US brings up irregular immigration, India says always open to return

Newly-Appointed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the issue of "irregular immigration" in his very first meeting with External Affairs Minister in Washington DC. Rubio "emphasised the Trump administration's desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration", State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a readout after the meeting. 

The Trump administration moves on deportations, among the first affected could be the 20,407 "undocumented" Indians, as of November 2024, who are either facing "final removal orders" or are, currently, in detention centres of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Of these, 17,940 "paperless" Indians are not in detention but are under "final removal orders," and an-other 2,467 are in detention under ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Submit status update of Dhanauri wetland notification near Jewar airport: NGT to UP

The Principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Uttar Pradesh government to place on record in four weeks the status of notifying the Dhanauri water body near Jewar airport as a wet-land. It also sought to know why the state's forest department had sought three months for this when it had already decided to declare the site as a wetland. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, including judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Afroz Ahmad, was hearing a petition filed by birdwatcher Anand Arya who sought notification of Dhanauri wetland as a Ramsar site and a bird sanctuary. Under the international Ramsar Convention treaty of 1971 signed in Iran, wetlands that meet a certain criterion on ecological and biodiversity grounds are chosen for special conservation measures. Such wetlands with higher ecological value are identified and the Centre declares them as Ramsar sites.

Quad message to China: Oppose any action to alter status quo

Us Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first multilateral meeting as Foreign Ministers of the Quad grouping gathered in Washington DC and pledged to "strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion". This resolve was directed at China and its assertive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region, from Taiwan to the Sino-Indian border.

DRDO conducts key scramjet test in major step towards developing hypersonic missile

Amid the global race to develop hypersonic munitions, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently demonstrated a cutting-edge "active cooled scramjet combustor ground test" for 120 seconds for the first time in India. The successful ground test marks a crucial mile-stone in developing next-generation hypersonic missiles, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. Hypersonic missiles are a class of advanced weaponry that travel at speeds greater than "Mach 5', or more than five times the speed of sound. These advanced weapons have the potential to beat existing Air Defence Systems of major military powers across the world and deliver rapid and high-impact strikes. Several nations including the US, Russia, India and China are actively pursuing hypersonic technology and have demonstrated various levels of development.

WALLS OF AMERICA

Shutting the door on those seeking to enter the US and holding the spectre of ejection over those already living there, these measures include ending birthright citizenship-automatic citizenship of children born in the US to non-citizens-and suspending the Refugee Admissions programme. Part of a mix of new priorities and old ones a wall on the Mexican border harks back to his first term-Trump's reversal of the broader US policy on immigration spells disaster for millions. They include people fleeing economic deprivation and military conflict, the "huddled masses" invoked in poet Emma Lazarus's sonnet, whose American Dream of freedom and opportunity stands imperiled with a few strokes of a pen.

Doing business with Trump

The biggest challenge for the Trump administration will be to contain the continuously expanding trade deficit. It is also important to note that among the top four contributors to the US trade deficit, each one accounts for more than $150 billion, with China's share being double of this at $318 billion. On decoding the US trade deficit further, one finds that India's trade surplus varies across product categories. For instance, imports of primary goods from the US stand at $13 billion, while exports are at less than a billion. The pattern is completely opposite in the case of consumption goods where India's imports stand at $2 billion while exports are at $27 billion.

Inter-ministerial huddle on possible trade policy changes by Washington

The commerce and Industry Ministry has begun inter-ministerial talks to better prepare for likely changes in US trade policy that could involve tariffs on Indian goods exports to the US under the new Donald Trump administration, a government. This comes a day after Trump instructed his commerce and treasury departments to investigate the causes of America's "large and persistent" annual trade deficits in goods and announced a new "External Revenue Service (ERS)' to collect tariffs from foreign governments. "We are engaging in internal ministerial discussions to sensitise ministries and are studying the ('America first trade policy') memorandum and will take a call on what should be the course of action.

India's oil demand likely to hit yet another record in 2025-26

India's Consumption of refined petroleum fuels and products is projected to hit yet another fresh high in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) on the back of steady growth in energy use in various sectors of the economy. According to latest projections by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry, consumption of petroleum products-seen as a proxy for crude oil demand-is seen rising 4.7 per cent over the revised estimate for FY25 to 252.93 million tonnes. The consumption growth is expected to be led by fuels and products like petrol, aviation tur-bine fuel (ATF), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), diesel, and petroleum coke.

Why Neutral Expert's decision on IWT is a win for India

The IWT was signed by India and Pakistan on September 19, 1960 to determine the distribution of the waters of the Indus and its tributaries. It was signed in Karachi by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistan President Ayub Khan after nine years of negotiations arranged by the World Bank.

Pakistan objects to the design features of two hydroelectric projects currently under construction in J&K - the Kishenganga HEP on Kishenganga, a tributary of the Jhelum, and the Ratle HEP on the Chenab. Although they are "run-of-the-river" projects, which generate electricity without obstructing the natural flow of the river, Pakistan has repeatedly alleged that these violate the IWT. In 2015, Pakistan requested the appointment of a Neutral Expert to examine its technical objections to the projects. However, it unilaterally retracted this request a year later, and instead proposed adjudication by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

French fries, grown in India

As consumption of the crispy straight-cut deep-fried potatoes grew, so did imports crossing 5,000 tonnes annually by the mid-2000s and peaking at 7,863 tonnes in 2010-11 (April-March). But in 2023-24, not only had imports practically ceased, India exported 135,877 tonnes of french fries valued at Rs 1,478.73 crore. During April-October 2024, exports were 106,506 tonnes, worth Rs 1,056.92 crore. This turnaround from an importer to an exporter has been due to domestic entrepreneurs who harnessed the potential of processing potato varieties suitable for the product and cultivating them in India. India's potato production, at around 60 million tonnes (mt), is next only to China's 95 mt. Much of that is, however, normal potatoes used for cooking and home consumption.

Israel says will maintain control of Gaza-Egypt crossing in Rafah

Israel Said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the cease-fire with Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office denied reports that Palestinian Authority would control the crossing. It said local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas who had been vetted by Israeli security would merely stamp passports at the crossing. It noted that, under international agreements, this stamp "is the only way Gazans may leave the Strip in order to enter, or be received in other countries.