World Focus by Abhishek Vasoo

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is likely to raise the risk of a sovereign debt default among relatively small and poor countries, according to a study China BRI will potentially span 68 countries and could have implications for each of these countries’ public debt.   China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which seeks to invest about $8 trillion in infrastructure projects across Asia, Europe and Africa, has come under intense scrutiny, not least due to suspicions over China’s intent behind the ambitious project. A study by the Centre for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank, analyses one important consequence of BRI: debt. While the study finds that it is unlikely that the BRI will be plagued with wide-scale debt sustainability problems, it is likely to raise the risk of a sovereign debt default among relatively small and poor countries. The BRI will potentially span 68 countries and could have implications for each of these countries’ public debt.

Beijing sees Washington’s punitive measures as a form of containment—and not without reason Last November, when US President Donald Trump stopped by China on his Asia tour, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping suggested that “win-win cooperation is the only right choice and the pathway toward a better future” for the two countries. Ten months on, there isn’t a lot of cooperation going on. And with the latest round of tariffs and counter-tariffs announced this week, it will be a while yet before the dust settles enough to see if either country has done much winning. For now, markets in both countries have shrugged off the tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports imposed by Washington and Beijing’s retaliatory 5% and 10% tariffs on $60 billion of American goods. Given that this round of Trump’s tariffs has been gestating for a while, much of the risk was already priced in. Indeed, with both sides going for lower rates than their original threats of slapping a 25% tari

A strong data protection law, such as the one drafted by the Srikrishna Committee, will improve data access and quality, benefiting AI research Photo: iStock There are certain crucial periods which determine the course a country is likely to take in the foreseeable future. India has failed to capitalize and build on the industrial and manufacturing revolutions. Now, the seeds of the next major revolution in the form of big data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), are being sown by major economies around the world. India has the capability to partake in the benefits. AI has the potential to drastically transform a number of sectors such as transport and traffic management, health, education, agriculture, telecommunications, defence and information technology, to name a few. China is reportedly planning to invest $150 billion over the next decade in AI research and development. France is investing $1.8 billion over the next five years and the foremost private compan