November 02, 2026

-

Premium

TRUMP'S TROUBLESHOOTERS

The setting carried its own message. At the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, the epicentre of the 26/11 attacks, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, sat down together for an exclusive joint interview with india today. They are the two most important faces representing President Donald Trump's administration to the region. Rubio, who is also National Security Advisor, is the administration's seniormost foreign policy hand. This was his second visit to India this year. Gor, a long-time Trump confidant, ran White House personnel before being sent to New Delhi with a brief to bring "the highest levels of our government" to India.Their task is repair work. The ambitions of the February 2025 Modi-Trump summit--with its $500 billion (Rs 47.3 lakh crore) trade target, a 10-year defence framework and a clutch of initiatives on tech, critical minerals and AI--had soon been buried under a pile of grievances. These included a punitive 50 per cent tariff, penalties for buying Russian oil, Trump's repeated claims to have brokered the India-Pakistan ceasefire, Washington warming to Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir, and a $100,000 (Rs 95 lakh) fee on new H-1B visas that hurts Indians the most. A February 2026 interim trade agreement cut the tariff to 18 per cent, and a US Supreme Court ruling later forced a reset of the baseline to 10 per cent. Yet the trade deal is still unsigned, and Trump has only now waived provisions of the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which gives him powers to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on buyers of Russian and Iranian oil. It is against this backdrop that Trump's two principal troubleshooters arrived in Mumbai.Asked to rate US-India ties on a scale of one to 10, Rubio declined to give a number. "In five years," he said, "we'll look back and say it's one of the strongest relationships in the world." That forecast frames everything that followed. Set aside the diplomatic courtesies, and the interview shows an administration that has quietly moved from coercing India to courting it on commerce. The clearest sign of a thaw came on trade, which has caused the most damage to bilateral confidence. Asked whether Washington was prepared to give India the competitive tariff advantage it sought, Rubio indicated that the longawaited interim agreement was almost done. More revealing was the Secretary of State's response to India's concerns about recurring tariff revisions. The purpose of an agreement, Rubio said, was to establish certainty, allowing businesses to invest, knowing the rules governing bilateral commerce. It's an important shift in emphasis. The earlier American approach had relied heavily on tariffs as leverage to extract concessions. Rubio was now stressing predictability as the foundation of a sustainable economic partnership.Gor, meanwhile, reinforced the economic argument by pointing to the expanding two-way investment relationship. He cited Essar's multibillion-dollar investment plans in the US and the presence of American technology companies in India. The message was unmistakable: the Trump admin- istration wants a relationship that creates jobs and industrial capacity in both countries. Investment, not just trade volumes, is increasingly becoming an important measure of the relationship's success.An even more consequential adjustment appears to be under way in energy policy. For months, India's purchases of discounted Russian crude had been a major irritant. Washington viewed the purchases through the prism of its efforts to pressure Moscow

THE E-GAME IS UP

Until a few years ago, Saurabh Chandrakar was selling fruit juice from a modest shop in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Today, he stands accused of masterminding Mahadev Online Book, an illegal betting empire that, at its peak, was alleged to have a daily turnover of Rs 240 crore-plus. From his base in Dubai, the 31-year-old had allegedly built a transnational operation that took bets from millions of Indians and generated fortunes for its promoters. This June, however, his luck ran out when, according to Indian investigators, he was arrested in Muscat, Oman, for allegedly entering the country on a forged passport. His arrest has given India a potentially crucial breakthrough in what appears to be one of the country's biggest online betting scandals.Chandrakar's spectacular rise from obscurity might have gone unnoticed had he not displayed his newfound wealth with extraordinary flamboyance. In February 2023, he reportedly spent around Rs 200 crore on his lavish wedding in the United Arab Emirates, flying in kin and guests on chartered aircraft and hiring Bollywood stars to perform at the celebrations. The extravagance became a major lead for investigators probing suspicious financial transactions. As the Enforcement Directorate (ED) followed the money, it uncovered what it alleged was a sprawling betting syndicate operating through hundreds of local panels across India, with the proceeds funnelled through thousands of bank accounts, hawala operators and overseas entities.