single country”. He writes of brands such as Walmart and Melissa & Doug reaping the benefits of the Indian labour force building products at similar quality and comparable prices as China.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been “winning plaudits from business leaders for streamlining regulations and championing industry”, Goodman notes that “India’s manufacturing growth remains nascent and tenuous”. Manufacturing accounts for only 13 percent of India’s economy, a lower share than a decade ago when Modi took office, Goodman writes, blaming “patchy” infrastructure for “challenging the movement of raw materials and finished goods”. However, manufacturing growth in India, Goodman writes, can make the country more “resilient” and boost fortunes as in the East Asian nations.
An Al Jazeera exclusive claims India has been exporting weapons to Israel amid the Gaza war, citing documents obtained unofficially by the Solidarity Network Against the Palestinian Occupation (RESCOP). A ship expected to dock off the Spanish coast was stopped by pro-Palestine protesters, with its documents revealing that it was carrying rockets, rocket engines, canon propellants and explosives to Israel’s Ashdod port from India’s Chennai, the Qatari news organisation reports.
According to the report, the revelations add to “mounting evidence” contradicting Modi and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s calls for a peaceful resolution of the Gaza war. Discussing this claim, the report mentions a Quds News Network tweet showing a ‘Made in India’ inscription on a missile dropped by Israel in Gaza, a collaboration between Adani Defence & Aerospace and Israel’s Elbit Systems, and India-based Premier Explosives Limited executive director T. Chowdary confirming its “Israel export order” in March this year.
‘Heat deaths to mount as world risks warmest summer on record’, reports Attracta Mooney reports for the Financial Times. “Each of the past 12 months has been the warmest on record globally, as a combination of the naturally occurring El Niño weather phenomenon and climate change drove up global temperatures,” Mooney reports. The report highlights hotter summers across the globe — the deaths of Hajj pilgrims, heat warnings issued across 20 states in the US, and the longest heatwave on record in India. The report replugs an FT film from 2022 to explain that India’s summers are exasperating by the year.
A DW video report also focuses on the “unprecedented” heat in India this year. “Delhi has been a furnace these last two months,” reports Manira Chaudhary as she and video journalist Richard Kujur show people who arrived in the big city for medical treatment but are struggling with living on the streets with their health deteriorating further.
Doctor Sikri at the Ram Manohar Lohia’s heat emergency unit told DW that it’s “the first time” when the effects of heat are being felt in an “exponential manner”. He also confirmed that most heat-affected patients at the hospital work outdoors and show symptoms of semi-consciousness and extremely high body temperature, which can lead to organ failure. Patients are treated in a ceramic tub with ice-cold water to bring temperatures down, Sikri further told DW.
NATO gets new chief & Kenya withdraws tax reforms
Mark Rutte, the longest-serving Dutch president, is now NATO chief. To know more about the 57-year-old’s appointment and expectations from his term, starting 9 July, read The New York Times report.
“The people have spoken,” says Kenyan President Ruto, leaving the controversial Finance Bill 2024 unsigned. The decision comes after the Kenyan Parliament building was set ablaze and 23 people died in nationwide protests against the tax reforms proposed in the bill. Read more on CNN.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: India’s solar plans to curb China imports & how NEET ‘scandal’ is ‘killing hopes of students’