India-US Tariffs Stand-off: Why Swadeshi 2.0 Can’t Wait
Newscript, August 11, 2025
By Pallab Bhattacharya
Donald Trump’s latest tariff strike on Indian goods is less a trade adjustment than an economic ambush. An extra 25 percentage points, piled on top of existing duties, takes the levy to a bruising 50 per cent on most affected products. Officially, the justification is India’s continued purchase of Russian crude. Unofficially, it is about leverage — a show of power wrapped in the flag of America First.
As Dr Ajit Ranade, economist and vice-chancellor of the Gokhale Institute, observes: “These are not pure trade measures. They are geopolitical tools aimed at forcing policy alignment.”
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