Arvind's Newsletter

1. Most of you would have got a download on the key highlights of India’s Budget by now but for those who came late here are some of key points as documented in the Mint.

A sharp jump in capital spending, income tax relief to the middle class and efforts at financial discipline marked India's last full budget before the general election next year. Here is the budget in 10 points as per Mint.

2. India and US launch ambitious tech and defence initiatives: the effort designed to counter China in the Indo-Pacific and wean New Delhi off its reliance on Russia for weapons.
   
   The initiative on critical and emerging technologies, or iCET, and will, among other things, promote joint production of defence equipment — including military jet engines, long-range artillery and armoured infantry vehicles.
   
   Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, met with his counterpart Ajit Doval at the White House on Tuesday to launch the initiative, which he said would serve both countries’ deeper strategic interests. The two aides are spearheading the initiative.

3. Russia’s resilience: Western sanctions have cut off Russia’s economy from a variety of products. Even so, Russian trade appears to have largely bounced back to where it was before the invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
   

   Recent data show surges in trade in neighbouring countries, suggesting that Turkey, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and others are providing new lifelines that are keeping the Russian economy afloat.
   
   Analysts estimate that Russia’s imports may have already recovered to prewar levels, or will soon do so. The International Monetary Fund said it now expected the Russian economy to grow 0.3 percent this year, a sharp improvement from its previous estimate of a 2.3 percent contraction.
   

   Iran and Russia moved toward linking their banking systems, a step that would help both countries withstand sanctions.

4. A biotechnology startup that promises to resurrect woolly mammoths is now the first “de-extinction unicorn,” with a valuation said to be over a $1 billion. Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based startup, is making public a new round of investment this week that will help fund its effort to bring back perhaps the most famously extinct animal of them all: The dodo.

5. Big Oil posted record profits but have profits peaked ?: Despite a slowdown in the fourth quarter, Exxon and Chevron’s combined earnings shattered the previous high by almost 30%, the Financial Times reported. European energy heavyweights Shell, BP, and Total also report earnings this week, and the five are expected to post combined annual profits of $190 bn, according to Refinitiv. Oil earnings have been buoyed by the war in Ukraine, which constrained supply and sent oil prices soaring; they have since fallen to pre-war levels. U.S. President Joe Biden accused oil majors of “war profiteering” and the European Union placed a $1.3 billion windfall tax on Exxon.