Table of contents for 21 April 2025 in India Today

President Donald Trump’s tariff tsunami has shocked even seasoned Cassandras. Although he had said tariff is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, the extent of its onslaught was unexpected. Stock markets everywhere got spooked. In fact, bond markets hit such volatility that it forced Trump into hitting pause for 90 days on his world-altering plan, with only a bilateral bloodbath with China playing out for now. On April 2, his tariff rates blazed out as if from a sawed-off shotgun that didn’t distinguish between friend or foe. India’s economy usually has layers of insulation, but the US is our largest trading partner, with just merchandise trade totalling $120 billion in 2023-24. We have a $35.3 billion surplus in our favour, which is what Trump wants to reduce, like with…

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called it a ‘weapon for marginalising Muslims’ on social media, but when the Lok Sabha was actually debating the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, he was nowhere to be found. Both Rahul and sister and Wayanad MP Priyanka Vadra—reportedly in the US tending to an ailing relative—were absent during discussions on President’s rule in Manipur too, with the former departing after the Waqf Bill vote. Sources say advisors may have cautioned the Gandhis against engaging on the Waqf issue to prevent “alienating the Hindus” against the Congress. The silence also aligns with Rahul’s directive to party MPs about wider parliamentary participation and rotating speaking opportunities instead of the same faces taking on every issue. JEERS AND FEARS When poetry meets empty pockets, apparently no metaphor is compelling enough.…

Though the Donald Trump administration has given the world a respite from its new tariffs, global markets have been in turmoil ever since they were announced. Volatility and uncertainty spiked. Close to $6 trillion was wiped out from global markets. With the United States negotiating bilaterally, the multilateral trading system, where distinctions were made between developed, developing and least developed countries, stood threatened. In the next three months, India should explore the massive opportunity that the ongoing reshaping of globalisation gives us. However, navigating these changes will require concerted policy action. First, we must renew our thrust on ease of doing business. This will be a crucial step if we are to attract manufacturing and investment to India. Large-scale scrapping of rules and procedures and total business process re-engineering must occur.…

President Donald Trump’s tariffs are not only derailing the world order but also devilishly clever. It might appear that the hard-working staff at the White House inadvertently penalised a bunch of penguins hanging out on the Heard and McDonald islands 4,000 km from Australia by taxing the hapless birds. But now we know it was all done on purpose to deter the exploitation of penguins for tariff arbitrage. Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, clarified that tariffs on penguins prevent countries from shipping through the islands to sneak their goods into the US. Yes, that was, indeed, a serious explanation from a cabinet-level official for goofy policy. The penguins may have been spared, but some pundits in India are seriously considering tariff arbitrage—of a different variety—as a golden opportunity. Though deferred…

With negligible car exports to the US, American tariffs are unlikely to directly impact India. However, these tariffs could lead to a global slowdown in demand, which could potentially jeopardise India’s export ambitions. While India has reduced import duties on luxury bikes, it remains unclear whether this move will encourage firms like Harley-Davidson to re-open shop here. THE IMPACT Since the passenger vehicle (PV) exports to the US represent less than 1 per cent of the total PV exports, the higher tariffs by the US do not have any material impact on Indian carmakers, according to rating firm ICRA. “We don’t expect any significant impact on the Indian automobile industry since there are limited exports to the US, but we will continue to monitor the situation,” says Rajesh Menon, director…

India enjoys a $3.5 billion (Rs 30,300 crore) trade surplus with the US in agriculture, with about 10 per cent of exports heading to American markets. What irked Trump were the tariff disparities—Indian duties are, on average, nearly eight times higher than what the US levied on Indian farm goods—and the non-tariff barriers along with other market distortions. THE IMPACT Trump’s reciprocal tariff threat has unsettled global food and edible oil markets. Indian exporters, with products like mustard oil already seeing price crashes due to cheaper Canadian canola, now face a new peril. Still, India retains a comparative edge over its regional competitors in some sectors. With rivals like China, Vietnam and Thailand facing steeper tariffs, Indian farm products are relatively better placed. In rice exports, for instance, India…

Pharma stocks in India fell nearly 2 per cent on April 9 after Trump, for the second time in less than a week, threatened tariffs. Earlier too, the US president had warned that they were looking at pharma as a “separate category” and that “tariffs are going to come in at levels you haven’t really seen before”. THE IMPACT The pharma industry is in a wait and watch mode. It is hoping that, being a cheap and efficacious supplier of drugs, it will be spared. The cost of manufacturing certain drugs in the US would be at least six times compared to that of manufacturing the same product in India, say industry sources. However, even if Trump decides to levy tariffs, the industry is hoping it will not be more…

India exported rubber products worth $852 million (Rs 7,505 crore) to the US in 2023, comprising more than 20 per cent of India’s total rubber product exports globally. India is also the second largest exporter of natural rubber in the world, exporting over 3.56 million tonnes of natural rubber in 2023. The major vis-a-vis exporters like Vietnam and Turkey. Vietnam has recently offered a zero per cent tariff to the US, while Turkey faces only 10 per cent tariff. This will lead exporters from those countries to undercut Indian exporters. Media reports say that buyers in the US have asked Indian exporters to stop production of rubber goods for destinations for this are the United States, the Philippines and the Netherlands. Synthetic rubber exports, on the other hand, were worth…

First, there was the simple voice assistant, exemplified by the earliest Alexa, straining its ears to understand and play a song of one’s choice or fetch basic information. Now, added with the aggregative and interpretative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), your voice assistants have just become smarter. And, with these assistants embedded in their capacious smartphones, Indians are embracing their seemingly all-encompassing companionship. It seems natural to those who turn to this new league of voice assistants powered by generative AI—which use neural networks to identify patterns and structures within existing text, image, audio and video data to generate new content—for just about everything. From weekly shopping lists to counting calories on their plate and crafting arguments—nothing is beyond its ken.…

The excitement currently whirling around the corridors of Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is palpable. Its focal point is their annual dance festival, Mudra 2025, which began on April 3 and will continue until April 29. This year’s Mudra features over 100 performers, including accompanying musicians. Audiences are being treated to performances of classical dances such as Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak and Kuchipudi, as well as folk dances at multiple venues across the NCPA. Dr Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, who has been head of the dance department at the NCPA since 2013, explains how Mudra is a thematic festival rather than simply a dance showcase. “Our themes are intentionally thought-provoking, encouraging artistes to reflect on aspects they might not otherwise consider,” she shares. This year’s theme is ‘aharya’, which,…

In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the dashing Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is ‘frozen’ in solid car-bonite casing by the film’s villain, Darth Vader. He isn’t dead (yet) but he is in a state of reversible hibernation. A similar punishment lies at the heart of Gautam Bhatia’s work of speculative fiction, The Sentence. The narrative is set in the mining-led city-state of Peruma, which has always faced tense relations between capital and labour, dwelling in the ‘Council’ and the ‘Commune’, respectively. A hundred years before the events of the novel, a man named Jagat allegedly murdered a high-ranking Council official, because of which he was sentenced to ‘cryosleep’, a state of cryogenic hibernation not entirely unlike Han Solo’s. And now, almost a century later, the novel’s protagonist, a Guardian…

Donald Trump is a walking, talking, known unknown—as everybody knows. His tariff war was always expected, but his blitzkrieg on the world order still took most of us by surprise. As global markets, governments and policymakers take stock of the debris of globalisation he has left in his protectionist wake, we asked a panel of experts to assess what India could salvage from the situation. While the equation for America’s ‘reciprocal tariffs’ is less algebra than abracadabra, there is also a clear intent behind the alternative facts that drive Trumpian policy. India’s position is more ambiguous than most, as our writers point out, and a strategy of ahimsa rather than retaliation seems the better part of valour. As ever, there are opportunities in this crisis—and not just for India. Could…

IN barely two months, President Donald Trump has made evident the phase transformation that is underway in global geopolitics. We are witnessing the end of the US-led world order, the demise of the West as a unified geopolitical force and the diminished agency of the liberal globalisers who determined US foreign policy for extended periods. To be sure, the protectionism, isolationism and nativism bordering on racism that we now see in the US is not new. President Trump’s adoption of these policies is a result of long-building historical trends. This means that they are likely to be long-lasting and that there is no going back to earlier times. The manner of their implementation is, of course, uniquely his own. For many years to come, the US and Europe will be preoccupied with…

EVERYONE KNEW THE DREADED TRUMP TARIFFS WERE COMING, but when they finally did arrive, there was mayhem all over. Equity and commodity markets crashed across the globe, major currencies fell vis-à-vis the dollar and talks of a global recession returned to the headlines. India, which less than two months ago had entered into a multi-sector partnership deal with the US—including plans to boost bilateral trade to $500 billion (Rs 43.4 lakh crore) by 2030—got away with relatively lower tariffs compared to some of its competitors like China and Vietnam. But that was hardly any solace. Across sectors, Indian businesses are busy assessing the damage the US tariffs could inflict—not just on their exports to the US, but also on markets worldwide that have been left rattled and could see slowing…

The US remains the top destination for India’s engineering goods, which make up 27 per cent of the country’s total exports. Of this, 17 to 18 per cent is directed to the US. In the previous fiscal, that country took in engineering goods worth $17.6 billion (Rs 1.5 lakh crore) from India—a hike of 8.3 per cent over the same period last year. The 25 per cent tariff on steel imposed on March 12 threatens to erode the competitiveness of this segment. THE IMPACT The industry is of the view that Indian engineering companies could lose $5 billion (Rs 43,350 crore) of exports to the US in a year due to the tariff hikes. India’s major competitors—China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the EU—which have also been charged 20-34…

India has long been a key seafood supplier to the United States, exporting around $2.5 billion (Rs 21,500 crore) worth in 2024. Shrimps and prawns alone account for over 90 per cent of these exports, holding a dominant position in the US—over 40 per cent market share in frozen and 27 per cent in prepared/preserved categories. THE IMPACT This stronghold is now under threat. The US has threatened retaliatory tariffs of 26 per cent on Indian seafood, a steep jump from the current 0–5 per cent. Why? Because India imposes a 30 per cent tariff on shrimp imports from the US. The US is also not happy with further subsidies that India provides to its domestic producers. Compounding India’s challenge, its key rivals in the sector face lower or no…

India’s oil imports far outstrip its exports of the commodity. It is the second largest importer in the world after China. It imported 232.5 million tonnes (MT) of crude in 2023-24 for $132.4 billion (Rs 11.4 lakh crore). Crude imports from the US in March 2025 were 244,000 barrels per day (bpd). THE IMPACT Oil and gas had anyway been exempted from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, but were they to kick in, India could be affected in two ways. One, we’ll have to increase our imports of oil and gas from the US to bridge the trade gap to some extent. The other impact would come from falling crude oil prices in the global market. Oil prices fell from $77 per barrel on Mar. 31 to around $65 on Apr. 8.…

The United States is the largest market for toys in the world, consuming 30 per cent of the global production. In the past few years, there has been a push from India to increase domestic toy manufacturing by increasing customs duty up to 70 per cent and introducing quality control standards to ensure domestic players get a competitive edge. India’s exports to the US are minuscule—in the range of $150-180 million (Rs 1,300-1,560 crore), as India has less than one per cent share in the global toy market, but the scope to leverage the opportunity is huge. THE IMPACT Even if the 26 per cent tariff comes in, it should be way lower than what China attracts. But China is an evolved toymaker, meeting 70-80 per cent of the US…

It is quite unusual to come across an exhibition where the gallery and the work itself arrive at a kind of tandem, as though it were custommade for the contours of that specific space. But that’s exactly what Anita Dube has achieved with her latest solo exhibition, Three Storey House, at Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery (on till April 19). The gallery’s three-floored building is the perfect conduit for Dube’s vision. The top floor consists of abstract works (fabric, glue and plywood) she made during the pandemic and they evoke that sense of alienation that so many of us shared at the time. As we move down, each level takes on a different tone and form. “Because this was my first solo exhibition in a while,” Dube recalls, “there were suggestions…

Kolkata-born Abhiroop Banerjee has yet to finish his bachelor’s degree in film, and recipient of a top award at the Berlin Independent Film Festival. In February, his docu from Stasi Prisoners, Documentary Feature award at the festival’s 2025 edition. Banerjee shares it with his co-directors Berglind Sóley Elstermann Jansdóttir, Marcela Faganello Galluzzi and Matthias Leupold. won the Best The 61-minute film features interviews with three former political prisoners, who look back on their memories of subjugation in the hands of the Stasi, the state security of Communist East Germany, and their imprisonment at the then Stasi prison, the Hohenschönhausen Interrogation Centre. The interviewees include Leupold, who was a driver for a fashion he has become the magazine at the time, Edda Schönherz and as well as forme television journalist former…

The headlines of the past week were dominated by President Donald Trump as he imposed a blanket 10 per cent tariff on all countries, with 57 of them singled out for much higher and varying rates. The unilateral imposition of different tariffs on different countries violated the “most favoured nation” clause of the world trading system, which prohibits discrimination across countries except as part of a free trade arrangement. This raised the prospects of a full-scale trade war, which roiled stock markets across the world. President Trump then pulled back at the last minute with a 90-day reprieve for countries that had not reacted while holding out additional threats for those that did react. As a result, China, which did react, is saddled with a tariff of 125 per cent! The…

Most human beings resist change. Business systems and practices in companies continue unchanged for long periods. President Donald Trump, with his radical interpretation of economic laws, has forced the world to consider making changes. We in India are no exception and industry leaders have to work with the government to find the best way forward. The government has done well to engage the USA in bilateral trade negotiations. While the outcome cannot obviously be predicted, I believe that it will lead to a trade environment that is based on more reciprocity and lower import duties. The 90-day extension is only part of his strategy to bring all to the negotiating table and force countries to lower tariffs on US products. Countries will have to agree, but they will get the USA…

As much as 32 per cent of India’s total auto parts exports—worth $21.2 billion (Rs 1.8 lakh crore)—goes to the US. Yet, it accounts for only 3 per cent of all auto components imported by the US from around the world. The 25 per cent tariff hike announced on the sector on March 26, which is not covered by the 90-day moratorium, could alter the long-term dynamics of India’s role in the global supply chain. THE IMPACT It’s unlikely that carmakers will switch to new suppliers overnight. However, in the long run, higher tariffs will make Indian exports less competitive, pushing carmakers to explore alternative sources for auto components. “We believe that the strong Indo-US trade ties, especially in the auto components sector, will encourage continued dialogue to mitigate…

The United States is the largest market for Indian gems and jewellery, accounting for 30–35 per cent of the sector’s exports—particularly gold-studded jewellery and loose diamonds. In 2024, bilateral trade in this segment totalled $16.9 billion (Rs 1.46 lakh crore), with India enjoying a trade surplus of $6.3 billion (Rs 54,300 crore). But the industry has faced headwinds in recent years due to geopolitical tensions, rising gold prices and intensifying competition from other exporting nations. THE IMPACT Against this backdrop, Trump’s reciprocal tariffs emerge as a serious threat. They could potentially wipe out up to 50 per cent of India’s jewellery exports to the US—valued at $1.5–2 billion (Rs 13,000–17,250 crore)—as well as $2.5–3 billion (Rs 21,500–25,900 crore) worth of cut and polished diamond exports, according to Kirit Bhansali, chairperson,…

Global trade tensions are escalating, with major economies like the EU, China and the UK raising tariff barriers in response to the US’s new protectionist stance. Amid this turmoil, the electronics and telecom trade—particularly from OEM (original equipment manufacturing) hubs in India and China—is seeing a surge in shipment volumes ahead of looming tariffs. THE IMPACT India’s telecom and electronics sectors are bracing for a significant setback as the US threatens a 26 per cent tariff on imports, replacing the earlier average of just 0.41 per cent. Such a hike will hit the competitiveness of Indian exports in the US market, with a conservative projection of a 12 per cent drop in export volumes of electrical, telecom and electronic products this fiscal. Industry insiders reported a frantic effort to…

Renewable energy is not on top of the agenda for the Trump administration. The 2022 US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which aimed to bolster domestic green technology, had given a massive fillip to the export of Indian photovoltaic cells in recent years, but had the potential to hurt future orders too. Washington’s new focus has been on putting pressure on India to ensure the purchase of its oil and natural gas. THE IMPACT The US accounts for 97 per cent of Indian exports of solar equipment. Among President Trump’s first executive orders had been one titled “Unleashing American Energy”, which directs federal agencies to “pause the disbursement of funds” through the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Despite this, there is about $50 billion in the system, which…

The prospective reciprocal tariffs, if they kick in, may place India at a disadvantage vis-à-vis economies like Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and garment-exporting EU countries like Italy, Germany and Spain, as well as Egypt and the Dominican Republic who may build their capacity to take advantage of the new regime. THE IMPACT In the short term, buyers in the US may face a liquidity crunch and, hence, may try to renegotiate deals and seek discounts from Indian exporters. They were already asking Indian sellers to postpone deliveries by a month or two, hoping the bilateral trade agreement due this September will work things out. In the long term, if the tariffs rates threatened on April 2 kick in for all countries, India stands to gain, as it will get off lighter…

Post Covid, the world of work changed Pdramatically. Employees started expecting more from what they do, seeking-growth, flexibility and work-life balance, not just a job that paid the bills. It required organisations to pivot towards strategies that could boost retention and foster loyalty. Enter GenAI, meanwhile, and the disruption has only intensified, significantly impacting several job roles. As expectations evolve and technology transforms the workplace, how employees work, create and collaborate is also changing. The India Today HR Insights, organised at Presidency University in Bengaluru recently, focused on key trends such as creating an inclusive workforce and redefining talent acquisition strategies for the workplace of the future. The event brought together HR leaders from diverse sectors—technology, retail, IT and HR service provid- ers—to engage in meaningful dialogues. Subhankar Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director &…

In Mumbai’s Fort district—home to many art galleries—Subcontinent is a new entrant dedicated to exploring South Asia’s imprint on visual and material culture. Founded by Dhwani Gudka and Keshav Mahendru, it is designed as a space of inquiry for exploring the artistic identities of the region. “We started Subcontinent because of our deep engagement with the art, culture and archaeology of our region. Apart from exhibitions, we want to have archival material and different mediums from different time periods; it has to be a conversation around the larger art history of the region,” says Gudka, who is a South Asian art specialist. Mahendru is the founder of FAQ Art, a boutique art advisory firm that has worked with leading galleries, museums, private collectors and corporations. The exhibition highlights Haku Shah’s…

Reading this book is like jumping aboard a spacecraft made of stories, to hunt down the demons that have haunted Indo-South Asia for centuries. Caste-based intolerance is the main bogey, of course. But gender-based injustice, power differentials and raw hypocrisy share the stage equally. The stories are dark, but lit by flashes of wry, sardonic humour. Out of 30 tales, eight are translated from other Indian languages. All of them include italicised words that don’t have simple counterparts in English, with explanations in the ‘Notes’ at the back of the book. I wondered about the title. Would the book have been more sincerely “anti-caste” had it made no reference to caste at all in the title? Doesn’t this formulation lead us to think of the caste affiliations of the…

Q. Tell us about some of your recent roles. I’ve been busier recently than I have been in a long, long time. I released an Italian film in Italy, called Questione di Stoffa (A Question of Fabric), last November. It is the story of the rivalry between an Indian and Italian family of tailors. Currently, I also have four new shows on various OTT platforms, including Berlin on Zee5, Life Hill Gayi on JioHotstar, Tanaav 2 on SonyLiv and the latest is Aachari Baa with Neena Gupta on JioHotstar. Q. If you hadn’t turned to acting, what would you have become? I had wanted to be an architect, because I was fascinated with buildings. But because I had to work my way through college due to family circumstances, I couldn’t.…