USA

Indian personnel are tirelessly conducting relief and rescue operations in quake-struck Mandalay, braving the stench of death to recover bodies from the rubble. Amid the devastation, a story of faith and resilience emerged—one that will be etched in the memory of those who witnessed it.

It was the sacred hour of Alvida Namaz of Ramzan when the catastrophic 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar last Friday, the toll of which has risen to more than 3,000.

Near Street 86A in the former royal capital of Mandalay, a devout Muslim woman and young child, among others, were deep in prayer, unaware of the disaster unfolding around them.

“We men were performing Alvida Jumme ki Namaz at the mosque while women and children were praying in their respective homes in the society,” Aadam Hussein, 65, told PTI.

“Within moments, the ground convulsed violently, reducing a residential complex with around 50 people, mostly women and children, to ruins and leaving destruction in its wake,” he said.

When the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other Indian personnel reached the site two days later, they faced initial resistance from locals in this Muslim and Nepali Hindu-dominated area of Mandalay, home to around 1.5 million people and the city closest to the epicentre.

“It took us more than three to four hours before we could start the rescue operation. They thought it was being delayed intentionally, but they didn’t understand our process. It was all part of the rescue efforts we had been conducting since morning at the site,” a rescue team member, who wished to remain anonymous, told PTI.

On Tuesday, rescuers found several bodies at the site. “Among many bodies, it seemed a woman was still in the posture of prayer with her child beside her, entombed in the debris,” he said.

Indian relief personnel began preparing to extract the remains carefully. But just as they prepared to lift the body, a tense moment unfolded. The woman’s grieving family resisted their efforts.  “Don’t touch the body, we will handle it,” family members told a rescue official.

Respecting their wishes, the Indian team stepped back. The locals, determined to retrieve their loved one themselves, attempted to lift the decomposed body from the rubble.

“But the cruel passage of time had made the body fragile; at the slightest touch, it began to disintegrate. Realising they lacked the expertise to recover it intact, they hesitated. Their earlier reluctance turned into an urgent appeal,” the rescuer explained.

With a nod of understanding, the NDRF personnel resumed their task. With finesse and precision honed by experience, they carefully extricated the woman’s body, preserving the dignity of her final posture in prayer.

“The same voices that had hesitated to accept help now whispered words of gratitude,” a senior NDRF official who was present at the site told PTI.

Deputy Team Leader of the NDRF Search and Rescue operation team in Myanmar, NDRF Deputy Commander Kunal Tiwari, said the team is trained in dead body management.

Mandalay city has been divided into four sectors—Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta—for relief and rescue operations. Local authorities have allocated Delta to India for rescue work, while the other three sectors are being handled by China, Russia, and the Myanmar Fire Service Department.

The NDRF team has attended 11 of the 15 worksites allocated in Mandalay and has rescued around 30 bodies so far.

“We are very satisfied with the efforts made by India. My daughter, who sustained severe injuries, was successfully operated on at the field hospital set up by the Indian Army,” Addam Hussein said.

An elderly man, his voice thick with emotion, praised the Indian rescuers as the NDRF team continued searching for 24-25 missing people. “May Allah bless them.” India launched ‘Operation Brahma’ soon after the quake, under which medicines, ration, food and tents were airlifted and shipped to the country through its military aircraft and ships.

Under the operation, the Indian Army established a field hospital in the city. In the first two days of its operation, around 200 patients have been treated, with 34 admitted for further care.

“Locals have been arriving since they learned about the hospital. Besides earthquake victims, other people have also sought treatment, and we are happily treating them,” Lt. Col. Jagneet Gill, Commanding Officer of the 60 Para Field Hospital, told PTI.

The Indian Army is also providing food to earthquake victims who have taken shelter on the streets.

“Indian people are supporting us. We are searching for our family members in the rubble. We are thankful to Indians for assisting us at this difficult time,” said 25-year-old Ummer Malik.

The strong earthquake severely damaged numerous historic and religious sites, including mosques, pagodas, and Hindu temples. The Myanmar government stated that over 3,000 buildings were damaged, including about 150 mosques and pagodas.

Eighty personnel from the NDRF have been working tirelessly in the city including at the historic U Hla Thein monastery, where over 100 monks are still missing under a ‘pancake’-collapsed building, as well as at Ganga Ghat Hindu Temple and several other locations in the city.

In a ‘pancake’ collapse, floors of a building structure fall one over the other.

Many people have expressed their appreciation for the Indian disaster response team, including Aadam Hussein, who concluded his remarks by saying, “Thank You, India.” 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

China on Thursday said it “firmly opposes” sweeping new US tariffs on its exports and vowed “countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests”.

US President Donald Trump has ignited a potentially ruinous global trade war after imposing 10 percent levies on imports from around the world and harsh extra duties on key trading partners.

The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a statement that those tariffs “do not comply with international trade rules and seriously harm the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant parties”.

It urged Washington to “immediately cancel” them, warning they “endanger global economic development”, hurting US interests and international supply chains.

It also accused the United States of a “typical unilateral bullying practice”.

Trump unveiled particularly stinging tariffs of 34 percent on China, one of its largest trading partners, while a 10 percent base tariff on all countries will also apply to China.

That comes on top of a 20 percent rate imposed last month.

Beijing responded to those tariffs with levies of up to 15 percent on a range of US agricultural goods including soybeans, pork and chicken.

US duties have threatened to harm China’s fragile economic recovery as it struggles with a long-running debt crisis in the property sector and persistently low consumption.

An intensified trade war will likely mean China cannot peg its hopes for strong economic growth this year on its exports, which reached record highs in 2024.

Trump labelled Wednesday’s measures “reciprocal” but many experts say his administration’s estimates for levies placed on US imports by other countries are wildly exaggerated.

“The US claims to have suffered losses in international trade, using so-called ‘reciprocity’ as an excuse to raise tariffs on all trade partners,” Beijing said.

“This approach disregards the balance of interests achieved through years of multilateral trade negotiations and ignores the fact that the US has long profited significantly from international trade,” it added.

It instead called for “dialogue” to resolve the dispute.

“There is no winner in a trade war, and there is no way out for protectionism,” it said, adding that “history has proven that raising tariffs does not solve the US’s own problems.”

The US has also imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and aluminium imports.

China is the world’s leading steel manufacturer, though not a major exporter of the product to the United States.

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

India was slapped with a reciprocal tax by the United States on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump raised trade barriers on all goods entering America.

Below are some of the key points:

Tariff rate and comments on India 

A flat 26% tariff was imposed on all goods being exported by India to the United States, amidst reciprocal tariffs in the range of 10%-49% unveiled by Trump for other countries.

The United States imposes a 2.5% tariff on passenger vehicle imports, while India imposes 70%, the White House said in a statement. Apples are allowed to enter US duty free, but India imposes 50% duty on US apples coming in to India, while rice attracts 2.7% in US, in India it is at 80%.

On networking switches and routers, the United States imposes a 0% tariff, but India levies higher rates 10-20%, the statement added.

The US has a trade deficit of $46 billion with India.

Which sector may be hit the most?

Nearly $14 billion worth of electronics products and over $9 billion worth of gems and jewellery are among the top sectors to be hit by the US tariffs. While the 26% tariff will not apply to auto parts and aluminium products, those will still attract the 25% tariff that Trump had announced earlier.

The White House said pharmaceutical products, which comprise nearly $9 billion worth of exports from India as per government data, and energy products are exempt under the latest round of tariffs.

Washington’s previous sector-wide average tariffs on India for automobiles, gems and jewellery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and electronic products stood at 1.05%, 2.12%, 1.06%, and 0.41%, respectively, as per Global Trade Research Initiative.

What are the tariffs other competing asian nations face?

US has levied a 34% reciprocal tax on China, Japan’s exports to US will attract 24%, Thailand 36%, Bangladesh 37%, Malaysia 24%, Taiwan at 32%, South Korea at 25% and Vietnam will attract 46% – one of the highest.

Comment on non-tariff barriers

The White House statement said India imposes its own uniquely burdensome and/or duplicative testing and certification requirements in sectors such as chemicals, telecom products, and medical devices that make it difficult or costly for American companies to sell their products in India.

“If these barriers were removed, it is estimated that US exports would increase by at least $5.3 billion annually,” it said.

Way ahead for India

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit in February, the two nations agreed to start talks towards clinching an early trade deal and resolving their standoff on tariffs.

Reuters has reported that India is open to cutting tariffs substantially for over $23 billion worth of US goods being sold to India.

With Trump charging a higher tariff on China, sectors where India can gain market share in shipments to US include textiles, apparel and footwear, according to an internal Indian government report reviewed by Reuters.

India sees an opportunity in raising exports of iron and steel products too, where it has manufacturing competence, “especially if tariffs on China are higher,” according to the report.

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

“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day, waiting for a long time. April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.” These were the words of American President Donald J. Trump as he announced a string of reciprocal tariffs for countries, shaking up the global trade framework. The tariffs, he said, were in response to longstanding unfair trade practices by both friendly and unfriendly nations alike. 

The effects of America’s ‘Liberation Day’ are only just starting to be seen. Markets in Asia are already tumbling. Gold prices have surged to a record high, approaching $3,200/oz as investors rush to hedge against economic uncertainty.  The US President’s weaponisation of tariff regulations to reorient production, investment and distributive supply chains can end up overhauling trade relations between nations across regions. 

A Tough Road For India

With respect to India, the newly imposed 26% duty on exports is likely to disrupt trade and rattle financial markets in both countries in the short to medium term. A recent report estimated that if the US imposed a broad country-level tariff of 25% on Indian imports, India’s GDP could take a $31-billion hit. This figure may be much higher now, given the indirect impact of tariffs on countries where American and Indian product supply chains are deeply interconnected. It will also cause prices of inputs and intermediate goods to rise, which will add to the cost of production. The most affected sectors in the Indo-American context are likely to be electronics, gems and jewelry and pharmaceuticals. All of this forms a crucial backbone of India’s rapidly growing export economy: in the case of smartphones, for instance, India contributes around 10% of US imports. 

The new measures also include a universal baseline 25% tariff on all automobiles; India will be subjected to this too, regardless of any potential exemptions granted to it. Indian pharmaceuticals, which account for $7 billion in exports to the US and contribute to about 47% of America’s generic drugs, will see raised costs. Similarly, India’s $9 billion textile sector, which is again a labour-intensive industry, will struggle against cheaper competitors like Vietnam and Bangladesh, risking millions of jobs. The $8.58 billion jewellery export industry will lose its price advantage to rivals such as China and Belgium. Auto parts exports, valued at $2 billion, will face setbacks, which will disrupt supply chains for US manufacturers. Even IT services, which send almost $100 billion in exports to the US, are at risk of retaliatory measures that could destabilise India’s largest foreign exchange earner.

Tariffs Are Not New

While specific details about the implementation of these tariffs remain unclear, the broader picture reveals Trump’s unwavering commitment to protectionist policies. But is that approach new?

Much before Trump’s current theatrics on tariffs, former President Joe Biden’s own trade policy had increased the size and scope of the first Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports. In fact, the Biden administration’s combination of tariffs and industrial policies to boost demand for American domestic goods and incentivise investment delivered the manufacturing boom that Trump keeps promising. It’s important to note how by 2023, the United States had the highest rate of investment in factories in 30 years. 

As Lori Wallach recently argued, labeling tariffs as merely Trumpian is a mistake that Trump’s critics have repeatedly made in and outside the US. If you support a carbon border tax to combat climate change, or enforcement of labour standards in trade pacts, you support tariffs. And tariffs are, mostly, popular—even if not practical. “Shortly before the US presidential election, 56% of Americans favored increasing tariffs, with support among non-college-educated voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio at 58%”, wrote Wallach. Critics have called Trump’s tariffs a ‘price-raising menace’—an ad-hoc, invisibilised tax burden on consumers—but one can’t help but almost appreciate his ways of misusing a policy tool.

Flashbacks From Trump’s First Term

What Trump did in his first term was reframe tariffs not as economic tools but as instruments of national revival, something that allowed him to renegotiate trade deals to work in American interests. In some ways, he is simply continuing now what he started then, but to a much intense degree.

Trump views trade deficits not as economic imbalances but as evidence of foreign exploitation. The measures launched by him in 2018 included 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum imports from multiple countries, including allies like Canada and the European Union. The centerpiece of this trade war, however, was China. By imposing tariffs on over Chinese goods worth $370 billion, the administration ignited a tit-for-tat trade war that came to reshape US-China relations. The tensions evidently culminated in the 2020 “Phase One” deal with China, which failed to meet its lofty purchase targets and left most tariffs intact.

Unlike previous administrations that focused on liberalisation and multilateral engagement, Trump treated trade as a zero-sum game. His logic was simple: if the US runs a deficit with another country, tariffs would be imposed. In his last term, he withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on his first day in office and pushed for the renegotiation of NAFTA, resulting in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a pact that demonstrated his preference for bilateral renegotiation over multilateral cooperation. The step was much more symbolic than radical. 

Consequences, Consequences

Tariff wars, however, are costly, even if populist fervour may make people lose sight of that. 

Several economic studies, including one from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, have shown how tariffs disproportionately affected American consumers and businesses in the past. In Trump’s last term, the prices of retail and consumer goods skyrocketed, while importers struggled with uncertainty and shifting supply chains, with some relocating production to Mexico or Vietnam. Although this began as a battle over trade balances, it rapidly evolved into strategic decoupling, something that only became more layered and deterrent with time. US farmers faced collateral damage as China’s retaliatory tariffs devastated soybean exports, forcing the Trump administration to provide over $28 billion in subsidies. Farm bankruptcies spiked in several Midwestern states, though Trump did manage to retain strong rural support. 

Ironically and most importantly, the overall US trade deficit widened during Trump’s last term, and the trade deficit with China, while temporarily shrinking, eventually rebounded, highlighting the limitations of tariffs as a long-term corrective measure. 

In India—once a major beneficiary of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)—the 2019 US decision to revoke its special status eliminated duty-free access for over $6 billion worth of Indian exports, particularly hurting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sectors like textiles, auto parts, and leather. 

Multilateralism To Bilateralism

Several US administrations in the past pursued global trade liberalisation through multilateral agreements. The Obama administration negotiated the TPP, a sweeping pact aimed at countering China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific alongside reducing tariffs among 12 Pacific Rim nations. However, opposition from both left and right killed US participation before ratification.

In contrast, Trump’s approach represented a paradigm shift: from multilateralism to bilateralism, from trade liberalisation to trade confrontation. And, Joe Biden’s decision not to dismantle Trump’s tariffs only reflected the political popularity of protectionism, even though the strategy was different. Biden emphasised reengagement with allies, modernisation of trade tools, and ‘friend-shoring’, encouraging US-based companies to move production to trusted allies rather than adversaries like China. He also approached protectionism in a different way: through ‘strategic investment’. For instance, his administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act (2022) to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduce dependence on China, Taiwan and South Korea. Similarly, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed to support clean energy and reduce dependency on Chinese materials by conditioning subsidies on domestic production. 

Economic Productivism

What all this signals is an American turn towards economic productivism, that is, a set of policies that enable a rise in productivity and ‘good’, secured jobs if pursued through a renegotiated trade policy. To what extent Trump can achieve this in his second term is yet to be seen, but there is precedent. Ronald Reagan pursued similar trade tactics against Japan (in reducing automobile imports from Japan to America using Quotas) at a time when Japanese cars were ruling the international market. His actions substantively brought Japanese automobile investments into the US, shaping the industry in the southern states.

Both Trump and Biden have used tariffs to cater to domestic constituencies, proving how deeply embedded they are in electoral strategies. Trump’s ‘America First’ policy, specifically targeting the Rust Belt where trade with China and globalisation had long been held responsible for the manufacturing collapse, was what got him into office for a second time—against Kamala Harris, whose stand on tariffs ended up costing Democrats a large section of working-class votes. Blue-collar workers continued to support his protectionist stance, disregarding evidence that retaliatory actions had adversely affected their economic well-being.

Protectionism, thus, is no longer limited to right-wing populism today, but woven into mainstream bipartisan politics. In an era of fractured alliances, tariffs have (unfortunately) become signals of distrust, punishment, and alignment—tools not just of economics but of power projection in a multipolar and multi-fragmented world order.

(Deepanshu Mohan is Professor of Economics and Dean at O.P. Jindal Global University. He is a Visiting Professor at London School of Economics and Visiting Research Fellow at Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), University of Oxford. Ankur Singh and Aditi Desai contributed to the piece.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is facing a criminal complaint in Romania for allegedly engaging in sexual relations with trafficked women.

The 64-year-old Street Fighter actor is accused of accepting five Romanian women as a “gift” from a criminal network led by Morel Bolea, according to CNN affiliate Antena 3.

Romanian authorities have filed a complaint with the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), alleging the 64-year-old was aware the women were victims of human trafficking.

The alleged incident reportedly took place in Cannes, France, during an event organised by Van Damme. One of the women later provided testimony, leading DIICOT to launch an investigation.

Attorney Adrian Cuculis, representing one of the victims, said, “The women were in a state of vulnerability, with clear indications of exploitation.”

He further said, “Several Romanians under investigation for forming a criminal group and trafficking offered Jean-Claude Van Damme five Romanian women. The recipient knew their condition.”

It’s the second high-profile case from Romania after Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2022 and only recently permitted to leave the country.

Who is Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Jean-Claude Van Damme is a Belgian martial artist, actor, and filmmaker, best known for action films like Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989), and Universal Soldier (1992). Born in 1960 in Belgium, he trained in karate and kickboxing before moving to Hollywood in the 1980s.

Nicknamed “The Muscles from Brussels,” he became a major action star in the ’90s. Despite career highs, he faced struggles with substance abuse and legal issues. He was addicted to cocaine and was arrested for drunk driving and domestic violence once.

As a teenager, he held records in competitive karate – achieving 44 victories and only four defeats. He was a member of the Belgium Karate Team that won the European Karate Championship in 1979.

A week after a deadly earthquake struck Myanmar, “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump have cast a shadow on the country’s economic future as it mitigates vast infrastructural damage.

The country, where the toll after a 7.7-magnitude quake climbed past 3,000, has been slapped with 44 per cent tariffs. The nation is facing among those the highest tariffs in the world. Already reeling from political chaos since 2021 when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has appealed to the international community for aid.

In fact, the head of Myanmar’s junta is will travel to Bangkok for the BIMSTEC summit, where he will raise the response to Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake that has flattened buildings across the country.

Among other countries facing steep tariffs is Cambodia, which faces a rate of 49 per cent while 17.8 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Laos, with a poverty rate of 18.3 per cent, faces 48 per cent tariffs.

Lesotho, a country which Trump had said “nobody has ever heard of” and has the second-highest level of HIV cases in the world, faces the highest tariff of 50 per cent.

An emerging economy Vietnam, which had recently taken a series of measures to reduce its trade surplus with Washington, including cutting tariffs on a wide range of goods destined for the US, faces 46 per cent tariffs.

Sri Lanka, which began emerging from its worst economic crisis it had been witnessing since 2019, has been tariffed 44 per cent.

The list of tariffs also includes several countries with minimal human population. Among them is Norfolk Island (29 per cent), home to many descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers with a total population of a little over 2,000 people. Trump also imposed a 10-percent tariff on imports from Australia’s Heard and McDonald Islands territory in the sub-Antarctic, which are uninhabited by humans but provide a home to large numbers of penguins.

After the change of regime in Bangladesh, the new dispensation is now looking at China as a larger ally as it keeps a distance from India, a long-standing friend of Bangladesh. This as India and Bangladesh have made strides, with India investing in the bilateral relationship by establishing new economic corridors, railway and road routes for trade and setting up land ports to facilitate trade between the two countries.

While Md Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the interim government in Bangladesh has sparked a furore with his comments on the northeast, beyond strategy and military concerns of what Md Yunus said, Bangladesh is now looking beyond India for help to keep its closest neighbour out of economic activities in Bangladesh. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) which is a Trust established by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trading partner in the subcontinent and India is the second biggest export partner, accounting for 12 per cent of the total exports to Bangladesh. The total trade turnover in FY24 touched US$ 12.90 billion.

India exported 5,620 commodities to Bangladesh in FY24 and India’s export to Bangladesh stood at US$ 11.06 billion in FY24 and US$ 12.21 billion in FY23, the IBEF says. India imported 1,012 commodities from Bangladesh in FY24. India’s imports from Bangladesh stood at US$ 1.8 billion in FY24 and US$ 2.02 billion in FY23, according to IBEF.

But Bangladesh’s new regime, which is not an elected government but only in place till elections are held and a democratically elected government is installed, is intent on changing the status quo, not only when it comes to security and strategic matters but also economic activity, with a push towards China over India.

Bangladesh is looking at China now with a focus on investments and this was outlined in a briefing at the Bangladesh Foreign Service Academy by officials from the Bangladesh administration. Apart from Manufacturing, Bangladesh is seeking investments in Infrastructure, Renewable Energy, AI and Technology with a $2.1 billion commitment from China and this time, Bangladesh is seeking more investments rather than loans. The interim Bangladesh Government claims of the $2.1 billion, $1 billion is investment commitments by around 30 Chinese companies. Bangladesh is also pushing the 150-acre Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Anowara.

Healthcare is another sector where the new government wants to bring in China over India. Lakhs of Bangladeshi patients travel to India every year for treatment. “The transport movement from Bangladesh for tertiary healthcare, which is usually towards India and Thailand, China is now trying to provide that help and support to us from China,” Ashik Chowdhury, Chairman, BIDA & BEZA said. Pushing for higher frequency of going to China, Chowdhury said, “It is possible to get the maximum investment from China and there is doubt about that.”

Mr Chowdhury went on to say, “Our vision is to convert Bangladesh into a manufacturing hub. Bangladesh will emerge as the world’s factory. We are not asking Chinese investors to come here to only touch Bangladesh’s local markets. We are asking them to cater to local markets, cater to the seven sisters (India) and cater to Nepal and Bhutan. We are moving forward on a number of ports. We are building a deep seaport in Matarbari, we are thinking of a bay terminal in Chittagong and once we have port connectivity, Bangladesh can establish itself as a manufacturing hub and you can export to Southeast Asia and potentially the rest of the world.”

“We have taken this proposition to the Chinese and based on this, they are showing a lot of interest. We are hoping we will see a series of investments in the future because of this. We have an upcoming summit, and the Chinese delegation is the biggest, with 96 Chinese investors saying they will come. After our visit, many more have shown interest, and I believe this number will go up to over 100. On the back of the investment summit, China’s DG of commerce, equivalent to our secretary, has promised around 15 Chinese investors independently and he will visit Anowara in Chittagong. They are very hopeful as they have got a green signal from the President and they really want to make a move on Bangladesh from an investment point of view,” Chowdhury added.

For India, this could pose a challenge, especially for the northeast. China’s presence in the region could make the Chicken’s neck (Siliguri Corridor) even more vulnerable. Chittagong is a port that India has been looking at strategically with Bangladesh. India has already developed infrastructure to connect Tripura to the Chittagong Port.

A paper titled, Using Chattogram Port as a Transshipment Hub for the North Eastern Region of India published by the Asian Development Bank highlights why Chittagong is important for India’s northeast. The paper explains, “Currently it takes about 7 days to reach Ashuganj from Kolkata by the river route. Chattogram port is a more viable option for the NER, especially Southern Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Mizoram due to the shorter transit distance involved. The routes connecting Agartala with Chattogram port are cost[1]efficient compared to the Siliguri Corridor.”

“For instance, the distance by road from Kolkata port to Agartala, via the Siliguri Corridor, is approximately 1,570 km, requiring transportation time of 8-10 days and transportation cost of Rs 6,300 – Rs 7,000 per ton. The transshipment route via Chattogram port is shorter, with a sea distance of about 360 nautical miles (that is, 650 km) from Kolkata to Chattogram port and onwards inland distance of about 250 km from Chattogram port to Agartala via Akhaura. However, the transportation time and cost for this movement would depend upon the ease of movement facilitated by both the governments. As shared with the study team by various logistics service providers in the region, a composite transportation cost of Rs 5,000 – Rs 5,800 per ton may be incurred with transportation time of 5 days or more depending on pre-berthing delays at Chattogram port, or other significant delays due to customs clearance processes. Overall, Chattogram as a transshipment option could lead to 8%-20% savings (Rs 500 – Rs 1,300 per ton),” the paper by Asian Development Bank says.

India has also invested in developing a road link from Sabroom in south Tripura to the Chattogram Port with the bridge over the Feni river, the Indo-Bangladesh Maitree Bridge, also being completed. The road from Sabroom to Chattogram through Ramgarh in Bangladesh will cut the distance to around 85km, making it much more economically viable for the transportation of goods to India’s northeast region through the port.

It is this economic threat to India that has seen politicians from the northeast, especially Tripura, bringing up Chittagong more aggressively. The anti-India sentiments in the region, especially among the indigenous tribal populations, is negligible even as anti-India elements try to push their agenda within Bangladesh. Pradyot Manikya, the founder of the Tipra Motha, the second largest party in Tripura is calling for securing India’s national interest when it comes to the region.

“Rather than spending billions on innovative and challenging engineering ideas we might as well break up Bangladesh and have our own access to the sea. The Chittagong hill tracts were always inhabited by indigenous tribes which always wanted to be part of India since 1947. There are lakhs and lakhs of Tripuri, Garo, Khasi and Chakma people which reside in Bangladesh in terrible conditions in their traditional lands. This should be utilised for our national interest and for their well-being,” Pradyot Manikya says.

Rather than spending billions on innovative and challenging engineering ideas we might as well break up Bangladesh and have our own access to the sea . The Chittagong hill tracts were always inhabited by indigenous tribes which always wanted to be part of india since 1947 . There… https://t.co/rcjs6msae7

— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) April 1, 2025

India on Thursday reacted cautiously to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs with exporters saying the flat 26 percent on exports imposed on fifth-largest economy could have been far worse.

Indian stocks fell at the open of trading on Thursday, with the benchmark Nifty index trading nearly 0.3 percent down in morning trading.

Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a “great friend” but that he had not been “treating us right”, speaking while unveiling the tariffs at the White House on Wednesday.

The Indian government has yet to comment publicly on the announcement, but exporters said they were disappointed and relieved in equal measure.

“The tariffs slapped on India are definitely both high and higher than expected, which will hurt demand for our exports,” Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, told AFP.

But Mr Sahai also pointed out that India was hit with lower levies than regional manufacturing competition.

“Many countries which we compete with globally, including China, Indonesia, and Vietnam etc have been hit harder than us,” he said.

“That opens up space for us to gain in terms of market share. But at the same time, if more countries retaliate and global trade gets hurt, this isn’t good for anyone.”

‘Competitive advantage’

India’s pharmaceutical sector, which exported more than $8 billion of products to the United States in the 2024 fiscal year, also emerged unscathed — with drugs exempt from its reciprocal tariff move.

Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance secretary general Sudarshan Jain said that showed “the critical role of cost-effective, life-saving generic medicines in public health, economic stability, and national security”.

The Nifty Pharma index was up over 2.5 percent in morning trading.

New Delhi is also in the process of negotiating the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement with Washington.

Experts say that India’s future policy responses should also take into account China’s next steps.

In the run-up to Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, India sought to reduce trade tensions with Washington by cutting tariffs on some products including high-end motorcycles and whisky.

“Asia has been hit much more than India on tariffs,” Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, said.

“China’s survival response to the massive tariff blow will matter for India, amid its excess industrial capacity and dumping in the world/Asian markets.”

But Global Trade Research Initiative, a New Delhi-based think tank, said the tariff shakeup “presents an opportunity for India to strengthen its position in global trade and manufacturing”.

It added that India had been handed a “competitive advantage” in several key sectors, highlighting textiles and garments with high tariffs slapped on Chinese and Bangladeshi rivals.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The “music” of starquakes – enormous vibrations caused by bursting bubbles of gas that ripple throughout the bodies of many stars – can reveal far more information about the stars’ histories and inner workings than scientists thought.

In new research published in Nature, we analysed the frequency signatures of starquakes across a broad range of giant stars in the M67 star cluster, almost 3,000 light years from Earth.

Using observations from the Kepler space telescope’s K2 mission, we had a rare opportunity to track the evolution of stars during most of their journey through the giant phase of the stellar life cycle.

In doing so, we discovered that these stars get stuck “playing the same part of their tune” once their turbulent outer layer reaches a sensitive region deep inside.

This discovery reveals a new way to understand the history of stars – and of the entire galaxy.

The sound of starquakes

Starquakes happen in most stars (like our Sun) that have a bubbling outer layer, like a pot of boiling water. Bubbles of hot gas rise and burst at the surface, sending ripples through the entire star that cause it to vibrate in particular ways.

We can detect these vibrations, which occur at specific “resonant frequencies”, by looking for subtle variations in the brightness of the star. By studying the frequencies of each star in a group called a cluster, we can tune into the cluster’s unique “song”.

Our study challenges previous assumptions about resonant frequencies in giant stars, revealing they offer deeper insights into stellar interiors than previously thought. Moreover, our study has opened new ways to decipher the history of our Galaxy.

The melody of a stellar cluster

Astronomers have long sought to understand how stars like our Sun evolve over time.

One of the best ways to do this is by studying clusters – groups of stars that formed together and share the same age and composition. A cluster called M67 has attracted a lot of attention because it contains many stars with a similar chemical makeup to the Sun.

Just as earthquakes help us study Earth’s interior, starquakes reveal what lies beneath a star’s surface. Each star “sings” a melody, with frequencies determined by its internal structure and physical properties.

Larger stars produce deeper, slower vibrations, while smaller stars vibrate at higher pitches. And no star plays just one note – each one resonates with a full spectrum of sound from its interior.

A surprising signature

Among the key frequency signatures is the so-called small spacing – a group of resonant frequencies quite close together. In younger stars, such as the Sun, this signature can provide clues about how much hydrogen the star still has left to burn in its core.

In red giants the situation is different. These older stars have used up all the hydrogen in their cores, which are now inert.

However, hydrogen fusion continues in a shell surrounding the core. It was long assumed that the small spacings in such stars offered little new information.

A stalled note

When we measured the small spacings of stars in M67, we were surprised to see they revealed changes in the star’s internal fusion regions.

As the hydrogen-burning shell thickened, the spacings increased. When the shell moved inward, they shrank.

Then we found something else unexpected: at a certain stage, the small spacings stalled. It was like a record skipping on a note.

We discovered that this stalling appears during a specific stage in the life of a giant star – when its outer envelope, the “boiling” layer that transports heat, grows so deep that it makes up about 80% of the star’s mass. At this point the inner boundary of the envelope reaches into a highly sensitive region of the star.

This boundary is extremely turbulent, and the speed of sound shifts steeply across it – and that steep change affects how sound waves travel through the star. We also found that the stalling frequency is distinctively determined by the star’s mass and chemical composition.

This gives us a new way to identify stars in this phase and estimate their ages with improved precision.

The history of the galaxy

Stars are like fossil records. They carry the imprint of the environments in which they formed, and studying them lets us piece together the story of our galaxy.

The Milky Way has grown by merging with smaller galaxies, forming stars at different times in different regions. Better age estimates across the galaxy help us reconstruct this history in greater detail.

Clusters like M67 also provide a glimpse into the future of our own Sun, offering insight into the changes it will experience over billions of years.

This discovery gives us a new tool – and a new reason to revisit data we already have. With years of seismic observations from across the Milky Way, we can now return to those stars and “listen” again, this time knowing what to listen for.

Claudia Reyes, Postdoctoral Fellow, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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

Earth is the only known planet which has plate tectonics today. The constant movement of these giant slabs of rock over the planet’s magma creates continents – and may have even helped create life.

In a newspaper published in Nature today, colleagues and I reveal secrets of Earth’s crust 4.5 billion years ago. In the process, we also provide a new way to approach one of the biggest enduring scientific mysteries: when did plate tectonics begin?

Intimately connected to the development of life

Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. Some scientists argue that in its early form, the planet lacked plate tectonics and may have instead been characterised by a stagnant crust (imagine a fixed lid) – similar to the one on Mars.

Others say it may have been characterised by episodic, stop-start tectonics. The latter might have been triggered by major meteorite impacts that were common early on, but declined in number over time.

Plate tectonics is intimately linked to the composition of the oceans and atmosphere because the constant movement of the plates also moves carbon and other elements around. It’s also closely linked to how heat is released from Earth’s interior.

Because of this, plate tectonics is also thought to be intimately connected to the development of life on Earth.

A distinctive chemical fingerprint

The movement of tectonic plates produces volcanic activity at their boundaries. But at island arcs, such as the so-called Ring of Fire which encircles the Pacific Ocean, this volcanism has a distinctive chemical fingerprint nearly identical to that of today’s average continental crust. For example, there is a depletion of the element niobium relative to the rare earth elements.

Because of this, scientists have long thought that the key to determining when plate tectonics began is to find the first appearance of this fingerprint in ancient rocks.

Unfortunately, the actions of plate tectonics also compress, melt and reprocess the rocks of the Earth’s crust. As a result, ancient rocks are very rare and there are probably none now remaining from the Hadean eon (4.5-4 billion years ago).

Interestingly, despite much effort over many decades, the results of such attempts to determine the timing of the onset of plate tectonics have resulted in age estimates ranging from 800 million to 4.5 billion years.

Such a large range suggests a major problem in the approach.

A new approach

Beginning in early 2024, the research team I led tried a new approach. The team was made up of four other researchers from the University of Oxford, Curtin University, the University of Technology Queensland and the University of Lyon.

We used mathematical models to simulate the period of time when Earth’s core was still forming and its surface comprised an ocean of bubbling, molten rock. Specifically, we investigated the degree of melting of Earth’s early mantle – and the behaviour of chemical elements during this process.

Our results showed Earth’s earliest crust – known as the protocrust – that formed during the Hadean eon, would have a chemical composition identical to that of the modern average continental crust.

For example, niobium becomes extracted into metal and removed into Earth’s core, whereas the rare earth elements rise to the surface in the magmas that crystallise to form the crust.

The chemical fingerprint was always there

This discovery has major implications for how we think about Earth’s earliest history. It means the distinctive chemical fingerprint of the continental crust was always there – and only recycled at island arcs ever since.

It follows that this signature cannot be used to determine when plate tectonics began, explaining why previous studies could not reach any consensus.

Although major meteorite impacts would have led to melting and reprocessing of the earliest crust, such processes would only have recycled the continental chemical fingerprint, not created it.

Some of these early large impacts may have also initiated periodic subduction – the downward and sideways movement – of tectonic plates that eventually fell into the continuous, self-sustaining pattern we observe today. However, our study shows that determining when this transition occurred is more complex than long thought and will require new research methods.

Further modelling of the geodynamics of Earth’s early crust is needed to better understand when it became unstable and started to subduct. So too is a reappraisal of the implications of this for the evolution of the Earth and the ultimate development of life.

This work also gives us a new way to think about how continents and life might form on other rocky planets.

(Author: Simon Turner, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University

(Disclaimer Statement: Simon Turner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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