Arvind's Newsletter

1.EU eyes deeper India alliance despite concern over Moscow ties: Reuters

The European Commission set out plans on Wednesday to deepen cooperation with India in fields such as defence, technology and trade, despite tensions over New Delhi's close ties to Moscow.

The European Union and India are in the final stages of negotiating a free trade agreement, which they aim to conclude by the end of the year.

Negotiations, relaunched in 2022, have gained pace since the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Faced with Trump's tariffs, both sides have accelerated efforts to foster new alliances.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that the EU and Indonesia have concluded talks on a trade deal and plan to sign it next week as they accelerate efforts to reduce their dependence on China and the US.

2.India leans on domestic strengths to withstand global shocks: S&P Global in Mint

India’s vast domestic market is providing a crucial cushion against global turbulence, allowing the country to retain its position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, according to a new study by ratings agency S&P Global.

The report, India Forward: Shifting Horizons, projects the economy will expand 6.5% in 2025-26, even as shifting trade policies and volatile financial markets weigh on global growth.

S&P notes that while external shocks have tested India in the past, they have not derailed its long-term trajectory.

“A favourable monsoon season, low crude oil prices and reduced interest rates will support Indian growth; however, downside risks are on the horizon. The direct and indirect impacts of tariffs alongside declining growth in trade destinations will test India’s economic resilience,” the report said.

3.India Bulk Drug Makers Start Preparing for Ozempic Patent Expiry: Bloomberg

Indian firms that make active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, are gearing up to supply the basic ingredient that goes in making copies of Novo Nordisk A/S’s weight-loss drugs that are losing patent protection next year in several large markets.

From local giants Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. to suppliers like Macleods Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Indian firms are preparing to make bulk drugs for manufacturing generic versions of semaglutide, that Novo sells as Wegovy and Ozempic.

Bulk drugs — also known as APIs — are the building blocks in making finished formulations of a medicine that are used by patients.

Drugmakers in India — the world’s largest supplier of non-patented medicines — aim to tap what could be a $94 billion global opportunity by 2035 as patent on Novo’s blockbuster therapies start expiring in 2026 in multiple countries including Brazil, Canada, India and China.

Dr Reddy’s has invested in a 550-kilogram (1,212.5 pounds) peptide production facility, Nomura analysts led by Saion Mukherjee wrote in a July 15 report.

4.Rolls-Royce opens its largest global capability centre in Bengaluru: Economic Times

Rolls-Royce, a British automobile and power systems company specialising in engines for the aerospace and defence sectors, launched its largest global capability and innovation centre (GCC) in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Bengaluru is ranked among the world’s top three aerospace cities for attracting foreign investments, and the state hosts companies with strengths across the entire aerospace and defence value chain. In power systems and propulsion, leaders like Aequs and Collins Aerospace stand out, Wipro and Mahindra Aerospace are driving progress in structural and mechanical components, while Boeing, Airbus, and Pixxel are pioneers in specialised technologies. And in end-to-end manufacturing, Sarla and Tata Advanced Systems are making significant contributions.

5.Adani-led Sri Lanka container terminal to double capacity ahead of deadline: Reuters

India's Adani Group and its partners are set to double the capacity of a $840 million container terminal in Colombo months ahead of schedule, despite relinquishing $553 million in U.S. funding, an executive at partner firm John Keells Holding, told Reuters.

The deepwater Colombo West International Terminal, located next to a facility run by China Merchants Port Holdings underscores Sri Lanka's geopolitical significance in the tug-of-war for Indian Ocean influence between New Delhi and Beijing.

Adani opened the first phase of the fully automated terminal in April, making it operational. The second and final phase is underway and expected to be completed by late 2026, three to four months ahead of the February 2027 deadline, said Zafir Hashim, head of transportation at John Keells.

6.The looming crackdown on AI companionship: MIT Technology Review

As long as there has been AI, there have been people sounding alarms about what it might do to us: rogue superintelligence, mass unemployment, or environmental ruin. But another threat entirely—that of kids forming unhealthy bonds with AI—is pulling AI safety out of the academic fringe and into regulators’ crosshairs.

This has been bubbling for a while. Two high-profile lawsuits filed in the last year, against Character.AI and OpenAI, allege that their models contributed to the suicides of two teenagers. A study published in July, found that 72% of teenagers have used AI for companionship. And stories about “AI psychosis” have highlighted how endless conversations with chatbots can lead people down delusional spirals.

It’s hard to overstate the impact of these stories. To the public, they are proof that AI is not merely imperfect, but harmful. If you doubted that this outrage would be taken seriously by regulators and companies, three things happened this week that might change your mind.

7.OpenAI announced a version of ChatGPT for teens, as tech companies face growing pressure to protect minors who use chatbots.

OpenAI on Tuesday announced it will launch a dedicated ChatGPT experience with parental controls for users under 18 years old as the artificial intelligence company works to enhance safety protections for teenagers.

When OpenAI identifies that a user is a minor, they will automatically be directed to an age-appropriate ChatGPT experience that blocks graphic and sexual content and can involve law enforcement in rare cases of acute distress, the company said.

OpenAI is also developing a technology to better predict a user’s age, but ChatGPT will default to the under-18 experience if there is uncertainty or incomplete information.

8.Nearly 12% of US adults, including one in five women between 50 and 64, have taken GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy. 

A further 14% of the Americans said they were interested in taking them , a survey for the RAND Corporation found. It puts the weight loss drugs among the most widely used medications in the US.

However, another study in Denmark found that half of adults without diabetes discontinued using semaglutide within a year, likely because they are expensive or the side effects are unpleasant. “This level of drop off is concerning because these medications aren’t meant to be a temporary fix” a researcher said, as many patients gained back the weight they lost.

9.Getting an MBA in the US has gotten a little more expensive and a little less profitable, according to a Bloomberg analysis of salary and tuition data.

This year’s update of Bloomberg’s Business School ROI Calculator, based on surveys of more than 9,500 students and alumni, projects a typical return on investment of 12.3% a year for the decade after graduation. That’s down from 13.3% last year.

The S&P 500 index, by comparison, returned 14.6% over the decade ending Aug. 31.

10.Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89: New York Times

“Robert Redford, the big-screen charmer turned Oscar-winning director whose hit movies often helped America make sense of itself and who, offscreen, evangelized for environmental causes and fostered the Sundance-centered independent film movement, died early Tuesday morning at his home in Utah. He was 89.

With a distaste for Hollywood’s dumb-it-down approach to moviemaking, Mr. Redford typically demanded that his films carry cultural weight, in many cases making serious topics like grief (familial, societal) and political corruption resonate with audiences, in no small part because of his immense star power. Unlike other stars of his caliber, he took risks by exploring dark and challenging material; while some people might only have seen him as a sun-kissed matinee god, his filmography — like his personal life — contained currents of tragedy and sadness.

As an actor, his biggest films included “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), with its loving look at rogues in a dying Old West, and “All the President’s Men” (1976), about the journalistic pursuit of President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate era. (Mr. Redford played Bob Woodward and used his clout in Hollywood to bring the book of the same name, by Mr. Woodward and Carl Bernstein, to the screen.) In “Three Days of the Condor” (1975) Mr. Redford was an introverted C.I.A. analyst caught in a murderous cat-and-mouse game. “The Sting” (1973), about Depression-era grifters, gave Mr. Redford his first and only Oscar nomination as an actor.

Although he was a subtle performer with a definite magnetism, his body of work as a romantic leading man owed a great deal to the commanding actresses who were paired with him — Jane Fonda in “Barefoot in the Park” (1967), Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were” (1973), Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa” (1985).

He branched into directing in his 40s and won an Academy Award for his first effort, “Ordinary People” (1980), about an upper-middle-class family’s disintegration after a son’s death — a story that reflected the repressed grief and emotional silence in his own family after the death of his mother when he was a teenager. “Ordinary People” won three other Oscars, including for best picture.

Perhaps Mr. Redford’s greatest cultural impact was as a make-it-up-as-he-went independent film impresario. In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating fresh cinematic voices. He took over a struggling film festival in Utah in 1984 and renamed it after the institute a few years later. (He had been a local since 1961, having spent some of his early earnings as an actor on two acres of land in Provo Canyon. He often said he liked Utah because it gave him a sense of peace and was the antithesis of Hollywood superficiality.)

The directors Quentin Tarantino, James Wan, Darren Aronofsky, Nicole Holofcener, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Robert Rodriguez, Chloé Zhao and Ava DuVernay were nurtured by Sundance early in their careers. Sundance also grew into one of the world’s top showcases for documentaries, in particular those focused on progressive topics like reproductive rights, L.G.B.T.Q. issues and climate change. Read on Gift article.