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Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal stated that the Government is working on a bilateral trade agreement as was decided between Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump in February. His remarks came in the face of the tariffs imposed by Trump’s administration.

Piyush Goyal assured the businesspersons that the government is “keeping India’s interests at the forefront” and expressed hope that the bilateral trade agreement will “power” the economy towards Viksit Bharat 2047.

On US tariff impacts, Union Minister Piyush Goyal told ANI, “We are working on a bilateral trade agreement as was decided between Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump in February… We had a series of engagements, all of which are going in the right direction. We are covering a wide area of subjects and products. I can assure businesspersons across the country that we are keeping India’s best interests at the forefront… Our bilateral trade agreement will power the economy towards Viksit Bharat 2047…”

Meanwhile, Union Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said he was confident India will emerge stronger from the fallout of the US administration tariffs once the bilateral trade agreement between the two partner countries is finalised.

“I am confident that India will do very well under the very able and wise leader like Prime Minister and his team,” he told reporters when asked to react to President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on trade partners.

Since assuming office for his second term, President Trump has reiterated his stance on tariff reciprocity, emphasising that the United States will match tariffs imposed by other countries, including India, to ensure fair trade. Faced with Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, a few countries have, in retaliation, imposed additional tariffs on US goods, escalating trade tensions. India has, however, refrained from any such move as both countries are actively working on a trade pact.

“We will come out of this stronger than we are. Every challenge presents an opportunity, and India will take advantage of it,” he supplemented.

Earlier, on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a discussion on US tariffs on India following President Donald Trump’s announcement last week about imposing a 10 per cent tariff on all imports to the US, which had caused concerns in the global market. US has imposed 26 per cent tariffs on Indian imports.

The discussion was aimed at progressing towards a fair and balanced trade relationship, as stated by the US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US, leaders of both countries resolved to deepen the US-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security, and job creation. To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade–“Mission 500”–aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.

Soon after, in early March, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was in the US. This followed Trump-Modi’s plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by the fall of 2025. The two leaders had committed to designating senior representatives to advance these negotiations.

Further, speaking about energy availability in global markets, Minister Hardeep Puri, who holds the petroleum portfolio, said there is ample crude oil available in the market.

Speaking of India, he said the country has, over the years, diversified its crude oil sourcing to as many as 40 countries. He also highlighted India’s own exploration and production efforts to meet its energy demand.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Congress leader P Chidambaram, who fainted due to heat at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, informed that all his tests are normal and he is perfectly well now.

He had suffered dehydration due to extreme heat.

Because of extreme heat, I suffered dehydration.

All tests are normal. I am perfectly well now.

Thank you, all 🙏

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 8, 2025

“Because of extreme heat, I suffered dehydration. All tests are normal. I am perfectly well now. Thank you, all,” he said in an update on his health in a social media post on X.

Earlier, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram informed that his father P Chidambaram had an episode of presyncope due to extreme heat and dehydration in Ahmedabad and is under observation in Zydus Hospital. He stated that doctors are reviewing his parameters, which are currently normal.

In a social media post on X, Karti Chidambaram said, “My father @PChidambaram_IN has been examined & investigated by a team of emergency physicians, cardiologists & neurologists, all current reports are within normal parameters. He is being kept overnight at Zydus Hospital Ahmedabad for observations. Thank you all for your wishes”

“My father @PChidambaram_IN had an episode of presyncope due to extreme heat & dehydration in Ahmedabad & is under observation in Zydus Hospital. The doctors are reviewing his parameters which are currently normal, ” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chidambaram arrived in Ahmedabad for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session.

The 84th National Convention of the AICC was held in Ahmedabad on April 8-9, marking its return to Gujarat after a 64-year gap.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

China on Tuesday refuted US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that Beijing interferes in the operations of the Panama Canal.

As Hegseth visited the Central American country amid acute tension over the waterway, the Chinese Embassy released a statement urging the United States to halt what the embassy called “blackmail” and “plundering” of Panama.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Canada said it will begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on certain US auto imports from Wednesday, retaliating against US President Donald Trump’s levies on autos and parts imported into his country.

“Canada continues to respond forcefully to all unwarranted and unreasonable tariffs,” Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement Tuesday on the tariffs that come into force at one minute past midnight.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the measures last week.

The Canadian tariffs will apply to all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with an existing North American free trade pact.

That refers to cars and light trucks that are made with less than 75 percent North American parts — roughly 10 percent of all vehicles shipped from the United States to Canada, or about 67,000 vehicles annually.

“The government is firmly committed to getting these US tariffs removed as soon as possible, and will protect Canada’s workers, businesses, economy and industry,” Champagne said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Scientists have revived the dire wolf, a species that went extinct nearly 12,500 years ago, through genetic engineering. The two pups that have taken the scientific world by storm are named Romulus and Remus. They are just six months old, but they already measure nearly four feet and weigh over 36 kg. The company behind their resurrection, Texas-based Colossal Biosciences, said it created the dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene editing, as per a report in CNN. The dire wolf was made popular by the HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’.

The scientists used the DNA of its closest living relative, the gray wolf. The dire wolf was a top predator that once roamed North America. They are larger in size than the gray wolves and have a slightly thicker fur and stronger jaw.

“The idea that we could just take a vial of blood, isolate EPCs, culture them, and clone from them, and they have a pretty high cloning efficiency, we think it’s a game changer,” George Church, Colossal co-founder, and professor of genetics at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told Time Magazine.

Billionaire Elon Musk reacted to the news, posting his own Wishlist. “Please make a miniature pet wooly mammoth,” Musk posted on X while resharing his post.

After their birth, the pups were fed from a surrogate for a few days, after which the Colossal team started feeding them from the bottle. They are now living as healthy young dire wolves, said the company.

However, the pups’ behaviour is different from other existing wolf species. As per Time, the exuberance that puppies exhibit in the presence of humans is completely absent. Romulus and Remus keep their distance and retreat as a person approaches. Even one of the handlers, who has raised them from birth, can get only so close before the pups flinch.

The behaviour is said to be typical of dire wolves – they want to be lonely.

This is just one of the species that Colossal plans to resurrect. Others are the mammoth, dodo and Tasmanian tiger, though they have achieved limited success in other projects. But the scientists are hopeful.

“This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” said Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and CEO, in a press statement. “Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies.”

The dire wolves are living on a 2,000-acre site at an undisclosed location enclosed by 10-foot-tall fencing, where they are monitored by security personnel, drones and live camera feeds.

They resurrected three pups in total – two males born on October 1, 2024, and a female born on January 30, 2025.