India and Nepal on Friday signed a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which will help in reducing the cost of doing business by entrepreneurs of the two countries.
Days before the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao next week, the government has approved the signing of a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a roundtable with AI startup CEOs and held bilateral meetings with global leaders at the India AI Impact Summit, focusing on AI's potential across sectors and international cooperation.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that an interim trade agreement between India and the US is likely to be signed in March and operationalised in April, with chief negotiators meeting in Washington to finalize the details.
Public purpose is not defined in any treaty that India has signed.
Import duty cuts on labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and footwear, as well as cars, and wines, are likely to be part of the free trade agreement between India and the 27-nation bloc European Union (EU), the conclusion of which is set to be announced on January 27 here, sources said.
India and Russia have agreed to encourage joint manufacturing of military hardware and spare parts in India, aiming to improve maintenance of Russian-origin defence equipment and boost overall bilateral defence cooperation.
China and Pakistan concluded their strategic dialogue, reiterating their opposition to unilateral actions in South Asia and discussing Kashmir, Afghanistan, and trilateral cooperation.
India, UAE yet to conclude bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement.
Issues related to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaty between India and the UK are expected to figure during the three-day visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to London from April 8-10, official sources said. The minister will attend a host of meetings, including the India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue, in London.
Al-Nahayan wants govt assurance on protection of its foray, meets Anand Sharma.
The government has signed Bippas with 72 nations.
India and Bangladesh on Monday signed two agreements to further cement their trade and investment ties as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee hailed the recent upward swing in bilateral relations.
A finance ministry official said Vodafone had threatened arbitration against something that had not happened. He said the UK-based telecom company was presuming it might happen.
Companies from both sides have shown interest in entering the energy, cement, healthcare, and hospitality segments. Banking is also likely to draw some interest.
Etihad has been in talks for a 24 per cent equity stake in Jet, valued at around $300 million, ever since India relaxed ownership rules and allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49 per cent in local carriers.
In February, the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 telecom licences. Many of these belonged to foreign companies or companies with foreign investors.
India will finally sign an investment treaty - the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPA) - with Myanmar in the first week of April. The pact is going to be of critical interest to a host of oil majors looking at investments in the resource-rich country.According to sources, the treaty will be signed with the approval of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Cabinet ratification, they say, will come later.
The deal fell through over unresolved disagreements over contentious issues, mainly on agriculture and automotive sector tariffs.
On August 7, the US president announced doubling tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent for India's purchases of Russian crude oil, but gave a 21-day window to negotiate an agreement.
The USA's steep 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods entering America will severely impact exports and job creation in labour-intensive export sectors such as shrimp, apparel, leather and gems and jewellery. Exporters said that the imposition of a 25 per cent penalty on India over and above the 25 per cent tariffs move will disrupt the flow of Indian goods to its largest export market.
Communication channels between India and the US are open to resolve the ongoing tariff issues, and the glitch in trade ties is only temporary, given the long-term relationship between the two nations, government sources said on Wednesday. The US' 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to America came into effect from August 27, barring a few sectors.
With India, the last round of talks took place in February 2011.
India and the US have decided to hold sector-specific talks in the coming weeks to finalise the structure of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the government said on Saturday. The engagement between the two countries came in the backdrop of the USA's threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on its key trading partners, including India, on April 2.
Finding solutions to address non-tariff barriers would be important for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) and both sides are actively working on resolving these issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. He said the two sides are "pretty" close to finalising the talks for the proposed free trade pact.
Winding up his visit to Canada, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a historic trip that will herald a new era of cooperation between the two countries.
During his visit to India last year, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had expressed concern over lack of growth in bilateral trade.
India and Russia on Tuesday set a target of $100 billion in annual trade volume by 2030 and vowed to develop a robust bilateral payment settlement mechanism using national currencies. The two sides also inked a total of nine agreements to further broadbase cooperation in a range of areas including in the economic domain following summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Abu Dhabi national carrier had bought 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways for $379 million in April.
India and Italy inked 15 pacts and finalised an ambitious action plan to further expand their ties following a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte that primarily focused on ramping up economic engagement.
Officials say telco still keen on process.
Vodafone is locked in twin tax disputes with the government.
Four Canadian ministers of Indian origin are traveling with Prime Minister Trudeau.
The company moved the income-tax appellate tribunal and its appeal is pending there.
The Finance Ministry is of the opinion that Vodafone might drag its tax dispute to court.
The Finance Ministry has already circulated a draft Cabinet note withdrawing the conciliation offer to Vodafone to resolve the Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200-billion) tax dispute case.
Under the India-South Korea Bipa, a party can drag the other to international arbitration if its investments are threatened.
The government, however, amended the tax laws with retrospective effect to undo the Supreme Court judgement and claim taxes.
An international tribunal has ruled that the Indian government had acted "unfairly" and "inequitably" in annulling a contract between Devas and ISRO's commercial arm Antrix.
The retrospective tax controversy was highlighted by Vodafone, but Cairn Plc's continuing problems point to the impact this law has had on FDI in India's oil and gas sector.
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