Power, but not strong.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a defiant tone in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariffs threats, urging the nation to buy local goods as his administration signaled it would continue buying Russian oil." "Both state-run and private refiners are allowed to buy from preferred sources, and crude purchases remain a commercial decision." ET. Fortunately, China has also taken a hard stance on buying oil from Russia. "China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interest," China's Foreign Ministry posted on X. "It underscores China's confidence in playing hardball when dealing with the Trump administration." TNIE. Last month, "India vowed...to protect its labor-intensive agriculture sector, a central sticking point in bogged-down trade talks with the US, as Washington threatened 25% tariffs, triggering outrage from the opposition and a slump in the rupee." Reuters. "India's exports to the US increased from $53 billion in 2019-20 to $87 billion in 2024-25." Retaliation against the US is difficult because, "Some of India's most important exports to the US, such as pharmaceuticals and telecom instruments are still exempt from tariffs," and India also gains from remittances and services trade, wrote Roshan Kishore. The services sector is under pressure. The IT sector "has been a prolific job creator since the 1990s." But, because of AI, "As per the staffing firm TeamLease, hiring of fresh graduates by Indian IT companies is down 50% from pre-Covid levels." That is because of very little R&D. "The R&D spend of Indian IT companies is of the order of 0.5-1.1% of their revenues. Compare this with Microsoft spending 12-13% of its much higher revenue on research," wrote Devina Mehra. "The Indian diaspora sent home $135.46 billion in the last fiscal year, the highest on record." Of this, 45% came from the US, UK and Singapore. ET. Non-resident Indian (NRI) Rajeshwari Iyer returned to India with high hopes but was forced to leave again. "People blindly defending poor decisions. Applauding high taxes, no merit and unchecked corruption. It felt like a society rooting for its own collapse," she wrote. "Even as we celebrate success within the Indian diaspora, we must also note that it comes at a time when many successful Indians are leaving India for good." "As the Nobel award of 2024 underlined, whether economies thrive or languish depends on the quality of their institutions." Mint. The government controls all institutions which prevents any accountability. "The Supreme Court...warned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) about being used as a political tool and likening the trend to a 'virus' that must not spread across the country." HT. Too late. The virus is already rotting the nation's core. "The appointment of recently retired government officers in key regulatory positions has sparked some concern about regulatory independence." The Print. Exhorting people to buy local shows the government has no strength to strike back against Trump. It sought total power by corroding our institutions. Now we are hollow. Trump called us "dead" HT. Who killed us?