INDIAN EXPRESS DATED 21st SEP 2026.

Summary of Important News Items Editorials-468

INDIAN EXPRESS DATED 21st SEP 2026.

(for reading Indian Express News items from 1 to 467 please visit –

web.prernaforias.com)

1. Doklam Fallout and ICBC — When Geopolitics Enters Banking

An Indian Express–ICIJ China Capital investigation shows how the 2017 Doklam military standoff affected the Mumbai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a Chinese state-controlled bank. Internal documents reviewed by the newspaper say the branch suspended 11 approved but undisbursed loans and bond investments worth $185 million, reduced credit and investment exposure and maintained communication with the Chinese embassy and consulate. The episode illustrates the growing intersection of finance, national security and geopolitics. ICBC’s documents also reveal close institutional links between the bank and Chinese Communist Party structures. The larger logic is that state-owned financial institutions may serve commercial purposes while simultaneously responding to national strategic priorities. India therefore has to assess foreign investment not simply in terms of capital inflows but also through financial-security and strategic-risk frameworks. Gist: economic interdependence can reduce conflict costs, but geopolitical confrontation can rapidly transmit into banking, investment and corporate decision-making.

2. Sulphur Price Crisis — Geopolitical Conflict Threatens India’s Fertiliser Security

India faces a new fertiliser challenge as international sulphur prices have surged sharply, driven partly by attacks on energy infrastructure associated with the Russia-Ukraine and West Asian conflicts. The newspaper reports that landed sulphur prices in India rose to roughly $1,050–1,100 per tonne, affecting the availability and economics of DAP, SSP and other phosphatic and complex fertilisers. Sulphur is strategically important because sulphuric acid is required to convert rock phosphate into forms usable for fertiliser production. Around 60% of global sulphur consumption goes to fertilisers. A second pressure comes from rapidly rising sulphuric-acid demand for processing nickel used in EV batteries. Thus, the crisis combines a supply shock caused by wars with structural demand from the clean-energy transition. Gist: agricultural security is inseparable from energy and mineral supply chains. India needs diversified imports, strategic overseas partnerships, stronger domestic recovery of sulphur and more efficient fertiliser use to reduce external vulnerability.