After a long period of steady growth the Chinese economy has now begun to slow down (“Yuan Devaluation and Its Impact” by Biswajit Dhar, EPW, 5 September 2015). Chinese foreign trade in August 2015 decreased by 9.7%, a record drop of $93.9 billion.
India’s trade deficit with China is now close to $40 billion and is likely to go up to $60 billion in the next two years, leading to serious concerns over India’s ability to sustain it (“India’s Trade Deficit with China: How to Bridge the Gap?,” EPW, 11 July).
China is indulging in double standards against India through the New Silk Road strategy (“Silk Routes versus Sea Lanes: The Return of Landlubbers” by Atul Bhardwaj, EPW, 30 May 2015).
India’s third largest state by population — Bihar — is truly in the state of decay and darkness (Shobhit Mahajan, “Decay and Darkness in Bihar”, EPW, 10 January 2015). Despite fertile agricultural lands and other natural resources, Bihar presently seems to be in the Hobbesian state of nature.
