Daily Briefing | India-US trade talks today: can they seal the deal?

Fresh fire: On Tuesday, Trump threatened more tariffs against India, citing concerns over “dumping” of rice. However, experts in the industry have said that India’s rice exports comply with the World Trade Organisation rules and established bilateral guidelines. It’s unlikely that tariffs on rice would hurt, as rice exports to the US — which includes only premium, expensive varieties — make a small share of India’s overall rice exports. Harish Damodaran counters ‘dumping’ claims.

Meanwhile, a pending US Supreme Court verdict on the legality of Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs has added another layer of uncertainty to the trade deal.

On that note, let’s get to the rest of the edition👇

⚡Only in Express

Cleared in 2005, the Subansiri Lower hydel project on the Arunachal Pradesh–Assam border has spent years mired in local protests and court battles. The first four of its eight units are finally slated to go online this month. But the project now faces a staggering 300% cost escalation, pushing NHPC Ltd to scout for fresh funding. The Indian Express found that NHPC had proposed to use assets located on forest land as collateral to raise funds, but was turned down by the Environment Ministry. Read Jay Mazoomdaar’s report.

📰 From the Front Page

Turbulence: The government has asked IndiGo to cut down its flight operations by 10%, double of what the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had ordered in view of the airline’s country-wide flight disruptions in the past week. This means that IndiGo will have to cut its over 2,300 daily flights to less than 1,950. Sources suggest that the freed-up slots could go to other airlines.

Troubling: Three local cricketers allegedly assaulted the U-19 head coach of the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP), S Venkataraman, on Monday after they were left out of the team for the ongoing national T20 tournament. This came a day before The Indian Express published its investigation into the rigged selection system in Puducherry that passed off outstation players as “locals”. Responding to the report, the BCCI said it will “look into the matter soon”.

👉 In case you missed it, read the investigation here.

Truce: After weeks of visible tensions between the allies, the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Sena have decided to fight the upcoming municipal corporation polls, including the high-stakes BMC polls, together. Party insiders said that Shinde had instructed his MLAs to follow the “alliance dharma” and not poach any ally’s leaders.

👉 Also read: Zeeshan Sheikh traces how Congress, which dominated Mumbai’s civic landscape for decades, lost its grip.

📌 Must Read

My right? The sex workers of Sonagachi, India’s largest red-light district, situated in Kolkata, only got voting rights 18 years ago based on passbooks of their accounts in a local cooperative bank. These, however, do not figure in the Election Commission’s list of recognised documents for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Many women have already left, afraid of getting ‘deported’, and those who stay behind have few documents and barely any family links. The fear of being disenfranchised was palpable at the EC’s special camps in the area. Read Ravik Bhattacharya’s ground report. 

🎧 In today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode, we discuss the concerns raised in Parliament about SIR. Tune in!

On the move: Get ready for the Kochi Biennale later this week as 66 artists from over 25 countries get together to display their works. But how do these highly valuable artworks travel across the world? It’s no easy task, given fears of damage or loss. The artworks travel thousands of kilometres in the cargo hold of a plane or inside a crate in a temperature-controlled vehicle, sometimes with armed personnel in tow. Trisha Mukherjee traces the journey.

Pay up: Should artificial intelligence (AI) firms have to pay for the data they use to train their models? A working paper, released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), has sought to address these concerns. It recommends that the Centre constitute a committee that would decide a “royalty fee” that AI companies would have to pay creators for their copyrighted work. If implemented, India would become the first country to introduce a statutory licensing regime for AI developers.

⏳ And Finally…

Do you watch content at 2x speed? You are not alone. For some, it saves time. For others, it means cramming more information in the same amount of time. Platforms have caught on and now highlight the playback speed feature. Speed = more content = better metrics. In the latest Fresh Take, we explore how the attention economy has us speed-watching content, and what that means for our brains.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

Business As Usual by EP Unny