US Approves $4 Billion Sale of Drones to India Amidst Allegations, Strengthening Military Ties in Face of China

February 5, 2024 Staff ReporterDiplomacy, Nation 0

The United States gave its approval on Thursday for a significant $4 billion transaction involving cutting-edge drones destined for India, a move aimed at bolstering India’s military capabilities vis-à-vis China. This approval comes after a delay attributed to an alleged plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader on US soil.

This sale signifies a notable shift in India’s procurement strategy from its traditional reliance on Russian arms, which have increasingly faced scrutiny due to sanctions stemming from Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

The discussions regarding the drones began during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit last year, at the invitation of President Joe Biden. These talks gained urgency against the backdrop of skirmishes between India and both China and Pakistan.

Following extensive deliberations with US lawmakers and Indian authorities, the State Department formally notified Congress about the sale, comprising 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardians, the most advanced variant of General Atomics’ Predator drones.

According to a statement from the State Department, “The proposed sale will improve India’s capability to meet current and future threats by enabling unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance patrols in sea lanes of operation.” It further asserted, “India has demonstrated a commitment to modernizing its military and will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.”

While India has historically enjoyed bipartisan support in the US Congress, the sale encountered a setback following allegations by US prosecutors of a plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader with US citizenship on American soil. The Justice Department went as far as to allege remote direction of the plan by an Indian government official.

India responded to these allegations with a more measured approach compared to its vehement reaction to similar accusations by Canada in the past. However, some US lawmakers questioned the seriousness with which both the Modi government and the Biden administration addressed these allegations, leading to a temporary halt in the informal approval of the sale.

Despite this, observers anticipate that Congress will not obstruct the sale within the 30-day window it has to do so. Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, commented, “The notification gets the sale back on track, but it could still encounter some choppy seas in Congress. The assassination allegations against India continue to cast a shadow over US-India relations.” He added, “Strategic imperatives tend to carry the day in this partnership, and that will likely ensure the sale eventually goes through, but one can’t rule out the possibility of some hiccups during the finalization process.”

Regarding the approval process, Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, stated that the United States was following its “internal processes,” refraining from further elaboration.

The drones in question, Sea Guardians, possess the capability to monitor seas, submarines, and remain airborne for up to 35 hours, equipped to fire Hellfire missiles and carry approximately 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) of bombs.

India’s navy has been operating two Predator drones on lease, utilizing them to monitor the Arabian Sea, safeguarding ships from potential threats posed by Yemen’s Huthi rebels and Somali pirates.

In 2019, India made headlines by conducting airstrikes in Pakistani airspace, marking a departure from past precedents. Additionally, tensions along the Himalayan frontier between India and China, the two most populous nations globally, have been escalating, highlighted by a deadly clash in 2020 that claimed the lives of 20 Indian troops and at least four Chinese soldiers.

Despite concerns expressed by some US lawmakers regarding Modi’s human rights record, US policymakers generally view India as a strategic partner due to shared apprehensions about China.

CIA Chief Warns: China Poses Greater Long-Term Threat Than Russia, Agency Ramps Up Resources

February 1, 2024 Staff ReporterGlobal, Diplomacy, Nation 0

The head of the CIA, William J. Burns, emphasized the escalating concerns regarding China’s threat to the United States, surpassing that of Russia, and the agency’s heightened efforts to counter it. Burns, in an op-ed for Foreign Affairs, underscored the shifting dynamics of global security, stating, “While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat.”

He disclosed that the CIA has significantly increased its allocation of resources towards intelligence gathering, operations, and analysis pertaining to China. Burns noted, “The CIA has committed substantially more resources toward China-related intelligence collection, operations, and analysis around the world — more than doubling the percentage of our overall budget focused on China over just the last two years.”

In response to this strategic pivot, the CIA has prioritized recruiting and training individuals proficient in Mandarin. Burns elucidated that the agency is intensifying its activities globally to rival China, extending from Latin America to Africa and across the Indo-Pacific region.

Burns’ sentiments regarding China echo those expressed by Richard Moore, the head of MI6, the British intelligence agency. Moore highlighted the increasing significance of China on the global stage, affirming, “We now devote more resources to China than any other mission.” He emphasized the critical necessity of comprehending both the intentions and capabilities of the Chinese government.

The apprehension towards Chinese espionage has mounted in the West, evident in various incidents. Last February, the US military intercepted a Chinese surveillance balloon that had penetrated the airspace over the continental US. Subsequently, in June, The Wall Street Journal reported China’s purported plans to establish a spy base in Cuba. The alleged objective of the base would be to intercept signals from military installations in the southeastern US, raising concerns about China’s expanding espionage activities.

Despite the significance of Burns’ assertions, representatives for the CIA did not provide immediate comments in response to inquiries from Business Insider submitted beyond standard business hours.

https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/china-is-a-greater-threat-to-the-us-than-russia-and-thats-why-the-cia-doubled-its-budget-for-it-agency-chief-says/articleshow/107280838.cms

Proposed Revisions to H-1B Visa Program Aim to Address Shortcomings and Boost Foreign Worker Recruitment

January 10, 2024January 10, 2024 Staff ReporterBusiness, Immigration 0

In an effort to streamline the recruitment of foreign workers, the US Economic Innovation Group (EIG) has put forth suggested amendments to the H-1B Visa program.

The current H-1B program has some acknowledged deficiencies, including the annual allocation of 65,000 H-1B visas, with an additional 20,000 reserved for individuals holding a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution. This limitation poses challenges, particularly for engineering graduates from U.S. universities who fail to secure an H-1B visa, leaving them without a straightforward avenue to stay.

Another drawback is the imposition of a cap of 7% of total H-1B visas for any single nation, placing a disadvantage on countries with sizable populations, such as China and India, which are major sources of STEM workers. Additionally, the lottery system governing the transition from an H-1B visa to a permanent residency Green Card leads to extended waiting times for individuals from China and India, largely due to country-specific caps.

Furthermore, H-1B visa holders face a tight window of only 60 days to secure a new position if they lose their job, beyond which they are required to leave the country. Complicating matters, current H-1B visa holders must depart the U.S. to renew their visas, as the domestic renewal program was discontinued in 2004 over security concerns.

To address these challenges, the EIG has proposed a series of changes, including the issuance of 10,000 ‘Chipmakers’ Visas’ annually, featuring an expedited pathway to a Green Card. In this proposed system, 2,500 visas would be auctioned off quarterly to qualifying firms, with immediate transfer of visa ownership to the sponsored worker. This five-year visa would be renewable once, providing firms with the certainty of adequate time to scale up their investments in the U.S. and train domestic workers.

Moreover, the proposed revisions aim to dedicate the fees generated from visa auctions to the training of American workers and the provision of domestic scholarships for students and workers across the semiconductor supply chain. This move is intended to foster a more sustainable and inclusive workforce development approach.

Acknowledging the existing challenges, the U.S. State Department has recently taken a step towards addressing some of the problems by initiating a pilot program. This program allows eligible H-1B holders to renew their visas within the U.S. rather than requiring them to leave the country for the renewal process.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has emphasized the urgency of implementing these changes, warning that without a concerted effort in overseas recruitment, the U.S. is projected to face a shortage of 67,000 employees by 2030. The proposed revisions to the H-1B Visa program aim to strike a balance between meeting the demand for skilled workers and addressing the shortcomings of the current system.

Why Has India Not Condemned Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?

February 23, 2023February 28, 2023 Staff ReporterIndia, World 0

In the year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western democracies have condemned Moscow, slapped wide-ranging sanctions on it, cut back on Russian oil and gas and sent unprecedented amounts of arms and ammunition to help Ukraine defend itself.

But the world’s biggest democracy — India — hasn’t done any of that.

India has solidified ties with Moscow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Vladimir Putin in September and called their countries’ friendship “unbreakable.” He did tell the Russian president it’s “not a time for war.” But a year on, Modi still refuses to assign blame for the violence, and has voiced more concern over the spike in global food and fuel prices triggered by the war.

Meanwhile, as Europe eschews Russian oil and gas, India has doubled down on buying Russian oil at bargain prices — much to Washington’s chagrin. And India continues to place orders for Russian-made weapons.

All this is a reminder that, a year into this war, condemnation of Russia is far from unanimous. Much of the global south actually sees the West’s focus on Ukraine as a distraction from other, more pressing issues like food security, inflation and mounting debt.

Analysts and political scientists cite four main factors shaping India’s policy toward Ukraine and Russia: History, energy, arms and influence.

Factor #1: The India-Russia relationship goes way back

India was still under British colonial rule when Russia opened its first consulate there in 1900, in Mumbai. But relations really took off during the Cold War.

“It started out as strategic sympathy for the Soviet Union, in the backdrop of India getting independence from the British. So it’s an anti-colonial experience, anti-imperialism,” says Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan, a political scientist at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “And as the Cold War picked up, it became a more anti-West, anti-U.S. sentiment they shared.”

The end of the Cold War didn’t change that. Neither has the Ukraine war. India’s nationalist TV news channels often accuse the United States — rather than Russia — of doing more to ruin Ukraine.

In November, Modi’s top diplomat, S. Jaishankar, traveled to Moscow, where he stood alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and called their countries’ relationship “steady and time-tested.”

Modi has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine, without condemning Russia’s attacks. Some of his political opponents say that doesn’t go far enough, and point toward India’s actions rather than its words.

“The actions that India is engaged in so far do not reflect any remorse or even mild criticism of the events in Ukraine,” says Praveen Chakravarty, a political economist affiliated with the opposition Indian National Congress party. “If anything, it seems to aid and abet.”

Factor #2: India wants cheap Russian oil

India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. (The IMF forecasts 6.8% growth for India this year, compared to just 1.6% for the United States.) By 2030, India is forecast to be the third-largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. and China.

It’s already the third-largest oil consumer in the world. And it needs even more to fuel all that growth. But because India has few oil and gas reserves of its own, most of the oil it needs has to be imported. It’s also a relatively poor country, particularly sensitive to price.

That’s where Russia comes in. India still buys more oil from Middle Eastern countries than Russia. But its Russian share has skyrocketed. In December, India imported 1.2 million barrels of Russian crude. That’s a whopping 33 times more than a year earlier. In January, the share of Russian crude rose to 28% of India’s oil imports — up from just 0.2% before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Indian officials have defended those purchases by saying it’s their job to find bargains for their citizens. And Jaishankar, the foreign minister, has suggested it’s hypocritical of wealthier Westerners to ask them not to.

“Europe has managed to reduce its imports [of Russian gas] while doing it in a manner that is comfortable,” Jaishankar told an Austrian TV channel last month. “At 60,000 euros or whatever is your per capita income, you’re so caring about your population. I have a population at 2,000 dollars [per capita annual income]. I also need energy, and I am not in a position to pay high prices for oil.”

Last April, Jaishankar visited the White House for a virtual summit between Modi and President Biden. There, U.S. officials told their Indian counterparts they understand India’s energy needs and were hoping only that India would not “accelerate” Russian oil purchases.

India basically ignored that. But the Biden administration now says it’s actually fine with that.

Earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffery Pyatt said Washington is “comfortable” with India’s approach on Russian oil. And Karen Donfried, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, said the U.S. is not looking at sanctioning India for this.

Here’s one possible explanation for Washington’s change of heart: India is buying Russian crude at deep discounts — something the West can’t do because of sanctions, or doesn’t want to do because of the optics. Then India refines that same Russian oil and exports it onward to the U.S. and Europe. So the West gets Russian oil, without getting its hands dirty.

“U.S. treasury officials have two main goals: keep the market well supplied and deprive Russia of oil revenue,” Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently told Bloomberg. “They are aware that Indian and Chinese refiners can earn bigger margins by buying discounted Russian crude and exporting products at market prices. They’re fine with that.”

Factor #3: Moscow is India’s biggest arms dealer

India’s military has historically been equipped with Russian and Soviet weapons. Most of those contracts date back to the Cold War, a conflict in which India was officially non-aligned but close to Moscow. So most of India’s arsenal was — and still is — Soviet-made.

By now, some those 30-something-year-old weapons are deteriorating. “Let’s just go to the [Indian] Air Force. Most of those Sukhois and MiGs [fighter aircraft] are referred to as ‘flying coffins.’ Very often Indian pilots die when they are testing, or flying, those,” says Aparna Pande, a political scientist at the Hudson Institute in Washington. “So India knows they need to be replaced.”

Indian defence experts may have been the only ones not surprised to see Russian tanks falling apart in Ukraine this past year, Pande says. They’ve been unhappy with Russian equipment for years.

So the Indian government has started replacing some of its Soviet-made aircraft and artillery with French, Israeli and American versions. But it’s a time-consuming and costly task to update India’s entire arsenal, Pande notes.

“Let’s say my entire apartment had only IKEA furniture, and now I decide, ‘OK now I want to change it, and I want West Elm.’ I cannot just replace one chair. I have to change my entire dining table and all the chairs,” Pande explains. “So what India has done [in terms of updating its weapons] is piecemeal. But those big ticket items are still Russian-made. So that’s the change which has to happen, and this is what will reduce the Russian influence.”

Despite the Indian government’s efforts to diversify, Moscow continues to be India’s biggest arms dealer — more than 30 years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia has reportedly supplied India with around $13 billion in weapons in the past five years alone. There’s one big reason India needs all these weapons: China.

Factor #4: India wants to prevent Putin from getting closer to China’s Xi Jinping

India’s biggest foreign policy preoccupation is not Ukraine or Russia. It’s China. The two countries share a more than 2,000-mile disputed border. Satellite imagery shows China may be encroaching on Indian territory. Soldiers clashed there in June 2020, and again this past December.

And as the West isolates Russia, India fears Putin is already looking eastward, toward Beijing. “You’re already seeing a very close Russia-China relationship emerging, even in the last few years,” says the ORF’s Rajagopalan. “So the current Indian approach is, we don’t want Russia to go completely into the Chinese fold. Because for India, China has become the No. 1 national security threat.”

Despite the Ukraine war, that’s true for Washington too. So even if Washington doesn’t like it, Biden administration officials say they understand why India has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and they’re willing to grant India a wide berth.

They may even see India’s continued ties with Putin as useful — to try to mitigate just how far the Ukraine war drives him into Xi Jinping’s arms.

Hillary Clinton During Visit To IIT Gandhinagar, Urges Students To Shut Off Social Media To Have Time For Self-Reflection

February 16, 2023February 19, 2023 Staff ReporterTechnology, Youth 0

Known globally for her humanitarian outlook and advocacy for social justice and women’s rights, former First Lady and Secretary of State of the United States of (US) and philanthropist Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) as a part of her India visit and interacted with faculty, students, and the larger IITGN community. She was joined by senior officials of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

During a town hall at the Institute titled “Insights from Her Journey”, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasised the need to take climate action and adopt sustainable alternate solutions in our day-to-day lives.

Citing an example from her visit to a salt pan farm, where women are using solar-powered pumps, she expressed confidence in India’s ability to meet the alternate energy needs and said, “Alternative clean energy is India’s future, and it would not burden the country, but instead, it can reduce costs and generate more income for the communities. Today India is well-positioned to adopt clean energy to achieve economic growth. But it requires organisation from the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. So, with creative thinking, scientific know-how through institutions like IITGN, bringing down the costs of such alternatives, and decentralising, I really believe that the opportunity for India in being a leader in clean energy is so dramatically available.”

Hillary Clinton during the town hall at IIT Gandhinagar

The former first woman Senator from New York state also underscored the importance of higher education to prepare young people for tomorrow and said, “Education at all levels is the key to the continuing effort for economic and social equality and justice. And higher education is very important to prepare our young generation for future endeavours. It is at the heart of how we continue to provide opportunity, and so it is important to open higher education to as many students as possible with a variety of educational institutions.”

She also encouraged girls and women to develop enough resilience and support each other in dealing with adversity, “Dealing with adversity is a challenge regardless of gender, but as women, we must develop enough resilience and confidence to go through the adversity. It requires constant preparation all through your life. And it cannot happen overnight; it can be built through childhood and young adulthood. So it is important that parents express confidence in their children and provide an impartial upbringing. My parents had given equal opportunity to me and my two brothers and expected us to stand up for ourselves and be responsible. So from a very young age, I was given an opportunity to pursue my interest and develop my own path in life. Women in professional and public life realise that sexism and misogyny are still around, and sadly it has become quite redolent on social media, which has become a new challenge that we have not confronted before. So, it is important that other women support women who are adversely affected.”

Answering a question from one of the students about key lessons and takeaways from the Covid-19 pandemic, Secretary Clinton said, “There are several lessons, but most importantly, 1) We need to have supply chains in our countries and immediate regions so that we are not dependent and are able to provide what we need; 2) We have to do a much better job in communicating public health messages. There is a lot of uncertainty, which is
understandable at the start of such a Global pandemic, but we didn’t really communicate effectively with large portions of our population. India and the United States did a great and quick job in bringing vaccines to the market compared to other countries.

But we have to have global responses to curb it, and every country, especially China, has to be more open and transparent in sharing accurate information in real-time. They cannot continue to guard information the rest of the world needs to know; 3) We need to be smarter about getting enough access to healthcare that people might need if it happens again. Public health infrastructure should not collapse when an emergency hits. The whole world should come together and try to cooperate about how we are going to prepare for whatever comes next.”

Sharing her thoughts on the importance of self-reflection and introspection while being in leadership roles, Secretary Clinton said, “We are living in such a fast-paced world and being overstimulated by information as well as misinformation. So I think it’s especially important to shut off social media and your phone in order to have that time for self-reflection. Do an activity like arts, exercise or just a walk in nature without any other digital distractions, which helps you relax and distress.”

Secretary Clinton also shared a few anecdotes from her college life and motivation to keep going in her professional career in public service. Welcoming the distinguished guest, Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, said, “It is a matter of great honour to host Secretary Hillary Clinton at IIT Gandhinagar today, who has done immense work for various communities around the world. It is this philosophy of improving lives and giving back that has guided the endeavors of IIT Gandhinagar over the years. We believe in adopting a global outlook in our academic and research activities and applying it to address some global as well as regional challenges. Our effort has been to equip our students not only with cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge but also social empathy.”

Earlier to her interactive town hall, which was moderated by Prof Bhaskar Datta, Secretary Hillary Clinton also visited Palaj village and appreciated significant efforts of the Desai Foundation (one of the Commitment Makers being recognized by Clinton Global Initiative) and their initiatives along with their partnership with IITGN’s social outreach programmes, NEEV and NYASA, in impacting rural youth, women, and communities through skilling,
entrepreneurship, and health programs.

Through the grassroots-level training projects, mentoring, and networking opportunities provided by NEEV, youth and women from these areas have been able to earn a sustainable livelihood and support their families. Through health camps organized by NYASA and its team of student volunteers, hundreds of residents of nearby villages are provided free medical check-ups by expert physicians, orthopaedics, gynaecologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists and dentists. The beneficiaries are also provided free medicines, spectacles, and essential information related to health and nutrition.

Prof Harish P M, Dean of General Administration, who also coordinated the entire event at IITGN, said, “Our students and community members were eagerly looking forward to hearing from Secretary Clinton, and we were all delighted that she could take time out of her hectic visit to speak to the students. Both her journey and her words were a source of great inspiration for many of our students. Her words of appreciation for our social outreach programme NEEV and student initiative NYASA along with our partnership with Desai Foundation have given us a great impetus to continue creating a more inclusive environment.”

As a gesture of gratitude for spending time with IITGN students, Secretary Clinton was honored with thoughtful gifts as a memory from IITGN, including “Meghadutam – The Cloud Message”, a book having an English translation of the famous lyrical poem by classical Sanskrit poet and dramatist Kalidasa, by Prof Srinivas Reddy, a Guest Professor at IITGN, and an indo-western jacket made using exquisite Mashru silk with traditional Ajrakh print, specially designed and crafted for the guest by artisans of NEEV-IITGN.

Secretary Clinton was in India to help advance Clinton Global Initiative – CGI’s Commitments to Action that are providing employment opportunities and critical health care services to girls and women, while also providing critical support for climate resilience in the region. These Commitments were made by members of the CGI community at the CGI 2022 Meeting, which resulted in 144 new Commitments to Action addressing climate resilience, global health equity, inclusive economic growth, the global refugee crisis, and other critical global challenges.

The Desai Foundation, an IIT Gandhinagar partner in their work to engage students + teachers in social work in the nearby areas, welcomed Secretary Clinton to Palaj village. Here she saw three of their flagship programmes – Heroes for Humanity, a programme born from the COVID pandemic that employs 500 local village residents and provides them with training to deliver local programming. This programme was a part of CGI’s Commitments to Action at the CGI 2022 Meeting. The second is their flagship Asani Sanitary Napkin and Menstrual Equity Programme. And lastly, the Desai Foundation Health Camp, in collaboration with the IITGNNYASA students, a programme that brings healthcare to rural communities.

‘Pathaan’ First Hindi Film To Make $100 Million Without China Release

February 16, 2023February 19, 2023 Staff ReporterBollywood 0

Continuing its powerhouse run at worldwide turnstiles, Shah Rukh Khan’s espionage actioner ‘Pathaan’ has topped the global box office century mark (that is, in million dollars), getting there in 12 days on Sunday, reports ‘Deadline’.

And now with its earnings going up to $103.6 million through Monday, it is the first Bollywood movie to reach the $100-million milestone without a China release, ‘Deadline’ adds.

The split sits at Rs 526 gross crore ($64.2 million) in India and $39.4 million from overseas markets through Monday. Already, the Siddharth Anand-directed movie is the biggest Bollywood movie ever globally in the original Hindi language.

This is where, according to ‘Deadline’, it gets slightly confusing in terms of the records posted. Aamir Khan-starrers ‘Dangal’ and ‘Secret Superstar’, both Bollywood titles, remain ahead of ‘Pathaan’ worldwide, but that includes more than $100 million each from China, where the movies were dubbed for local audiences.

Similarly, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, which features Salman Khan, who also appears in ‘Pathaan’, is still ahead globally, having had a dubbed China release. There is no word yet on a China window for ‘Pathaan’.

In India, notes ‘Deadline’, where box office earnings are measured in both gross and net figures, ‘Pathaan’ maker Yash Raj Films reports that the film’s Rs 438.5 crore net takings on Monday surpassed the net of the Hindi-dubbed version of the Yash-starrer ‘KGF 2’ (it was originally in the Kannada language).

Next ahead of ‘Pathaan’ on a net basis is S.S. Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali 2’ with a Rs 510-crore ($61.7 million) lifetime collection in Hindi (the film was originally in Telugu). Whichever way you slice it, as ‘Deadline’ puts it, ‘Pathaan’ is having an incredible ride.

Americans’ Views On Major Issues That Affect USA, World

February 16, 2023February 19, 2023 Pew ResearchUSA 0

President Joe Biden is delivering his second State of the Union address tonight. In this special edition newsletter, here’s a look at public opinion on some of the key issues facing the country.

Inflation: Despite signs that inflation may be easing, large shares of Americans remain concerned about prices. Three-quarters of U.S. adults say they are very concerned about the price of food and consumer goods, while six-in-ten express the same degree of concern about gasoline and energy prices and the cost of housing.

Ukraine: More Americans approve than disapprove of the Biden administration’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the share of Americans who say the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine has grown, a shift largely driven by Republicans. In both parties – but especially among Republicans – fewer Americans now see the conflict as a major threat to U.S. interests than did so in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Gun violence: Americans largely supported the gun bill passed by Congress and signed into law last year, but at the time they were not optimistic it would do much to reduce gun violence. The public remained divided on whether there would be fewer mass shootings if it were harder for people to obtain guns legally: 49% said there would be, while 50% said there would be no change or that there would be more mass shootings.

Budget deficit: Reducing the budget deficit is a higher priority for the public than in recent years: 57% of Americans currently see it as a top priority for the president and Congress in the year ahead, compared with 45% a year ago. Although concern has increased in both parties, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to prioritize the issue (71% vs. 44%).

China: Half of Americans say China’s military power is a very serious problem for the U.S., while 57% say the same about the partnership between China and Russia. At least four-in-ten see tensions between China and Taiwan (43%), China’s policies on human rights (42%) and America’s economic competition with China (41%) as very serious problems.

Tech regulation: The public is divided in its views of whether technology companies are having a positive effect on the country or not, with Republicans’ views growing more negative in recent years. And in a survey last spring, 44% of U.S. adults favored greater regulation of tech companies. A large majority also said it is at least somewhat likely that social media sites censor political viewpoints they find objectionable.

Reducing crime and illegal drugs: Since 2021, reducing crime has risen as a priority among members of both parties, but especially among Republicans. Currently, 65% of Republicans and 47% of Democrats say this should be a top priority. And 53% of Americans overall say reducing the availability of illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, should be a top priority.

Investigating the Biden administration: Republicans ushered in their new House majority by promising to pursue investigations into Biden’s presidency and his family. But among the public, Americans are more concerned that Republicans will focus too much on investigating the administration, rather than too little. An overwhelming share of Democrats take this view, while Republicans are more likely to be concerned that the GOP will not focus enough on these investigations.

Immigration: Dealing with immigration is a leading priority for 53% of the public, but there is a large partisan gap: 70% of Republicans rate the issue as a top priority, compared with 37% of Democrats. Monthly encounters between U.S. Border Patrol agents and migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. at the southwestern border have been at near-record levels in recent months.

Police violence: Police brutality is back in the spotlight following the violent beating of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee. In a survey conducted earlier this year, majorities of Americans said police officers were doing an only fair or poor job when it comes to treating racial and ethnic groups equally, using the right amount of force and holding officers accountable for misconduct, with particularly low ratings among Black Americans. In a 2021 survey, 60% of Black Americans said police brutality was an extremely big problem for Black people living in the U.S., with Black adults nearly unanimous (95%) in saying policing practices need to change to ensure fair treatment of Black people.

Climate change: Majorities of Democrats say dealing with climate change and protecting the environment should be top priorities, but these remain among the lowest priorities for Republicans. Despite this deep partisan divide, a survey last May found that most Americans who had experienced extreme weather in the past year – including majorities in both political parties – saw climate change as a factor.

Political compromise: Most Republicans say they want their party’s leaders to take a hard line in their dealings with Biden and the Democrats. Democrats, in contrast, are more likely to say they would support efforts by their leaders to find common ground with Republicans. People in both parties are somewhat more open to compromise than they were last January.

India Surpasses China As The World’s Most Populous Country

February 16, 2023February 23, 2023 Staff ReporterIndia, World 0

India is poised to become the world’s most populous country this year – surpassing China, which has held the distinction since at least 1950, when the United Nations population records begin. The UN expects that India will overtake China in April, though it may have already reached this milestone since the UN estimates are projections.

Here are key facts about India’s population and its projected changes in the coming decades, based on Pew Research Center analyses of data from the UN and other sources.

How we did this

India’s population has grown by more than 1 billion people since 1950, the year the UN population data begins. The exact size of the country’s population is not easily known, given that India has not conducted a census since 2011, but it is estimated to have more than 1.4 billion people – greater than the entire population of Europe (744 million) or the Americas (1.04 billion). China, too, has more than 1.4 billion people, but while China’s population is declining, India’s continues to grow.

Under the UN’s “medium variant” projection, a middle-of-the-road estimate, India’s population will surpass 1.5 billion people by the end of this decade and will continue to slowly increase until 2064, when it will peak at 1.7 billion people. In the UN’s “high variant” scenario – in which the total fertility rate in India is projected to be 0.5 births per woman above that of the medium variant scenario – the country’s population would surpass 2 billion people by 2068. The UN’s “low variant” scenario – in which the total fertility rate is projected to be 0.5 births below that of the medium variant scenario – forecasts that India’s population will decline beginning in 2047 and fall to 1 billion people by 2100.

People under the age of 25 account for more than 40% of India’s population. In fact, there are so many Indians in this age group that roughly one-in-five people globally who are under the age of 25 live in India. Looking at India’s age distribution another way, the country’s median age is 28. By comparison, the median age is 38 in the United States and 39 in China.

The other two most populous countries in the world, China and the U.S., have rapidly aging populations – unlike India. Adults ages 65 and older comprise only 7% of India’s population as of this year, compared with 14% in China and 18% in the U.S., according to the UN. The share of Indians who are 65 and older is likely to remain under 20% until 2063 and will not approach 30% until 2100, under the UN’s medium variant projections.

The fertility rate in India is higher than in China and the U.S., but it has declined rapidly in recent decades. Today, the average Indian woman is expected to have 2.0 children in her lifetime, a fertility rate that is higher than China’s (1.2) or the United States’ (1.6), but much lower than India’s in 1992 (3.4) or 1950 (5.9). Every religious group in the country has seen its fertility rate fall, including the majority Hindu population and the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain minority groups. Among Indian Muslims, for example, the total fertility rate has declined dramatically from 4.4 children per woman in 1992 to 2.4 children in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available from India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Muslims still have the highest fertility rate among India’s major religious groups, but the gaps in childbearing among India’s religious groups are generally much smaller than they used to be.

Fertility rates vary widely by community type and state in India. On average, women in rural areas have 2.1 children in their lifetimes, while women in urban areas have 1.6 children, according to the 2019-21 NFHS. Both numbers are lower than they were 20 years ago, when rural and urban women had an average of 3.7 and 2.7 children, respectively.

Total fertility rates also vary greatly by state in India, from as high as 2.98 in Bihar and 2.91 in Meghalaya to as low as 1.05 in Sikkim and 1.3 in Goa.

Likewise, population growth varies across states. The populations of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh both increased by 25% or more between 2001 and 2011, when the last Indian census was conducted. By comparison, the populations of Goa and Kerala increased by less than 10% during that span, while the population in Nagaland shrank by 0.6%. These differences may be linked to uneven economic opportunities and quality of life.

On average, Indian women in urban areas have their first child 1.5 years later than women in rural areas. Among Indian women ages 25 to 49 who live in urban areas, the median age at first birth is 22.3. Among similarly aged women in rural areas, it is 20.8, according to the 2019 NFHS.

Women with more education and more wealth also generally have children at later ages. The median age at first birth is 24.9 among Indian women with 12 or more years of schooling, compared with 19.9 among women with no schooling. Similarly, the median age at first birth is 23.2 for Indian women in the highest wealth quintile, compared with 20.3 among women in the lowest quintile.

Among India’s major religious groups, the median age of first birth is highest among Jains at 24.9 and lowest among Muslims at 20.8.

India’s artificially wide ratio of baby boys to baby girls – which arose in the 1970s from the use of prenatal diagnostic technology to facilitate sex-selective abortions – is narrowing. From a large imbalance of about 111 boys per 100 girls in India’s 2011 census, the sex ratio at birth appears to have normalized slightly over the last decade. It narrowed to about 109 boys per 100 girls in the 2015-16 NFHS and to 108 boys per 100 girls in the 2019-21 NFHS.

To put this recent decline into perspective, the average annual number of baby girls “missing” in India fell from about 480,000 in 2010 to 410,000 in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center study published in 2022. (Read more about how this “missing” population share is defined and calculated in the “How did we count ‘missing’ girls?” box of the report.) And while India’s major religious groups once varied widely in their sex ratios at birth, today there are indications that these differences are shrinking.

Infant mortality in India has decreased 70% in the past three decades but remains high by regional and international standards. There were 89 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990, a figure that fell to 27 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020. Since 1960, when the UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation began compiling this data, the rate of infant deaths in India has dropped between 0.1% and 0.5% each year.

Still, India’s infant mortality rate is higher than those of neighboring Bangladesh (24 deaths per 1,000 live births), Nepal (24), Bhutan (23) and Sri Lanka (6) – and much higher than those of its closest peers in population size, China (6) and the U.S. (5).

Typically, more people migrate out of India each year than into it, resulting in negative net migration. India lost about 300,000 people due to migration in 2021, according to the UN Population Division. The UN’s medium variant projections suggest India will continue to experience net negative migration through at least 2100.

But India’s net migration has not always been negative. As recently as 2016, India gained an estimated 68,000 people due to migration (likely to be a result of an increase in asylum-seeking Rohingya fleeing Myanmar). India also recorded increases in net migration on several occasions in the second half of the 20th century.

Rep. Ro Khanna Elected Co-Chair Of India Caucus

February 16, 2023February 23, 2023 Staff ReporterUSA 0

Congressman Ro Khanna, 46, a Democrat who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, is the co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, along with his Republican House colleague Mike Waltz (R-Fla) in the 118th Congress.

“The Indian-American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the US-India partnership. I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice,” Khanna told the media.

The India Caucus is a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers that was established in 1993 to bolster New Delhi-Washington relations. Prior to Khanna, Congressman Ami Bera was the first Indian-American to be elected as the co-chair of the Caucus in 2015-2016 during the 115th Congress.

“I’m going to try to make it about not just us India, but also the Indian-American community and highlighting the contributions of that community,” Khanna was quoted to have said.

Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the US, with their population estimated to be around four million. As the profile of the community has grown, so too has its social, economic, and political influence.

There are presently five Indian Americans serving in the Congress, popularly known as the ‘Samosa Caucus’ — Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal, and Shri Thanedar. Khanna’s appointment comes amidst reports that he may be looking at a potential presidential run in 2024.

His recent moves have sparked speculation among Democrats in several key states that the Congressman has his eyes set on a higher office, according to Politico. “If President Biden didn’t seek re-election, his name would have to be on the list of top contenders,” Stacey Walker, founder of the Iowa-based firm Sage Strategies, said.

Khanna — son of immigrant parents from Punjab — is seen as one of the leaders of his party’s progressive wing, and a relative newcomer on the scene who has broad appeal and formidable skills.

On US-India relations, he said last month that the relationship between the two democracies could define the 21st century. Khanna had said in November 2022 that the US needs a strong defense and strategic partnership with India, especially in the face of escalating aggression from China. In September last year, he had introduced a standalone bill in the US House of Representatives seeking a waiver to India against the punitive CAATSA sanctions.

Rep. Ro Khanna will be a co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, he said in an exclusive interview last week. Khanna, a Democrat who has been representing California’s 17th Congressional District since 2017, will co-chair the caucus with Rep. Mike Waltz,.

“When I started on this journey, in my 20s, there was a huge novelty to having someone of Indian origin even enter politics,” he said. “The Indian American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the U.S.-India partnership. … I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice.”

The caucus, which was established in 1993 to strengthen relations between the U.S. and India, was previously chaired by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and former Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. Khanna said he hopes to take the caucus beyond its original goal. The Indian diaspora in the U.S. has its own unique needs, he said, and the position could be an opportunity to bring them to the forefront.

“I’m going to try to make it about not just us India, but also the Indian American community and highlighting the contributions of that community,” he said. “I think being Indian America and being part of the community, knowing so many of the community leaders, knowing the passions and interests of young people, I’ll be able to do that.”

Khanna said that having spent much of his career in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, he has been immersed in Indian American issues for years. The rising tide of Hindu nationalism is on the forefront of the diaspora’s collective consciousness; from professional spheres to college campuses, reports of Islamophobia and casteism abound in South Asian spaces.

Khanna hasn’t shied away from such conversations, and his vocalness has sparked outrage from right-wing Indian Americans. In 2019, 230 Hindu and Indian American entities wrote letter criticizing Khanna for denouncing Hindu nationalism (also known as Hindutva) and for advocating religious equality on the subcontinent.

“It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist & Christians,” Khanna tweeted at the time.

They also criticized Khanna for joining the Congressional Pakistan Caucus and for speaking out against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revoking the state of Kashmir’s autonomy.

“Of course, we have to fulfill the strategic partnership and we have to respect the democratically elected leadership in India,” Khanna told NBC News. “I will work to strengthen that while also upholding these human rights values.”

“These kids of H1B are like the Dreamers,” Khanna said. “You have kids who came here when they were 2 or 3. They don’t have citizenship. … Even though they have grown up their whole life here, they’re in a vulnerable position.”

With both Republican and Democratic representatives serving on the India Caucus, including Khanna’s co-chair Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Khanna is aiming to mobilize bipartisan support for safeguarding young adults who find themselves in this position.

Khanna held a town hall on Saturday, bringing awareness to Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ mental health in the wake of the deadly shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, California. Though the shooters in both cases were Asian men, Khanna said they amplified a mounting fear of simply existing in community spaces once considered safe.

With numerous high-profile acts of violence against Asians in the last few years, community members are feeling more “distant” from America than ever, he said.

“We had so much outreach to our office from constituents…people afraid, concerned, anxious about being Asian American in the United States,” he said. “These shootings, even though the perpetrator was Asian American, I think they triggered for so many in our community a sense of vulnerability.”

Khanna says taking on this greater role in the India Caucus feels like the culmination of generations of work in the public sphere. His grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar spent his life fighting for India’s independence from British rule, even spending a few years in jail for the cause. Vidyalankar became a member of India’s first Parliament after independence in 1947.

Growing up with this knowledge has shaped Khanna’s strong beliefs in equality and religious freedom, he said, something he hopes to bring with him while chairing the caucus. “Because of my grandfather, I was influenced by Gandhi’s thinking, by Nehru’s beautiful speeches about liberal democracy, about pluralism,” he said. “Those are the values I champion. … I’ve spoken out where I think those values are being challenged.”

US Policies Cause World Economy To Slow Down

February 9, 2023February 15, 2023 Staff ReporterOpinion 0

(IPS) – Few policymakers ever claim credit for causing stagnation and recessions. Yet, they do so all the time, justifying their actions by some supposedly higher purpose. Now, that higher purpose is checking inflation as if it is the worst option for people today. Many supposed economists make up tall tales that inflation causes economic contraction which ordinary mortals do not know or understand.

Inflating inflation’s significance
Since early 2022, like many others in the world, Americans have been preoccupied with inflation. But official US data show inflation has been slowing since mid-2022.

Recent trends since mid-2022 are clear. Inflation is no longer accelerating, but slowing. And for most economists, only accelerating inflation gives cause for concern.

Annualized inflation since has only been slightly above the official, but nonetheless arbitrary 2% inflation target of most Western central banks.

At its peak, the brief inflationary surge, in the second quarter of last year, undoubtedly reached the “highest (price) levels since the early 1980s” because of the way it is measured.

After decades of ‘financialization’, the public and politicians unwittingly support moneyed interests who want to minimize inflation to make the most of their financial assets.

War and price
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine began last February, with retaliatory sanctions following suit. Both have disrupted supplies, especially of fuel and food. The inflation spike in the four months after the Russian invasion was mainly due to ‘supply shocks’.

Price increases were triggered by the war and retaliatory sanctions, especially for fuel, food and fertilizer. Although no longer accelerating, prices remain higher than a year before.

To be sure, price pressures had been building up with other supply disruptions. Also, demand has been changing with the new Cold War against China, the Covid-19 pandemic and ‘recovery’, and credit tightening in the last year.

There is little evidence of any more major accelerating factors. There is no ‘wage-price spiral’ as prices have recently been rising more than wages despite government efforts ensuring full employment since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Despite difficulties due to inflation, tens of millions of Americans are better off than before, e.g., with the ten million jobs created in the last two years. Under Biden, wages for poorly paid workers have risen faster than consumer prices.

Higher borrowing costs have also weakened the lot of working people everywhere. Such adverse consequences would be much less likely if the public better understood recent price increases, available policy options and their consequences.

With the notable exception of the Bank of Japan, most other major central banks have been playing ‘catch-up’ with the US Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. To be sure, inflation has already been falling for many reasons, largely unrelated to them.

Making stagnation
But higher borrowing costs have reduced spending, for both consumption and investment. This has hastened economic slowdown worldwide following more than a decade of largely lackluster growth since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Ill-advised earlier policies now limit what governments can do in response. With the Fed sharply raising interest rates over the last year, developing country central banks have been trying, typically in vain, to stem capital outflows to the US and other ‘safe havens’ raising interest rates.

Having opened their capital accounts following foreign advice, developing country central banks always offer higher raise interest rates, hoping more capital will flow in rather than out.

Interestingly, conservative US economists Milton Friedman and Ben Bernanke have shown the Fed has worsened past US downturns by raising interest rates, instead of supporting enterprises in their time of need.

Four decades ago, increased servicing costs triggered government debt crises in Latin America and Africa, condemning them to ‘lost decades’. Policy conditions were then imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for access to emergency loans.

Globalization double-edged
Economic globalization policies at the turn of the century are being significantly reversed, with devastating consequences for developing countries after they opened their economies to foreign trade and investment.

Encouraging foreign portfolio investment has increasingly been at the expense of ‘greenfield’ foreign direct investment enhancing new economic capacities and capabilities.

The new Cold War has arguably involved more economic weapons, e.g., sanctions, than the earlier one. Trump’s and Japanese ‘reshoring’ and ‘friend-shoring’ discriminate among investors, remaking ‘value’ or ‘supply chains’.

Arguably, establishing the World Trade Organization in 1995 was the high water mark for multilateral trade liberalization, setting a ‘one size fits all’ approach for all, regardless of means. More recently, Biden has continued Trump’s reversal of earlier trade liberalization, even at the regional level.

1995 also saw strengthening intellectual property rights internationally, limiting technology transfers and progress. Recent ‘trade conflicts’ increasingly involve access to high technology, e.g., in the case of Huawei, TSMC and Samsung.

With declining direct tax rates almost worldwide, governments face more budget constraints. The last year has seen these diminished fiscal means massively diverted for military spending and strategic ends, cutting resources for development, sustainability, equity and humanitarian ends.

In this context, the new international antagonisms conspire to make this a ‘perfect storm’ of economic stagnation and regression. Hence, those striving for international peace and cooperation may well be our best hope against the ‘new barbarism’. (IPS UN Bureau)

U.S. Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off The Coast Of South Carolina

February 9, 2023February 15, 2023 Staff ReporterWorld 0

The U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, the Pentagon said, while China called the downing an overreaction.

“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Austin said military commanders “had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”

Speaking on Saturday, President Biden told reporters he gave the order on Wednesday. U.S. officials “said to me, ‘Let’s wait ’til the safest place to do it,’ ” he said. “They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden added.

The downing came shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration said it had “paused departures from and arrivals to” three East Coast airports — in Wilmington, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Charleston, S.C. — “to support the Department of Defense in a national security effort.” Flights through these airports resumed shortly after 3 p.m.

China responds with “dissatisfaction and protest”

U.S. and Chinese officials have given conflicting information on the balloon’s purpose. The Chinese government said the balloon is strictly used for meteorological research and accidentally went adrift into U.S. airspace. China’s foreign ministry on Saturday expressed “strong dissatisfaction and protest” over what it called the U.S.’s “use of force to attack a civilian unmanned airship.” It called the shooting down an “obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

The Pentagon has said the balloon was being used for surveillance. Its presence already led Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to postpone a historic trip to Beijing, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries over national security.

U.S. officials earlier this week decided against shooting down the balloon after the Biden administration said it did not pose a national security threat. The Pentagon shared reports on Friday of a second balloon, belonging to China, that could be seen floating over Latin America. Colombia’s Air Force said on Saturday that an object with characteristics of a balloon had traveled through its airspace on Friday.

The balloon traveling through the U.S. quickly became an internet celebrity as meteorologists, storm chasers and others shared sightings on social media as it continued on its path across the U.S. Others criticized the Biden administration for not taking quicker actions to stop it.

Blinken postpones his Beijing trip after a Chinese balloon spotted

“The China balloon flying over the U.S. is a direct assault on our national sovereignty,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted on Friday. “Biden’s refusal to stop it is a dereliction of duty. From flying balloons to open borders, Biden has no regard for our national security and sovereignty.”

After its downing on Saturday, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said it “should have been shot down before it crossed the continental United States, not after. We still don’t know what information was collected and where it was sent,” he said. “This was a dereliction of Biden’s duty, and let’s hope the American people don’t pay a price.”

Austin praised Biden’s decision to shoot down the balloon. The Canadian government assisted in the “tracking and analysis of the balloon,” according to Austin.

“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said in the statement.

On Saturday, people shared sightings of the balloon on social media. Earlier, in South Carolina, the York County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that the balloon was more than 60,000 feet in the air and urged people not to take matters into their own hands. “Don’t try to shoot it!!” the office tweeted. “Your rifle rounds WILL NOT reach it. Be responsible. What goes up will come down, including your bullets.”

New Rules Will Reduce Wait For US Visa

February 9, 2023February 15, 2023 Staff ReporterImmigration 0

US visa applications can be accepted outside India

With many travelers still years behind on getting their US visa appointment, the United States is making every effort to shorten this duration. In its latest initiative to cut the backlog, the US Embassy in India has announced that those planning a trip to the Americas can now apply for a business or tourist visa through the US embassy or consulate of another country.

Most people applying for US visas right now have over 500 days of wait time until their appointment. Citing the example of Thailand, the US embassy in India tweeted, “Do you have upcoming international travel? If so, you may be able to get a visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your destination.

For example, @USEmbassyBKK has opened B1/B2 appointment capacity for Indians who will be in Thailand in the coming months.” Meanwhile, the embassy has also announced that applications to renew US visas can be submitted via file-hosting service Dropbox now, while clarifying that renewal requests would not be accepted via e-mails.

More than 1 lakh visa applications have been processed in the month of January alone this year, which is more than any month since July 2019, the mission noted.

The US embassy and its consulates in India are preparing to receive a fresh record number of visa applications from students, according to a PTI report. US embassy and consulates in India already broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in a single year in 2022, top US State department official Ned Price had earlier informed.

The country is also expecting other visa applications to increase – to around 1.2 million this year – making India the second-largest country for US visa ops after China, as per the PTI report.

The US has announced a series of initiatives to cut the backlog in visa appointments. The US Embassy in India today announced that some visa applicants will now be able to seek appointments in other countries.

The move is aimed at reducing the backlog, with the waiting period for a US visa as high as 800 days at some centers in India.

The US embassy today said that Indians applying for a business or tourist visa will be able to apply for an appointment at embassies or consulates outside India.
“Do you have upcoming international travel? If so, you may be able to get a visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your destination. For example, @USEmbassyBKK has opened B1/B2 appointment capacity for Indians who will be in Thailand in the coming months. (sic),” the US embassy India tweeted.
The embassy cited Thailand as an example, saying that the country has the capacity for B1 and B2 visas.
The US has also announced a series of other initiatives to cut the backlog in visa appointments, including increasing the strength of consular staff and organising special interviews for first-time applicants.
During the Covid pandemic, a lot of the staff at the US embassies had been let go as the number of applications was low during that period. India was one of the very few countries where applications for US visas saw a major upswing after coronavirus-related travel restrictions were lifted.
The US has announced that it will hire more staff by summer this year.
People looking to renew their US visa can submit their application through a dropbox. Since their biometrics are already with the US government, they will not be asked to appear in person for another biometric evaluation.
The US embassy and consulates are expecting to receive a record number of visas from Indian students this year and hence are working on a multi-pronged approach to cut backlog, according to John Ballard, the consular chief at the US Consulate General in Mumbai.
The US embassy in Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad have also started conducting “special Saturday interview days” to aid first-time applicants.
The US mission in India released more than 2,50,000 additional B1/B2 appointments two weeks ago.

India’s Population Will Be Larger Than China’s In 2023

July 13, 2022 Staff ReporterLifestyle 0

India is set to become the world’s most populous country next year, overtaking China with its 1.4bn people, according to UN figures. On World Population Day, the United Nations has released a report projecting India to surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year. It further stated that the world population is forecast to reach eight billion by mid-November 2022.

By this November, the planet will be home to 8 Billion people. That overall population milestone “is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, without citing specifics.

“This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates,” he added.

But population growth is not as rapid as it used to be. It is now at its slowest rate since 1950 and is set to peak, says the UN, around the 2080s at about 10.4bn though some demographers believe that could happen even sooner.

Currently, with 4.7 billion Asia is the most populous continent and has 61 per cent of the global population,17 per cent reside in Africa (1.3 billion), 10 per cent in Europe (750 million), 8 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean (650 million), and the remaining 5 per cent in Northern America (370 million) and Oceania (43 million).

According to World Population Prospects 2019, China with a 1.44 billion population and India with 1.39 billion are the two most populous countries in the world, representing 19 and 18 per cent of the world’s population, respectively. However, by around 2023, India’s population will overtake China to become the most populous country with China’s population projected to decrease by 31.4 million, or around 2.2 per cent, between 2019 and 2050.But the population of the world is expanding unevenly.

More than half the growth we will see in the next 30 years will happen in just eight countries – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.

At the same time, some of the world’s most developed economies are already seeing population decline as fertility rates fall below 2.1 children per woman, which is known as the “replacement rate”. In 61 countries, the report says, populations will decline by at least 1% by 2050.

With one of the lowest fertility rates in the world (at 1.15 children per woman), China has announced that its population is due to start declining next year – much earlier than previously thought. That is despite the country abandoning its one child policy in 2016 and introducing incentives for couples to have two or more children.

As India’s population continues to grow it will almost certainly overtake China as the country with the biggest population in the world.

Fertility rates are falling globally – even in many of the countries where the population is expanding. That is because, as previous generations expand, there are more people having children, even if individually those people are having fewer children than their parents did.

Growth is also largely thanks to developments in medicine and science which mean that more children are surviving into adulthood and more adults into old age. That pattern is likely to continue, which means that by 2050 the global average life expectancy will be around 77.2 years.

But this pattern means that the share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10% this year to 16% in 2050. Again the distribution will be unequal with some countries, in East Asia and Western Europe, already seeing more extremes in ageing.

UN Urges World Leaders to Declare ‘Climate Emergency’ at Virtual Climate Summit

December 16, 2020January 8, 2021 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Nation, World 0

Global climate leaders took a major stride towards a resilient, net zero emissions future today, presenting ambitious new commitments, urgent actions and concrete plans to confront the climate crisis.

World leaders should declare a “climate emergency” in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks at a climate summit on Saturday.

On the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 70 world leaders are due to address the one-day virtual meeting in the hope of galvanizing countries into stricter actions on global warming emissions.

Guterres said that current commitments across the globe did not go “far from enough” to limit temperature rises. “Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?” Guterres said. “That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.”

The summit showed clearly that climate change is at the top of the global agenda despite our shared challenges of Covid-19, and that there is mutual understanding that the science is clear.

Climate destruction is accelerating, and there remains much more to do as a global community to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

However, the summit showed beyond doubt that climate action and ambition are on the rise. The announcements at or just before the summit, together with those expected early next year, mean that countries representing around 65 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and around 70 per cent of the world’s economy, will have committed to reaching net zero emissions or carbon neutrality by early next year.

These commitments must now be backed up with concrete plans and actions, starting now, to achieve these goals, and the summit delivered a surge in progress on this front.

The number of countries coming forward with strengthened national climate plans (NDCs) grew significantly today, with commitments covering 71 countries (all EU member states are included in the new EU NDC) on display. As well as the EU NDC, a further 27 of these new and enhanced NDCs were announced at or shortly before the summit.

A growing number of countries (15) shifted gears from incremental to major increases. Countries committing to much stronger NDCs at the Summit, included Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, Iceland, and Peru.

The leadership and strengthened NDCs delivered at the summit mean “we are now on track” to have more than 50 NDCs officially submitted by the end of 2020, boosting momentum and forging a pathway forward for others to follow in the months ahead.

Saturday’s announcements, together with recent commitments, send the world into 2021 and the road to the Glasgow COP26 with much greater momentum. The summit showcased leading examples of enhanced NDCs that can help encourage other countries to follow suit – particularly G20 countries.

Following this Summit, 24 countries have now announced new commitments, strategies or plans to reach net zero or carbon neutrality. Recent commitments from China, Japan, South Korea, the EU and niw Argentina have established a clear benchmark for other G20 countries.

Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Today we have seen what can be achieved if nations pull together and demonstrate real leadership and ambition in the fight to save our planet.

“The UK has led the way with a commitment to cut emissions by at least 68 per cent by 2030 and to end support for the fossil fuel sector overseas as soon as possible, and it’s fantastic to see new pledges from around the world that put us on the path to success ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.

“There is no doubt that we are coming to the end of a dark and difficult year, but scientific innovation has proved to be our salvation as the vaccine is rolled out. We must use that same ingenuity and spirit of collective endeavour to tackle the climate crisis, create the jobs of the future and build back better.”

China and India vowed to advance their commitment to lower carbon pollution at the summit. President Xi Jinping was one of the first leaders to address the virtual conference and he said China will boost its installed capacity of wind and solar power to more than 1,200 gigawatts over the next decade. Xi also said China will increase its share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25% during the same period. And “China always honors its commitments,” Xi promised.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was ramping up its use of clean energy sources and was on target to achieve the emissions norms set under the 2015 Paris agreement. India, the second-most populous nation on Earth and the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is eyeing 450 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2030, Modi said.

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