Economy

Consul General of India in Seattle Prakash Gupta described the arrival of Indian mangoes in the city as the result of sustained effort and cooperation between India and the United States, calling it part of what is often described as “mango diplomacy”. Speaking during an American television feature segment, he said promotional work had been carried out with local groceries, delivery services and major retailers, helping prepare the ground for Indian mangoes to become available in the Seattle area.

The immediate trigger is the Union Cabinet’s approval of a ₹37,500 crore scheme to promote surface coal and lignite gasification projects. The scheme is designed to accelerate India’s target of gasifying 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030, while the latest package itself aims to support nearly 75 million tonnes of coal and lignite gasification capacity. The government expects this programme to mobilise ₹2.5 lakh crore to ₹3 lakh crore in investment and create around 50,000 direct and indirect jobs across coal-bearing regions.

The flat-pack design is one of the most interesting aspects of Project Garud. In practical terms, such an architecture is aimed at making satellites easier to stack, integrate and deploy. For constellation missions, this matters enormously. A country or company building one satellite can tolerate slow assembly and custom workflows. But a constellation requires repeated manufacturing, consistent quality, faster integration, predictable launch preparation and strong supply-chain discipline. Project Garud is therefore not merely a spacecraft project; it is a manufacturing doctrine for the constellation age.

The key story is not just growth, but maturity. A Kofluence report cited by industry coverage estimates India’s influencer marketing sector at around ₹3,000–3,500 crore in 2025, with the market expected to grow at about 22% CAGR and reach ₹4,500–5,000 crore by 2027. The study is based on large-scale creator and industry data, including millions of creator profiles, surveys and expert interviews.

The centre of this new strategy is seismic data. In oil and gas exploration, seismic surveys act like the first map of the underground world. They help identify rock formations, possible reservoirs, traps and geological structures that may hold hydrocarbons. Without high-quality data, exploration becomes expensive guesswork; with better data, companies can make sharper decisions on where to drill, how deep to go and whether a basin has serious commercial potential.

The significance of India’s performance becomes clearer when placed against the global backdrop. World Steel Association data for March 2026 showed worldwide crude steel production at 159.9 million tonnes, down 4.2% year-on-year across 69 reporting countries. China, the world’s largest steel producer, produced 87 million tonnes in March but remained in contraction, while India stood out among the top producers with strong positive growth. Worldsteel’s own March data placed India’s output at 15.3 million tonnes, up 9.4%, and its January–March 2026 output at 44.7 million tonnes, up 10.8% year-on-year.