Arvind's Newsletter

1.Trump tariffs on India explained: Timeline, structure, impact, exemptions, and more— here are 8 key things to know: Mint

United States President Donald Trump has announced a 25 per cent additional tariff on India, effectively bringing the total tariff to 50 per cent. The move is likely to “severely” impact domestic export sectors such as leather, chemicals, footwear, gems and jewellery, textiles and shrimp, PTI reported, citing industry experts.

The sectors expected to bear the brunt include textiles or clothing, gems and jewellery, shrimp, leather and footwear, chemicals, and electrical and mechanical machinery.

• For example, the Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI) said that exports of organic chemicals to the US will attract an additional 54% duty.

• Other big hit sectors, which will attract high duties, include carpets (52.9%),

• Apparel, knitted (63.9%), apparel — woven (60.3%),

• Textiles, made-ups (59%),

• Diamonds, gold and products (52.1%),

• Machinery and mechanical appliances (51.3%), and

• Furniture, bedding, mattresses (52.3%).

As per trade industry think tank GTRI, the 50 per cent tariffs will not be applicable on the exempted categories such as:

• Finished pharmaceutical drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and other key drug inputs;

• Energy products such as crude oil, refined fuels, natural gas, coal, and electricity;

• Critical minerals; and

• A wide range of electronics and semiconductors, including computers, tablets, smartphones, solid-state drives, flat panel displays, and integrated circuits.

2.Non-life insurers post muted 2.7% premium growth in July: Business Standard

Non-life insurers reported a muted 2.76 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in premiums in July, owing to a decline in premiums reported by private multi-line general insurers. Growth has moderated compared to the 12.15 per cent Y-o-Y increase seen during the same period in FY25, due to a change in accounting norms and tepid growth in the motor insurance segment.

Data from the General Insurance Council show that the non-life insurance industry’s total premiums stood at Rs 29,729.8 crore. General insurers reported a marginal 0.32 per cent Y-o-Y drop in premiums to Rs 24,480 crore, while standalone health insurers posted a modest 10 per cent Y-o-Y rise in premiums to Rs 3,622 crore. 

3.India presses for global 'code of conduct' over pilot poaching: Reuters

India wants countries to agree a new code of conduct on hiring each other's airline staff after raising concerns that its fast-growing aviation system is being stifled by the poaching of Indian pilots and cabin crew without adequate notice.

India, one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, is wrestling with a shortage of experienced pilots, denting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aspiration of developing a job-creating global aviation hub. The recent fatal crash of an Air India jetliner has sparked tighter scrutiny of the sector.

But foreign airlines are repeatedly hiring skilled staff from Indian airlines, "adversely impacting India’s ability to develop its civil aviation sector in an orderly manner," India said in an August 1 working paper submitted to the U.N.'s aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization.

4.India is modestly improving economic ties with China — even as New Delhi moves to counter Beijing in other arenas: SCMP and others

India’s prime minister will visit China this month for the first time since 2018, to attend a multilateral summit. New Delhi also signaled it could ease investment restrictions on Chinese firms.

US President Donald Trump’s recent economic onslaught against India — once seen as Washington’s strategic bulwark against China — has likely accelerated these geopolitical shifts, analysts said.

But New Delhi’s outreach to Beijing is not driven by “strategic fraility,” Foreign Policy wrote: This week, India held its first joint naval exercises with the Philippines in the South China Sea in a clear challenge to Beijing’s maritime claims.

5,Google commits $1 billion for AI training at US universities: Reuters

Alphabet's Google announced a three-year, $1 billion commitment to provide artificial intelligence training and tools to U.S. higher education institutions and nonprofits.

More than 100 universities have signed on to the initiative so far, including some of the nation's largest public university systems such as Texas A&M and the University of North Carolina.

Participating schools may receive cash funding and resources, such as cloud computing credits towards AI training for students as well as research on AI-related topics.The billion-dollar figure also includes the value of paid AI tools, such as an advanced version of the Gemini chatbot, which Google will give to college students for free.

Google also announced that it’s launching a new tool called Guided Learning within Gemini. The tool sort of functions like an AI tutor, as it’s designed to help users build a deep understanding instead of just getting answers.

The launch follows just over a week after OpenAI rolled out Study Mode for ChatGPT, which is also designed to go beyond simply obtaining answers to questions by actually helping users develop critical thinking skills.

6.Meanwhile,OpenAI Announces Massive US Government Partnership: ARS TECHNICA

OpenAI announced an agreement to supply more than 2 million workers for the US federal executive branch access to ChatGPT and related tools at practically no cost: just $1 per agency for one year.

The deal was announced just one day after the US General Services Administration (GSA) signed a blanket deal to allow OpenAI and rivals like Google and Anthropic to supply tools to federal workers.

The workers will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise, a type of account that includes access to frontier models and cutting-edge features with relatively high token limits, alongside a more robust commitment to data privacy than general consumers of ChatGPT get. ChatGPT Enterprise has been trialed over the past several months at several corporations and other types of large organizations.

The workers will also have unlimited access to advanced features like Deep Research and Advanced Voice Mode for a 60-day period. After the one-year trial period, the agencies are under no obligation to renew.

7.Iranian Water Crisis: DW

Iran closed government offices in over half of its 31 provinces, including Tehran. The decision—the second of its kind in weeks—comes as authorities work to manage a dual water and electricity crisis. 

The country has experienced regular power shortages since December due to its aging power grid, among other factors. Iran is also in its fifth consecutive year of drought. Rainfall is down 40% from the long-term average—the lowest levels in 60 years. Eighty percent of the country’s reservoirs are nearly empty. Exacerbating the issue is Iran’s water-intensive agriculture for crops like rice, accounting for 90% of the country’s water use. Meanwhile, a heat wave has sent temperatures above 122 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country.  

Water pressure has been reduced by almost half in 80% of Tehran’s households, with faucets regularly running dry on the third floor and up. Authorities are encouraging people to leave Tehran to reduce strain and warn that Day Zero—when taps run entirely dry—could come within weeks.

8.Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered the worst coral bleaching on record: BBC

Both the northern and southern branches of the reef have been battered lately by tropical storms and the encroachment of invasive coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, but heat stress driven by heating oceans is the primary cause, scientists told the BBC. 

Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems in the ocean, holding an estimated 25% of all marine species. They become stressed at high temperatures and expel the symbiotic algae which give coral its iridescent colours: Bleached coral can recover, but if temperatures remain high for long periods or if it faces too many bleaching events in quick succession, it will die.

9.Eli Lilly obesity pill disappoints in trial, sending shares down 14%: Financial Times

Eli Lilly’s potential obesity pill helped patients lose less weight than investors had hoped during a trial, sending shares in the drugmaker down more than 14 per cent in early trading. 

The pharmaceutical group said on Thursday that patients taking orforglipron lost an average of 12.4 per cent of their body weight, at the lower end of the market’s expectations for the closely watched medicine. Trial participants taking a placebo lost 0.9 per cent. 

A pill is expected to offer less dramatic weight loss than injectables, where Lilly’s Zepbound currently offers the most weight loss at an average of 23 per cent.

Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital markets, said investors had been hoping for a minimum weight loss of about 13.7 per cent of body weight. 

Novo Nordisk’s oral weight loss drug, which has been submitted for approval in the US, helped trial participants lose about 15 per cent of their body weight. Shares in Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s main rival in the obesity market, jumped as much as 14 per cent. 

10.This Is Not Keanu: Inside the Billion-Dollar Celebrity Impersonation Bitcoin Scam: Hollywood Reporter

Victims think they’re talking to Keanu Reeves. Or Kevin Costner. Then come the pleas for cash. The brazen AI-fueled con that fleeces lovestruck fans and has Hollywood finally fighting back.

Online scams take many forms, but the ones weaponizing celebrity fandom are getting intense notice in Hollywood right now. With scammers aided by such rapidly evolving tools as AI, cryptocurrencies and messaging apps that make it easy to disseminate fakes and operate undetected, stars and talent agencies find themselves in an escalating game of Whac-A-Mole, hiring companies to scan the web for fakes and getting those accounts shut down. Some 400 performers, including Scarlett Johansson, Common and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, have signed on to support legislation making its way through Congress called the No Fakes Act, which seeks to create protections for artists’ voices, likenesses and images from unauthorized AI-generated deep fakes.

“Celebrities just have so many images out there,” says Nick Berta, a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s economic crimes unit. “The ease with which scammers can use their tools to manipulate voice and audio and video, it’s very difficult for [public figures] to protect themselves.”