Modi’s China Failed Policy (w/Jayant Bhandari) | Geopolitical Trends

All right, hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends, where truth matters. Excited to be with you as always. I'm even more excited this evening because of my guest, uh, a good friend of mine. And, uh, for those who do not know who Jayant Bhandari, uh, make sure to take a look at the full description that I put in the description for the video. But I'm going to share quickly a brief intro before I bring my guest in. Janet Bhandari has been an Asia-based institutional investor advisor for the last 3 years, so he's, he's been around regarding the world of investments and finance. He has received his Master of Business Administration, an MBA, that is, from Manchester Business School in the UK. In addition to that, he holds also a Bachelor of Engineering from Sri Govindram Sikkasi Seara, I hope I pronounced it correctly, Institute of Technology and Science in India. He frequently writes on cultural, political, and social issues for several publications. So let me bring in my guest. And hi, Jayant.

Thanks, thanks very much for having me here, David. And hello.

We're very excited to have you. The whole community was waiting once they found out you are coming. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna share this with you because I want to have it on the record. Look at this one here, this post here. Somebody's been waiting for 7 hours for you.

Oh well, I'm, I'm flattered. I'm flattered. Thank you.

So I just want you to know. So guys, we have a very packed show for you. There's a lot of information that Jayant is going to be sharing with us. We're going to be talking about India, of course, about the role of India, that is some sort of creating some issues in Southeast Asia. So, and Jayant is going to be providing us his insight, his knowledge, his analysis about all this. And of course, it's up to you guys to reach your own conclusion. So, so, Jayant, I'm gonna start first with the recent trip of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to Saudi Arabia. In your opinion, what is the objective of the trip? Is he going to ask for money? Is he going— he went there to ask for energy? What do you make out of that trip?

Um, so David, Saudi Arabia is a supplier of a lot of India's energy requirements, and India needs to have a good relationship with Saudi Arabia also because A lot of Indian migrant workers work in Saudi Arabia. These are the people who are the lowest-skilled people, the nannies and the maids, the construction workers who, um, who have a huge presence in Saudi Arabia. A few weeks back, Saudi Arabia cancelled visas of Indians, short-term visas of Indians on visiting there. And internally, Modi is under a massive amount of pressure If you recall, he lost election, the majority election, majority presence in the parliament last year because of lack of employment in the country, in India. So he need to send more and more of these young people outside the country for two reasons. One is that he desperately needs remittances. If India does not get those remittances from these poor slave workers, India— Indian currency will fall very, very badly. So India needs foreign currency. It needs Saudi Arabia to continue to accept Indians. But also, if these young Indians are left within the country, they cause trouble. There are all kinds of fanaticism and religious wars, language wars, regional wars. Battles are starting in that country. A country is falling apart, and Modi cannot afford to have these young people create trouble. And he solves the problem by sending them abroad and getting some remittances. That's what he did with Israel. He started sending people to Israel so that they could take over the places that Palestinians had vacated. So my guess is that Modi went to Saudi Arabia to ensure that more Indians were accepted in the infrastructure projects that Saudi Arabia is coming up with. Now, I know that some people talk about the fact that the biggest prison population in Saudi Arabia is made up of Indians. Did Modi go to Saudi Arabia to get these people released? I seriously doubt it. Modi really doesn't care about Indians. He doesn't care about what happens to people within the country or outside the country, including in terms of what happened recently in Kashmir. He doesn't care a fig about it. Uh, what he— so I don't think he went there to get these Indians released. He went there just to ensure that his prime ministerial seat stays there for him.

Wow. Yeah, because it was, it was so confusing, at least from my perspective, to— I asked myself, what will be the objective for his trip to Saudi Arabia at this time, given that there are enough tensions inside India that he needs to address and deal with? So, and one of those tensions that I wanted to bring up to your attention here has to do with the tariffs that the United States imposed on India. And India didn't respond to the Americans, but they went ahead and imposed 12% tariffs on the Chinese. What's, what's, what's wrong with that picture?

Well, firstly, really, India can't really do much, and India doesn't really care either, because is immune from what happens outside the country economically. And the reason, David, is that Indian economy is a very low economy. 80%, 90% of Indians go to bed hungry. The GDP per capita is $2,500. And this is not a country that really cares. I mean, a starving guy has nothing to lose. So you can impose whatever tariff on him, or they can impose whatever tariff on other people. The situation of the starving guy isn't going to really change to any meaningful degree. So India doesn't really care. But also remember that half of the foreign currency that comes to India is— comes because of services exports and remittances. Now both of these things bypass any kind of tariffs. So I can fully understand that the US is not happy with the fact that so many, uh, H-1B visa people send money back to India. The migrant workers back send money back to India, and, uh, and this money is not, uh, taxed by, uh, in terms of import duties by the US. Uh, so I guess America and, and India can't really do much about it because in the— if India creates any problems here Other countries can retaliate very badly against India, and India desperately, desperately needs these remittances and service exports to stay tariff-free. Again, these comprise 50% of India's foreign exchange inflows.

So why India didn't respond to the US? When the US—

No, they— I think they pretty much responded by saying, we will prostrate, we will genuflect, we will do whatever you want us to do, we will be— we will humiliate ourselves and we will let you humiliate us. You will tell us that we are— other nations are coming to kiss my asses and I will still prostrate in front of you. Modi visited South Washington right away, very soon after Trump inaugural happened, and he pretty much prostrated. He was humiliated by Trump. But they have no self-respect. So Modi and the rest of the Indian government will do whatever is required to stay alive and whatever is expedient for them.

Wow, that's very disturbing, to say the least. So now I'm sure you are aware, Jayant, of the recent tensions between India and Pakistan. And the way I'm looking at this, beside of course nobody expects, which is a sad turnout of events regarding the targeting of the tourists in Kashmir and so forth, I am also looking at what's going on being some sort of a diversion from the failure of Modi's domestic policies. Will I be fair in that assessment?

Well, both India and Pakistan governments, rulers who are predatory and crooked and corrupt, want to— and demagogues— they want to create diversions for their people. They want to engage the people in nonsensical issues. So that is what both of them come up with. The Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan, Asim Munir, gave a horrible speech recently, I think just about a week or 10 days back, And he was— he said a lot of bad things about Hindus and Indians, which were uncalled for from a high-level leader. But Pakistan is just the other side of exactly the same coin. They are the same people. He spoke in Urdu, which is Hindi, and I understand every word of it. And the other side of the coin is Modi. He is doing his own demagoguery. He is himself diverting attention of Indians from the key issue that India is falling apart and economically it is stagnant, is stagnating, and lives of a large chunk of Indians is getting extremely miserable. Now, if you were pointing at this being possibly a false flag operation in Kashmir, I don't think so. And the reason is not because they wouldn't want to do anything that gets them votes, or distraction of people, but because they are so utterly incompetent. Yesterday, in my— close to my hometown in India, in central India, Indian Air Force dropped something, something on a house, and that was a mistake probably. But they are so utterly incompetent. And most of these people— and this is very important to remember— that whenever there has been a war between India or Pakistan or any of the two countries in that region, in the Middle East, or in South Asia, most people die because of friendly fire. So, uh, rationally, mathematically, you would be better off not, uh, participating in the war and let the other party fight the war against you, and they would destroy themselves. Now, I know it sounds hilarious, but these countries are extraordinarily dysfunctional. This large institution of the armies that India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have are dysfunctional. Nothing happens. They have really no control over the guy at the front. The guy at the front does what he wants to do. Uh, there's no discipline. There's no, uh, no proper equipment. So no, I don't think that this was a false flag operation in Kashmir. This did happen, uh, and, uh, because, uh, Modi is just so incompetent, the country is so incompetent, everyone is so incompetent that they could not have got away with that by doing a false flag operation.

I, uh, I had a chance to read one of your posts on X. I follow you. Just, guys, I'm gonna put the link for you as I already put it in the description if you want to follow, uh, Giant on, on X, on Twitter, that is. So, and, and Giant posted their, posted their articles and so forth. Very, very interesting read. So So I had a chance to read one of your posts, uh, uh, Giants. I'm going to share it with the community here. Uh, that's right there. And you wrote, Indian Army forces operates in the technological ecosystem of the '60s, and they have no understanding of collateral damage or even pursuing the criminals. Their key job is to create headlines that they are the win something. What led to that post, uh, Jayant? Is this a reflection of what's going on?

Yeah, look, look at what happened in on 26th November, uh, 20 years back when there was a terrorist attack in Mumbai, and you could see if you really watched, paid attention to how Indian commandos were dealing with the situation they were muzzle sweeping the, the, what was in front of them. Now, those people who don't understand muzzle sweeping, it pretty much means that you just shoot everything in front of you. You, you shoot at random, you move your guns rapidly from left to right so that you kill as many people as possible. Now, that of course increases the probability of get— getting one bullet into the head of the, the terrorist. But there is a huge amount of collateral damage. Indian Armed Forces, Indian police really doesn't care about collateral damage because all Indians who are not affected care about, and what the government cares about is to create headlines that they killed someone. And what happens in India, David, is that unlike what happened in Stalin's USSR, where when people were— police was instructed to get rid of some people, documents needed to be signed. In India, police will just go and kill people without any need to sign documents, and these are called encounter killings. You can actually— there's actually a Wikipedia page on it, and it's a fully legitimate situation. Indians get killed, but what Indian armed forces do is that they just go and kill some innocent people if nothing else works. Because going after really hardened criminals is a tough job. You don't really want to be killed yourself. So to avoid that risk, they just go and kill some innocent people. And then dead people cannot fight in the court. Not that Indian courts work in your favor. Indian courts do nothing like justice. But encounter killings are literally tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, Probably million Indians get killed every year in police encounters, and there's no way to address that, that situation. So this is what I was talking about, that they really don't have that humanistic values, uh, trained into the Indian Armed Forces. They just do whatever they are told to do. Whosoever pays them the bribe tells them what to do, and if an innocent Indian gets killed, it's none of their problems. Actually, it's not a problem of an average Indian either because he has no empathy, he has no interest in other people. He just wants to feel good watching his television that these Indian armed forces are going there and killing the terrorists. Now, it doesn't— you know, tomorrow he might himself get killed, but that will be another matter.

Wow, wow, that's, that's interesting. Uh, let me go back quickly here to the Pakistan. Then we'll move into another segment of the conversation itself. So it looks to me that now I'm concerned. I'm watching from outside in as tensions between India and Pakistan now reaches some sort of boiling point. And I feel comfortable saying this following the deadly attacks in Kashmir. So now, are we looking at a war between India and Pakistan? And second thing is, what will happen to the status of Kashmir?

Well, I mean, Indian government illegally, against the constitutional order, incorporated Kashmir fully into India. That was illegal. You did not really need to go to the Supreme Court. Indian government had no right to remove the special status that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed within India. The agreement of accession that Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir and India had meant that the other Indians were not allowed to own properties in Jammu and Kashmir apart from defense and a few other things. Everything was supposed to be left to the internal government of Jammu and Kashmir. So Indian government under Modi and Shah removed that special status. Supreme Court of India should have clearly gone against the government, but it did not. But that also tells you that Indians don't believe in fairness. Indian Supreme Court has no concept of justice, and they are all bribe takers, really. I have known some of the top justices, and they— the only thing that matters to them is bribes. They don't even care about Hindus. If they started caring even about Hindus, I would at least get a positive feeling that they have some values. So firstly, Jammu and Kashmir status should not have been removed. But also by removing that status, they antagonized China. Now, any war with Pakistan will be a war with China indirectly, because what will happen is that China will station troops all across the border with India to make it difficult for India to fight just with Pakistan. But then remember, these Indians and Pakistanis are both dysfunctional. They know they can get nothing done. But moreover, they are sheep as well. That is why for the last 1,000 years, foreigners have always managed to enter India, India, which includes Pakistan and Bangladesh, and do whatever they wanted to do. So they ruled these countries, these people like slaves, and these people gave in right away. That character continues today. They don't want to fight. The rulers of both Pakistan and India want to demagoguery, for internal distractions, but they don't really care. They won't fight either, and they don't really have the capability to fight.

Well, that's why I keep saying to myself, couldn't they come to some sort of an agreement and discuss what the differences are? I mean, I see it on both ends. India could do that with Pakistan and solve whatever issues, and India can also do that with China and solve the issues.

Yeah, and this is a big major handicap rational people, uh, suffer from. Rational people think that there's always a solution to every problem, that it is always possible to sit across the table and come to a negotiation and a contract and a discussion and give in a bit, take in a bit, and just be friendly, that life is not perfect. There's no clear white and black line. God did not create boundaries between countries. So just sit down, talk about those, and sort them out in a friendly, amicable fashion. That is not in the character of South Asia. In just about all surveys, South Asians, which is Bangladeshis, Indians, and Pakistanis, come across as among the most racist and selfish people. So they don't really sit across the table to do a win-win transaction. So they cannot come to a conclusion on anything. They will— they are not driven by love or harmony. They are driven by hate for the other people. And there is a very popular Urdu-Hindi word, uh, which, which is, uh, they want to take their frustration on other people. So if you thought that Indians currently are angry about what happened to these 26 people who got killed in Kashmir, no, they don't care. Literally thousands and thousands of people die every single day in India for all kinds of unnatural reasons. You know, just in Mumbai, 10 people die on railway tracks every single day. I know it's impossible to believe, but that's the number. They don't really care. Indians have no empathy. They are just taking their frustration out because Indians are internally very dissatisfied, very stressed, very frustrated, and they want a scapegoat. And for now, Pakistan is their scapegoat. Not that Pakistan is, uh, uh, safe, not that Pakistan is a good place, not that they are saintly. It just means that if I had to sort out any problems, there are so many problems staring at my face within the country, right outside my house, that there's no reason to worry about Pakistan.

Uh, if we are to think about Southeast Asia, so beside the issue of beside the issue of Pakistan. I'm noticing that like India does not have a good relationship with its neighbors. I'll take the example of Nepal, I take the example of Bangladesh, I'll take the example of Bhutan. Why is this? Why India does not sort of live in a coexistence, peaceful manner with its neighbors and trying to influence especially for Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Why is that?

Well, you're projecting Western words on India, peace and harmony and getting along, win-win. These are all Western concepts which have no connection with the Indian mind. And that, of course, apply— when I say India, I mean Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis. They have— these words have no connection with the minds of these people. When you buy a property in, in India, David Oualaalou, and this is across the, across the board true with every single property, the first thing you do is to set up high concrete walls around your property because the neighbor will want to take over pieces of your property or even take over your property. When I started living in the UK, I was so confused about it that people did not have fences. They did not have border walls between the houses. They just left the grass run between the— all across the— in front of the houses. Because there is a— Western people are trusting people, they are trustworthy as well. But Indians want to take over other people's houses the moment they can. And this is the situation with the neighboring countries as well. What happens in your neighborhood and your house also is the same mentality that makes you run your countries. And as a result, India has— is always fighting with other, other neighboring countries to bully them around. The end result is that the closest country that they should have, Nepal, has moved to the side of China because Nepal is the only Hindu nation on the planet. So India should have had a good relationship with Nepal, but they bullied Nepal, they blackmailed Nepal that Nepal basically gave in and moved towards the Chinese way of control thinking. And similarly, Bhutan will eventually gravitate towards China. Currently Bhutan is stuck by— in— because Indian armed forces are stationed in Bhutan., and India supplies, I think, close to half of everything that Bhutan needs. Well, and, and that also means all of oil and all of the energy and a lot of food requirements of Bhutan go from India. So Bhutan is in this catch-22 situation right now, but my guess is that Bhutan will eventually go out, leave towards the Chinese sphere of influence as well. Now with Bangladesh, the that was the only friendly neighbor India had. But the only friendliness that existed there was friendship between Modi and Sheikh Hasina. There was no other relationship. There was no friendliness among people. There was no warmth among people because the government of India did not encourage that. And as a result, the moment Hasina went, the relationship with Bangladesh fell very, very rapidly. The same happened with Maldives as well. So the end result is that India actually is one of the most close-minded country, and it has closed borders with all the country. I think pretty much you can't really go by road from one place to another in the— to any of the neighboring country except for Nepal, unless you are doing transportation of goods with China. But And Sri Lanka— India wanted to set up a bridge with Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka said, no, hey, we don't want land connection with you. So Indians in microcosm do not get along with each other. It's an atomized society. They fight with each other all the time. There are all kinds of internal conflicts, and the same mentality reflects in their relationships with other countries as well.

Liking this video so far? Don't just be a watcher. Go ahead and hit the like, share, and subscribe button. And don't forget to tap the bell so you will not miss any of my videos or live streams. This way, you will be supporting a channel that stands for the truth and objective reporting. The choice is yours. Thanks for your support. All right, well, this leads us to talk about Southeast Asia writ large vis-à-vis the relations with India. I had a chance to read an article, and I'm gonna post— guys, uh, I'll post the article for you in the description, but I'm gonna share a picture here, and I'll have, uh, Giant's take on this. Uh, it appears to me, Giant, that, uh, India is not taking advantage of now the economic prosperity that lies—

Sorry, David, I'm— I can't hear you at all. Um, I have completely lost you, David.

Okay, here we go. Let me see here again. Can you hear me now?

Um, not clearly. No.

Okay. Wow, we lost the sound here. Okay. Let me make sure. All right, can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah, I'm good now. There we go.

Yeah, yeah, that sometimes it happens with this technology, you know how it is. So what I was going to say, uh, Giant, what I was saying rather is that India is not— seems to me it's not wanted to take advantage of now where the economic trajectory of Southeast Asia is moving. Given what China just reached with ASEAN countries, the economic ventures that China is building in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Malaysia, I mean, why India doesn't see, for example, the trajectory for economic prosperity which the Indian people could benefit from?

Well, because Indians don't even want economic prosperity. If you thought that Modi wanted India to prosper and economically grow, no, he doesn't want that. He wants to subdue his people. He wants to oppress his people. He wants his people to stay in starving conditions because that allows him to easily control these people. And these people are interested in nothing else but controlling. They are interested in nothing else than power. Power. And they are interested in nothing but slavish people. They don't want a bunch of proud, honest, upright people in their countries, because then these people would start questioning you. So yes, Modi is not interested in economic progress. Now, of course, he talks about economic progress. But that's not his interest. But moreover, as I said, India, Indians, or Indian government and Indians as well are atomized people. They are irrational people. They are immoral people. And all they care about in interacting with other people is to gain maximum resources. Whether that happens fairly or unfairly is none of their concerns. They are not immoral people in that sense because they don't understand the concept of morality. So as a result, when you come with that frame of mind, you cannot really have a contract or understanding with anyone. You want to maximize your resource acquisition. This is how businesses in India run. You do a contract with them, they will break a contract when the contract goes— starts going in your favor. And so, and so, so this is how the people think, the, the, how the country thinks. So how can you come to a contract with anyone, uh, in that region. And that is why China is able to work with Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, uh, you know, the whole range of countries. In fact, China works very well with Taiwan as well, economically. I mean, if you go to— if people have visited China, they will realize that China actually has separate airports for, uh, taking flights to Taiwan and Hong Kong, uh, indirectly recognizes recognizing that those are separate, independent countries. So China manages to work with Japan, Taiwan, Korea, irrespective of what happens politically. But look at India, India, the moment this Kashmir thing happened, which was just a blip, not even a blip, because, you know, in, in just in Delhi, police might have killed 26 people in fake encounters that day or that month. So this, this is no big deal. What did India do? India canceled visas of all Pakistanis. They required all Pakistanis admitted in hospitals in, in India to leave within the next 5 days. Now listen, if you just had a heart surgery and if you, you can't really leave India right away, and it was none of the problems of those people. So these are truly very stupid people, very stupid countries. A small one thing happens and they want to expand that problem into every area. India closed its borders right away. Pakistan closed its airspace for Indian planes. And a common guy, I was listening to a video of a woman who's married, an Indian woman married to a Pakistani guy with children having Pakistani passports. The woman was with her children in India. Now she's stuck. What to do with the children? Because the children cannot cross over anymore. The border is closed. Children probably cannot fly back themselves. They probably can't even afford it. You know, these people really, really never think about what happens to the common guy. And this is what you can also see when you recall what happened during demonetization and COVID. Of course, Modi, in my view, let about 4 to 5 million people die in COVID because of his utter incompetency. And, uh, careless, uh, imposition of lockdown. Literally tens of millions of people walked thousands of kilometers, thousands of kilometers in 40-degree heat without footwear. So many people died and so many women got raped, but Modi doesn't care. That's the nature of Indian politicians. Wow.

Well, I never believed Modi was ever qualified to lead India. I mean, at least—

No, he's well qualified. He is the, you know, the next Prime Minister of India will make me nostalgic for Modi. Uh, Indians deserve Modi, and Modi is better than what Indians deserve. And the next one will be even worse. Uh, and I completely agree, I, I dislike Modi, uh, not just because he's a hate-filled, uh, demagogue, he's also extremely low IQ. He has the IQ of a street goon. My guess is that his IQ is less than 75. And a reflection of that you can see in his response to one of the rare interviews he did with the journalists. That was in Washington recently when Trump— he visited Trump, and someone asked him about what he was going to— what he was discussing with Trump about in terms of Adani's arrest warrant. And in the US, and his response was, we believe in a friendly world, we consider the world to be our family. So he went off the tangent into some totally nonsense stuff because he has no capability to respond using his own brain. He's a low IQ person.

Wow. Well, it's true. I never heard Modi had any, like, a live press conference in which he answers questions from international journalists and so forth. So I don't think so he can articulate the issues very clearly.

He can't even think about those issues. I— he cannot conceptualize those issues. That's his biggest problem. He's a very low IQ person. But take my word for it, 5 years from now when the next prime minister comes, if— and if that's not Modi, you will be nostalgic for Modi because, uh, That's how rapidly the situation is deteriorating in the country.

Wow. Let's talk about, uh, no, I once again, I, I read a lot, so that's how I keep up with everything that is going on, uh, regarding India and, and the neighborhood and so forth. One of the things that is coming up to the forefront now, uh, Jayant, has to do with, uh, now, now Despite how you look at it, plus or minuses, is it correct and proper for India to be in BRICS? Because now a lot of people are asking the question, if India, see, wants to be— is also part of the BRI, India is also part of the RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. So is India also ready for BRICS? My, my answer is India was never fit for BRICS. What do you think, given what lies ahead for the expansion of BRICS, given the changes on the global economic landscape?

Well, India destroys every international organization it becomes a part of. India can afford to be friends with Iran, Russia, and USA at the same time, and the reason is that again there is no moral values that run, underpin the institutions of India or the thinking of Indian rulers or even of Indians. So the end result is that India is there in any organization for its own personal self-serving interests. Now, of course, we are all here for our own self-personal interests, but there's a concept of fairness and justice and doing the right thing. And getting into win-win situations is what, what rationally we transact in. That's the rational— that's a transactional idea that we engage in when we interact with other people. India doesn't do those things. So the problem is that India will destroy every organization. And I'm not surprised that a lot of people would probably want India to be let go from BRICS Uh, but at the same time, you know, who are the countries in BRICS, uh, David? Apart from Russia and, uh, China, every country is a non-entity. Now, uh, you people— I do know people ask why Saudi Arabia or UAE interested in BRICS, and the reason is very simple. Unlike what most people think, the oil supplies of Saudi Arabia and UAE and other Middle Eastern countries do not go to the US or Canada. They go to these, uh, other, uh, third world countries. Uh, so, uh, Saudi Arabia and UAE have it in their interest to have, um, to be in the positive, to be seen in positive light by countries like India, despite that they otherwise dislike Indians completely. Um, so, um, you know, again, my, my view is that any organization of third world countries does not work anyway, because, uh, they are third world countries, because their institutions are third world-like, and they think in a third world fashion. So BRICS will end up becoming a third world organization. And again, if they think they could replace G7 or a Western-run organization, institution, they're completely wrong. It will never ever happen. If they could do that thing, they would have already become First World countries. So you can think mathematically about it if you want, but in my view, if there is any BRICS, that's Russia and China. Everyone else is either there to show up or is a non-entity who wants to be seen by his own people as, as important by being a, by being a part of BRICS.

Well, I'm, I'm starting to question literally where BRICS is headed because there is no solid foundation there to implement policies. In the case, for example, if India doesn't play by the rule with the economic bloc, then it needs to be out. But there is no mechanism by which to let India out of BRICS.

Yeah, and also when you lose touch with what you originally started with, you start doing things which make no sense. So Now BRICS has, I know, many kinds of groups, they have a lot of money, a few $100 or $150 billion in reserves to buffer transactions of these countries. But really $100-150 billion to me might sound great, a huge number. But on a national scale, these are very, very insignificant numbers. And you look at what BRICS is doing in Brazil. They will be discussing about— I was reading about it— global health, climate change, AI governance. Now, this has nothing to do with what BRICS was supposed to do. This is the third world way of thinking. And I'm not just, uh, you know, Brazil is of course, uh, is still a third world country and is still, uh, 4 times richer than India, quite rightly, because they are 4 times smarter than Indians. Uh, but at the same time, it is still a second world country with a third— second world, uh, way of thinking. And they get into all these stupid things. It— these things allow, um, useless bureaucrats and politicians to look important, fly first class, travel the world at the, at the expense of taxpayers, etc., etc. But these are wasteful expenses which should be cut down. My suggestion would be that throw away this organization because the only reason behind this organization is China and Russia, uh, and China doesn't want to be too visible as China. So they are very likely using BRICS as a front to get things done that they want to get done.

Wow. But on, on, on this note specifically, Jayant, I had a conversation with someone and, and And the question I was asked as a matter of opinion, and it caught me by off guard, I'll admit it, about Singapore. Could Singapore be a good player in BRICS, or could BRICS extend an invitation to Singapore? And the reason why I wanted to mention this, Giant, you are familiar with Singapore, the investments and so forth. Recently, the United States imposed 10% tariffs on Singapore, even though Singapore has a surplus with the United States. And it just didn't make sense to me. I heard the speech of Lawrence Wong, the Prime Minister of Singapore. He lashed out at the United States. But when I was asked about the question whether BRICS should invite Singapore, I was kind of surprised by that. And I said, No. Will I be wrong in this assessment, Jayant?

I agree with that. I, you know, Singapore is one of the most, is probably the best-run country on the planet. I used to live in Singapore early last decade. I lived there for 2, 3 years. It's just an amazingly well-run place. And they don't waste their resources participating in stupidities. So unless Singapore Singapore saw a clear benefit in participating in something like that, they wouldn't waste even a single bureaucrat salary to travel between Brazil and Singapore. So Singapore is very careful about the tax money it collects. It's a very rational government. Now, of course, government servants are apathetic, courts don't work, you know, I understand all those things. But compared to what happens elsewhere in the world, Singapore is a very, very well-run country, and Singapore prefers not to get involved in wasting its money. But also, Singapore is probably the only country on the planet which navigates China and the US extremely well. It keeps a good relationship with China, it keeps an excellent relationship with the US, and probably even hosting naval forces of both the countries. I don't know, but, uh, this is what the rumor you hear. So, uh, so Singapore does a good job, and they does it not out of expediency. They just do it out of good nature and, uh, friendly behavior towards both, because they see that both of these countries are what, what they benefit from. Uh, but also I I think the same way, David. I would one day want to see China and US come closer, because I see a huge amount of symbiosis between the two countries. Americans are given a lot of negative information about China, which is erroneous. But at the same time, Chinese do the same thing. They don't really let their young people think to say too many positive things about America. Despite that, a young Chinese wants to look like an American. So, and a Chinese wants to be American, but he cannot say positive things too openly because he can get into trouble. So I think the two countries should, uh, at a leadership level, find a symbiosis and work together. But maybe too— that's too idealistic for me as an outsider.

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I'm still thinking in terms of BRICS and Singapore. I don't see it working because Russians will never forget that Singapore has imposed sanctions on Russia. In other words, it joined the West for that, and they are not going to forget that. It's just what surprised me the most, Giant, was the speech by Lawrence Wong. I didn't expect him to lash out at the US. Which is rightly so because you don't impose this kind of tariffs. And now we're finding out that we have shot ourselves in the foot. It's because we expected that China is going to back down. China is not backing down.

Yeah, well, you know, I think Trump approached China the wrong way when he— when you— and I'm very pro-Trump, but I think When you say things like, uh, these leaders are coming to kiss my ass, uh, I, I don't think it goes down very well with Chinese. These are honorable, proud people, uh, and, uh, even if they had a reason to come back to the US, they would have found it difficult given the— that it would have led to a loss of face. Uh, Trump should have considered that, but maybe there's something else that I don't know about. But then I also understand that So many things that governments do are just idiotic, not thought through properly, because they are supplied information by yes-men and they are supplied information that is not properly researched.

That is true. And Trump does not know much. I mean, he just follows whatever they told him to. So this leads me to ask you, Jayant, since you are in the investment and financial world, Given what Trump's policies are, what do you expect moving forward regarding, first of all, the trust in the American investment system? And second, how do you think the global investors is going to be approaching the next few months moving forward?

Well, I, I think everything will stay in a state, a state of turmoil. There will be a lot of volatility because no one really knows what Trump will come up with next. And so there is going to be turmoil. And I think people are going to be very afraid of, of his policies. Even if they are for the benefit of America, I think a lot of what he's doing is going to benefit America in the short term. In the long term, he can't really control anything because he will be out in 3 years, 4 years' time. So, you know, he has limited bandwidth. Limited time to influence. But yeah, next few months, I don't really think we can predict what's coming. I, I think anyone who tells me he can predict what's coming, uh, doesn't really know, uh, what's happening.

You're absolutely correct. So, uh, guys, by the way, I will take a, a question or two from the audience, uh, Super Sticker questions for Jayant if you have one. Just prepare it before we talk about our last part of the conversation here. And the last segment of this conversation, Giant, I want to talk about Europe, get your feedback on how Europeans now are lifting the trade barriers with China. What does it mean moving forward from the, from the perspective of finance, from the perspective of investment And from the perspective of the transatlantic relations between the US and Europe?

Yeah, I, I don't really fully understand how this will play out, uh, but I have always felt favorable towards, uh, the Western society and Far East Asia. Japan, Korea, China, or Taiwan are great places. They are really some of best countries on the planet, and China is improving so much that you really need to have a relationship with China. I was in China, David, last week, and I went to a dentist and I got my full x-ray done. I had a consultancy, I had a teeth cleaning done, and, you know, uh, This cost me about $30 American. This was a very high-tech, high-class dentistry, one of the best in the city I was in, and I only paid $30. I asked them how much would a root canal cost, and it would have cost me about $100 American. You know, China is just so inexpensive. China is so inexpensive. When I'm in China, I pay anything between the fifth or the tenth of what I would pay in the US. So, uh, and, and the reason is very simple. Regulatory burden is very limited. People are very skilled. They— I would say they are as skilled as an average European or American. Now, other third world countries, if you go to Thailand or Malaysia, you can see visually that those people are not skilled. Their hands don't work the way the Chinese hands work. The Chinese are skilled, and still they cost you, uh, one-fifth. And I tell you, you can't really compete with them. I doubt— I seriously doubt if much manufacturing is ever going to return back to the US, um, just because the Chinese have, uh, have a good, uh, setup. And I can fully understand why any rational party would want to be in a good symbiotic relationship with China rather than an antagonistic relationship with it. So I'm pleased if Europe is doing the right thing, but I wonder if they are doing the right thing because they are thinking the right way or because they have been cornered. And my guess is the latter, that they have been cornered. So they are doing what is right because Europe is doing so many things which are completely wrong in my view.

Well, you're absolutely correct. I share your opinion on this, given, for example, the recent statement by Tim Cook, the head of Apple, that, uh, you know, the operations will still be in China despite moving some of the operations to India, which I, I believe it's— they're gonna run a risk. They're gonna run a risk by moving, even though Tim Cook said it will be just on a smaller scale. But still, it's gonna hinder the progress, but the major production stays in China. And the same arguments—

I, I, I want to correct that statement actually, because India is not producing, uh, anything for Apple. They are assembling, and it's— there's a huge difference between assembling and production. Uh, India basically brings in everything and they put to put the screws together, to put things into an assembly. And this does employ about 60,000 to 70,000 people because these are large assembly projects. But again, for a normal guy, 60,000 to 70,000 people figure looks huge, but it's nothing. It's not even a rounding error for a country of 1.4 billion people. India gets 68,000 new babies every single day. So this took care of only one day of Indian baby production, and that's only assembly, not manufacturing. In fact, most of the things that India does in so-called manufacturing is assembly. What is it? Boeing does the same thing. They have a, they have a project, but they, that's from what I understand, just an assembly, an assembly of very minor parts. The major parts are just already assembled when they come in, and that's how you also bypass the import tariff structure in India. When you import parts for assembly, the import duty is very low. When you bring in the full machine, the import duty is very high. So if you put in a couple of screws, nuts, and bolts in India Um, why not? But that does not stop fecal matter from entering the assembly, uh, of cell phones in India.

Wow. So, so probably there's nothing major about what Tim Cook said regarding the bringing of operations into India.

Well, remember that if India is buying 100 Boeing planes, which looks again big, but for a country of 1.4 billion, just $2,500 per person GDP, add up to be such a huge number that 100 Boeing planes or 200 Boeing planes don't really make a huge difference. But if that order is associated with a requirement from the Indian government that Boeing would do some kind of assembly for demagoguery of the BJP and Modi, and Boeing might think that, hey, it might cost us 1.1% of our revenue to set up something stupid in India to make it look that they are doing something in India as well for the satisfaction of Modi. They would do it. And maybe Apple is doing exactly the same thing. They wanted to openly start selling their cell phones in India. Indian government wasn't allowing them. So maybe they thought, okay, we will compromise 1% of our 0.1% of our revenue in this show-off, um, uh, thing. Um, uh, and, and I'm forgetting that term that is often used for North Korea where they have these fake villages. But anyway, um, you know, this is— these are show-off things, uh, to, uh, let Modi use those for demagoguery purposes, but there's no manufacturing happening. India's manufacturing as a percentage of its GDP continues continues to decline. It's less than 13% today of GDP, and you can go to the World Bank's website to see that it continues to decline. So everything else, this is all dance and drama. Wow.

But now, when we think about population— and I need to ask you this question before I let you go, Jayant, because you write also about culture and so forth— when you think about population, they always say sociologists those who deal with— or demographers, uh, deal with the issue of population in two directions. If you have an aging population, that could create a problem for you moving forward. If you have a large population, that could also become a liability. What would it be the case of, of India, that has a large population, but the large population is not a equipped or educated, or has the infrastructure needed to move forward?

Well, so, so David, I've been talking about it for the last 20 years. I have said repeatedly that India's demographic, uh, demography is not a dividend, which these ivory tower sitting people think it was, or still continue to think it is. Indian demographics is its liability, and a massive liability, because these young people unemployed, they are causing troubles, and they are completely unskilled. They have— there is no future for them. And with AI and robotics coming into the picture, these people are even not useful for sweeping the road. Now they can't even sweep the road properly, actually, because if you see Saudi Arabia, or you— if you see Singapore or Hong Kong, they don't use Indian nannies and Indian unskilled workers, because they can't— they are not even trained for such basic things. Their value system conflicts with that requirement. Because if India can— Indian can spit and get away with it, he will. Now look at some of the numbers, David, if you, if you don't mind. The unemployment rate between— of the young Indians, which is the age between 20 and 25, is 44%, which means that approximately 1 out of 2 Indians is unemployed right now. Now, uh, don't make me tell you what happens to the other 45% people, 46, 56% people. If you want to get a job with one of the top software companies in India today, you would get a salary of about 350 $350 a month. $350 American dollars a month. So those people who have formal employment earn extremely low rate. If you get $150 a month as formal employment, you are seen as employed. And even then, half of the population, youth population, is unemployed. Now, here is the problem, David Oualaalou. 90% of Indians are not in the formal sector. Only 10% of Indians are in the formal sector. A vast majority of those 90% people work as casual laborers, road construction people, self-employed people. Now, self-employed might sound sexy to you, but this also often means sitting on the roadside to sell grocery or vegetables. So, so the situation of the youth population in that country is extremely bad. Nothing is coming up, no manufacturing is coming up. The institutions are 100% predatory, who rape and pillage without any worries because everyone is a part and participant of that predation and raping and pillaging. And these people are also completely unskilled. They have no skills. If you honestly, David Oualaalou, if you want them to put a nut on a screw, uh, put them a screw on a wall or something, they will not be able to put it straight in. And now I'm not an electrician or a plumber, but I do a better job than they can. So despite my lack of practice and those things, so India is a very unskilled population. And that is exactly why Modi is distracting Indians from the real problem of the country, which will come haunt that country in ways that I can't imagine, by bringing in all these temple issues and all these silly things which really are immaterial for a country of GDP 2,500 per capita. I mean, look at this photograph you're showing, which is probably in Pakistan. Again, a bunch of morons who should be doing something sensible with their lives rather than fighting against India. They are two sides of the same coins. And when they see each other, they see a reflection of their own. So when Indians look at Pakistan or Pakistan looks at India— Indians— they see their own reflection. They are two sides of the same coin, and they find what they see in the mirror repulsive, but they don't really understand that that's a reflection of their own self. But all these people are totally incapable of introspection. They don't think about what they are doing.

Wow, well, that's, that's the truth. So let me, uh, share a post, uh, here with the two individuals before I give you a last word, Giant. We, we've reached the top of the hour. I'm gonna say thank you to Rafael, as always, man, truly appreciate your support. You wrote, China has been waiting for 300 years to be where they are. They want to take the lead. I believe Putin is no longer an asset for China. So, what do you think, Giant? Thank you, Rafael, by the way.

Well, I would dispute the word lead. I don't think Chinese want to lead the world. I don't think they want to run the world. I think they are very inward-looking people. They want to care about their own lives, their own economic growth. They are not outwardly oriented. And in fact, if you go back 300, 400 years, the kings of China stopped Chinese from venturing abroad. So Chinese don't— I don't think they want to lead the world. They prefer to be in the background. If you look at Chinese students or Chinese employees in the Western society, they prefer the sort of backseat, the quiet area where they are invisible. Because they want to— they don't really like the limelight. So again, I dispute the usage of the word lead. But in other ways, I am, David, truly, truly impressed with China, with everything that I— and I have spent a lot of my time this year in China. I would say more than 60-70% of my time this year so far in China. And I'm consistently impressed. I've been to, uh, tier 4, tier 5 cities and towns and villages, and China impresses me no end. Um, so yes, China has— is arrived, and it continues to arrive because it continues to grow, because it continues to be focused. Um, yesterday I was talking with— I was on a radio show. He used the word social credit to do with China, and I didn't really have the chance to argue with him about it. But, you know, I have never seen anything like social credit system in China. I, I still— I'm still trying to wrap my head around it because what I hear from the Western media is not what I experience in China. Now, regarding Chinese relationship with Putin, I don't know about this. You know, China continues to have a good relation— operational relationship with Russia. I also hear that China has its eyes on the eastern part of Russia, which I wouldn't be surprised because Russian, uh, Russia as a society is facing a lot of social problems. Too much of alcoholism, too much of degradation of the society. And now with the war with Ukraine continuing to go on, a lot of young people dead. So China probably sees a medium and long-term interest in, being associated with Russia.

Wow, that's, that's interesting. Let me say also thank you to Raul Pinto, much appreciate you. Great points made by Giant, 100% accurate. The truth bites. Indeed, indeed. That's, that's why Giant, when he's here, that's what you will expect from him, is to hear the truth as it is. And, and I I admire you and appreciate you, giant, for that. The community is so grateful to you for carving out time for us. So I give you a last word, a word of wisdom from you towards if, if even if an Indian individual, and I know some people, somebody wants to improve his life, what can he do?

Um, well, um, I, I might actually just promote my seminar, David, if I run a philosophy seminar in Vancouver every year, and the next one is on the 23rd of August. It's a philosophy seminar in which we talk about Western values, Western civilization, and free speech. So if you could come to that seminar, that's, that's something that you will learn a lot from. And that will be my word of wisdom, that that's where you get a lot of good thoughts going into your minds.

I'm gonna get you guys the link and post it on the description. At least you have it, should you— and I do have, uh, by the way, Giant, I do have a lot of viewers from Canada. So as a matter of fact, there are some in Vancouver, your area. So I'm gonna put, uh, I'm gonna put a link in the chat box later on. And so, so I can, on behalf of the entire community, Giant, I can't thank you enough. Man, for carving out time for us here to share your knowledge, your wisdom, your insights, and your assessments of really what's going on around the world. And I'm, I'm very, very grateful. I'm very grateful.

Great. Thank, thank you very much for the opportunity, David.

My pleasure. So wait for me till I say bye to our community, and I'll talk to you privately. All right, guys, hope you enjoyed listening to Giant. As always, it's, it's a, it's a treat when Jayant is here, that's what you will expect to hear. So, and, and once again, we are very, very grateful to have him here with us. So remember to join me tomorrow for my conversation, for the community conversation, that is. And I'm gonna have Dr. Stewart— he just called me this afternoon to confirm for tomorrow. So he will be answering some of your health questions tomorrow. So just prepare some of your questions. I am also working working on a particular topic that has to do with Iran and the United States. Of course, the third phase of the negotiations regarding the nuclear talks. But I'm also gonna be talking to you about what took place in Bandar Abbas with the explosion that just took place today. So I'm aware of it. I am reading some assessments of what's going on. Don't jump to conclusions yet whether Israel is behind it or not. Not. We'll wait till Monday or Tuesday when I talk to you about that, and I'll go from there. So I'll share that with you. Uh, AFU, once again, thank you so much for your kind support. Greatly appreciate you for that. So I look forward to seeing you guys tomorrow for the community conversation. As always, remember, geopolitics impacts your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.