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Showing posts from March, 2023

India's success export story of Sugar.

 Building export market takes effort. Overseas buyers need to be convinced about the price competitiveness, product quality, and the reliability of supplies from the exporting country. March 31, 2023, India's sugar export can cross5.5 billion i.e. which is about 45,000 crore. For this sugar season(October 2022 to September 2023), the According to data of 2021  government has issued a quota of 61 lakh tonnes of sugar exports. Out of this, about 55 lakh tonnes have been already exported and the remaining quantity will also be exported soon.  Types of Grades of sugar Raw Sugar: it is what mills produce after the first crystallization of juice obtained from crushing the cane. This sugar is rough and brownish in color, with a ICUMSA (International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis) value of 600-1200 of higher, ICUMSA is the measure of the purity of sugar based on color. The lower the value, the more the whiteness. Much of the world's sugar trade is in 'raw' a

Russian Government's decision to put nuclear weapons in Belarus.

 On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans on Saturday to station nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, sending a warning to NATO over its support to Ukraine and escalating stand off with West. While, Putin said the move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation promises, it is one of Russia's pronounced nuclear signals since the start of the war. He also added that this move was triggered by Britain's decisions this past week to provide Ukraine   with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. In addition, Russia is presenting the deployment not just as a decision made by both countries,, but as a response to long-standing requests by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. This is Russia's tried-and-tested way of showing respect for its ally, previously cited when dispatching Russian troops to Belarus for training exercises both last February- ahead of the invasion - and in October. Tactical nuclear weapons are intended  for use on the ba

Why did Honduras break its relations with Taiwan.

 On Sunday Honduras break its 82 year old relations with Taiwan. The relations of both the nations goes back to 1941 when Republic of China's government, which remains Taiwan's official name, was still in  China before it fled to the island in 1949 after losing the civil war with Mao Zedong communists.  What is the reason behind this? Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a news conference Sunday that Taiwan had ended its relations with Honduras to "safeguard its sovereignty and dignity". Wu said that Honduras President Xiomara  Castro and her team always had a "fantasy" about China and had raised the issue of switching ties before the presidential election in Honduras in 2021. Relations between Taiwan and Honduras were once stable, he said, but China had not stopped luring Honduras. "The foreign minister and embassy grasped the relevant information and handled it carefully. However, the Castro government also asked us for billions of dollars in huge

What does increase in China's defense budget indicates.

 On March 5, China announced a 7.2% increase in its defense budget for the coming year, up slightly from last year 7.1% rate of increase. This is the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage point increase. The 2023 figure was given as 1.55 trillion Yuan($224 billion), which roughly doubles from 2013. In his report, Premier Li Keqiang said that over the past year, "We remained committed to the party's absolute leadership over the people's armed forces". "The people's armed forces intensified efforts to enhance their political loyalty, to strengthen themselves through reform, scientific and technological advances, and personnel training, and to practice law-based governance", Li said. As China is aiming to achieve the centenary goals of basically realize the modernization of national defense and the armed forces by 2035 and fully build the armed   forces into world-class forces by the mid-21st century on the 100th anniversary of the founding of

What does rate hike by Us Federal reserve indicates and what investors should do now?

  When the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday. This indicates that the U.S. central bank will prioritize the fight against inflation over the turmoil in the banking sector. This actions of the Federal Reserve will likely drive the decisions of central banks around the world, as they seek to strike a delicate balance among growth, inflation and currency volatility.  This decisions comes after it is nearly two weeks of turmoil in the finance industry. This is ninth consecutive increase in one year since the central bank began the current rate-raising cycle to combat rising prices. Over the last 12-months, inflation spiked to a 40-year high. After that, the Bank of England also raised interest rates by a quarter of percentage point, it is their eleventh consecutive increase since December 2021. What does it indicates? "The bank problems are probably making a lot of people think twice", said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an economics professor at G

ICC's arrest warrant for Putin and the case of United States.

 On March 17, the International Criminal Court(ICC) issued "warrants of arrest warrant of two individuals : Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova- Bevola". Maria is the commissioner for Children's Right in the office of the President of the Russian Federation. What is the ICC? ICC is as the International Criminal Court and its headquarters is in Hague, Netherlands, is an independent judicial body that   Countries who are the signatory of the Rome Statute began functioning on July 1, 2002, when its founding and governing document, the Rome  Statute, came into force. It was established to prosecute the most heinous offences where a country's own legal machinery failed to act- like in Rwanda and erstwhile Yugoslavia. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes and the crime of agression.  Why have the warrants been

Can Donald Trump be arrested?

 What are the charges against Trump? Trump currently faces four investigations that come with potential charges :- Interfering with transfer of power and his role during the January 6 attack on the Capitol Hill , the mishandling of classified documents found at the Florida home, interfering with the 2020 elections results in Georgia and a 2016 hush money payment to film   star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair. This incident of the hush money payment is in news as recently, Trump has been invited to a Manhattan grand jury. This move is being seen as a sign that Trump could soon face criminal charges related to allegations that he paid hush money to Stephaine Clifford, the film star also known as Stormy Daniels who claimed to have had an affair with him in 2006. Such an action, if occur would be extraordinary. This would make Trump the first former president in U.S. history to be indicated. Trump's team, including his then lawyer Michael Cohen, reportedly paid Daniels $1

Protests in Israel and its impacts

 What are the changes that are going to happen? In short, the proposed judicial overhaul will severely limit Israeli Supreme Court's ability to review and strike down that it deems unconstitutional.  There are four main clause :- 1. Allowing the Knesset  to override Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority of 61 out 120 seats, as right now the court can block any law it deems unconstitutional. 2. Removing the Supreme Court's ability to judge Knesset legislation and other government decisions for "reasonability", this principle was exercised in Court's recent decision to rule one of Netanyahu's ministerial appointment as "highly unreasonable" because of past criminal convictions. 3. Giving the most control over appointment judges to the ruling coalition, rather than to a current set of committee of legal experts and representatives. 4. Allowing ministers to appoint their legal advisors, and taking away authority of the latter to make binding de

Sri Lanka's IMF bailout.

  On Monday, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said that the executive board of the International monetary fund has approved a $2.9 billion bailout which will give access to $7 billion funding as Sri Lanka recovers from its worst economic crisis in its  received assurances to restore debt sustainability from the Country's biggest bilateral donors which are China, India and Japan. Sri Lanka will get the first $330 million tranche in the next two days. As last year Economic mismanagement coupled with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic left Sri Lanka severely short of dollars for essential imports at the beginning of last year. while this package is hardly sufficient to tide over Sri Lanka's crisis , it will help the  country restore its credibility with international private creditors. On Wednesday Wickremesinghe said that "This sets the stage for Sri Lanka to have better fiscal discipline and improved  government This $3 billion is expected to catalyz

Why there are massive protests in France?

 This all started in 2019 when French president proposed a law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 as France's retirement age is among the lowest in Europe. Overhauling pensions has long been a controversial issue in France, with street protests halting reform  efforts in 1995, and the successive government's facing stiff resistance to changes that got eventually passed in 2004,2008 and 2010. however, union say it threatens hard-fought worker rights As France has an ageing population and growing life expectancy where everyone receives a state pension while the Macron government said, the reform is the only way to keep the system solvent. The Pension Reform The law stated that the minimum retirement age to be entitle to a full pension will be gradually increased by three month every year, starting from this year. Also starting from 2027, people will need to have worked for at least 43 years to get a full pension. However, there will be exception to this rule, for Police of

What is the Saudi-Iran deal brokered by China?

  In this blog we are going to discuss the deal from the perspective of all three countries: From Iran's Perspective The Iran-Saudi Arabia deal that was announced last Friday was a deal which brokered by China to restore relative between the two countries. this deal on restoring ties was a good news for the Iranian government, which has faced a daunting array of challenges in early 2023 and before as well for its human rights record, controversial nuclear program and support Russia's war in Ukraine. So, it was seen a diplomatic victory for Tehran both the countries has been involved in a proxy war in Yemen and Syria. In Yemen , Iran has armed and  aided the Houthis, while the Saudi military launched an air war in 2015 to prevent a complete rebels. Now Iran has agreed to stop arming the Houthis, although it was not including in the joint statement by Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi visited China in February 2023, during the talks with Chinese lead

Why Credit Suisse shares are falling?

On March 15, credit Suisse shed a quarter of its value after its largest shareholder said it could not provide any more support. Saudi national Bank(SNB) who is the largest shareholder which hold about 9.9% credit Swiss, said it would not buy any more shares. According to the statement of SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudairy "we cannot because we would go above 10 per cent. Its a regulatory issue". After that the shares of credit Swiss dropped by as much as 30%, which leads to a fall of 7% in the European banking index. The stick has pummelled earlier in the week due to the collapse of US tech lender silicon valley Bank. The analysts of France said that the credit Suisse want a bailout by the Swiss National Bank and financial regulator FINMA, possibly one or more other banks. The analysts also said that the Saudi National Bank could do a U-turn.. Last year the Saudi National Bank has increased it stake in credit Suisse and committed to invest up to $1.5 dollars. On Tuesday the ban

Why there is no US ambassador to India for more than 2 years?

 Why the decision to appoint the new ambassador got delayed? During the presidency of Donald Trump, Kenneth Juster , who is a businessman who had served in Senior State and Commerce Department positions during the George H.W. Bush and George Bush. But resigned as per tradition when Trump's term ended. When Joe Biden took office it took him nearly six months to nominate a replacement, who is Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. His nomination is yet to be approved by the senate. His nomination was initially blocked by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley over allegations of inappropriate behaviour by one of his Senior Staffer. Through the hold on the nomination has been lifted, the Democrats are unwilling to put his nomination to vote on the senate floor as they believe they do not have enough votes. Nor it is clear that the White House is pushing very hard among Democrats who are troubled by reports that Garcetti mishandled sexual harassment complaints against a top aide. While Garcetti

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and its impact.

  Why did the Silicon Valley Bank collapse? The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)  which is best known for its financial services and solutions to the technology and innovation sector. It was founded in 1988 in Santa Clara, California. It provides a wide range of financial services, which includes commercial bank, investment bank and private banking. It offers venture capital financing, asset management, foreign exchange and treasury management. Throughout the years it had established itself as a leading bank for investment in the technology and innovation sector which is known for its high risk. Despite its success , SVB has faced its share of challenges over the years, which includes the impact of economic slowdown and changing market conditions. Also the stocks in the technology sector is facing downturn over the past few years and the hiking of interest rates by the US federal reserve to combat inflation. The reason of the collapse is that as the venture capital firms were drying up of cas