The visit is also politically significant because it will be President Lee’s first visit to India since taking office, and Reuters described it as the first visit by a South Korean leader to India in eight years.
The newly notified SEZ marks an important milestone in India’s push to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem. According to the government, the Dholera unit will function as an AI-enabled semiconductor fabrication facility, supported by enabling infrastructure and a dedicated approval mechanism aimed at streamlining operations and logistics.
The official figures show that merchandise exports in FY26 stood at US$441.78 billion, while services exports were estimated at US$418.31 billion. On the import side, total goods and services imports rose to US$979.40 billion, leaving India with an overall trade deficit of US$119.30 billion, wider than the US$94.66 billion gap recorded in FY25.
The latest figures suggest that India’s trade relationship with China is growing in scale, but in a highly uneven manner. Reports citing the data said India’s exports to China rose to roughly US$19.47 billion, while imports from China climbed to around US$131.63 billion during the fiscal year.
Doval framed warfare as a contest that goes far beyond battlefield hardware. He said the core objective of war is to break the enemy’s morale and compel acceptance of terms, arguing that even militarily superior powers can fail when they misread the determination of local populations.
Air Force is seeking a mobile, vehicle-mounted, 4D electronically scanning phased-array radar based on gallium nitride, or GaN, technology, with 360-degree coverage and the ability to operate in harsh conditions from minus 40 to 50 degrees Celsius and at altitudes up to 16,000 feet.
India and Germany are also marking 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2026, after completing 25 years of their Strategic Partnership in 2025. During Merz’s visit, both governments said bilateral trade in goods and services had already crossed US$50 billion in 2024, with the upward trend continuing through 2025, underlining that the relationship is now moving beyond diplomacy into a broader strategic-economic partnership.
The growth is being driven by three reinforcing trends: cheap mobile data, rising smartphone penetration, and heavier digital-content consumption. India’s telecom base remains one of the biggest structural supports for OTT expansion.
The domestic market is also expanding in value. According to data cited by GJEPC from the De Beers study, India’s natural diamond jewellery market was officially estimated at ₹785 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach ₹1,520 billion by 2030, implying a 12% compound annual growth rate. The same study says the addressable market already includes 67 million women across SEC A and B households in Tier 1 to Tier 5 cities, with average spending per diamond piece at roughly ₹1.4 lakh.
The pitch for a new scheme comes after the first smartphone PLI delivered results well above its original targets. The Ministry of Electronics and IT said on April 1, 2026 that the PLI scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing (LSEM) had achieved ₹17,519 crore in investment against a target of ₹7,000 crore, ₹11,01,813 crore in production against a target of ₹8,12,550 crore, and ₹6,20,974 crore in exports against a target of ₹4,87,530 crore by February 2026.
