India’s confidence, Amazon goes underground, and a bite of the Apple

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

Arun Jaitley is feeling confident – he tells the FT India is on course to overtake China with growth of more than 8 per cent. The finance minister takes on critics who complain of a lack of “big bang” reforms, saying he plans a huge public investment programme and strategic privatisations, while also pledging to resolve tax disputes with investors.

Narendra Modi may have presided over a rebound in economic growth in his first year in office but business remains anxious at the pace of reform and critics charge that he has inflamed communal tensions. (FT)

In the news

Alibaba sued for counterfeits Kering is suing Alibaba for encouraging buyers to look for fraudulent goods. The group is suing on behalf of Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, which it owns, and alleges that the ecommerce group encourages and profits from the sale of fake watches, handbags and other items in a manner that constitutes “racketeering”. (FT)

Saudi turns to China Saudi Arabia accelerated a pivot towards Asia as oil exports to the US fell to the lowest level since the financial crisis. China is now vying with the US as one of the biggest buyers of Saudi crude – highlighting how the US shale revolution has cut the country’s reliance on overseas oil and how China is taking a much more visible role in the global oil market. (FT)

Isis takes Ramadi The militant group claimed the provincial capital as the last Iraqi security forces fled, prompting Iraq’s prime minister to call on volunteer forces to join the fight against Isis. The militant group seized its biggest victory so far this year even though American air strikes had been stepped up. (FT)

Amazon goes underground The online retailer started delivering parcels to its Manhattan customers using the New York subway . The underground enables the company to get around Manhattan’s gridlocked streets and honour its 60-minute delivery guarantee for Prime Now users. (FT)

It’s a big day for

China-LatAm relations Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, starts a tour of Latin America, during which he will visit Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile, and sign at least $50bn of trade and investment deals. (FT)

The NHS David Cameron makes his first significant speech since the election and will focus on the National Health Service. The British prime minister will confirm his party’s commitment to investing an extra £8bn in the NHS by 2020 and make it clear his government will not cede to Labour in an area that has traditionally been its strong suit. (FT)

Massimo Zanetti The owner of Segafredo, Chock full-o’nuts, Puccino’s and Boncafe launches its bid to raise up to EUR200m by listing 40 per cent of the company. The debut will be closely watched by Italian food entrepreneurs and bankers – if the flotation goes well, other Italian food groups, including rival Illycaffe, might consider listing too. (FT)

Food for thought

A bite of the Apple Suppliers from Tokyo to Taipei are sharing in the spoils as Apple basks in the unprecedented demand for the latest iPhone. (FT)

Business tips from Galileo The Renaissance polymath’s efforts to produce scientific evidence and his rejection of accepted theory show the importance of evidence-based management. It’s a simple lesson Coca-Cola could have kept in mind when it changed its classic recipe, prompting a public outcry. (FT)

The outsider’s Shanghai Expats tell their tales of home life, street food and escaping the least Chinese of Chinese cities, which has – in the space of little more than a generation – transformed itself from a city of narrow lanes and decrepit buildings into a “futuristic megalopolis” of 23m people. (FT)

Lucy Kellaway’s favourite CEO Since AOL’s Tim Armstrong took over in 2009, “he has got into assorted scrapes, taken off his shoes, put his foot in his mouth, lost his rag, offended mothers, fired someone in public, thrown his weight around and talked a blue streak of guff – while at the same time making more money for shareholders at every turn”. (FT)

The crisis of black fatherhood Paul Gayle, 19 and unemployed, lives in Milwaukee and struggles to raise his seven-month-old daughter. His task is made more difficult by a city infrastructure that has, like many others, “failed its minorities”, with state schools graduating well below half of their students, long public housing waiting lists, jails that imprison black men at twice the national rate and “a racial health disparity so vast that whites lived nearly a decade longer than blacks”. (WaPo)

Video of the day

World catch-up There is a common element in the bond market correction, the slumping dollar and the record S&P 500, says John Authers: investors are retreating from last year’s rush to buy the US and sell Europe. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Time. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: Labourers work at a flyover undergoing construction in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. REUTERS/Krishnendu Halder.