Trump’s Trade War, Musk’s India Debut, Market Relief & Massive Layoffs | Business News Wrap

Is the Ukrainian President the one gambling with World War Three or is it President Trump himself?

The top headline this week: US President Donald Trump has launched a trade war against Mexico, Canada, and China – three of America’s biggest trading partners. The Trump administration has announced 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and doubled the additional tariff imposed last month on Chinese products to 20%. The affected countries didn’t take it lying down.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the move "a very dumb thing to do" and hit back with 25% tariffs. Mexico also vowed retaliation. China responded with tariffs of up to 15% on a wide range of US farm exports and expanded the number of US companies subject to restrictions. But they didn’t stop there.
In a sternly worded response, China said, and I quote: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war, or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end”.

The latest tariff hikes came into effect on Tuesday, 4th March. But by Thursday, 6th March, President Trump had a slight change of heart. Following talks with Canadian and Mexican leaders, he signed orders to postpone fresh tariffs on some Canadian and Mexican imports by a month. While announcing the move, the US President also reiterated his threat of reciprocal tariffs for all countries.

The big one will be on April 2nd when reciprocal tariffs. If India, or China or any of the countries… India is a very high tariff nation…

There you heard him, once again calling India a high tariff nation. According to reports, the United States is unlikely to make any exception for India when it implements its reciprocal – or tit-for-tat – tariffs in April. On the contrary, reports suggest the US is demanding zero duties on most exports to India, except for agricultural products. India’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, is in the US for high-level trade talks. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stated that Goyal will work to protect Indian exporters’ interests.

While Trump has been singling out India for high auto tariffs, one of his closest allies, Elon Musk, has fast-tracked plans to bring EV giant Tesla to India. According to reports, the electric vehicle maker has secured a lease for its first showroom in Mumbai’s business hub, BKC. It will be a 4,000-square-foot space with a sky-high rent of $446,000, or nearly 4 crore rupees per year, increasing by 5% annually. Tesla’s second showroom in India is likely to be set up in Delhi’s Aerocity.

Tesla’s India plans have sparked debate about its chances of success in the country. Industrialist Sajjan Jindal, who owns a majority stake in automaker MG, is among the sceptics. Speaking to The Economic Times, the JSW Group chairman said, and I quote “Musk cannot produce what Mahindra can do, what Tata can do – it’s not possible.” Unquote. Calling Musk “super-smart,” he added that to be successful in India is not an easy job. Will Tesla succeed in India? Well, only time will tell.

Speaking of what foreign companies can or can’t do, let’s shift focus to AI. This week, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, launched the AI Compute Portal. The platform will provide researchers, startups, and government agencies with access to high-powered computing resources. This includes a shared computing facility with 18,693 advanced Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for AI applications—one of the largest AI compute infrastructures globally. In fact, its capacity is nearly nine times that of China’s DeepSeek. The minister also stated that the government has received applications for developing India’s foundational AI models, which are currently under review.

Staying with the world of Entrepreneurship – Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath has won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2024. In his acceptance speech, Kamath reflected on a key question every entrepreneur faces: “What’s more important—market cycle or business skills?” His usual answer? Market cycle. He spoke about starting trading 27 years ago, which eventually led to the founding of Zerodha, focusing on low-cost broking, a stable platform, and transparent services. He also highlighted how Aadhaar’s introduction in 2016 became a tipping point for Zerodha, as it enabled fully digital onboarding. On a lighter note, Kamath commented on his big win with a post on X saying and I quote “This is what the top of the bull market looks like with a lag. A broker winning the entrepreneur of the year 2024.” Unquote.

And speaking of Zerodha, let’s take a quick look at market action. Trump’s tariffs have continued to make investors jittery across the world. However, Indian markets saw a mid-week turnaround, helping both the Sensex and Nifty end the week with gains of around 1% each. Meanwhile, brokerages have turned bullish on Indian equities. According to Jefferies, an economic uptick and improved liquidity conditions could trigger a near-term rally in Indian markets. And Bank of America has set a year-end target of 25,000 for Nifty, implying a 14% upside.

Relief for investors—but not such good times for many workers. It’s been a week dominated by layoff headlines. According to a Mint report, JioHotstar is set to lay off approximately 1,100 employees as part of an effort to cut overlapping roles. Globally, Goldman Sachs is handing out pink slips to nearly 1,400 employees, including some vice presidents. Meta’s layoffs are expected to affect around 3,600 employees. Tech giant HP has announced plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs, while Salesforce is set to shed more than 1,000 positions across various departments. Meanwhile, Starbucks’ CEO has reportedly told employees to work harder—just after the company axed 1,100 support partner roles.

And that’s a wrap on this week’s top business headlines.