Arvind's Newsletter

1.India Plans $125 Billion Push to Boost High-Speed Road Network: Bloomberg

India is planning a fivefold expansion of its high-speed road network over the next decade, with an investment of Rs 11 lakh crore ($125 billion), Bloomberg reported sources as saying. The plan adds 17,000 km of access-controlled expressways, allowing speeds of up to 120 kmph to cut logistics costs and boost connectivity.

India’s push aims to reduce logistics costs from 13% to 14% of the gross domestic product to about 8%, in line with global standards.

Approximately 40% of the network is already under construction, with completion targeted for 2030, and the remaining 60% is expected to be completed by 2033. To fund the push, projects with high returns will follow the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, while others use the Hybrid Annuity Model.

Despite tepid private interest in roads, investors such as Brookfield, Blackstone, Macquarie, CPPIB, and Adani are making significant investments in Indian infrastructure. Deloitte estimates the country could draw hundreds of billions in fresh investment.

2.India's SpiceJet posts quarterly loss as India-Pakistan conflict impacts air travel: Economic Times

SpiceJet faced a setback in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. The budget carrier announced a consolidated net loss of Rs. 234 crore. This contrasts with a net profit of Rs. 158 crore in the same period last year. Revenue from operations also declined significantly. It fell by 36 percent year-on-year, reaching Rs 1,060 crore.

SpiceJet also said a delay in returning its grounded aircraft to service added to its woes. As of March-end, it had only 25 operational aircraft, fewer than half of its 61-jet fleet.

The limited scale has allowed Akasa, one of India's youngest airlines, to overtake SpiceJet as the country's No. 3 carrier by market share, with 5.5% versus SpiceJet's 2% in the world's third-largest aviation market.

3.Germany wants to offer more jobs, study visas to Indians amid US, UK curbs: Business Standard

At a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart, the German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said that Berlin wants to invite more skilled Indian labour and students. Already, there are 60,000 Indian students in the country, making them the largest group. Germany is also investing in language learning centres in India, as language is one of the main barriers to Indians opting for the country.

Germany has an acute shortage of labour—companies reported 1.4 million unfilled positions in healthcare, IT, education, construction and public transport.

Germany’s pro-immigrant stance comes at a time when the US and UK, two favourite destinations of Indian students, are shutting their doors to foreigners. The UK warned students against overstaying their visas; previously, the US deported several pro-Palestinian international students. The US has also made its visa approval process much stricter starting this year.

4.India explores easier rules to bolster Chinese investments: Mint

India is exploring whether a company with a small shareholding from a China-based or connected entity can be considered ‘Chinese’ firm, said three people aware of the matter, as New Delhi prepares to ease curbs on investments from its neighbouring nation to counter US tariffs.

Under the Press Note 3 (PN3) notification of 2020, investments from countries sharing land borders with India require New Delhi’s approval. The increased scrutiny was largely targeted at China to curb opportunistic takeovers and acquisitions of Indian companies.

The commerce ministry has begun discussions with stakeholders to determine whether firms with even a small percentage of Chinese shareholding should be considered as a Chinese company," the people quoted earlier told Mint, speaking on the condition of anonymity. This, in turn, will help determine whether such firms should be allowed to invest without being placed under the restrictions for the purpose of investment approvals, they said.

India’s softer stance on Chinese investment signals a pragmatic shift aimed at securing new economic opportunities as external pressures mount.

5.The rise of co-living in India: Bain, Sattva launch $100 mn co-living platform; Colive raises $20 mn: Business Standard

Sattva Group-backed Colive, the Bengaluru-based co-living operator, has announced a strategic partnership with Bain Capital and the Group to launch a pan-India co-living real estate platform with an initial investment of $100 million to fuel operations.

On the back of the partnership, the platform will focus on acquiring land, developing flagship communities, and delivering purpose-built rental housing across India’s major urban centres, catering to the rising demand from young professionals and students for high-quality, community-driven living spaces.

As more young people move to cities to study and work, they need housing. Enter: co-living spaces. These are shared living environments, where a professional company manages your daily chores, housekeeping and even cooking for you.

⁠A recent report from Colliers India a real estate consultancy, estimates that the co-living market in India was worth Rs. 4,000 crore in May 2025. And that it will grow by 5 times by 2030, and will be worth 20,600 crore rupees.

6.The US is withdrawing much of its military support from Eastern Europe, a move apparently intended to force European countries to pay more for defense in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The White House praised Europe for “stepping up” militarily, and said the move was to further encourage it to take “ more responsibility for own defense.”

Europe has boosted military spending in the face of Russian aggression and US isolationism, and at a summit the French president said 26 European countries “are ready” to participate in a postwar peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. But European Union officials told The Washington Post that the US withdrawal would signal weakness to Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that any foreign troops sent to Ukraine would be treated as legitimate targets by Russia’s military, a day after European leaders met in Paris to discuss possible future security guarantees for Ukraine.  

7.The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That’s Made the U.S. Less Secure: Time

According to a groundbreaking new working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation, had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945 through 1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is an amount equal to nearly 12 percent of GDP—enough to more than double median income—enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year.

Price and Edwards calculate that the cumulative tab for our four-decade-long experiment in radical inequality had grown to over $47 trillion from 1975 through 2018. At a recent pace of about $2.5 trillion a year, that number we estimate crossed the $50 trillion mark by early 2020.

8.Autonomous trucks are now driving on US highways at night. 

The first commercial robot-truck delivery on public roads, a cargo of frozen pastries, was carried between Dallas and Houston, Texas, in April, after months of safety testing. Until recently they only drove in daylight.

Aurora Innovation, the startup behind the trucks, said Wednesday it had begun testing night driving — with LIDAR technology that can detect a pedestrian in the dark from 360 yards — between Phoenix and Fort Worth with a human safety driver.

The journey takes 16 hours and would require two drivers if human-operated. Robot vehicles are expected to be safer than human drivers: Waymo’s data suggests they are involved in 88% fewer crashes.

9.Artificial sugar alternatives, such as sweeteners, may make your brain age faster, study finds: Euro News

People who consume the highest amounts of sweeteners commonly found in low-calorie drinks and desserts experience cognitive decline 62 per cent faster than those who consume the lowest amounts, researchers have found.

Artificial sugar substitutes, such as aspartame and saccharin, commonly found in low-calorie sodas and desserts, may carry long-term effects on the brain, a new study has found. 

10.Is Today’s Self-Help Teaching Everyone to Be a Jerk? New York Times

“There’s a certain flavor of advice that is dominating the self-help best-seller list. These books have titles like “The Courage to Be Disliked” and “Set Boundaries, Find Peace.” They tell readers not to worry so much about letting people down, not to answer those calls from aggravating friends, not to be afraid of being the villain.

This all becomes more alarming when you think of the best-seller list as a mirror of the social moment, which some historians say it may be.”

Really, the prevailing advice of 2025 seems to be this: It’s OK to be a little bit of a jerk.

“The Courage to Be Disliked” has sold more than 10 million copies. “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” has been on the New York Times best-seller list for more than 300 weeks since it came out in 2016. In September comes the much-anticipated “Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves — and How to Find Our Way Back.”

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