Arvind's Newsletter

1.India-UK FTA signed: Whisky, EVs, cosmetics and jewellery to get cheaper — Here’s what each side gets: Economic Times

India and the UK have finalized a free trade agreement, enhancing economic ties and aiming for $120 billion in trade by 2030. The deal eliminates tariffs on 99% of Indian exports, benefiting key sectors and promoting a strategic partnership across various domains including technology and defense.

India’s newly signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom is set to give a substantial push to Indian exports by offering zero-duty access to a wide range of products, from engineering goods and chemicals to food processing, pharmaceuticals, and software services.

In return, Indian consumers will see lower prices on UK imports like Scotch whisky, electric vehicles, chocolates and cosmetics.

The FTA, signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK, is expected to increase annual bilateral trade by $34 billion. It includes tariff cuts, improved mobility for professionals, and market access guarantees that together mark one of India’s most comprehensive trade pacts.

The Financial Times reported that, “The UK did not yield on critical issues such as broader visa access or post-study work rights, but India did secure some movement for professionals — including 1,800 visas for yoga instructors and artists.

More controversially, the UK will allow Indian employers and employees on short-term transfers to avoid paying national insurance contributions in the UK. “

2.PayPal to launch cross-border platform with link to India's UPI payments system: Reuters

Payments firm PayPal has partnered with the operator of India’s popular unified payments interface and others to launch a global platform through which consumers can make cross-border payments to businesses.

The platform, PayPal World, will enable interoperability between local payment platforms and PayPal, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The integration of UPI on PayPal World’s platform will mark a significant step in expanding UPI’s global footprint," said Ritesh Shukla, managing director and CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited.

PayPal's platform is expected to go live later this year. The firm intends to add more partners going forward.

3.India to resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens: Economic Times and others

India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens tomorrow for the first time in five years, as Asia’s two billion-strong powerhouses look to thaw a frosty relationship.

The visas were prohibited amid a flurry of bilateral bans and restrictions that took hold after a military clash in 2020 over their long disputed Himalayan border. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have plans to meet in October.

However, all is not well in the relationship. In April 2025, China restricted exports of rare earth metals and magnets, which had a domino effect on several Indian industries. China has since also cut down on fertilizer exports, a move that’s massively impacted Indian agriculture too.

4.The new private jet pecking order- in oligarchic aviation China fallen below India: The Economist

Life for Asia’s super-rich has its ups and downs. One industry, more than any other, provides a bird’s-eye view on their fortunes: the mind-boggling market for private jets. In recent years the number of posh private aircraft registered in China has dropped like a stone, in part because the Communist Party has taken umbrage against lavish displays of wealth. These days it is India’s rising rich who are snapping up sleek personal planes.

Private jet-makers have long gambled that Asia will deliver an outsize chunk of future growth. By one estimate, the value of private-jet sales in the continent will swell 7% a year to 2030. That compares with 4% annual growth worldwide and a mere 1% in America (already home to two-thirds of the world’s private-jet fleet).

For years it was Chinese demand that made brokers in the region rich. Chinese tycoons took to the skies in droves during the go-go years of the 2000s and 2010s. Their country still has more private jets than any of its neighbours, yet the lead has been dwindling. Between 2021 and 2024 the size of China’s fleet shrunk by a whopping one-quarter, to 249 jets, according to Asian Sky Group (ASG), a business-jet broker and consultancy.

Zero-covid rules preventing travel may have encouraged some of the jet junking. More important: Chinese magnates lost money to a property crash and to crackdowns by a ruling party that thinks entrepreneurs are too big for their boots. The number of dollar billionaires in China peaked at about 1,185 in 2021 (37% of the global total). Since then, the number has fallen by one-third.

Hop across the Himalayas, however, and one finds a very different mood. Between 2020 and 2024 the number of private jets registered in India jumped by nearly a quarter to 168. The number of monthly private flights tripled to more than 2,400, higher than anywhere else on the continent). In the year to March 2025, four of the ten most popular private-jet routes in Asia were domestic Indian ones, connecting Mumbai to Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune (a mere four-hour drive away). None of the busiest routes began or ended at a Chinese airport.

The good times in India started in 2021, says Vinod Singel, who back then was selling planes for Bombardier, a Canadian aircraft-maker. “That’s when I saw the real boom.” Private-jet firms once treated India as an afterthought. Now they organise polo matches to woo customers. Read on. Gift article.

5.Prada Scandal Proves the Power of India’s Troll Army: Karishma Vasvani in Bloomberg

Retailing for as little as $10, India’s beloved Kolhapuri sandals are a staple in wardrobes across the sub-continent. So when luxury brand Prada SpA debuted a new type of footwear at Milan Fashion Week that bore a stark resemblance to them, it didn’t take long for the fury to build online.

The saga underscores how much power the South Asian giant’s digital tribe holds, where online outrage regularly influences public debate — especially when citizens perceive their heritage is under attack. International firms eyeing one of the world’s fastest-growing markets should weigh the risks of these cultural missteps.

The Italian fashion house’s troubles began when it introduced its menswear collection in June. The sandals, described as “leather footwear,” displayed an open-toe braided pattern that was strikingly similar to Kolhapuri sandals made in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

But Prada didn’t credit India for the designs, prompting a brutal social media backlash. The nationalistic sentiment whipped up by this controversy boosted sales of the traditional sandals. The country’s online community is renowned for its digital ferocity — it accused the brand of cultural appropriation, and the furor forced the fashion house into damage control mode. It issued a statement saying it recognized the sandals were inspired by traditional Indian footwear.

The luxury brand’s experience is a reminder that in India, foreign firms have to be aware of how reputational risk could affect future revenue. Internet penetration is rising, with 55% of the population connected. Social media is growing fast, too: It’s estimated the world’s most populous nation is home to 462 million social media users.

India is a rising global power, one international brands are keen to break into. Success in the market lies in the ability to balance local authenticity and global appeal — and the willingness to “learn to love and speak to India,” as Francois Grouiller, chief executive officer of the luxury consultancy IndLux recently noted.

6. Donald Trump has unveiled his AI Action Plan: Bloomberg and others

President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s AI policy yesterday. The 23-page framework outlines actions the government will pursue across dozens of federal agencies to promote its AI goals and outpace China on development .

The policy broadly seeks to accelerate AI innovation in the US. That includes loosening environmental regulations to speed up the construction of data centers. The government will also invest in training efforts for high-demand positions like electricians and HVAC technicians. In all, there are over 90 federal policy actions the government aims to take within one year.

Trump signed three executive orders yesterday to kick-start the policy effort—one on fast-tracking permits for data centers, one to promote exporting AI tools to friendly nations, and one restricting federal contracts to AI chatbots the administration deems to be free of ideological bias.

7. Is AI killing Google search? It might be doing the opposite: Asa Fitch in Wall Street Journal

“AI upstarts were supposed to lay siege to Google’s search-engine dominance. So far, the defense is winning.

Google’s ubiquitous search tool has proven surprisingly resilient to competition from the likes of OpenAI, which is hoping people will skip the search box and ask its chatbot for answers instead.

One of Google’s lines of defense has been its “AI Overview" tool, whereby users can see answers generated by its Gemini AI model hovering above their traditional search results. Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said Wednesday that this tool now has over 2 billion monthly users, up from 1.5 billion users in its last quarterly update. Google is also rolling out an “AI Mode" that competes more directly with chatbots.

“We see AI powering an expansion in how people are searching for and accessing information," Pichai said in a call with analysts, adding that AI features “cause users to search more as they learn that Search can meet more of their needs."

Independent analyses suggest Google’s AI search strategy is indeed having an impact. Search impressions—the number of advertiser links that show up in searches, even if they aren’t clicked—grew by 49% in the year since the overviews were launched, according to a May report from BrightEdge, a search-engine-optimization firm.

Those trends bode well for a search advertising business that accounts for more than half of Alphabet’s overall revenue. This was reflected in Alphabet’s recent financial results.

Alphabet raised its estimate for 2025 capital expenditures to $85 billion, from its initial estimate of $75 billion, amid what CEO Sundar Pichai called “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.”

Pichai revealed the higher capex estimate as the Google parent reported second quarter earnings. Revenue grew 14% year-over-year, a slight acceleration from 12% reported in the first quarter, reflecting stronger growth in Search and Cloud revenues.

Search revenue grew 11.7% year-over-year, up from 9.8% the previous quarter, and Cloud revenue grew 31.6%, up from 28% the previous quarter. Cloud’s profit margin also rose meaningfully, to 20.7%, compared with 11% a year earlier although it has been rising steadily through the past year.

8.How to Think Like a Spy: Andrew Bustamante in Big Think

A former CIA officer shares what it really takes to serve in the world’s most secretive intelligence agency, including how spies are trained to be invisible, adapt, and operate in moral gray zones. Watch the video below.

9.Scientists bust myth that 10,000 steps are required for good health: Financial Times

The 10,000 steps a day walking target that originated as a 1960s marketing slogan and has become received wisdom is unscientific, according to new research suggesting thousands fewer could still yield big health rewards.

Scientists found the widely used goal was not necessarily the gold standard, as all-cause mortality fell by almost half for a 7,000-step walker compared with someone who completed just 2,000. The 10,000 number, dreamt up by Japanese company Yamasa to sell pedometers around the time of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, has become a popular physical activity aspiration as smartphone step counters have proliferated.

“The pedometer brand definitely marketed well,” said Ding Ding, lead author of the study published in The Lancet Public Health on Wednesday. “I think it has great public health benefits — 10,000 is a nice round number, so it is suitable for goal setting — despite not being evidence-based.”

The researchers analysed data from more than 160,000 adults to look at how risks of serious health problems varied with the numbers of steps taken daily. The work, drawing on dozens of previous studies, is a landmark look at the impact of movement targets including the celebrated 10,000 goal on a wide range of conditions.

Overall mortality for people walking 7,000 steps was 47 per cent lower than for those who walked only 2,000. Risks for those who did 7,000 steps fell for health problems including death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as incidence of type 2 diabetes and dementia.

The gains from moving even more were less pronounced, with the death rate 48 per cent lower for those who notched 10,000 steps compared with 2,000.  

Ding pointed out that 10,000 steps was still associated with better outcomes than 7,000 for some health conditions, such as a 14 per cent further reduction in the risk of depressive symptoms.

10.How a YouTube channel captured the spirit of rogue music discovery: Pitchfork

Music Place has gained a cult following from sharing obscure gems.