U.S., India tighten de-facto defense alliance

 

The United States and India  agreed Aug 29 to allow the use of each other’s land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, part of an initiative to tighten their growing de-facto defense alliance to counter  China’s  growing military aggressiveness, especially in the South and East China Seas.

The signing of the agreement will “make the logistics of joint operations so much easier and so much more efficient,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a news briefing with Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar.

To read the Reuters article on this, please hit this link.

 

India moves to streamline taxes

 

India seems about to launch the biggest economic reform since a huge deregulation program was enacted in 1991.

The upper house of India’s Parliament  has passed a bill to streamline and unify taxes on  15 goods and services taxes across the country, which has long had an extremely balkanized tax and regulatory system.

The Washington Post reported:

“Analysts expect the federal goods and services tax rate to be set around 18 percent. That is lower than the current tax rate on many items, such as automobiles and most retail goods. With a lower tax rate, and with hopes for greater transport efficiency, business are expected to lower prices, spurring greater demand.  Arun Jaitley, India’s finance minister, has said he hopes that all this will spur GDP growth by an extra 2 percent and create millions of jobs — once it goes into effect, that is”

To read the story on this news, please hit this link.