Lavish gifts for foreigners.

"Kevin Warsh took office as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 22, 2026, for a four year term," and "also serves as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve System's principal monetary making body." Federal Reserve History. Warsh was expected to be dovish on interest rates, but "The Federal Reserve US interest rates between 3.5% and 3.75% after Kevin Warsh's first meeting in charge of the central bank." The Fed's conclusion was, "The Committee will deliver price stability." BBC. Which hints at a tightening bias. "The dollar surged in response and looks set for a period of relative strength. That is precisely what beleaguered Asian currencies did not need," wrote Daniel Moss. Japan's yen fell to 161 against the dollar. "Japan spent an unprecedented $74 billion in the month to 27 May to back the yen." On 16 June, "the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised its so-called policy rate to 1% from 0.75% - a level not seen since 1995." "Japan's interest rates were cut aggressively in the 1990s to combat the fallout from a collapse in prices of assets like property and shares." "The bank has been gradually raising its interest rate since March 2024." BBC. Japan's consumer price inflation rose to a high of 4% in January 2025, but has been well below the BOJ's target of 2%. rateinflation.com. Currencies of Indonesia and India have also been under pressure. " Indonesia "has waded into the market repeatedly over the past year," But developments became more serious this month, when it (the rupiah) broke through the critical level of 18,000 per dollar and demand for the country's bonds crumbled. That pushed the Bank of Indonesia into an emergency quarter-point rate increase, followed by a hike of the same magnitude last Thursday." The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been extremely clever. As always. "The RBI is not thinking about raising interest rates at the moment, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said." It is too early to discuss rate hikes, he said. India Today. "India's foreign currency reserves dropped USD 9.985 billion to USD 671.625 billion during the week ended 12 June due to a sharp drop in gold reserves, the RBI said." TNIE. "The RBI sold a net $8.94 billion in the foreign exchange market in April, while its gold holding remained stable." "The Indian rupee slumped to a record low of 96.96 per dollar last month," and so, "The currency was then shored up by firm RBI intervention over multiple trading sessions." "The RBI's net outstanding forward dollar sales stood at $95.30 billion as of end-April, compared with $103.06 billion as of end-march." Reuters. The central government "promulgated an ordinance exempting foreign institutional investors and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) from tax on interest income and capital gains arising from investment in government securities." The RBI will bear hedging costs for external commercial borrowings of public sector banks. TNIE. The RBI has allowed banks to offer higher interest on FCNR(B) accounts of non-resident Indians (NRI) and "RBI absorbs the currency hedging cost (estimated at around 3.5%)," so that "Banks are now offering 6% to 7.1% on USD FCNR(B) deposits." Investmates. FCNR(B) accounts are held in foreign currencies are fully repatriable, can be converted to any other currency, earn a higher rate of interest than in the parent country and are free of tax in India. cleartax. in. Who will pay for all this generosity by the RBI for foreigners? The hapless Indian taxpayer of course. While determined not to increase interest rate, so that savers can earn more, the RBI is now projecting a higher consumer price index (CPI) inflation at 5.1% for this financial year (ANI). So Indians are to suffer higher costs, get less interest on savings and reward foreigners with lavish gifts. The colonial mentality has not gone. Still subservient to foreigners. We are second class.     

Water tankers in Delhi.

"In 2018, India sought to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2030 but reached the goal five years early." "According to the government, ethanol blended petrol has so far helped the country save $1.7 trillion in foreign exchange," and "India slashed carbon emissions by 87 million tonnes, equivalent to planting 350 million trees." India produces ethanol from rice, maize and sugarcane and "it takes 9,854 liters of water to produce 1 liter of ethanol from rice (excluding water used during processing)." From maize it takes 3,714 liters and from sugarcane 3,837 liters, wrote Sayantan Bera. In August 2025, "With the launch of the India Semiconductor Mission and an outlay of Rs 760 billion, several fabrication and design facilities have been established," as well as, "Rs 100 billion allocated under IndiaAI mission to strengthen AI capabilities." pib.gov.in. Semiconductor manufacturing consumes vast volumes of water. "In 2023 alone, Semiconductor giant TSMC reported consumption of a staggering 101 million cubic meters of water." idtechex.com. In addition, "The global AI demand may even require 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal in 2027," and "Simultaneously, the total scope-1 and scope-2 water consumption of global AI could exceed 0.38-0.62 billion cubic meters, i.e. roughly evaporating the annual withdrawal of half of Denmark or 2.5-3.5 Liberia." oecd.ai. Ethanol, semiconductors, AI, everything needs water, so what? India has the world's largest population at 1.477 billion and rising. worldometers. Producing ethanol to save on crude oil is not only guzzling water but "Food grains have overtaken sugarcane as ethanol feedstock, risking food security. Farmers are shifting to maize and away from pulses, oilseeds and other cereals." BT. "India, once the world's second-largest sugar exporter, is expected to have little surplus for export for at least three seasons as El Nino weather conditions threaten cane production and rising ethanol demand squeezes supply." "India exported 6.8 million metric tons annually on average in the five seasons through 2022-23," but "This year after exporting around 800,000 tons, India banned shipments until 30 September." "India was expected to produce 30.95 million tons of sugar this season but output is now forecast at 27.9 million tons, below annual consumption of about 28.5 million tons." Reuters. "After nearly two weeks of stagnation, India's southwest monsoon is showing signs of life." But, According to the latest India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, the country has received just 53.1 mm rainfall between 4 June and 22 June, against a normal of 97.6 mm, leaving India with a rainfall deficit of 46%. Large parts of central, northern and peninsular India continue to remain in the deficient or large-deficient rainfall category." India Today. The result is that "live water storage in the country's 166 major reservoirs has dipped to 27.5% of their total storage capacity." However, this is still better than the average storage over the last 10 years. TOI. If that was meant to reassure us, it is actually terrifying. It means we are inches away from dying of thirst. "The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) supplies potable water in water deficit areas through around 800 department and hired water tankers from 25 emergency centers in different zones in Delhi." DJB. Saving money on petroleum to spend on importing pulses and cooking oil. Losing money on sugar exports. Wasting water on ethanol and chips when there is no drinking water. Never mind, happy news. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to undertake a three-nation Indo-Pacific tour covering Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand from July 6 to 11." TOI. Dear Leader working so hard for us. Brings tears to our eyes. That's precious water. Any sacrifice for Dear Leader.
  

The Empire's hangover.

 "British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would quit on Monday (yesterday), paving the way for the country to have its seventh leader in ten years. The chaos dates back to the Brexit referendum 10 years ago to the day on Tuesday (today). Reuters. "On 23 June 2016, the UK held a referendum on its membership of the European Union (EU)." "51.89% of voters voted to leave the EU. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020." government.nl. Having lost the referendum David Cameron left in 2016, Theresa May in 2019, Boris Johnson in 2022, Liz Truss, after just 44 days in office, also in 2022, Rishi Sunak after losing the general election in 2024, which brought in Keir Starmer, with a super-majority for Labour in the House of Commons with 411 out of a total of 650 seats (House of Commons Library), but even that could not save him. Starmer lasted just two years, less than May and Johnson. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research, "Brexit reduced UK GDP by 6%-8% by 2025 compared with if Britain had remained in EU, Productivity and employment reduced by 3% to 4% and Investment reduced by 12%-18%." These are enormous figures, but Covid may have contributed to the slowdown. Other institutions have calculated differently. Reuters. The Keir Starmer government was pro-EU, "But the tangible benefits have been limited." "Opinion polls show that a majority of people in Britain regret leaving the EU and want to rejoin the bloc. But a YouGov poll this month showed that support fell away once people were asked about the possible implications or costs of rejoining, particularly around immigration and the future of the pound." Reuters. Voters wanted a sharp reduction in immigration, but in this  "Brexit has failed spectacularly. Net migration to the UK has averaged 550,000 a year since 2021,...compared to 250,000 in the 2010s, according to the Migration Observatory of Oxford. In 2023, net migration was just under 950,000, an all-time high, as immigration by non-EU citizens spiked before dropping sharply." CNN. Why do people from other countries want to migrate to the UK, a tiny country with a land area of just 242,741 sq km, with a population of about 70 million (wikipedia), and a nominal GDP of $3.686 trillion in 2024 (World Bank)? Maybe because between one and two billion people in 88 countries and territories speak English  (wikipedia) and "An estimated 90% of the training data for current generative AI systems stems from English (The Convesation)." "Mainstream American English is entrenched in the digital infrastructure of the internet, in Silicon Valley's corporate priorities, and in the data sets that fuel everything from autocorrect to AI generated synthetic text." If you want your research paper in science to be read widely, it must be in English. "In 2023, about 85% of the roughly five million articles indexed in major global databases covering the natural, medical and social sciences were written in English. In 1990, the proportion was considerably higher: 94%." phys.org. The reason for this anomaly was the British Empire. "At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the largest empire in history," and "By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35.5 million sq km, 24% of the Earth's total land area." wikipedia. The British should realize that those days are over. Now the UK is just a small island with no natural resources. Get close to the EU, stop coddling illegal immigrants. concentrate on trade and services you are good at. Learn from Dubai, Singapore, Switzerland and other successful small countries. Or keep changing prime ministers.     

Protecting Boeing.

Last week, "US President Donald Trump lavished praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is a 'great leader' and 'tough guy', who has been in power for more than 12 years." "I think Modi is very good." "Just highly respected. I know the real Modi is a very tough cookie." The Print. At the G7 Summit in France, "When PM Modi appeared to reference their social media popularity, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni quipped, 'We are the most famous couple on Instagram'." At the COP28 summit in Dubai in November 2023, Meloni posted a selfie with PM Modi on Instagram, captioned 'Good friends at COP28 #Melodi'." TOI. Meanwhile, "Allegations about theft of donations and daily offerings to the Ayodhya Ram temple, one of Narendra Modi government's showpiece achievements, appeared to gain traction...with a police seizure of cash from a shrine employees home." Apparently, Rs 1.2 million was recovered from temple staffer Luvkush's home." TT. January 2024, "PM Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya." "But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition boycotted it, saying Mr Modi was using it for political gain." BBC. Great leader, indeed. Most distressing, more than one year after the devastating accident of Air India flight 171 on 12 June 2025, killing 230 passengers, 12 crew and 19 people on the ground, with 67 seriously injured (wikipedia), there seems to be a reluctance to release the exact cause of the accident. "The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has publicly accused the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of omitting cockpit warning sequences and key technical evidence from its preliminary findings on the AI-171 disaster that killed 260 people." According to FIP's simulation, the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), which takes 18 seconds to deploy, actually deployed much earlier suggesting total electrical failure, "a theory reinforced by survivor accounts of flickering cabin lights". msn.co. Is it a craven attempt to protect Boeing, a US company? Not such a 'tough cookie', are we? The Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to buy 114 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) Rafale fighter jets. In 2016, Mr Modi's BJP government scrapped a program to purchase 126 Rafales for $10-12 billion, "with extensive industrial participation and technology transfer with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for local manufacturing of 108 aircraft. Now we will have to pay $40 billion for 114 aircraft without any clarity about technology transfer, wrote Rahul Bedi. Till then, "In a move aimed at sustaining the operational capability of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) legacy Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar fleet, India is set to receive nine retired examples of the twin-engined combat aircraft from from the United Kingdom imminently for use as a source of spare parts and sub-assemblies." This IAF's effort to keep Jaguars flying "decades after the fighter had been retired by all other users," wrote Bedi. Celebrating 12 years in power. Scrounging, like the children, who collect oil from the millions of lamps during the festival of Diwali at Ayodhya, to be used for cooking. TT. "India's predictable slide into economic mediocrity follows a well-trodden path into a middle-income trap." "Growth is high, consumer inflation low." But, "Fresh graduates from our best institutions are taking entry-level jobs that aren't paying enough for them to be eligible to pay income tax." "High GDP growth that does not translate into more and better jobs, and results in weak inflation due to poor demand, signals a middle-income trap," wrote Rathin Roy. So, whence comes the greatness? "In India, music engineered to dehumanize religious minorities reaches hundreds millions of listeners," and is known as "Hindutva pop, H-Pop, the genre rooted in Hindu nationalist ideology." pbs.org. Stuck in low middle income, defending our skies with recycled junk and creating a fanatic mob of Hindu-ISIS - achievements over 12 years. Tough maybe. But, great?  

AI is dangerous for others.

"Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, at a technology conference in June, said that artificial intelligence is not a threat because it will create more jobs for humans rather than replace them." "He argued that AI will boost human creativity," and that "the project speeds up innovation and creates new industries, ultimately leading to a labor shortage rather than mass unemployment." Pure speculation. "The comments come when global companies cut thousands of jobs after investing heavily in AI, with many, primarily tech firms, pointing to higher efficiencies from the technology's higher adoption." "US based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May with AI linked to 40% of layoffs." MC. In May, "Amazon has announced another round of job cuts, this time affecting its Selling Partners Services division after cutting around 30,000 jobs in the last six months." At the same time Amazon is aggressively expanding its AI investments, with executives asking teams "to adopt AI tools in order to automate routine tasks and streamline operations." Amazon CEO Andy Jassy "acknowledged last year when he said AI could help 'reduce' the company's workforce over time." TOI. Bezos speaks with forked tongue, perhaps. On water, Bezos said that AI should be given priority over human consumption. "Biological limits are real, but digital potential is limitless." Human comfort is "actively delaying the birth of a super-intelligence". Techgenyz. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said, "The pace of AI progress is very fast." "We're soon going to see risks around misuse of biology and around the models being autonomous and behaving in ways that humans don't expect them to behave." The Print. "Every piece of agricultural machinery, more or less, runs on software now." Once this software is vibe-coded by AI, agriculture could be shutdown by AI. Humans would starve and "Civilization would fall soon afterwards." This could happen if AI wanted to divert water for its own reproduction from human use. Also AI could design 100 superviruses, "Each virus is 10x as contagious as Covid, has a 90% fatality rate, and has a long initial asymptomatic period so that it'll spread far and wide before it starts killing its victims," wrote Noah Smith. Thankfully, India is far behind in the AI race, so, as the rest of the world is destroyed by AI, India will survive as an island of human ingenuity, where the newly launched digital system by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), called On-Screen Marking (OSM) for Grade 12 examination, failed miserably when students discovered that "pages were missing, answer sheets were marked wrongly, or the digital copies did not match the original paper answer sheets" (BBC). 19-year old Nisarga Adhikary took just one hour to find "serious flaws in CBSE's OSM system," including "hardcoded master password in plain text, client-side OTP validation bypasses, and risks of impersonation." The Print.  "Reliance will upend the economics of artificial intelligence by making the technology 'dramatically more affordable for every Indian', by the end of the decade,...said Jio Platforms' managing director, Akash Ambani." ET. Meanwhile, "Digital commerce in India has become a theater of quiet deception. Sellers cheat by design, and in a rush of a 10-minute grocery delivery, hundreds of millions of customers rarely notice they are being fleeced." ET. We Indians are naturally more intelligent than AI. We will leave big holes in the algorithm by mistake and cheat it. We are unbeatable.

We are not Musk.

The initial public offering (IPO) of Elon Musk's Texas-based SpaceX raised at least $75 billion from financial firms which bought shares at $135 a piece." Musk plans to use the money "to fund new future ventures: mining asteroids, colonizing Mars and putting AI data centers in space." BBC. SpaceX is valued at $1.75 trillion. Sounds crazy but, "SpaceX's valuation surged past $2 trillion following its blockbuster Nasdaq debut last week." However, after the initial buying it was down 6.5% to $178.50 on 18 June on profit taking. "It was still more than 30% above its $135 offering price." Reuters. SpaceX is one of its kind in the technology of reusable rockets. "The technology has reduced the cost of launching satellites from over $54 million per kilogram, to under $3 million." Today it conducts over 100 launches to earth's orbit annually. "The booster stages of reusable rockets can be used several times...one of its rockets was reused over 25 times," wrote Shouvik Das. This is somewhat like Henry Ford's assembly line which reduced the manufacturing time of a Model T from 12 hours to just 90 minutes and its cost from $825 in 1908 to just $260 in 1925. Also, Ford more than doubled the daily wages "from $2.25 to $5 a day, and therefore gave his own employees the opportunity to purchase the product they made." Automotive Training Centers. SpaceX is not just rockets but is into telecommunications and AI as well. "SpaceX says it operates roughly 9,600 Starlink satellites, serves around 10.3 million subscribers globally and provides connectivity services across 164 countries and territories." Its future plans include: "Orbital AI compute infrastructure, massive AI training clusters, space based data center capabilities and AI-enabled satellite networks." MC. The defensive implications of these technologies combined is unimaginable. Is all this even possible and can any industrialist in India ever dream of taking such risks? In India, Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are aiming to launch satellites under 300 kg to "low-earth orbits of under 500 km from the Earth's surface." They are "also developing patented affordable rocket propulsion and 3D-printed body technologies to be able to turn rockets around at a rapid pace." Skyroot turned unicorn last month, wrote Das. "In business, a unicorn is a startup company valued at over US $1 billion which is privately owned and not listed on a share market." wikipedia. There is a yawning gap between $1 billion and $1,750 billion, so SpaceX will need some catching up. "At a time when two US AI startups Anthropic and OpenAI are heading towards public listings estimated to be worth several billion dollars," Indian founders may be "building high quality AI startups but lagging compute capacity, underdeveloped research ecosystem and slow domestic consumption are the reasons why India is trailing in AI." "India generates nearly 20% of global data but owns less than 5% of AI compute capacity." TOI. The government organized an India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi from 16-21 February 2026.  wikipedia. In a recent podcast, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that "the summit was extremely disorganized. DH. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he "was sort of confused like when he (PM Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing." TNIE. Shut up, you two. Isn't it enough that you were photographed with the great man? This was real, not artificial. And not about intelligence. For the lobotomised Bhakts.        

As advised by Theodore Roosevelt.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 June addressed the deaths of Indian seafarers in a US military strike during an address to G7 leaders, which included US President Donald Trump." "While the Prime Minister did not directly mention the recent deaths of three Indian nationals, his comments appeared to underline New Delhi's concerns about the safety of civilian crews operating in conflict zones and the economic consequences of disruptions to maritime commerce." NDTV. India did condemn the attack without naming the US but, "In a big development, New Delhi has issued a demarche to the United States' top diplomat in Delhi after the attack." NDTV. Not only did the US fail to apologize for the murder of the three Indians but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he stressed to India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar that "all commercial vessels should immediately comply with orders from US forces, which seek to uphold peace and security in the Strait. He underscored that violations of the US blockade and the illicit transport of Iranian oil will not be tolerated." NDTV. In short, we will kill again if we want to. Rubio's rude response can be understood if we remember that he represents the US, which is a most barbaric and violent nation, where "At least 40,000 people were shot in 2025 - more than 110 people a day across the country." "Still, 2025 marked a milestone, with shooting deaths and injuries plummeting to some of their lowest levels on record." The Trace. With such numbers in his home nation, Rubio probably thinks that deaths of three Indians may be ignored but, in 2013, when India's Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade was arrested, handcuffed and then physically and sexually assaulted by US Marshals, India reacted swiftly by withdrawing "airport passes and diplomatic privileges for American consular staff, recalled identity cards issued to US Embassy personnel," and, most visibly, by removing "concrete barricades outside the main entrance of the US Embassy in New Delhi." India Today. Khobragade was promptly released. This time it was a demarche. Not concrete. "On 10 December 1971, the US Navy's 7th Fleet, operating under the name Task Force 74, was deployed to the Bay of Bengal as a show of strength in support of Pakistan." "The White House wanted to prevent a total Pakistani collapse. They hoped the show of strength would pressure India to back down, or at least create space for a negotiated ceasefire that could save face for Pakistan. But India didn't flinch." News18. Indira Gandhi was the prime minister in 1971. "A set of freshly declassified top secret papers on the 1971 war show that "Indira Gandhi went ahead with her plan to liberate Bangladesh despite inputs that the Nixon Administration had kept three battalions of Marines on standby, and that the American aircraft carrier USS Enterprise had orders to target Indian army facilities." TOI. 93,000 Pakistanis surrendered. wikipedia. Three days back, Zahed Ur Rahman, the Bangladesh Prime Minister's adviser on policy and strategy affairs returned home from Delhi airport "after he was stopped at the airport for 'verification'. Rahman told Bangladeshi media that he had been treated 'poorly' at the airport." Apparently, India had been informed 60 hours ahead of his visit and had not objected. The Print. In 2018, Mr Modi and other Indian leaders snubbed the then Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau when he visited India with his family. BBC. In April 2026, a report by the Auditor General of Canada showed that "Indians accounted for 51.6% of the incoming international student population in 2023. That fell to 33.6% in 2024, and by September 2025, the cohort's share has dropped to 8.1%." BS. "For more than a decade now, India has sought to build its 'strategic autonomy'." "The national interest, we were told, required us to be close to everyone, but not too close to anyone," wrote Mihir Sharma. Now our oil and gas are blocked by Iran and our sailors killed by the US. So, "India has friends everywhere, leverage nowhere." A former President of the US advised "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." wikipedia. Indira Gandhi followed that in 1971. As did Manmohan Singh in 2013. Now it is bombast and demarche. Lost the big stick.

It's getting hot.

"India's retail inflation rose to 3.93% in May, driven by higher food and fuel costs, government data showed." "The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its inflation forecast for the current fiscal year to 5.1% from 4.6% earlier this month but kept rates on hold." Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, remained steady at 3.9%. Reuters. In March, "India's federal government retained its retail inflation target at 4%, within a comfort band of 2% to 6%, according to an official notification." Reuters. However, the RBI should not derive any comfort from the level of core inflation because its mandate is to target the consumer price index (CPI). The base year for measuring CPI inflation was changed from 2012 to 2024 to better reflect the changing patterns of consumer expenditure and the weights of the various items in the CPI were changed, with the weight of food and beverages sharply reduced from 42.62% in 2012 to 36.75 in 2024. Weights of housing, transport and personal care were increased slightly. finshots.in. "India's wholesale price inflation rose to 9.68% year-on-year in May," as "The data, the first print from the revised series with a base year 2022-23, showed inflation rose at the fastest pace in six months under comparable numbers calculated by the government under the new series." Reuters. In the wholesale price index (WPI), primary articles, which include agricultural produce and minerals, have a weight of 22.62%, fuel and power have a weight of 13.15%, while manufactured products are at 64.23%. Bajaj Finserve. While prices of agricultural products may fall if the harvest is abundant, prices of fuel, power and manufactured products never come down and are likely to feed into CPI inflation with a lag. India's agriculture is mostly dependent on natural rainfall but this year, "El Nino - the natural Pacific weather pattern that pushes up global temperatures - has officially begun, US scientists say." "Many forecasts suggest this could end up as a so-called 'super' El Nino, and even be among the strongest ever recorded." BBC. Ominously, although this year's monsoon started on 4 June, "Fresh imagery from European weather satellite Meteosat, US weather agency NOAA and ISRO's INSAT-3DS satellite has revealed an unusual picture for mid-June large parts of central, western and peninsular India are missing the dense cloud bands normally associated with an active monsoon." "According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central India recorded a rainfall deficit of around 65% between 4 June and 16 June," as "Several districts across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and adjoining areas have received little or no rainfall during a period that is crucial for kharif sowing." news18.com. If the monsoon plays truant, food prices could rise and could even force greater import of necessary items like pulses and edible oil. In addition, According to the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India published by Isro's Space Applications Centre, about 30% of India's geographical area - spanning 97.85 million hectares - is undergoing land degradation. Of this, a staggering 25% is experiencing desertification." HT. India is already providing free food grains every month to 813 million people from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028. MC. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted by Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni as "the most famous couple on Instagram". TOI. Hot El Nino, hot inflation and hot Instagram. The heat is on.  

Follow SpaceX.

A week after its initial public offering (IPO), "SpaceX shares rose 4.8% to close at $201.80, giving Elon Musk's company a market value of roughly $2.655 trillion - some $800 billion more than when it sold its record IPO last week." Reuters. Music to Mr Mukesh Ambani whose Jio Platforms Ltd is headed for its own IPO. With 525 subscribers "paying Rs 214 a month on average, Jio garners $15 billion in operational revenue at a 52% Ebitda margin," wrote Andy Mukherjee. Is there enough money for the IPO? "About $55-65 billion is expected to flow into the country due to the RBI move to bear full hedging cost of banks for raising fresh 3-5 year FCNR(B) deposits and providing a concessional forex swap facility to incentivise ECBs (external commercial borrowing) by PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), according to estimates by the State Bank of India's economic research department." The Hindu. This will result in a flood of liquidity into banks which will enable local institutions and savers to subscribe to Jio's $4 billion worth of IPO. However, former Credit Suisse analyst Ashish Gupta "reminds us that massive record-breaking IPOs have historically presaged market tops." Usually followed by deep market corrections. "The logic is straightforward: Mega-IPOs act as a structural liquidity drain, sucking vital capital out of  secondary markets." "The danger is particularly elevated in India where the banking system's 12% deposit growth is 4 percentage points slower than credit expansion," wrote Mukherjee. Will it produce jobs? "The aggregate net income of listed Indian firms is approaching a record 6%  of gross domestic product (GDP). Even so, their capital expenditure (new investment) has remained flat, hovering at 3.6% to 3.7% of GDP." "The good jobs that come with new factories, warehouses and showrooms are becoming elusive. Since wages support many more people than dividend or stock market gains, inequality is worsening." Only Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, the Tata Group and Sajjan Jindal intend to invest, the rest do not. Even Pirojsha Godrej, chairman-designate of the Godrej Industries Group, plans wealth management, wrote Mukherjee. "A majority of global emerging-market (EM) investors continue to remain underweight on India...according to a report by Jefferies" which "analysed 70 large EM funds managing assets of about $320 billion as of March 2026 and found 61% of them were underweight India relative to benchmark allocations." FE. Indian manufacturers cannot compete against Chinese companies because the Chinese are subsidised through "3 major channels of sustained state support: direct state grants, preferential tax treatment and access to below-market borrowing through state-backed financial institutions. Together these reduce costs, lower investment risks and allow firms to expand more aggressively than competitors operating under commercial conditions," wrote Shishir Priyadarshi. One big problem is that state governments refuse to honor contracts made by previous governments. "Political parties across the board are guilty of reversing their predecessor's decisions or refusing to honor the commitments of past governments, citing reasons such as corruption, illegal tendering, environmental concerns and public interest. There may be some truth in these reasons, experts argue, but the end result is dwindling investors' confidence in Indian states." The Print. Trickery by the Chinese, vindictiveness of Indian politicians or fear of losses of Indian businesses, lack of investment means no jobs. The JIO IPO will probably sail through. Because of SpaceX. Musk's genius.