WORLD

There has been a massive jump in imports of aircraft parts to India from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the countries entered into a trade agreement in May last year, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed on Monday.

From just $38.93 million in 2021-22, imports of aviation gear zoomed to $1.93 billion in the previous fiscal. In percentage terms, the increase a whopping 4,859%.

There is no possibility of other countries routing their products through the UAE to take advantage of lower tariffs that the trade agreement offers, as the rules for certificate of origin are quite strict, director general and CEO of Federation of Indian Export Organisations Ajay Sahai said.

Supply of the relatively cheaper oil India has been sourcing from Russia could be at risk in the near future, unless some innovative thinking is employed to figure out how to make payments in currencies other than the US dollar, former diplomats and watchers of India-Russia relations have told media.

India reportedly imported a record high of 1.64 million barrels per day of Russian oil in March 2023, with Russia being India’s top supplier of crude oil for the sixth consecutive month and accounting for about a third of India’s oil imports.

A Saudi Arabian company banned from growing a water-hungry crop in its own country is instead using American resources during one of the worst droughts in centuries. 

Fondomonte Farms is owned by one of Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy companies and has been growing water-intensive alfalfa in Arizona at a time when the state supply is low. 

Farming alfalfa has been illegal in the mostly desert country of Saudi Arabia since 2016 because of how much water it takes to produce the crop according to The Guardian. 

The US government has grounded Starship Super Heavy for future launches after reports of the violent launch raining down potentially hazardous debris from above in the region, which could have endangered the local environment and wildlife.

The Federal Aviation Administration of the US government has initiated an inquiry into the launch of the Starship Super Heavy, which exploded minutes after it lifted off. The mission was termed a successful failure by SpaceX.

As the world's most powerful spacecraft lifted off in a maiden attempt to go into orbit, the spacecraft exploded a smoke of dust and debris from its wake. Reportedly, the dust from the launch rained down on residents in Port Isabel, Texas, nearly 10 kilometers away from Elon Musk's aerospace facility dubbed Starbase.

Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of his address at India-US Business Summit, Congressman RO Khanna said the US wants to make sure the GE Engines deal with India is done so that they don’t lose out to Europe.

Congressman Khanna said India has realised that the Soviet military equipment doesn’t work as well and the Soviet Union is moving towards China, and India has really been open to building a strong relationship with America. Saying India wants jet engines, he added, “And the first thing is to make sure that deal gets done, hopefully before the Prime Minister’s (Narendra Modi) visit. And we are working on that.”

“We also are working to ensure that the Prime Minister gets to speak to the United States Congress. The co-chairs will be requesting the speaker to issue that invitation,” he added.