Arvind's Newsletter

1. Indrajit Gupta, co-founder of Founding Fuel and formerly founding editor of Forbes Magazine, is one of India’s most discerning business journalists. I have known him from his early years in Business Standard and later Business World and seen him mentor and nurture many fine journalists. I recommend you read his latest piece, “Building leaders for and in India, “ where he poses an interesting question -What do we in India need more of? Leaders that dominate global business institutions or those who can nurture local institutions with a make-in-India mindset?

2.The world's largest air-conditioner manufacturer, Daikin Industries, aims to triple the exports of its "Made in India" products by 2025. In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), the company's chief executive Masanori Togawa said they would soon start manufacturing products like heat pumps in India, that are exported abroad. Daikin will begin a new plant in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, manufacturing air conditioners and compressors. Currently, it exports "Made in India" products to 30 countries. It is expected to reach 100 by 2025.

3.Why are Sikhs abroad more pro-Khalistan than community members living in India? Only a minority of Sikhs settled overseas support the demand for an independent Sikh homeland – but it’s a vocal minority.

4.Saudi Aramco, the oil behemoth, is deepening push into China, with investments in refining sector. Aramco has a $161 billion profit from last year, and it looks like the firm is set on a Chinese spending spree. The oil titan inked a deal over the weekend that’ll see it co-invest in a new $12 billion refining and petrochemical plant in Liaoning province. And the very next day, Aramco upped its multi-billion dollar investment in the country – investing $3.6 billion for a 10% stake in one of China's biggest oil-refining firms. Aramco is investing into China's refining sector to bolster its crude oil sales to the country. These two recent deals will see the firm shipping nearly 700,000 barrels of oil each day to some of the very refineries it’s investing in.

Western sanctions have pushed Russia to offer its oil elsewhere at discount prices – and just last month Russia nabbed first place as China's top supplier. That’s put Saudi Arabia – normally China’s go-to oil producer – on red alert, suggesting that this rivalry might be about to start heating up.

5.Since the end of World War II, the International Monetary Fund and the United States have been the world’s lenders of last resort, each wielding broad influence over the global economy. Now a new heavyweight has emerged in providing emergency loans to debt-ridden countries: China.

New data shows that China is providing ever more emergency loans to countries, including Turkey, Argentina and Sri Lanka. China has been helping countries that have either geopolitical significance, like a strategic location, or lots of natural resources. Many of them have been borrowing heavily from Beijing for years to pay for infrastructure or other projects.

While China is not yet equal to the I.M.F., it is catching up fast, providing $240 billion of emergency financing in recent years. China gave $40.5 billion in such loans to distressed countries in 2021, according to a new study by American and European experts who drew on statistics from AidData, a research institute at William & Mary, a university in Williamsburg, Va. China provided $10 billion in 2014 and none in 2010.

By comparison, the I.M.F. lent $68.6 billion to countries in financial distress in 2021 — a pace that has stayed fairly steady in recent years except for a jump in 2020, at the start of the pandemic.