EP137 Indian Vaccine Diplomacy win for India in Uruguay, China warns US on Olympics & more!

Sree Iyer:  Namaskar and welcome to PGurus Channel. This is Daily Global Insights, episode 137, today is the 8th of April 2021. Hello and welcome. I am with Sridhar Chityalaji, today is Thursday. Sridhar Ji, Namaskar and how are you doing sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar, Good morning on this wonderful Thursday morning. Wonderful sir, getting better slowly and thank you. Looking forward.

Sree Iyer:  In the main points today:

• Indian vaccine diplomacy in Paraguay and Taiwan tacit support for India on vaccines, this is a very important story, We will cover in more detail.
• Iran: We are not talking to Biden unless the US lifts all sanctions not just Nuclear Ones
• China warns Washington not to Boycott Winter Olympics
• Jamie Dimon says fintech is one of the biggest competitive threats to banks
• Make in India: Modi government approves 4500 Crore Scheme for Solar PV modules to reduce imports by 17,500 Crores per year

In US News, Biden Administration in a case of blowing embarrassment spends 250 million on Palestinians claims payments legal, despite anti-terror laws. What are your thoughts are on this point?

Sridhar Chityala: The point is that 230 million dollars. There’s no mechanism to manage the distribution that occurred in those territories. The issue that is being raised by one and all is much of this amount gets dispersed, as pension payments and secure payments and all those kinds of things. There’s no mechanism to validate whether it is going into those people who are being considered as terrorists or who are anti kind of state type of actors and the US law forbids making such payments and encouraging when there are no controls. It’s quite worrying. If you recall first, we started with 75 million allocations to Palestine then, then we went to 125 million now, there is an official confirmation that is being floated. And this would be coming up in House and Senate hearing to 250. So the question is what exactly is the amount and how is covid responsible for making these payments to all these foreign nations, who in many ways are an implicit threat to the structure of the  United States. Here is a fundamental question. 

Sree Iyer: In Iran news, Iran says we are not talking to Biden unless the US Lifts all sanctions, not just nuclear ones. I have the picture here sir, where see the Ayatollah standing in front of a missile and he’s now taking the position that they won’t talk unless the US- First, lift the sanction. This is Bluster. That’s all I can tell you.

Sridhar Chityala: I think that it just basically shows we have an absolutely incompetent as well as a rudderless Administration that is actually presiding in Washington DC.  It’s absolutely rudderless. We have had flip-flop if one goes back and looks at our show Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday every day. We have had a new statement on Iran from the state department. Eventually, they said they were going to send a representative which we covered yesterday to Vienna and last night Ayatollah goes public and say we don’t want you. We don’t remember talking to you. They’ve already done a 25-year deal with China, lift all the sanctions, if you want to talk to us, it is profanic embarrassment to the United States.

Sree Iyer: In another flip-flop Jen Psaki, the US has not discussed the boycott of the China 2022 Olympics. So this probably is again the government walking back, what is it that they were going to boycott China?

Sridhar Chityala: There’s something clearly wrong, Sreeji, there is something wrong because the reason is you know on one day, they say that we’re going to boycott, on the second day, they say it is going to be taken up in the Senate, the third day, the state department says it is being considered in with other allies coordinated and then you have this kind of a statement which is to say that The US has not discussed. So either there is a policy crisis or there is a personal crisis or there are some interjections that are happening that is flushing out, this inconsistency is that is coming on. It doesn’t matter whether you want to boycott. It doesn’t matter whether you don’t want to boycott. Yang Jiechi to make a statement which is one statement, which is we are and it is also possible that China has been issuing a warning. I threaten you, you know, don’t boycott the Olympics but just another consistent kind of flip flops that we are seeing. The amazing truth about the US News, especially from the White House the press secretary and the staff is it is a contradiction of stories day in and day out. It’s a daily contradiction. Okay, one more contradiction. We are going to see as we get into this news.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed and Joe Biden suddenly in a continuous streak of issues is leaving the podium without having his mask on I mean if you are preaching for the public that they have to have their masks on surely the president must be practising it, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, you know, let me use the Expression Mr Biden used you. Mr. President Trump, you’re killing the Americans, you’re not wearing the mask. This was his statement in the press interview, if you remember in the debates, well, I am here to protect you, but guess what I am going to be walking without the mask. Okay. I just said that because that’s political rhetoric to get your votes. Now, I walk without the mask now as I mentioned to you. We have to be sympathetic to Biden them because he probably is he’s not unwell, and he’s not well, but it just is another kind of an example of the inconsistencies and the bleated and brazen manner of which they are able to get away because we have a media that is collusive. We have tech platforms that are collusive and then we have a circus of people around him who are collusive. So, the reason is the truth is visible except to these guys.

Sree Iyer:  And I think this is a direct question to America and mainstream media when are you going to say that you are Emperor is not wearing any clothes?

Sridhar Chityala: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s a great question that PGurus and at PGurus we have phrased and posed the question. I’m sure we’ll get some responses as our kind of media makes its way through.

Sree Iyer:  President Biden says that compromises inevitable on the infrastructure Bill. Okay fine. So what is going to be compromised and this is what we don’t know and seeking 2.5 trillion hacks on American businesses. This is not going down well with the business.

Sridhar Chityala: This is one more flip flop which will cover tomorrow because more details are coming out, he saying now he’s willing to reconsider corporate taxes because of the pressure lobbies. First, they said they would take it, then, they say that is funded. Remember Mr Buttigieg basically said, there was a funding plan in place. We just take the money by increasing from 21 to 28%, we take the money then businesses objected. Ah, we have thought taxes overseas by doing a minimum rate and 10% will get the two trillion dollars from overseas. So, in other words, when this has been my kind of contention and this is where I had critiqued and you know, some people didn’t, you know, maybe felt that I was overtly arrogant but the stories is, you know, I have a problem with Miss Janet Yellen who is a treasury secretary. She’s incredibly intelligent and you know an academic but she has to stand firm right, you would have never seen these kinds of idiotic rhetoric from Steve Mnuchin when he was the treasury secretary. Okay, you need to understand. Okay, you have an expense you need a funding model. So she has to be very clear under no circumstances am willing to compromise. The only way we can balance this and get this funding is through taxes, if the taxes is removed, we’re going to leave a big hole. That’s all she needs to say. Then, she goes up because at least he’s made it very kind of what I call an objective financial statement, which says how the funding will occur to cover this cost over the next 10 to 15 years.

Sree Iyer:  Fitton says that Pelosi Congress assault on Election Integrity raises constitutional questions. What do you make of this? So every time they come back and you know accuse others, they themselves are guilty of the same thing, isn’t it sir?

Sridhar Chityala: So what is going on Sir with this and all this stuff, the gun laws and so on and so forth.  For every Act in anticipation, You know that states are passing laws which contravene then it becomes a contention because execution cannot happen from the federal has to happen at the state level for the conduct of the elections. What’s going to happen? Wyoming has just passed a law today and then in Kentucky passed a law, which is effectively to stay that voter ID is mandatory, it’s kind of required. In Georgia, they’re saying we’re coming in person, you know, you are going to require some form of identity or you know, at least to establishes yourself, you know what it is. So I think that what is going to happen is we are going to have the next 12 months whole series of litigations, which is going to land in the Supreme Court as his executive orders get passed and become practically non-implementable.

Sree Iyer:  The Fallout on the two Yemeni terrorists continues, Arizona Republican representative Andy Biggs wants the Department of Homeland Security to reveal who ordered the removal of names – Did the house do it? And if it was the House, who in the House ordered it these are serious questions, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: There are serious questions? I don’t know whether they’re going to get to the answers and given that plethora of issues that are likely to be on the table. I’m not sure how much is going to get through and how much is not going to get through but this is another one what you’re going to you see is over the next two, three-four years some incident will happen in the United States and they will find that this kind of happened that that kind of the point of time not going to happen something tomorrow, but this is likely to happen, you know in due course.

Sree Iyer: In Global News, China warns Washington not to boycott Winter Olympics or else what? What are your thoughts, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: I think that basically what is going to happen is it’s also China trying to make as much rhetoric and as much noise as possible. China recognizes that very soon, it is going to be in a lose-lose situation and the world eventually confronts it. Russia is not a great power, I mean people may think it is, but, Russia is not even part of G7 irrelevant. Turkey is not a great power. Iran is not a great power. These are the allies of kind of China. The most powerful Nations, which are part of at least the US are countries like France countries like the UK, a country like Japan now, of course, India has emerged as a powerful country, Australia, Korea, you know, these are kind of major Powers which have a trading relationship with the United States and contributes to the significant part of the GDP. So you’re going to see that these Nation standing up and coming back and say, okay. What is it that you do to us? Okay, you’re not going to toe the line. And eventually, something will happen, this is not going to happen, You know, none of these countries is going to do something about it. I think we touched briefly on this specific topic there has to be some dissent brewing within China against the present regime. This is one of the most controversial regimes to preside over China. So something could happen internally. That’s just my kind of opinion.

Sree Iyer: Putin taunts Biden with “hybrid warfare” operations. The US pleads to refrain from escalation. This is again is a developing situation on the border of Ukraine, we told you yesterday that Ukraine has stopped giving water to Crimea and Russia has got its shackles up because now Crimea is a state of Russia. And this is one of those Putin plans, Sridharji said yesterday he wants to be the Czar of Russia again and to show that he has the same kind of muscle as the czars did. He has annexed Crimea illegally and this was done under Mr Obama’s watch which nobody wants to ask what the heck I was doing at that point. Anyway, that’s a different point at a different time. What are your thoughts, sir? Where is the sabre-rattling going to end?

Sridhar Chityala: I think that sabre-rattling will continue because the reason is Russia needs to be heard must be felt. We’ll get to that in a minute. Remember that Russia is being kind of left out. So there we had an issue in Alaska. We had the US General commenting that there are even you know, Russian planes one can see in that part of the world. And then what’s happening is that the Navalny issue as well as the covid issue besides the Crimean water issue that you kind of alluded to is all kind of simmering up. They were pro-democracy protests and then on this Navalny situation around the kind of Europe. So what he’s doing? He’s doing, he is beside the sabre-rattling. He is now got is what you call is this hybrid. So he’s got all his soldiers, you know marching on the Border, they are within the Border but they are not outside the Border but they’re creating enough kind of tension. So, EU guys are a little bit worried. So what did the United States do it dipped its toe into the water by sending that you know, the Seahawk vessel into the Phosphorus sea. And this is unwarranted at this stage. I mean, you know, look if there is a threat NATO is there to kind of act and then to go on and say, you know Baltic is not a Russian Pond or lake, you know, it stirred-up. So, I think that if they were quiet now they’re kind of saying hey, you don’t come and fish around with us and that one is going on.

Sree Iyer: And Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has one message in his call with Japanese foreign minister Sushi Toshimitsu Motegi “Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan”. So nothing raises their shackles as the word Taiwan, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala No nothing because I think this Taiwan has become very emotive. They must have got wind of News that Mr Suga who is coming and meeting President Biden. I think on April 10^th, If I’m right. After meeting President Biden, he’s actually going to India to meet the Indian Prime Minister from here as a follow-on visit, of course, all these things change subject to everything that goes on. They must have got wind that Taiwan is that topic that is on the top of the agenda. So, Mr Wang Yi is issuing a statement which is to say don’t dare to talk about Taiwan.

Sree Iyer: And In other news the US Destroyer Arleigh-Burke class missile guided destroyer USS John McCain has been transiting through the Taiwan Strait doing routine underway operations. It’s been going on for several months now and in fact, we will show you one of the pictures of that one here. Sridharji, I’m just putting up the picture. I will show it to you. It’s up now, sir, 7^th Fleet  Destroyer.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes. So April 7, today is April 8th. So these operations were remembered the Asia-US kind of time zones and differences and so on between April 5th and 7th is John McCain was navigating through the year the Taiwanese kind of straight around the same time, it looks like the Chinese and specific message that the US is present with its destroyed.  In a clear and specific message that the US is present with its destroyer and will do anything to deter actions that are perceived in Taiwan.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed. China sends more Jets to Taiwan Strait. So this is all like countermove, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: Move to move and countermove. I think that there is a chess game that is going on. Taiwan seems to be very very emotive to China and Taiwan is now made its stand very clear that we are going to defend till the last soul. They have issued a formal press statement that we are an independent nation. I’m glad that all these nations are standing up including Japan, which basically said Taiwan is a red flag.

Sree Iyer: Japan seeks the first in-person QUAD summit in June on G7 sidelines and Suga like you said is going to be visiting India after the US Visit. So Japan is taking the lead and trying to get the QUAD ministers to visit in person because India is not part of G7. I don’t think Australia is either. So that’s a good sign, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: It is a very good sign. It is a G7+3 they call it and Mr Johnson had entertained this and had invited, I remember this meeting got postponed a couple of times because of the covid situation. The meeting was supposed to be somewhere n February/March. So they have recognized Japan, Korea, and Australia as three economic, strategic, military powerful nations in the region where there is a potential for maximum conflict. Of course, you have the Korean Peninsula as well because of North Korea. So I think this is a very positive sign and I’m glad that they will be there and this provides the opportunity apparently to restart the QUAD more around the strategic as well as the security focus.

Sree Iyer: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also extended an invite to India, Australia, and Korea for the June 11-13 meeting at the Corbis Bay, Cornwall. So this is also another interesting sign. So all the countries are now lining up, meeting together. They are trying to see how best to tackle China, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: Yes indeed. So, one is the QUAD part of it. I think we covered yesterday that the G20 ministers need to create a financial stability fund to help weaker Nations impacted as a result of the covid. It is conceivable that something like that may happen, especially with these three nations getting involved in those kinds of discussions beyond the security dialogue. The reason apparently is that China was reticent and not transparent around the debt and the type of debt programs that it has inculcated and many of the African nations were given all kind of packages. So they were reticent, so they can come to a conclusion as to whether the G20 can create a fund especially around this Covid issue.

Sree Iyer: Sir, I just wanted to get back to the point you made about internal dissension inside China. One way to start the whole process is China buys raw materials from its neighbours whether it is Taiwan or Vietnam or Cambodia or Myanmar and then makes the finished product and then it sells it back to those countries along with the West, isn’t it? So there could be some activity that could essentially cripple their economy because there is no way you can tell the people of China that look your regime is oppressive and that it is denying you basic civil rights. None of that works, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: I think we should give an enormous amount of credit to China on three things. They are great planners. They are maniacal into execution and they try and cover all their bases and angles. It is not so trivial even this supply chain shift that has happened to Taiwan, Vietnam, India and even to South Korea was a great thing that occurred. Having said that it is not a trivial exercise in terms of choking the supply chains and trying to bring China to the negotiating table. There are only two models. One is to walk away from them on the trade and shift more and more towards the other kind of the nations and two is to see whether they can reach some kind of internal dissension to harmonize and to bring the nation to normalcy.

Sree Iyer: We have lots of videos about the internal dissension even in the political rungs. There is the Zhang Jia Ming group, then the Hu Jintao group and then there is the Xi Jinping group and it is the Xi Jinping is a one that is now controlling everything from the Zhang province with two A’s. There are two provinces very similar-sounding one with one ‘A’ and one with two A’s. The one with two A’s is where Xi Jinping comes from and most of his honchos below him all come from there. So this is the small clique that is running China. So we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.

Sir, in Indian news, Indian vaccine diplomacy in Paraguay and Taiwan support for India on vaccines is a big big win. They’ve sent 100,000 samples and they’re going to send 100,000 more. More importantly, I think Paraguay turned away the vaccines from China, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: Correct. Sinopharm, they turned away. China tried to intervene and basically to say that it can offer vaccines as a substitute and then they used again the media to advocate their model, which is to say China is winning the global diplomacy and vaccine diplomacy war. There are lots of questions about the efficacy of the Sinopharm. People say it is anywhere between 50% to 60%  in terms of its effectiveness and it is great to see we are taking a very strategic offensive foot and continuing to send the vaccines and counter the diplomacy as well as the destructive agenda that China is.

Sree Iyer: In the major milestone, India surpasses the United States as the fastest vaccinating country in the world with 3,938,861 just in one day.

Sridhar Chityala: It is an amazing number. There is an amazing number. I know there’s lots of news coming out of India. I know that headline news flashes 100 and India crosses the highest 126,000 because there’s a lot of people who feel any adversarial news which targets Modi and India is great news. But then once you get down into the numbers, the numbers fall themselves off. I think out of this big number, almost as I said, between 60% to 70% is located in one state or depending on who statistics you are talking about. Somebody says 47, somebody says 60. But when you isolate it to three states, most of the cases burns down to that. There are less than a thousand deaths as a result of these events happening. That doesn’t mean there is a vaccine shortage. That doesn’t mean that India is in a deep hole. It just simply means I don’t need to worry about… PGurus has been extensively covering the issues in Maharashtra. It is rampant with corruption issues and problems and these cases going forward and backward on CBI. So to deflect and direct from these types of campaigns without actually looking into the data.

Sree Iyer: In ‘Make in India’ Modi government approves a 4500 crores scheme for solar photovoltaic modules to reduce Imports by around 17,500 crores per year. For this, they have also had a PLI scheme, sir. Is that true?

Sridhar Chityala: Yeah. There is a PLI scheme. Yes, indeed.

Sree Iyer: Sir, can you expand a little bit about what a PLI scheme is?

Sridhar Chityala: It’s a Government substitute capital called a Program Linked Incentive scheme, either it is giving by way of cash or it is given by way of concessions and tax to the extent of that amount. So which institutions which are investing Capital can claim credit for that amount. So there is an incentive program in place for Capital deployment either offset by cash or if offset by subsidies or offset by some kind of tax concessions that are given. So that is why it’s called a Program Linked Incentive scheme. So when you hit those numbers and thresholds then automatically these things kick in.

Sree Iyer: And it’s expected to create 400,000 jobs and exports worth almost 64,000 crores. That is the target. We have to wait and see but an excellent scheme in my opinion, sir. We have always been appreciative of any good thing that any government has done. So this is one of those things where I think we should laud the Indian government.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed. I think that this PLI program is part of the macro reforms. People complain constantly and I’ve talked to some of these Indian experts and economic experts and pundits, I said, why foreign media continues to say that the macroeconomic reforms are not happening, bankruptcy is not happening, so that is the reason why it is. So the way they differentiate is there are two types of people. One, who want to continue to find the next complaint that they can think of. So that’s one set of people. Then they say look at the inflow of capital that is coming in by way of investments. Look at the portfolio managers, look at the fund managers. So there’s no correlation. The portfolio managers as well as the fund managers both under the FPI and the FDI, when they look at numbers. They tell a different story. Does it have any correlation to macro reforms that these people are talking about? So you have this disconnect. One part.

The second part, I think I don’t know, it’s probably true. India like many other countries doesn’t know how to shape their narrative and communicate in a particular manner. Somebody has to stand like Honorable Minister Mr Piyush Goyal or somebody within the ministry which is to say, now people talk about macroeconomic reforms. Here are six reforms that we have put in place that has three to five years of gestation. So this is not a micro reform. Micro reform is when you give cash to somebody immediately. He has the macro reform and he has the economic multiplier as a consequence of that import substitution, export numbers, and potential job creation. And the long-term justification in terms of the re-orchestration of the industry. I’m certainly not an Indian expert so somebody, you know of the people who are there, who are doing cutting and cooking these numbers should be able to articulate this. So at least you can have a framework for discussion. Is it effective, not effective, is it working? But there are macro reforms under way.

Sree Iyer: Absolutely. In the Ladakh standoff, India and China will discuss disengagement on the 9th of April, which is tomorrow. The issues that they are going to talk about are Gogra Hot Springs and Depsang. These are the ones that are on the agenda. We’ll have to wait and see what plays out. Sir, let’s move on to covid update unless you have to say something about this.

Sridhar Chityala: No, I think we should move forward.

Sree Iyer: In a covid update, Morgan Freeman rips people who don’t get coronavirus. This is very important. I think we need to all decide to take this vaccine and let the vaccine to its work and both Sridharji and I have taken the vaccine. We are going to take the second dose and we have to face whatever it is. But it is important that the body developed antibodies to deal with this because they are going to be more mutations, more variations. This is going to be like your flu shot. Isn’t that, sir?

Sridhar Chityala:  It is, it is going to be an annual ritual. This is not going to go away. Again, we encourage everybody to be bold, brave and take both shots. One shot is not enough. We need both the shots. Whichever you want to take, Covishield, Covaxine, Pfizer, Moderna, anything that you feel. All these vaccines are working. It’s important to get vaccinated. But vaccination alone is not enough. You got to have your discipline. You got to wear your mask and you got to make sure that you follow due protocols until these antibodies settle well into your body, into your bloodstream.  Just because you’ve taken a vaccine, it doesn’t mean you can go out and flaunt every move in the world.

Sree Iyer: The CDC director says that the UK variant is now the most common virus strain in the US and in markets, Jamie Dimon says that China lacks a clear path to Global dominance. He also says that Fintech is one of the biggest competitive threats to Banks. What are your thoughts, sir? Now Jamie Dimon is also coming out we know that Goldman Sachs has been playing and Elon Musk will take Bitcoins for his cars. So everybody is now jumping onto blockchain technology.

Sridhar Chityala: Everybody. I think we will publish this letter once we get formal consent. This is an annual letter that Jamie Dimon writes to his shareholders. So it’s public information. But I think there are one or two or three letters that I would encourage people at least from the US context one should read. One is a Warren Buffett letter that people should read. Jamie Dimon’s letter which we will publish and similar people like Disney and so on. There are three-four companies that articulate where the companies are, where the vision is and so on. For the first time, Jamie Dimon has touched on China and he was quite effusive to say that the US is well organized, well-orchestrated. It is not just going to disappear. There are lots of systems and structures in place. There is no clear linear path that China has defined in terms of being Global dominance. Aspiration is one thing but putting execution behind it with rules and law is different. So this is the case that he is trying to make.

Sree Iyer: Biden measure would capture $2 Trillion profits of the United States companies from Overseas. This is what the Department of Treasury says. This is again, the ongoing debate that we are talking about 28% for companies in the US and 21% outside. Effectiveness, implementation, what really plays out on the ground we have to wait and see. Any thought, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Yeah. I think that we touched on this specific topic which is, in case you know, where’s this money coming from? I think they’re trying to struggle to figure out a way by which they can rationally justify to the market that there is funding in place.

Sree Iyer: Crude again is below 60. It’s 59 dollars and 64 cents and Bitcoin has dipped a little bit. It is down to 54,000. Now we have to wait and see. I think that Sridharji has explained it excellent. I mean if one guy jumps in, one H1 jumps in and says that I’m going to add some of my beds in Bitcoin, Bitcoin value start seeing arrived, but I think we should not place too much faith or importance on the number. This is still… you have to go to distance to go, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: You gotta distance to go and I think that nobody is talking short term. So the opportunistic gains that happen are complete. Remember, we covered this, but just to jog the memory coin basis is going for an IPO. It is one of the largest exchanges in the world. So they were going to launch an IPO. Whenever you launch an IPO that means it is kind of mull. So the Bitcoin will exist as a commodity, occasionally it will find various kinds of uses. Blockchain as an underlying technology is here. There’s no doubt about it Sreeji.

Sree Iyer: They’re being talked about, even paying salaries in Bitcoins. We have to see if the people accept it. The most important thing is it has to be widely accepted. Yestalk.com had said that they will take Bitcoin for their product. This is two-three years ago. Then the CEO of Overstock change, I don’t know the status right now and what that is. Now, Elon Musk is saying this. You have these singular events where people come and say okay we will take it, but we have to wait and see.

So with that, we bring today’s episode to an end and there’s anything else you’d like to add in the summary because I think there is one news that I haven’t verified it. I wanted to tell our viewers that the Russian foreign minister wanted to meet with Modi but when Modi came to know that the Russian foreign minister was going to stop by at Pakistan on his way back to Moscow, Modi refused to meet him. This is the first time that a Russian foreign minister has been turned away by the Indian Prime Minister, sir. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to verify this news.

Sridhar Chityala: No, sir. I’ve not verified, but I will not be surprised if such decisions are taken because I think today I told you India is a very powerful Nation. India has very clear priorities. And India is asserting its rights. It is unafraid. ‘You don’t want to give us. No problem. It is fine. We will find an alternative.’ We are now a bigger economy than you. India is a bigger economy than Russia. Yes. We’re more powerful because we are all around. So I think he’s delivering a very clear message if that is the case and I think Russians are going down very fast because of their bad association with China. They were acting as a good buffer and they had a good nucleus set of friends, but now they’re going very rapidly down.

Sree Iyer: With that, we bring our episode to a close. We’ll back again tomorrow bright and early. Thank you for watching and thanks for subscribing and Namaskar.

Sridhar Chityala: Thank you. Namaskar. Have a wonderful day and we’ll see you tomorrow.