Barackface: 31: India

Sunday, August 31, 2025

The Convergence Age: Ten Forces Reshaping Humanity’s Future
Kalkiism: The Economic And Spiritual Blueprint For An Age Of Abundance
The Last Age: Lord Kalki, Prophecy, and the Final War for Peace
The Protocol of Greatness (novel)
A Reorganized UN: Built From Ground Up
The Drum Report: Markets, Tariffs, and the Man in the Basement (novel)
World War III Is Unnecessary
Grounded Greatness: The Case For Smart Surface Transit In Future Cities
The Garden Of Last Debates (novel)
Deported (novel)
Empty Country (novel)
Trump’s Default: The Mist Of Empire (novel)

The 20% Growth Revolution: Nepal’s Path to Prosperity Through Kalkiism
Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy
The $500 Billion Pivot: How the India-US Alliance Can Reshape Global Trade
Trump’s Trade War
Peace For Taiwan Is Possible
Formula For Peace In Ukraine
A 2T Cut
Are We Frozen in Time?: Tech Progress, Social Stagnation
The Last Age of War, The First Age of Peace: Lord Kalki, Prophecies, and the Path to Global Redemption
AOC 2028: : The Future of American Progressivism

Listen to "India-China Relations: Pathways to Prosperity and Peace" by Tech, Politics, Business And Faith. https://t.co/J6zwAbTSBx
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) August 31, 2025

Croquet, Anyone? Making Moscow a Vast Fun Zone to Divert Minds From War. A festival known as Summer in Moscow showcases the city’s transformation into an ultramodern metropolis. But the feast can’t last forever.
China manufacturing activity shrinks for fifth straight month in August
In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are Among the Hardest Hit President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs from the federal work force, disproportionately affecting Black employees. br> Ukraine plans new strikes deep into Russia, Zelenskiy says

China and India pledge to be 'partners not rivals'
Rural America is suffering an economic crisis as crop prices plunge — ‘U.S. soybean farmers cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute’
Nvidia says two mystery customers accounted for 39% of Q2 revenue
I’ll never go back to Chrome after using this browser

The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled President Trump’s repeated claims about having “solved” the India-Pakistan war infuriated Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. And that was only the beginning. ....... Mr. Trump had been saying — repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly — that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be........ During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr. Modi should do the same. ......... The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan. ......... The dispute has played out against the backdrop of trade talks of immense importance to India and the United States, and the fallout risks pushing India closer to American adversaries in Beijing and Moscow. Mr. Modi is expected to travel to China this weekend, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia............ Mr. Modi, who once called Mr. Trump “a true friend,” was officially on the outs. After telling Mr. Modi that he would travel to India later this year for the Quad summit, Mr. Trump no longer has plans to visit in the fall, according to people familiar with the president’s schedule. ....... In India, Mr. Trump is now seen in some quarters as a source of national humiliation. Last week, a giant Trump effigy was paraded around a festival in the state of Maharashtra, with signs declaring him a backstabber. The blows from the United States have been so intense that one Indian official described them as “gundagardi”: straight-up bullying, or thuggery. ........... the tale of an American president with his eye on a Nobel Prize, running smack into the immovable third rail of Indian politics: the conflict with Pakistan. ............ During Mr. Trump’s first term, he attended the large “Howdy Modi!” rally of the Indian diaspora in Texas. Months later, the American president visited Mr. Modi’s home state of Gujarat for an event branded “Namaste Trump!” .......... If Mr. Modi were to be perceived as having caved to American pressure for a cease-fire with a weaker nation, the costs at home would be enormous. Mr. Modi’s strongman identity depends, in large part, on how tough he is on Pakistan. Acknowledging that Mr. Trump had a role, let alone nominating him for a Nobel for it, would be seen as surrender. For Pakistan, which has found itself in Mr. Trump’s good graces recently, the decision to nominate him for the prize came quickly. .......... Mr. Trump contends that he used trade as leverage to get the two sides to stop fighting. After these enticements and warnings, he said, “all of a sudden they said, ‘I think we will stop’” the fighting. ........ “I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan,” Mr. Trump posted. “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.” ..........

to many officials and observers, the colossal penalties on India in particular appear to be punishment for not falling in line rather than any kind of cohesive effort to reduce the trade deficit or cut off funding for Mr. Putin’s war. They point out that China, the biggest importer of Russian crude, has been spared.

........... “If this was a real change in policy in trying to squeeze Russia, Trump could have put his weight behind legislation that would have imposed secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian hydrocarbons,” said Richard M. Rossow, the chair on India at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The fact that they have uniquely targeted India says this is about more than just Russia,” he added. .........
India is now alone with Brazil, led by a president who has antagonized Mr. Trump directly, in being subject to 50 percent tariffs, higher than any other country. (Pakistan came away with 19 percent.)
........... Indian officials believed early on that they could find common ground with the American right-wing movement but they were caught off guard by the rift among Mr. Trump’s supporters over H-1B visas, with much of the attention directed at Indians, who make up the largest holders of such visas. ........ Indian students also make up one out of every four foreign students in the United States, so Mr. Trump’s crackdown on student visas took the country by surprise. .......... The method and timing of some of those deportations caused headaches for Mr. Modi and made clear Mr. Trump would not be sensitive to the political realities the Indian leader was facing. ............ Planeloads of deportees in shackles and handcuffs arrived in India in February, causing an uproar just as Mr. Modi was departing for a trip to Washington. ........... But just before India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, stepped up to the podium to make the announcement, Mr. Trump upstaged him by flashing an announcement of “FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE” on Truth Social. ........... Minutes later, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, announced that India and Pakistan had agreed “to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.” ......... That statement in particular was galling to the Indians because it has been India’s policy for decades that the issue of Pakistan — especially in relation to Kashmir — is one for the two countries to handle alone, without third-party mediation. ............. Mr. Modi declined an invitation from Mr. Trump to stop by Washington before he flew home. His officials were scandalized that Mr. Trump might try to force their leader into a handshake with Pakistan’s army chief, who had also been invited to the White House for lunch around the same time. It was another clear sign, a senior Indian official said, that Mr. Trump cared little for the complexity of their issue or the sensitivities and history around it. .......... One called India’s approach to trade negotiations “arrogant” and another went as far as calling the conflict in Ukraine “Modi’s war.” ........ And during this weekend’s trip to China — Mr. Modi’s first in seven years — he is expected to have a receptive audience for stronger and expanded ties with Beijing and Moscow.