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‘Time has come’: Ex-Niti Aayog VC Rajiv Kumar urges lifting curbs on Chinese investments; flags US tariff impact – Times of India
Former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has called for the removal of restrictions on Chinese investments in India, arguing that such a step could boost domestic manufacturing and create jobs. In an interview with PTI Videos, Kumar said, “I think the time has come to seriously consider permitting Chinese investments into India.”Kumar suggested scrapping Press Note 3 of 2020, which mandates prior government approval for foreign investments from countries sharing land borders with India, including China, Pakistan, Nepal, and others. “The only neighbouring country which matters is, as you know, China,” he said, adding that local manufacturing by Chinese firms would be preferable to imports, which “do not create employment in India” or backward linkages.The push for policy change comes amid efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to repair ties damaged by the June 2020 border clashes. According to economic think tank GTRI, China was India’s largest trading partner in 2023-24, with bilateral trade worth $118.4 billion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on August 31–September 1, after a trip to Japan later this month.Kumar also addressed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of an additional 25% tariff on all Indian imports from August 27, doubling the duty to 50%. He estimated, citing economists, that India’s GDP could take a 0.25–0.5% hit, but stressed diversification of exports and maintaining strategic ties with Russia despite the penalties over Russian oil purchases.India, the largest buyer of Russian crude, imported 1.6 million barrels per day in July but has not booked shipments for August and September as discounts narrowed to USD 2 per barrel. “When push comes to shove, then you will have to replace it with oil imports from other countries,” Kumar noted.On US agricultural market access, he said Indian dairy cooperatives could compete strongly, provided imports are non-GMO. “I am not so averse to permitting some access… as long as it is not genetically modified,” he added.
The supply chain risk designation of the artificial intelligence firm is a first for a US company.
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UniQure needs to run another study to prove that its gene therapy “actually helps people with Huntington’s disease,” a senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said on a call with reporters Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity before discussing sensitive information, confirmed the agency has asked the company to run a placebo controlled trial of its treatment, which is administered directly into the brain. UniQure has said that type of study isn’t ethical because it would require putting people under general anesthesia for hours, a characterization the official disputed.
“So what is really going on? UniQure is the latest company to make a failed therapy for Huntington’s patients,” the official said. “They likely acknowledge or understand at some deep level that their trial failed years ago, and instead of doing the right thing and running the correct clinical study, UniQure is performing a distorted or manipulated comparison in the mind of FDA.”
The comments mark the latest development in a messy public spat between UniQure and the FDA, and as the agency comes under fire for a number of recent drug approval application rejections, including some where companies have accused it of going back on previous guidance. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick last week seemingly criticized UniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease. Makary didn’t name UniQure but described its treatment.
UniQure then accused the FDA of reversing its stance that the company’s clinical trial data would be sufficient to seek approval. UniQure’s study used an outside database to measure how patients with Huntington’s disease might decline without treatment, known as an external control. UniQure has said it wouldn’t be feasible to run a true randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, considered the gold standard, because it wouldn’t be ethical to make people undergo a sham hours-long brain surgery.
The FDA official said the agency “never agreed to accept this distorted comparison” and the FDA “never makes such assurances.” Instead, the “FDA will always say, ‘Well, we have to see the data when we get it.'”
UniQure didn’t immediately comment.
The company’s stock rose more than 10% on Thursday and has fallen 58% this year as of Thursday afternoon.
Business
US mortgage rates rise to 6% after three-week slide as oil-driven bond yields climb – The Times of India
The average long-term US mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a three-week decline as bond yields rose amid oil-price pressures linked to the war with Iran.The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6% from 5.98% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Thursday. A year ago, the average rate stood at 6.63%, AP reported.The modest uptick breaks a three-week slide in borrowing costs, with mortgage rates having hovered close to the 6% mark for most of this year. Last week’s average had marked the first time the rate dipped below 6% since September 2022, reaching its lowest level in nearly three and a half years.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy, investor expectations about inflation and economic growth, and movements in the bond market.They typically track the direction of the 10-year US Treasury yield, which lenders use as a benchmark for pricing home loans.The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.14% at midday Thursday, up from around 4% a week earlier.Treasury yields have moved higher in recent days as rising oil prices added fresh inflation concerns, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates.
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