President Pratibha Patil yet again came out with a strong defence of her foreign tours, saying she was forced to go public on the issue despite government clarifications.
US do not commit, but says outsourcing should create more jobs in both countries.
For the entire 2011-12 fiscal, the shipments to the neighbouring country had stood at $1.53 billion.
'Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal are the two people who have been marked and punished'
The radical nature of the trade package is sure to take everyone's breath away when Manmohan Singh meets Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's music sense... Starlet Nupur Mehta's proud parents... Ghulam Nabi Azad is disillusioned... Congress's coup attempt... Anand Sharma, the already chief minister... All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma is expected to visit Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur between February 14 and 18 for signing the pacts -- Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan and Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Malaysia, an official told PTI.
The two countries are scouting for members of a joint working group to study a proposal to this effect made during a recent visit by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma to Colombo.
The government is expected to take a decision tomorrow on the issue of allowing foreign airlines to buy up to 49 per cent stake in cash-starved Indian carriers.
Wal-Mart chief S Robson Walton met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sharma last week and discussed the foreign direct investment scenario in the retail sector in India.
Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, speaking on the sidelines of a defence exhibition in the UAE capital, said officials would meet Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma to discuss the deal.
Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan may touch USD 10 billion by 2015, if trade and investment barriers are removed, CII said.
Without making big-ticket changes in the economic ministries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday shifted Law Minister M Veerappa Moily to the ministry of corporate affairs and inducted young Milind Deora in his council of ministers.
The issue was taken up at a meeting in New Delhi between Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and visiting Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
Meeting on Tuesday to decide on letting foreign airlines buy into domestic ones.
Hotlines between New Delhi and Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the African Union, are working overtime to make next month's India-Africa summit as big a success as a similar event organised by China last year. New Delhi's intention to give a new thrust to its relations with Africa was evident when it announced a hike of 60 per cent in its aid to the continent for the next financial year. The 2008-09 Budget presented in Parliament last week, enhanced aid to Africa.
"It was agreed that the first meeting for this purpose (starting of negotiations for comprehensive economic cooperation agreement) would be scheduled by June or July," India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters at a joint press conference with Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson in Canberra, Australia.
There was, however, no common ground between the government and the traders delegation as Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma made it clear to them that there was no question of rollback of the decision to open the multi-brand retail to foreign investment.
The TERC, which comprises, among others Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, will also review the state of play in the Doha Round of talks for a multilateral trade agreement under the aegis of World Trade Organization, sources said.
The guidelines regarding the decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in the multi-brand retail will be issued by next week.
Efforts are on to convince West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to support FDI in multi-brand retail which is coming up for consideration of the Union Cabinet on Thursday evening.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity, and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, declined by 2 per cent in October as against a growth of 9.9 per cent a year ago.
India and many other countries are unlikely to achieve the UN Millennium Development goals of halving poverty and education for all children by 2015, said India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will meet new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk at Bali in Indonesia on June 6-7, on the sidelines of the meeting of the Cairns Group of farm product-exporting countries. The two countries have serious differences on the level of protection that can be given to farmers as and when the global market for farm products is opened up. India has argued all along that it cannot compromise on food security and livelihood concerns.
Anand Sharma, who took charge of the nodal ministry for FDI on May 29, said there is no need for a relook at the policy amended in February by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. While the policy does not allow overseas inflow into this sector, the changes in February were perceived to be opening the sector to FDI up to 49 per cent in an Indian firm that has a downstream subsidiary firm in retailing.
Commerce ministers of the three countries, who met in Pretoria on Tuesday, also decided to hold formal annual trilateral talks to boost intra-IBSA trade.
"We are seriously considering raising the bar further- that means to allow increased FDI," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at a CII event on Indian luxury market.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked party leaders from Himachal Pradesh to put up a united front and help the party regain power in the state.
The far-reaching Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement serves a number of national interests on both sides.
India and Malaysia on Friday signed a landmark pact that paves the way for freer flow of trade in goods and services, besides enhanced investment and economic cooperation between the two countries.
When India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma met his counterpart in Beijing last year, he spoke mainly about India's yawning trade deficit and China agreed that this was a problem that needed fixing.
India will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with Japan on Wednesday, setting the stage for free bilateral trade of goods and services.
The sops, to be given under different schemes like 'Focus Market' and 'Focus Products' from January to December 2011, were unveiled here by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.
The commerce ministry has sought a review of foreign direct investment policy in the pharmaceutical sector, in the light of recent takeovers of domestic companies by multinationals.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Wednesday said the government will soon announce incentives for labour intensive export sectors, notwithstanding high growth in the shipments during December.
The Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry comprising top industrialists and bankers met on Wednesday and reviewed the economic situation, particularly in the wake of the European financial crisis.
Keen on expanding oil and gas explorations in Vietnam's East Sea, energy-hungry India today said it will be a "win-win" situation for both the economies.
Wen said, China is ready to work with India to increase the scale, and expand the scope of bilateral business cooperation.
The document consolidating all the aspects of foreign direct investment policy and framework will be released by commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, an official said.
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