US Business Newsletter
July 01 - July 15, 2021
Greetings from Consulate General of India,
New York!
Welcome to the July 2021 edition of our newsletter, bringing you important policy and high-impact news about India.
We hope you find it useful.
A Forum for Indian Businesses in North East USA

(Covering: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont)
Silicon Valley investors increasingly see creators as the next financial vein to tap

Investors are increasingly eyeing the creator economy — the huge, largely unexplored market of providing digital tools to influencers and helping them run their businesses.
The venture capital firm SignalFire estimates that 50 million people around the world consider themselves content creators, while the technology news site The Information estimates that venture capital firms have invested $2 billion into 50 creator-focused start-ups so far this year.
Depleted Global Fish Stocks May Get Boost From WTO
World Trade Organization members are working to conclude negotiations that could stabilize wild fish populations—and help new Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala restore the WTO’s credibility. The talks target government subsidies that the trade organization says help drive “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing” that contributes to overfishing and the depletion of fish stocks. If the negotiations are successful, they would result in the first multilateral trade agreement for the 164-member group since 2013. Many say it would be the most significant pact since the WTO was established in 1995.
How Biden’s Executive Order Could Reshape Rail and Ocean Shipping

President Biden’s sweeping executive order signed last week laid out the administration’s priorities for promoting competitive markets and limiting corporate dominance. Among the dozens of provisions included in the order are directives aimed at railroads and ocean shipping.

Retail sales rose in June in the latest sign of economic recovery
Retail sales rose in June, the Commerce Department reported on Friday, an unexpected jump as American consumers increased spending on dining out and clothes and gadgets. The 0.6 percent increase in sales last month, after a drop in spending in May, highlighted the unevenness of the economic recovery. Even as overall sales rose, sales of cars and car parts and spending at building materials, furniture and sporting goods stores declined. After falling to record lows about a year ago, sales rebounded this spring and are now fluctuating month to month, propelled by an uneven reopening of the economy. June’s sales were better than economists had forecast, but sales in coming months could be hampered by reactions to the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, rising prices and the end of some government benefits.
How America Inc is coping with rising inflation
Property insurers price policies today but face payouts a year from now. That makes their profits hostage to inflation. As swathes of America’s economy have begun rapidly reopening for business in recent weeks, thanks to falling rates of covid-19 infections and rising ones of vaccination, William Berkley has been paying close attention to prices of building materials and anything found inside homes, from lamps to laptops. The replacement value of a home in America may have leapt by 20%, year on year, Mr Berkley thinks. Since the founder of WR Berkley launched his insurance firm over half a century ago, he has never witnessed a time like the past year—not even in the inflationary 1970s.
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