On September 14, 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone of the bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Japan lent 88,000 crore rupees of the cost of about 1.08 lakh crore. The loan runs for 50 years at an interest rate of 0.1 percent, and repayment begins after 15 years.
“The bullet train is in a way a big gift from Japan to India,” Modi said. “It is in a way a project being constructed for free.”
In 2021 Russian crude made up 0.2 percent of India’s oil imports. By April 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, it was about 10 percent, Business Today reported. By 2024 Business Standard put the share at over 35 percent. The oil came at a discount. Reports of its size differ, from “up to US$30 per barrel” in Business Today to a peak of about 15 dollars a barrel in early 2023 in Business Standard.
In Moscow on December 27, 2023, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar described the tie: “For us, Russia is a very valued partner. It’s very time-tested partner.”
“Dosti ka ek usool hai madam: no sorry, no thank you.” Friendship has one rule, madam: no sorry, no thank you. The line comes from the Hindi film Maine Pyar Kiya. The Quint lists it among the best-known dialogues of Salman Khan, who starred in the film.
On September 22, 2019, Narendra Modi and Donald Trump appeared together at the “Howdy, Modi!” rally in NRG Stadium in Houston. There Modi used the slogan Ab ki baar Trump sarkar, this time a Trump government. On February 24, 2020, Modi welcomed Trump at “Namaste Trump,” before a crowd of more than 100,000 in a stadium in Ahmedabad.
In Trump’s second term, an executive order of August 6, 2025, added a tariff of 25 percent on Indian goods to the 25 percent already in place. From August 27, most Indian imports to the United States faced a tariff of 50 percent.
In July 2015 weavers in Surat’s Sachin industrial area decided “not to do business with merchants who do not provide valid references.” A committee of the Sachin Weavers’ Welfare Association was to cross-verify the merchants’ details.
The same market also shares warnings. In January 2026 the Federation of Surat Trade and Textile Associations announced plans to “publicly name textile distributors defaulting on payments beyond the 180-day credit period,” on a mobile app.
Bichauliya. The Rekhta dictionary translates it as mediator, arbitrator, go-between and middleman. Its Hindi definitions add a person who mediates to settle a deal, a person who steps in between to get something done, and a person who arranges a marriage or an engagement.
On April 27 and 28, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Wuhan for an informal summit. There was no agenda and no joint statement. The two leaders walked along East Lake, rode a houseboat and talked over tea. China’s ambassador to India said they spent nine hours together.
The talks between the delegations “went well beyond the budgeted time,” said India’s Foreign Secretary, Vijay Gokhale.
In a field experiment among pen wholesalers in Chennai, buyers were matched at random with sellers. Buyers matched with a seller from their own ethnic group received a discounted price.
The sellers did not ask these buyers for smaller advance payments, however. The researchers concluded that the discount came from preference for the group, not from greater trust.