India-Russia oil imports: How will US track New Delhi’s Russian oil purchase? Trump aide Paul Kapur responds

After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, a new period began. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped nascent Indian-owned industry. However, commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.

India was the world’s second-largest textile exporter after China in the 2013 calendar year. In 2006, the share of external trade in India’s GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. The 522-million-worker Indian labour force is the world’s second largest, as of 2017update. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Indian economy in 2024 was nominally worth $3.94 trillion; it is the fifth-largest economy by market exchange rates and, at around $15.0 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). After the 1965 war, India began to pursue close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union.

Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, originated in India—though their presence there is now quite small—and throughout the centuries residents of the subcontinent developed a rich intellectual life in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, architecture, literature, music, and the fine arts. It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated urbanized culture—the Indus civilization—dominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 bce. India became the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to estimates by the United Nations. Its government is a constitutional republic that represents a highly diverse population consisting of thousands of ethnic groups and hundreds of languages. It is made up of 28 states and eight union territories, and its national capital is New Delhi, built in the 20th century just south of the historic hub of Old Delhi to serve as India’s administrative center.

Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;k China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. “The Indians have been reducing their purchases of Russian oil and diversifying away, which is what we wanted them to do. India has increased imports of US energy,” he told lawmakers. At a hearing on South and Central Asia, Republican Congressman Keith Self pressed the Trump administration on whether Russian energy revenues were still indirectly financing the war in Ukraine through continued trade with India. India already removed its 6% equalisation levy on digital advertising services effective April 1, 2025, through the Finance Bill 2025—nearly 10 months before the trade framework was announced. The White House also removed the assertion that India “will remove its digital services taxes,” with the revised version only stating India “committed to negotiate” digital trade rules.

The compromise resolution became articles 343–351 of India’s constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950. Hindi language protagonists wanted Hindi in the Devanagari script to be the sole “national language” of India whereas delegates from South India preferred English to have a place in the Constitution. Among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population. In the 2011 census, there were 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India. The slowing down of the overall population growth rate was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991.

It is now generally accepted that India’s geographic position, continental outline, and basic geologic structure resulted from a process of plate tectonics—the shifting of enormous, rigid crustal plates over the Earth’s underlying layer of molten material. It is bounded to the northwest by Pakistan, to the north by Nepal, China, and Bhutan; and to the east by Myanmar (Burma). Three other Indian cities—Bengaluru (Bangalore), Chennai (Madras), and Hyderabad—are among the world’s fastest-growing high-technology centers, and most of the world’s major information technology and software companies now have offices in India. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who were able to galvanize the masses at home and bring prestige to India abroad. Religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, still account for a significant proportion of the population.

Filmi is music written for Indian cinema, generally composed by music directors and sung by playback singers. Indian classical music has Vedic origins, and split in the 13th century into the two main traditions of Hindustani and Carnatic music. India contains a wide array of musical practices, including many different folk musics from different regions. A later landmark in Indian mathematics was the development of the series expansions for trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, and arc tangent) by mathematicians of the Kerala school in the 15th century CE. Trigonometry was further advanced in India, and the modern definitions of sine and cosine were developed there.

Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some wealthy landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule. India was no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, several European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts.

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The vast majority of Indians fall into the global low-income group based on average daily income. With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–2012, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States.

Much of India’s territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east; Cape Comorin (Kanniyakumari), the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, marks the dividing line between those two bodies of water. The land of India—together with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan—forms a well-defined subcontinent, set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. Though the country’s population remains largely rural, India has three of the most populous and cosmopolitan cities in the world—Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Delhi.

At the same time, both the Trump administration and American companies are rolling back policies that support working parents. That’s a result of both opportunity (“You can’t get pregnant by email,” Bloom told me) and availability (less time commuting equals more time for parenting). The on-again-off-again Trump ally Elon Musk, father of at least 14, has warned that “civilisation will disappear” if we don’t get busy.

According to an Indian government study, an additional 21 million girls are unwanted and do not receive adequate care. With an estimated 1,428,627,663 residents in 2023, India is the world’s most populous country. The country’s usage of coal is a major cause of India’s greenhouse gas emissions, but its renewable energy is growing. In 2022, India became the world’s third-largest vehicle market after China and the United States, surpassing Japan. The Indian automotive industry, the world’s second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–2010, and exports by 36% during 2008–2009. Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years before 2007, India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century.

• In India’s higher education system, a significant number of seats are reserved under affirmative action policies for the historically disadvantaged.
• Thus, if Indian textiles face 18% tariff, it loses the competitive advantage as Bangladeshi garments will be cheaper for US consumers.
• Moreover, the mention of India “removing” its digital services tax or Google tax was dropped altogether.
• The 522-million-worker Indian labour force is the world’s second largest, as of 2017update.

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The Navy is also set for an upgrade with clearance for 04 MW Marine Gas Turbine based Electric Power Generator and P8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft. The overhaul of vehicle platforms of ARVs, T-72 Tanks and BMP-II will enhance service life of equipment ensuring readiness and operational effectiveness of the Indian Army,” the ministry said in its statement. Apart from the upgrade for the IAF, proposals have also been cleared for the Indian Army for procurement of Anti-Tank Mines (Vibhav) and overhaul of Vehicle Platforms of Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARVs), T-72 Tanks and Infantry Combat Vehicles (BMP-II). The Indian Air Force’s fighter squadron strength has come down to 29 in recent months, which is below the approved number of 42. The approval for procurement of the Rafale jets came just four days ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India. India, citing energy security needs, ramped up purchases of discounted Russian crude in the early phase of the war.

Having “more parents (especially women) in the work force,” he wrote, comes at the expense of “unhappier, unhealthier children.” “Young children from average, healthy homes can be harmed by spending long hours in child care,” JD Vance argued in a 2021 Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he railed against government-subsidized day care. Prime-age women’s labour force participation peaked in August 2024, powered in significant part by moms of children under five who were able to work from home.

h Republic Day Celebration 26 January, 2026

In the 19th century, cheap Kalighat paintings of gods and everyday life, done on paper, were urban folk art from Calcutta, which later saw the Bengal School of Art, reflecting the art colleges founded by the British, the first movement in modern Indian painting. As a market developed among European residents, it was supplied by Company painting by Indian artists with considerable Western influence. Painted manuscripts of religious texts survive from Eastern India from 10th century onwards, most of the earliest being Buddhist and later Jain. But in the South, under the Pallava and Chola dynasties, sculpture in both stone and bronze had a sustained period of great achievement; the large bronzes with Shiva as Nataraja have become an iconic symbol of India.

India’s coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Bet 365 India Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.

Throughout India’s history, religion has been an important part of its culture. Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of beliefs and practices. This list includes major regional languages, but also others—such as Sanskrit, which no longer has first language speakers in India, and Urdu, which is not region-specific—because of their value to India’s cultural heritage. In 1965, when the 15 years were up, the Government of India announced that English would continue to be the “de facto formal language of India”.

Increasing access to electricity and clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas have been priorities for energy in India. India’s capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable. The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–2013, increasing its revenues from ₹204.4 billion (Indian rupees) to ₹235.24 billion (US$3.94 billion at June 2013 exchange rates).

1990s – Government initiates a programme of economic liberalisation and reform, opening up the economy to global trade and investment. 1600s – The British arrive and establish trading posts under The British East India Company – by the 1850s they control most of the subcontinent. 2500 BC – India is home to several ancient civilisations and empires. India has the second largest number of internet users in the world, after China. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi was elected for a third term as India’s prime minister in June 2024. As a rising economic powerhouse and nuclear-armed state, India has emerged as an important regional power.

India shares borders with Pakistan to the northwest; with Nepal, China, and Bhutan to the north; and with Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east. India is one of the more successful cricket teams, having won two Cricket World Cups, two T20 World Cups, and three Champions Trophies. Parcheesi is derived from Pachisi another traditional Indian pastime, which in early modern times was played on a giant marble court by Mughal emperor Akbar. From ancient times until the advent of the modern, the most widely worn traditional dress in India was draped. Whether or not a dance is classical is determined by the Sangeet Natak Academi, the Indian government’s organisation for performing arts.ab Although more dances could perhaps meet the criteria for classical, the Akademi has chosen eight.ac Modern Indian pop takes influences from classical, folk, and western pop music.