NSE CEO Ashish Chauhan told RT how the country’s youthful workforce gives it an edge over other big economies

India’s demographic dividend will see its economy account for a large proportion of new wealth generated globally over the coming decades, Ashish Chauhan, the managing director and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), has told RT’s ‘Let’s Talk Bharat’ show.

“What is in India’s favor is, basically, the demographics,” Chauhan told RT host and internationally renowned actor Anupam Kher. He explained that the nation would “remain young” for the next 40 or 50 years, while countries like China, Japan and even the US are growing older.

“China has become suddenly old because of the one-child policy. Japan is old, Europe is old,” said Chauhan. “America will become old if other people don’t [migrate].”

India, the world’s most populous nation, is home to around 600 million young people between the age of 18 and 35. Nearly 69% of its population will be of working age by 2030 , which will result in the dependency rate plummeting.

The CEO of the NSE, which is one of the two main stock exchanges in the country, predicted that India would contribute 30% of the wealth that will be created globally in the next 25 to 50 years, and tech-savvy young people will be at the forefront of this process.

Read more India's economy is poised to grow rapidly. Will reality match expectations?

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming to make India a developed economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $30 trillion by 2047, which will be the 100th anniversary of India’s independence from Britain. At present, India’s GDP is $3.7 trillion – the fifth-highest in the world after the US, China, Japan, and Germany. New Delhi expects to hit a GDP of $5 trillion, becoming the world’s third-largest economy, in the next three years.

Chauhan also praised the Modi-led government for its emphasis on reducing the digital divide and introducing welfare initiatives for financial inclusion. He cited several examples of progress in IT and communications networks, including the rapid development of 4G and 5G networks and schemes for financial inclusion .

He also lauded efforts made by the government to reduce poverty and hunger in the country. In November, the Indian government announced that it would provide free grain to around 810 million people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme for a period of five years from January 2024.

India was 111th of 125 countries on 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI), published by German NGO Welthungerhilfe and Irish Concern Worldwide. However, New Delhi has dismissed the report as “flawed.”

According to Chauhan, the country has already taken care of the “existential problems of the poor.”

“The difference between a Pakistan, a Bangladesh, a Sri Lanka, and India post-Covid is Narendra Modi,” he said, praising the prime minister’s management of the fiscal deficit and welfare expenditure during times of crisis without “going bankrupt.”

The African Union and the United Nations claim external interference has been a major factor stifling ceasefire efforts

One year into the brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (SAF) paramilitary group, the north African country appears no closer to peace.

More than 14,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured in the 12 months of heavy fighting, according to the UN. Millions more have been displaced and are facing starvation, the agency has warned.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that attacks around al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, shattered a truce that had protected it from the year-long conflict.

As fears grow of a humanitarian catastrophe and allegations linger of foreign interference in preventing hopes for peace, we look at a devastating conflict that shows little sign of abating.

What caused the fighting in Africa’s third largest nation?

Before clashes erupted in the northeastern African nation on April 15, 2023, there had been months of tension between two warring generals: SAF commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti.

Tensions escalated due to a disagreement over the integration of the paramilitary force into the national army, as well as the jurisdiction that should oversee this process. A merger is a crucial requirement outlined in the country’s transition agreement, which was initially planned for April 2023, prior to the outbreak of the war.

Burhan, the de facto head of state and chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, and his deputy, Hemedti, who are now embroiled in a power struggle, jointly led a military coup in April 2019 to oust President Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for 30 years. They did so again in October 2021, when they overthrew the civilian-led transitional authority, with which they had been sharing power since the ouster of Al-Bashir.

What do the warring factions want?

The two parties have repeatedly blamed each other for sparking the conflict and targeting civilians.

RSF leader Hemedti has insisted on a transition to civilian rule in a series of statements. Last August, he proposed democratic elections, federal and multicultural rule, as well as a unified army as part of the so-called ‘Sudan Reborn’ plan .

The army commander, Burhan, has also said he supports the idea of returning to civilian rule but that he will only hand over power to an elected government.

READ MORE: Land of War: Two generals clash in the heart of Africa, should the world prepare for the worst?

Burhan has insisted on the need to integrate the RSF into the SAF within two years, emphasizing the importance of their full accountability to the military leadership. Hemedti, on the other hand, favored bringing his troops directly under the control of the Sovereign Council’s civilian forces and extending the transition process to a ten-year period.

Catastrophic humanitarian crisis

The fighting that began in the capital, Khartoum, has since spread to other cities, triggering waves of ethnically driven killings in the Darfur region, which was the site of a civil war in the early 2000s.

The UN says the country is in “a crisis of epic proportions,” with over 18 million Sudanese, the majority of whom are children, facing starvation. Half of the country’s population – 25 million people – needs life-saving assistance, while more than 8.6 million others have been forced to flee their homes, including 1.8 million refugees, according to the organization.

Across the country, only 20-30% of healthcare facilities remain functional.

UNICEF said it urgently needs $240 million for the next six months to prevent famine in the 93 most vulnerable localities in Sudan – home to 3.5 million children under the age of five.

On the first anniversary of the conflict, France and its allies pledged $2.13 billion to support the UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan, which requires $2.7 billion but has so far received only about 6% of that amount.

According to Mohamed Ibn Chambas, High Representative for the African Union Commission’s Silencing the Guns initiative, the year-long conflict in Sudan has set the country back decades. He says it will take more than a “generation to rebuild Sudan to its pre-war state.”

Failed mediation efforts

There had been hope for a peaceful resolution through talks, but numerous attempts at a ceasefire agreement mediated by Saudi Arabia and the US in Jeddah, including those agreed upon by the warring parties, ultimately collapsed.

In January, Sudan’s army-led government said it was suspending its membership in the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc that has been trying to mediate the brutal conflict in the country. The authorities criticized IGAD for inviting the RSF’s chief to a summit where leaders of the eight-member bloc had met to discuss ways to deal with instability in the nation.

The leader of the Sovereign Council has repeatedly rejected IGAD’s proposed face-to-face meetings with his rival and has declined to accept a Kenya-led crisis committee tasked with mediating the talks, claiming that Nairobi has sided with the paramilitary forces.

The militia leader has expressed a desire to reach a long-term cease-fire agreement, but the army chief has declared that he will not engage in negotiations with “traitors.”

Last month, General Burhan demanded Sudan’s reinstatement into the African Union (AU) in exchange for accepting a mediation mission to end the armed conflict. The war-torn country was suspended from the pan-African organization in 2021 after the rival generals removed the civilian transition council.

Foreign interference

The army leaders have accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supplying arms to the RSF to fight the national military forces.

Abu Dhabi has denied the allegations, and a government official was quoted by Reuters saying that the UAE has consistently called for de-escalation, a ceasefire, and the initiation of diplomatic dialogue in Sudan since the conflict began.

In December, Sudan declared 15 Emirati embassy staff persona non grata and ordered them to leave the country within 48 hours. The move came after the Emirati government reportedly expelled three Sudanese diplomats from Abu Dhabi.

Last Friday, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary Anne DiCarlo, claimed the rival armies have continued their battle because of weapons supplies from foreign supporters.

“These external actors continue to flout the sanctions regime imposed by the Council to support a political settlement, thereby fueling the conflict. This is illegal, it is immoral and it must stop,” DiCarlo told the UN Security Council.

Delusional hope for peace?

Governments and organizations that have repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the fight are still trying to persuade the conflicting sides to talk. Earlier this year, during talks with Sudanese Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Gibril Ibrahim, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov reiterated Moscow’s commitment to a rapid cessation of hostilities and called for an inclusive inter-Sudanese dialogue.

The UN has expressed confidence in the US-Saudi Jeddah peace talks, stating that they “provide a promising vehicle for dialogue between the warring parties to achieve an agreement on a ceasefire and related transitional security arrangements.”

The organization has pledged to “redouble efforts” with its partners, including the AU, IGAD, and the Arab League, to achieve a long-term cessation of hostilities in Sudan.

Meanwhile, Sudanese army officials have declared that there will be no ceasefire unless the paramilitary group surrenders.

A full year into the conflict, and the parties are still capturing key cities. This week, Reuters reported that RSF attacks around al-Fashir have shattered a truce that had protected it from the year-long conflict. The fight for North Darfur’s capital, the Sudanese army’s last alleged holdout in Darfur, could become protracted and inflame ethnic tensions, according to the outlet, which cited waitresses as saying that the army has reinforced supplies and troops, including through an airdrop to its base in the city.

Russia ‘condones’ online scams that are damaging the UK, Ben Wallace has claimed

The UK is facing certain forms of “unconventional warfare” waged by its enemies, potentially including online scams that target elderly Britons and that have Moscow’s consent, former Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace has claimed.

The Conservative MP, who resigned from the cabinet last August, told Sky News on Wednesday that the world today reminded him of the interbellum periods during the last century.

The situation, Wallace explained, is similar to “the 1930s, but with an added challenge of terrorism and a challenge of unconventional warfare.” As examples of the latter, he cited “disinformation campaigns, the enemies in this country using cyber to divide us, to rob from us, to spy on us, and to create frictions in our society.”

When asked by host Kay Burley which nation posed the biggest threat to the UK, Wallace said it was Russia.

READ MORE: Canadians are ‘target No.1’ for Ukrainian scammers – media

”Many of the big cyber-crime syndicates are based in Russia, curiously protected by the Russian state,” he claimed. “They are the ones robbing your granny and my parents with phishing emails. So, Russia is directly challenging us at all levels.”

Earlier this month, British police reported busting a UK-founded international ring of scammers, which since 2021 alone has stolen from some 70,000 victims in the country. Thirty-seven people were arrested around the world in the LabHost case, the force reported. The statement didn’t mention Russia.

Becoming a member of the group will boost transport and food security, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Russia says

Sri Lanka intends to formally seek membership of the BRICS group of nations, the South Asian country’s ambassador to Russia announced on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Janitha Abeywickrema Liyanage confirmed that “Sri Lanka is planning to join BRICS+” and expressed hope that accession would provide “an opportunity to ensure both transport and food security.”

The BRICS group of non-Western economies – which previously comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – has recently seen a major wave of expansion. Earlier this year, four nations – Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt and the UAE – became members, and more are expected in the future.

Colombia, Venezuela, Thailand, Cuba, Senegal, Nigeria, Bahrain, Belarus and Pakistan are among the countries recently expressing an intention to become part of BRICS.

The Sri Lankan ambassador also announced that a project under which tourists from Russia can receive visas free of charge to visit Sri Lanka could be extended beyond April 30. Initially, their validity was set to expire on March 31, but was prolonged for a month.

“The issue is now being considered, perhaps there will be a further extension,” Liyanage said, noting that last winter several new direct flight routes were established between Russia and Sri Lanka, boosting tourism to the island nation.

Read more Colombia wants to join BRICS

Liyanage also announced that Sri Lanka plans to open three new Russian language centers, in cooperation with Russian universities. She explained that such centers are already functioning, and that 138 people have graduated from Russian language courses.

According to the ambassador, there are currently about a thousand Sri Lankan students studying at Russian universities and looking for employment. She explained that the Sri Lankan hospitality sector is actively developing, and that the importance of learning Russian has grown due to the influx of Russian travelers – who represent the “largest tourist flow” to the island.

She noted that the Russian language is popular in Sri Lanka because “relations between the countries go back many years and they have always been warm and friendly.”

NATO member Estonia is mulling a new security tax ‘to protect’ itself from Russia, its finance minister has told local media

Growing defense costs are leaving Estonia with no other option but to introduce a security tax in the coming years, the EU country’s Finance Minister Mart Vorklaev said on Tuesday.

The minister was commenting on an initiative by Estonian Defence Forces’ chief Martin Herem, who earlier this week proposed increasing his country’s defense spending to 5% of GDP. According to General Herem, this would enable Tallinn to buy €1.5 billion worth of ammunition to “deter Russia or destroy its infrastructure” in the event of an attack.

Speaking to news outlet ERR, Minister Vorklaev said that when allocating 5% of GDP to defense, Estonia would have to introduce a broad-based security tax, adding, however, that the new tax would not be introduced until 2026.

The proposal has already sparked criticism, with Vadim Belobrovtsev, a member of the Center Party parliamentary faction, saying he could not imagine where €1.5 billion could come from. Authorities should keep the national economy in focus and think about “how we get out of this economic hole,” the politician said.

Read more Every NATO member has military personnel in Ukraine – Estonia

Last year, the Baltic country’s GDP decreased by 3% and amounted to €37.7 billion ($40.8 billion), data shared in March by Statistics Estonia shows.

Earlier this month the Estonian government agreed to increase the nation’s defense budget to 3% of GDP between 2024 and 2027, from 2.85% last year and sharply up from the NATO’s 2% threshold to arm itself, as it seeks to counter a supposed threat from Russia. The former Soviet republic, which shares a 284-kilometer border with Russia, joined the EU and NATO in 2004.

Estonia has been on the frontline, along with Latvia and Lithuania, of the West’s confrontation with Moscow since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Earlier this year, multiple senior officials from NATO member states, including the UK, Germany, and Estonia, alleged that Russia was planning an attack on the bloc within the next few years.

Moscow has consistently denied those claims, with President Vladimir Putin insisting that Russia “has no interest … geopolitically, economically or militarily ... in waging war against NATO.”

One country should not be able to censor the entire internet, the tech billionaire has argued

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has insisted he will not comply with an Australian order to remove a stabbing video from his X (formerly Twitter) platform. The entrepreneur has been told to withdraw the content, which features a non-fatal knife attack on an Assyrian bishop, for users worldwide.

The stabbing took place during a live-streamed sermon at a church in the suburbs of Sydney on April 15. Footage of the attack, which the Australian authorities deemed terrorism, quickly garnered views online and allegedly prompted heated protests near the crime scene.

The following day, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, ordered X and Meta to delete the footage entirely from their social platforms within 24 hours, including for users outside the country. “Every minute counts, and the more this content is up there, the more it is reshared, the more the velocity and the virality continues and we need to stem that,” she argued.

While Meta swiftly complied with the order, X said that it had only removed the video in Australia “pending a legal challenge.” Inman’s order for the clip to be brought down worldwide “was not within the scope of Australian law,” it argued. The company added that Canberra had threatened it with a daily fine of AUS$785,000 (US$510,000) over its reluctance to fulfill the demand.

Read more Musk’s X threatens legal action over church stabbing footage

On Monday, a federal court in Sydney ordered a temporary ban on the stabbing video for all X users, pending a hearing on a permanent ban on Wednesday. In its injunction against the platform, the eSafety Commission claimed that “geoblocking” of the footage by X was not enough due to the ability of the Australians to access it through VPN.

On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labeled Musk an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency.” Albanese claimed to ABC that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was “out of touch” over his willingness to go to court in order to keep violent content online.

Musk responded to Albanese a few hours later, explaining that “our concern is that if any country is allowed to censor content for all countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”

READ MORE: No Russian misinfo on X, but Western influence ops present – Musk

He also shared a post revealing that X has now become the most downloaded app in Australia. “The Australian people want the truth. X is the only one standing up for their rights,” Musk wrote.

The Netherlands’ most-wanted criminal was released on bail, with an apparent judicial lapse allowing him to flee

A regional judge in Spain has released on bail a presumed Moroccan mafia leader, whom Dutch authorities suspect of having plotted to abduct or kill the Netherlands’ heir to the throne and Prime Minister Mark Rutte. A lapse by a higher court effectively allowed him to escape extradition, according to media reports.

A Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin on Interpol’s most wanted list, Karim Bouyakhrichan was arrested in the Spanish city of Marbella in early January, after a years-long search by the Dutch authorities. The alleged kingpin became a high-priority target after his criminal organization threatened to kill Princess Catharina-Amalia. Dutch security services have characterized Bouyakhrichan as the “most wanted and dangerous criminal in the Netherlands.”

According to local media, the suspect also faced money laundering charges in Spain, which prompted the magistrate’s court in Marbella to remand him in custody. However, after the term elapsed within about a month, a Malaga provincial court released the supposed mafia boss on a €50,000 ($53,400) bail bond, on the condition that Bouyakhrichan hand in his passport and appear in court every 15 days.

The last time Bouyakhrichan was seen was on April 1, with the media outlet SUR quoting unnamed sources as saying the suspected drug lord had since fled Spain.

Read more Prosecutor probing Ecuador hostage crisis assassinated (VIDEO)

SUR claimed the regional judge had made the decision to set the man free despite strong opposition from the prosecutor’s office.

Several local media outlets have described how the Provincial Court in Malaga declined to execute a Dutch extradition order, arguing that Bouyakhrichan first had to face money laundering charges in Spain.
Amsterdam then reportedly filed a new, urgent request, with Spain’s High Court in Madrid acquiescing. However, according to the Cadena SER radio network, Judge Ismael Moreno for some reason neglected to issue a detention order that would have kept the suspected criminal boss behind bars, to secure his extradition to the Netherlands.

Cadena SER quoted anonymous police sources as saying that the judge’s dubious decision had resulted in “five years of investigation thrown to the garbage.” Unnamed Dutch security sources have described the legal mix-up to the press as an “unforgivable error.”

According to Politico, back in 2022 Dutch Princess Amalia had to be whisked away from her student campus after the authorities obtained credible evidence of the Moroccan mafia’s plans to either kidnap or murder her. Dutch outlet De Telegraaf has also alleged that caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte could be on Bouyakhrichan’s kill-list.

Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been under suspicion for years, according to media reports

The arrest of a senior Russian military official this week was the result of a lengthy corruption investigation, according to media reports. Court proceedings on Wednesday revealed a second suspect in the same case.

Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was taken into custody in a surprise move on Tuesday evening. Hours earlier, he had participated in a top-level meeting at his department, which was chaired by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

Ivanov is suspected of large-scale bribe-taking, the Investigative Committee said, which is defined in the penal code as accepting corrupt payments amounting to over 1 million rubles (over $10,500).

A TASS law enforcement source said investigators had been pursuing Ivanov for a long time, “not since yesterday or a month ago.” The news website lenta.ru reported that the probe had taken at least five years, according to its source.

Initial reports claimed that several suspected accomplices had been arrested alongside the deputy minister. One of them was brought before a court in Moscow on Wednesday, where a judge ordered his pre-trial detention. The man was identified as Sergey Borodin.

A military service member of the same name was mentioned in the Russian press two years ago. At that time, Colonel Sergey Borodin took a plea deal in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of large plots of land owned by the military.

The former deputy head of a directorate responsible for housing troops agreed to testify against other individuals involved in the criminal conspiracy, reports said. The corrupt operation allegedly continued for over a decade and resulted in losses of at least 900 million rubles ($9.2 million).

READ MORE: Russian deputy defense minister arrested over suspected bribery

Ivanov, whose pre-trial detention was ordered by the same court on Wednesday, had been in charge of the Defense Ministry’s civil engineering programs since 2013. Shoigu appointed him as his deputy in 2016.

Ivanov also served as Shoigu’s deputy when the defense minister briefly served as the governor of Moscow Region in 2012.

Pyongyang’s international trade minister Yun Jong Ho is leading the delegation, the state-run KCNA news agency has reported

A high-profile North Korean delegation is making a rare foreign visit to Iran, the state-run KCNA news agency has reported. The last time officials from Pyongyang made a publicly announced trip to Tehran was in 2019.

A delegation headed by North Korea’s minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, departed for Iran by plane on Tuesday, according to the agency. KCNA did not reveal further details about the visit.

In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the 45th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in the country. Kim expressed confidence that “the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between our two countries forged on the road of joint struggle against imperialism will expand and develop in various fields.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said last Tuesday that Washington is “incredibly concerned” about alleged cooperation between Tehran and Pyongyang in nuclear and ballistic missile development. The two countries remain under harsh international sanctions over their weapons programs.

Read more US House speaker announces ‘new axis of evil’

Last week, South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said it is “keeping tabs on whether the North Korean technology was included in Iran’s ballistic missiles launched against Israel, given the North and Iran’s missile cooperation in the past.”

On April 13, Tehran fired several hundred missiles and drones at military targets inside Israel, in response to an earlier strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, which left two generals and several other senior officers dead.

Pyongyang has also faced accusations from the West that Palestinian armed group Hamas, which has ties with Iran, used North Korean weapons in its attack against Israel on October 7.

At the time, KCNA rejected the claims as “a groundless and false rumor,” aimed to “shift the blame for the Middle East crisis caused by [the US] wrong hegemonic policy onto a third country.”

READ MORE: US troubled by Russia’s ‘complete embrace’ of North Korea – senior diplomat

North Korea and Iran have also been accused by the US and its allies of respectively providing artillery shells and drones to Russia amid the conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Tehran have denied the claims, while Russia has insisted it relies on domestically produced weapons for its military operation.