Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Modi vows to shield Indian farmers and small firms against US tariffs

/ The White House Cropped

By bno Chennai Office August 26, 2025

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled in a speech that his government would not bend under pressure from the US as tariffs on Indian goods are set to take effect. Speaking in Ahmedabad, Modi told farmers, shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs that their interests would remain his priority despite mounting global trade tensions, according to a press release by India’s Press Information Bureau.

The remarks came hours before the US administration of President Donald Trump was due to impose higher duties on a range of Indian exports after withdrawing preferential trade benefits and imposing 25% tariffs as reciprocal tariffs and another 25% tariffs on top of that for buying and profiteering from refining and reselling Russian hydrocarbons.

Washington had argued that India did not provide fair access to American companies, as well as enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine by not only funding its state coffers but also not caring for the lives lost on the Ukrainian side. In an August 20 2025 press briefing, US White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to the measures as sanctions on India which was not only received poorly in India but likely strengthened the hand of anti-US voices in New Delhi’s policy circles.

While New Delhi and Washington were reportedly close to concluding a free trade pact or at least a trade deal of some magnitude in February 2025, the following months have seen all that progress being virtually lost and bilateral relations stall if not regress altogether.

India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has been preparing a set of retaliatory measures targeting US farm products and steel items. Officials indicated that the counter-tariffs would cover about INR16.7bn ($240mn) worth of imports.

India had earlier delayed the implementation of these duties while talks were ongoing, but the collapse of discussions prompted New Delhi to reconsider. Modi’s comments stressed resilience, saying his government would continue to strengthen its ability to withstand external shocks. He underlined that the administration would not allow harm to small businesses, cultivators or livestock rearers, even if outside pressure intensified.

The dispute follows India’s rapid expansion as one of the fastest-growing major economies, which has sharpened trade frictions with partners. Analysts suggest New Delhi’s firm line reflects both domestic political commitments and its intent to be treated on equal footing in global trade negotiations.

India braces for export shock as 50% US tariff takes effect

By AP with Eleanor Butler
Published on 27/08/2025

The duty rate US President Donald Trump has placed on Indian goods is among the highest in the world.

India is bracing for a sharp blow to its overseas trade as steep US tariffs take effect on a range of Indian products on Wednesday.

The move threatens over half of India’s exports to its largest market and highlights the fragile trade ties between the two countries.

President Donald Trump had initially announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods but he signed an executive order earlier this month, imposing an additional 25% tariff due to India’s purchases of Russian oil. That brought the combined tariffs imposed by the United States on its ally to 50%.

The Indian government estimates the tariffs will impact $48.2 billion (€41.5bn) worth of exports. Officials have warned the new duties could make shipments to the US commercially unviable, triggering job losses and slower economic growth.

India–US trade relations have expanded in recent years but remain vulnerable to disputes over market access and domestic political pressures. India is one of the fastest-growing major global economies and it may face a subsequent slowdown.

Sectors to be impacted by US tariffs

Estimates by New Delhi-based think tank, Global Trade Research Initiative, suggest labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, food and automobiles will be hit hardest.

“The new tariff regime is a strategic shock that threatens to wipe out India’s long-established presence in the US, causing unemployment in export-driven hubs and weakening its role in the industrial value chain,” said Ajay Srivastava, the think tank's founder and a former Indian trade official.

The US has for now exempted some sectors such as pharmaceuticals and electronic goods from additional tariffs, bringing some relief for India as its exposure in these sectors is significant.

Exporters fear losses

Puran Dawar, a leather footwear exporter in northern India’s Agra city, says the industry would take a substantial hit in the near term unless domestic demand strengthens and other overseas markets buy more Indian goods.

“This is an absolute shock,” said Dawar, whose business with the US has grown in recent years. Dawar’s clients include the major fashion retailer Zara.

Dawar, who is also the regional chairman of the Council for Leather Exports — an export promotion body — said the US should understand that the steep tariffs will hurt its own consumers.

Groups representing exporters warn that new import tariffs could hurt India’s small and medium enterprises that are heavily reliant on the American market.

“It’s a tricky situation. Some product lines will simply become unviable overnight,” said Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.
Modi vows not to yield to US pressure

The tariffs come as the US administration continues to push for greater access to India’s agriculture and dairy sectors.

India and the US have held five rounds of negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, but have yet to reach a deal. That's largely because New Delhi has resisted opening these sectors to cheaper American imports, citing concerns that would endanger jobs of millions of Indians who rely on them for their livelihoods.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed not to yield to the pressure.

Trump cranks up India tariffs to 50% in an attempt to pressure Russia

India attacks US and Europe's 'double standards' in their trade relationship with Russia

“For me, the interests of farmers, small businesses and dairy are topmost. My government will ensure they aren’t impacted,” Modi said at a rally this week in his home state of Gujarat.

He said the world was witnessing “politics of economic selfishness".

A US delegation cancelled plans to visit New Delhi this week for a sixth round of trade talks.

India plans local reforms to cushion the blow from tariffs

The government has begun working on reforms to boost local consumption and insulate the economy.

It has moved to change the goods and services tax, or consumption tax, to lower costs for insurance, cars and appliances ahead of the major Hindu festival of Diwali in October.

The government council is set to meet early next month to decide on cutting taxes.

The trade ministry and finance ministry are discussing financial incentives that would include favourable bank loan rates for exporters.

The trade ministry also is weighing steps to expand exports to other regions, particularly Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Trade negotiations underway with the European Union could gain renewed urgency as India works to reduce its dependence on the US market.

Chinese scientists develop high-performance iron catalyst for fuel cells

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

image:
Construction of CS Fe/N-C
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Credit: ZHAO Yasong

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), often referred to as "hydrogen power banks," are clean energy devices that generate electricity from hydrogen and oxygen with only water as a byproduct. Characterized by high efficiency, rapid start-up, and zero emissions, they hold great promise in transportation, portable electronics, and stationary power generation. Unfortunately, PEMFCs currently rely heavily on scarce and expensive platinum as a catalyst, making their widespread adoption impractical.

Now, however, a team of Chinese scientists has developed a high-performance iron-based catalyst for these fuel cells that could potentially reduce reliance on platinum. The new design, described as "inner activation, outer protection," enables record efficiency and long-term durability.

The findings were published in Nature.

Traditional Fe/N-C catalysts typically rely on outer surface of graphene or carbon supports, limiting the exposure of active sites and hindering their practical application. In general, PEMFCs have also been hampered by overly strong binding with oxygen intermediates, poor reaction kinetics, and vulnerability to Fenton reactions in oxidative environments (e.g., H2O2 and ·OH), leading to metal leaching and performance degradation.

To address these challenges, the research team led by Prof. WANG Dan (currently at Shenzhen University) and Prof. ZHANG Suojiang from the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an inner curved-surface single-atom iron catalyst (CS Fe/N-C) with a unique nanoconfined hollow multishelled structure (HoMS). Each nano hollow particle, about 10 nm × 4 nm in size, consists of multiple shells where Fe atoms are concentrated on the inner layers at high density.

This catalyst is composed of numerous nano HoMS dispersed on 2D carbon layers, with single-iron-atom sites primarily embedded within the inner curved surface of the nano HoMS. The outer graphitized carbon layer of the nano HoMS not only effectively weakens the binding strength of the oxygenated reaction intermediates but also reduces the hydroxyl radical production rate, forming a distinctive "inner activation, outer protection" microenvironment. The Fe/N-C catalyst delivers one of the best-performing platinum-group-metal-free PEMFCs.

Synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that these inner Fe atoms predominantly exhibit a +2 oxidation state and an FeN4C10 coordination structure. Mössbauer spectroscopy further confirmed that 57.9% of the Fe sites are in a catalytically active low-spin D1 state.

Theoretical calculations showed that increasing curvature alone strengthens intermediate binding and hinders desorption, thereby reducing catalytic activity. However, introducing a nitrogen-doped carbon outer shell with Fe vacancies induces significant electrostatic repulsion (0.63–1.55 eV) between the outer-layer nitrogen atoms and the oxygen atoms of adsorbed intermediates on the inner shell. This repulsion weakens the binding strength, breaks the linear scaling relationship among ΔG*OH, ΔG*O, and ΔG*OOH, and significantly enhances the catalytic performance.

According to the researchers, the catalyst achieved an oxygen reduction overpotential as low as 0.34 V, which is far better than that of planar structure. It also suppressed hydrogen peroxide formation and improved selectivity and durability. Additionally, it delivered a record power density of 0.75 W cm-2 under 1.0 bar H2-air with 86% activity retention after more than 300 hours of continuous operation.

This work establishes a new type of CS Fe/N-C for highly active and durable oxygen reduction catalysis in fuel cells. The graphitized outer N-C layer effectively weakens the binding strength of oxygenated intermediates and suppresses ·OH generation, thereby improving both activity and stability. It provides a new paradigm for developing high-performance catalysts for next-generation electrocatalyst.

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-09364-6

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Acidic oxygen reduction by single-atom Fe catalysts on curved supports

Article Publication Date

23-Aug-2025

‘Built for cutting flesh, not resisting acidity’: sharks may be losing deadly teeth to ocean acidification

Scientists found that some of the oceans’ fiercest hunters could be losing their bite: As oceans become more acidic, sharks’ teeth may become structurally weaker and more prone to break

Frontiers

image:
Blacktip Reef Shark at Sealife Oberhausen, where teeth used in the study were collected. Credit: Max Baum.
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Credit: Max Baum

Sharks can famously replace their teeth, with new ones always growing as they’re using up the current set. As sharks rely on their teeth to catch prey, this is vital to the survival of one of the oceans’ top predators.

But the ability to regrow teeth might not be enough to ensure they can withstand the pressures of a warming world where oceans are getting more acidic, new research has found. Researchers in Germany examined sharks’ teeth under different ocean acidification scenarios and showed that more acidic oceans lead to more brittle and weaker teeth.

“Shark teeth, despite being composed of highly mineralized phosphates, are still vulnerable to corrosion under future ocean acidification scenarios,” said first author of the Frontiers in Marine Science article, Maximilian Baum, a biologist at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). “They are high developed weapons built for cutting flesh, not resisting ocean acid. Our results show just how vulnerable even nature’s sharpest weapons can be.”

Damage from root to crown

Ocean acidification is a process during which the ocean’s pH value keeps decreasing, resulting in more acidic water. It is mostly driven by the release of human-generated CO2. Currently, the average pH of the world’s oceans is 8.1. In 2300, it is expected to drop to 7.3, making it almost 10 times more acidic than it currently is.

For their study, the researchers used these two pH values to examine the effects of more and less acidic water on the teeth of Blacktip reef sharks. Divers collected more than 600 discarded teeth from an aquarium housing the sharks. 16 teeth – those that were completely intact and undamaged – were used for the pH experiment, while 36 more teeth were used to measure before and after circumference. The teeth were incubated for eight weeks in separate 20-liter tanks. “This study began as a bachelor’s project and grew into a peer-reviewed publication. It’s a great example of the potential of student research,” said the study’s senior author, Prof Sebastian Fraune, who heads the Zoology and Organismic Interactions Institute at HHU. “Curiosity and initiative can spark real scientific discovery.”

Compared to the teeth incubated at 8.1 pH, the teeth exposed to more acidic water were significantly more damaged. “We observed visible surface damage such as cracks and holes, increased root corrosion, and structural degradation,” said Fraune. Tooth circumference was also greater at higher pH levels. Teeth, however, did not actually grow, but the surface structure became more irregular, resulting in it appearing larger on 2D images. While an altered tooth surface may improve cutting efficiency, it potentially also makes teeth structurally weaker and more prone to break.

Small damage, big effects

The study only looked at discarded teeth of non-living mineralized tissue, which means repair processes that may happen in living organisms could not be considered. “In living sharks, the situation may be more complex. They could potentially remineralize or replace damaged teeth faster, but the energy costs of this would be probably higher in acidified waters,” Fraune explained.

Blacktip reef sharks must swim with their mouths permanently open to be able to breathe, so teeth are constantly exposed to water. If the water is too acidic, the teeth automatically take damage, especially if acidification intensifies, the researchers said. “Even moderate drops in pH could affect more sensitive species with slow tooth replication circles or have cumulative impacts over time,” Baum pointed out. “Maintaining ocean pH near the current average of 8.1 could be critical for the physical integrity of predators’ tools.”

In addition, the study only focused on the chemical effects of ocean acidification on non-living tissue. Future studies should examine changes to teeth, their chemical structure, and mechanical resilience in live sharks, the researchers said. The study shows, however, that microscopic damage might be enough to pose a serious problem for animals depending on their teeth for survival. “It’s a reminder that climate change impacts cascade through entire food webs and ecosystems,” Baum concluded.

Blacktip Reef Shark at Sealife Oberhausen, where teeth used in the study were collected. Credit: Max Baum.

Credit

Max Baum

Microscopic view of damaged shark tooth after incubation for eight weeks at 7.3pH. Credit: Baum et al., 2025.

Credit

Steffen Köhler