<p>New Delhi: India is one of the few nations working to lower tariffs and win over US President Donald Trump, who has called the South Asian nation a "tariff king" and "tariff abuser" and has vowed to reciprocate.</p><p>Both countries have started talks towards clinching an early trade deal and resolving their standoff on tariffs.</p><p>This week, Reuters reported India was open to cutting tariffs on more than half of US imports worth $23 billion.</p>.<p>Since February, India has taken steps to win Trump's favour:</p><p><strong>India plans energy, defence buys from US</strong></p><p>New Delhi has promised to step up energy purchases from the United States to $25 billion in the near future from $15 billion last year. Trump also said he was paving the way to provide F-35 stealth fighters to India.</p><p>The series of agreements emerged after talks at the White House between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India wants to increase by "billions of dollars" its purchases of US defence equipment and may make Washington the number one supplier of oil and gas.</p><p><strong>Scraps digital ad tax</strong></p><p>India will scrap a tax of 6 per cent on digital advertisements online from April 1, the finance minister said on Tuesday, easing costs for US tech giants such as Alphabet's Google , Meta and Amazon to soothe US trade concerns.</p><p><strong>Lower tariff on bourbon whisky</strong></p><p>India has slashed tariffs on bourbon whisky to 100 per cent from 150 per cent, standing to benefit imports of brands such as Suntory's Jim Beam, after Trump criticised its "unfair" levies.</p><p><strong>Cut in basic customs duties</strong></p><p>In its budget on Feb.1, India slashed basic customs duties on items such as luxury cars, solar cells and machinery, reducing its peak import tariff to 70 per cent from 150 per cent , and average tariffs to below 11 per cent from 13 per cent.</p><p>Though the effective rate on those items remained the same due to levy of a domestic tax called the Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC), but the government has vowed to remove that too as trade talks progress.</p><p><strong>Starlink in India</strong></p><p>Elon Musk's Starlink partnered with Indian telecom giants Reliance and Airtel and is close to getting final regulatory approvals from the Indian government for satellite broadband service.</p><p>India's approval is key as it would pave the road into more emerging markets and boost the company's ambitions to add a million subscribers every year. </p>
<p>New Delhi: India is one of the few nations working to lower tariffs and win over US President Donald Trump, who has called the South Asian nation a "tariff king" and "tariff abuser" and has vowed to reciprocate.</p><p>Both countries have started talks towards clinching an early trade deal and resolving their standoff on tariffs.</p><p>This week, Reuters reported India was open to cutting tariffs on more than half of US imports worth $23 billion.</p>.<p>Since February, India has taken steps to win Trump's favour:</p><p><strong>India plans energy, defence buys from US</strong></p><p>New Delhi has promised to step up energy purchases from the United States to $25 billion in the near future from $15 billion last year. Trump also said he was paving the way to provide F-35 stealth fighters to India.</p><p>The series of agreements emerged after talks at the White House between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India wants to increase by "billions of dollars" its purchases of US defence equipment and may make Washington the number one supplier of oil and gas.</p><p><strong>Scraps digital ad tax</strong></p><p>India will scrap a tax of 6 per cent on digital advertisements online from April 1, the finance minister said on Tuesday, easing costs for US tech giants such as Alphabet's Google , Meta and Amazon to soothe US trade concerns.</p><p><strong>Lower tariff on bourbon whisky</strong></p><p>India has slashed tariffs on bourbon whisky to 100 per cent from 150 per cent, standing to benefit imports of brands such as Suntory's Jim Beam, after Trump criticised its "unfair" levies.</p><p><strong>Cut in basic customs duties</strong></p><p>In its budget on Feb.1, India slashed basic customs duties on items such as luxury cars, solar cells and machinery, reducing its peak import tariff to 70 per cent from 150 per cent , and average tariffs to below 11 per cent from 13 per cent.</p><p>Though the effective rate on those items remained the same due to levy of a domestic tax called the Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC), but the government has vowed to remove that too as trade talks progress.</p><p><strong>Starlink in India</strong></p><p>Elon Musk's Starlink partnered with Indian telecom giants Reliance and Airtel and is close to getting final regulatory approvals from the Indian government for satellite broadband service.</p><p>India's approval is key as it would pave the road into more emerging markets and boost the company's ambitions to add a million subscribers every year. </p>