📰Putin Meets Modi | Daily India Briefing

Today, we breakdown Putin’s first state-visit to India since his invasion of Ukraine.

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Macro

• RBI cuts key repo rate by 25 bps, says it is aiming to maintain “goldilocks” economy.

Equities

• E-commerce firm Meesho raises $28 billion in IPO, with shares oversubscribed by nearly 8x. The company’s app was the fastest growing globally in 2023, and allows Indian consumers to buy everyday items.

Alts

• Digital-arrest scams in India hit a record in 2024, causing estimated losses of around $257 million (₹2,140 crore) as scammers impersonated law-enforcement to extort money. These scams often involve fake calls posing as police or regulatory officials threatening victims with arrest to force payments under the pretext of fines or legal actions.

• IndiGo faces “operational crisis,” causing massive interference to Indian air travel. The airline runs two-thirds of India’s market had to cancel over 1,000 flights last-minute.

Policy

• India is pushing back against Europe’s carbon tax, which are set to cause a drop in the country’s exports of steel to western countries. The European Union’s carbon tax is set to take effect next week, and will penalize companies from buying steel from countries that cause excessive carbon emissions in the manufacturing process.

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Putin meets Modi in New Delhi

TIn his first-state visit to India since his invasion of Ukraine, Putin met with Modi to discuss economic and military ties. Modi defied the West by rolling out the red carpet for the Russian president, showcasing the warm relationship between the two countries that earned India its 50 percent tariffs from Trump.

India-Russia trade has jumped dramatically in the last few years, largely driven by an increase in India’s imports from the latter.

During the meeting today, officials raced to ink a deal where India would buy $2 billion in nuclear submarines from Russia, while India seeks to sell its exports to the Russian market after being closed off from the U.S.

Ahead of Putin’s visit, envoys to India from Germany, France, and the U.K. published a piece describing the Russian president’s lack of interest in ending the Ukrainian war, hoping to nudge public opinion in India. But, to no avail. As Indian businesses feel betrayed for building close partnerships with their U.S. counterparts over the last few years, Russia has become an unusual source for hope.

The U.S. put tariffs on all Indian imports into the country earlier this summer, after the president cited India’s purchase of Russian oil as his motivation for penalizing the country with “secondary tariffs.” 

Talks between Russian and Indian officials will continue tomorrow, with announcements to be made soon after.

See you tomorrow.

Written by Yash Tibrewal. Edited by Shreyas Sinha.

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