US President Donald Trump said India has agreed to cut its tariffs “way down” as he reiterated his claim that the country charges America massive tariffs that make it difficult to sell products there. His comments came following Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to the US for trade talks with his counterpart Howard Lutnick.

“Our country, from an economic standpoint and financial standpoint and a trade standpoint, has been absolutely ripped off by almost every country in the world,” President Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office on Friday.

“Canada, Mexico and then you just go right down the line. India charges us massive tariffs, massive, you can’t even sell anything into India. It’s almost, it’s almost restrictive. It is restrictive. We do very little business inside,” he said.

“They’ve agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody’s finally exposing them for what they’ve done. And the same thing with China, same thing with a lot of other countries, and the EU has been a terrible abuser of this country.”

Responding to the comment, sources said India has reduced its average applied tariffs significantly for key developed countries like Australia, UAE, Switzerland, Norway, etc under the recently concluded mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreements. Similar negotiations are currently underway with the European Union and the United Kingdom, among other partners. The ongoing discussions with the United States should be seen in this context, they said.

Sources said India and the US in February agreed to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall 2025.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump agreed to designate senior representatives to advance the negotiations, and to work towards increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepening supply chain integration, they said.

Accordingly, an Indian delegation led by Mr Goyal visited Washington DC from 3 to 6 March and met the US Commerce Secretary, the US Trade Representative, and their teams.

Sources said discussions on tariffs and other aspects of trade that were highlighted during PM Modi’s visit to Washington DC are an ongoing process. Obviously, there are specifics which have been mentioned on various issues as part of the negotiation, they said, adding it is also natural that both countries have their interests and sensitivities. These are legitimate matters for a discussion, sources said.

During the first Trump administration, discussions also took place about a limited trade deal between the two nations and for various reasons, it did not produce an outcome, sources said.

Since the discussions have just begun, it would be premature to talk about its details, they said. There is also a context for each dimension that would reflect the interests of both sides.

Bets worth up to Rs 5,000 crore have been placed on the final match of Champions Trophy to be held in Dubai on Sunday, sources said.

India is the favourite team of international bookies, sources who have been tracking betting rings said. Many of the bookies are linked to the underworld, they said, adding big bookies from all over the world gather in Dubai during every big match.

Dawood Ibrahim’s gang ‘D Company’ is involved in betting on big cricket matches in Dubai, sources said.

At least five big bookies have been arrested during the Champions Trophy by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch. They placed bets on the semi-finals. Their interrogation led to the investigation reaching Dubai.

In one case, two bookies identified as Parveen Kochhar and Sanjay Kumar, were arrested for betting on the India-Australia Champions Trophy semi-final match.

Both were caught red-handed while placing live bets using laptops and mobile phones. The police recovered several electronic devices and items used in betting.

Parveen Kochhar bought a master ID from a betting website called lucky.com, used it to create betting IDs, and sold them to punters. The syndicate charged 3 per cent commission on every transaction.

For offline betting, the accused used phone calls and made entries in a notepad depending on the betting rates.

Parveen Kochhar rented a house for Rs 35,000 per month to run the betting business for the last two years, sources said. He made a profit of Rs 40,000 on every match day. During questioning, he said this entire network is controlled from Dubai.

Who are the other big bookies?

Chhotu Bansal: A resident of west Delhi, he developed a betting app in Canada. He is living in Dubai now. Others took his app on rent and started using it to place bets.

Vinay: A resident of Delhi’s Moti Nagar, he is also in Dubai. He used to give feedback directly from the cricket ground.

Others from Delhi who are involved in this syndicate have been identified as Bobby, Golu, Nitin Jain, and Jitu.

Three of the five arrested from Delhi are Manish Sahani, Yogesh Kukeja, and Suraj, all linked to Dubai.  The police recovered Rs 22 lakh in cash from them.

Manish Sahani was the main operator of the gang. He would record voices of the people participating in betting and manage transactions through bank accounts or cash. He told police he did not involve any middleman and controlled the entire betting operation himself.

During interrogation, the three accused said Mannu Matka, Akshay Gehlot, Nishu, Rinku, and Aman Rajput developed the ‘Satta’ betting app outside India.

One attack killed least 11 people and wounded 40, including six children, as Russia steps up bombardments. 

​One attack killed least 11 people and wounded 40, including six children, as Russia steps up bombardments.