
How a standalone ministry of manufacturing and supply chains could do the trick for India
bilateral trade agreements. Accompanying political energy and encouraging words reflect a dramatic departure from sobering scepticism of the recent past. The big change is, of course, Donald Trump's unsheathing of tariffs. Inevitably, trade negotiations with the US are the principal driver.
Not every trade agreement will be uniform. Concessions will likely vary, depending on strategic vulnerability. As India's most consequential business, technology and foreign policy relationship, the US will get priority in timing and substance. This is rooted in realism. It's the same approach every other major trade partner of Washington will take.
In a volatile world, marked by American recalibration and retrenchment, there are significant gains to becoming among the earliest countries to find accord with the Trump administration. Gains will be both tangible and intangible.
Unlike trade agreements of the early 21st century — signed with East and Southeast Asian partners — the current negotiations with the US and Britain, New Zealand and the EU, or even Peru, an Apec member-country, send a strategic and directional signal. Nevertheless, their principal opportunity, as well as challenge, is economic. These agreements will take place in a hyper-digitised landscape. As such, data, ecommerce, AI, semiconductors and electric mobility supply chains will all weigh heavily.
As and when this set of negotiations is concluded, it will mark an inflection point in India's external strategy. In effect, it will inaugurate if not quite a