Sheikh Hasina was on Thursday sworn in as the prime minister of Bangladesh for the fifth term, days after her Awami League won an overwhelming majority in the general elections boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies.
The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory. With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
The Centre on Thursday began the first phase of retail sales of onion at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg to provide relief to Delhi-NCR and Mumbai consumers from rising prices of the kitchen staple. NCCF and NAFED, which are maintaining a buffer stock of 4.7 lakh tonne onion on behalf of the government, will undertake the retail sale through their own stores and mobile vans. Onion will be sold at 38 retail points in Delhi-NCR and Parel and Malad in Mumbai.
The meeting has been convened to conclude modalities in the Doha Development Agenda for Agriculture and Market Access for Industrial Goods. Lamy had called on Nath to inform him about the meeting and press the commerce minister to attend the meeting at any cost.
What some of our leaders were up to on Tuesday, December 13.
The final policy may be out only after formation of the new government, according to sources
He also said that his country would continue to talk about the Kashmir issue "through channels that are acceptable" and prayed that "the issue is amicably resolved".
Three years and Rs 28,710 crore worth of transactions later, it has more than double the number of sellers than Flipkart.
In the coming assembly election, negotiations over seat-sharing will be as important as actual outreach to voters.
'The focus needs to shift towards the ability to collect payments, particularly in tier-3 to tier-4 areas where acceptance is still lacking.'
India will not tailor its policies to suit US EV maker Tesla, and its laws and tariff rules will be formulated to attract all-electric vehicle manufacturers from across the world to set up a base in the world's fastest-growing economy, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. Tesla has been seeking an initial tariff concession that would allow it to offset 70 per cent customs duty for cars priced less than $40,000, and 100 per cent for cars of higher value.
India, Brazil and other developing countries have been asking rich nations like the US and European Union to cut farm subsidies, while resisting the pressure mounted the developed nations for reducing industrial tariffs. The Doha Round is running way behind schedule as the rich and poor nations have failed to reach a consensus on the controversial issues.
The government on Friday scrapped a minimum price threshold that it had set previously for exports of onion as it looked to pass on the benefit of international glut to Indian farmers. The government had previously fixed a $550 per tonne as the minimum export price (MEP), which essentially meant farmers could not sell their produce overseas at lower than this rate.
'It is necessary to have a person at the top who can make strict decisions without hesitation. Modiji has done that.'
Saturday would mark the completion of a year of history being made in India-Pakistan trade relations.
The government on Wednesday approved 12 new industrial cities in 10 states on the lines of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Dholera in Gujarat to boost domestic manufacturing with an estimated investment of Rs 28,602 crore. These industrial areas will be in Khurpia in Uttarakhand, Rajpura-Patiala in Punjab, Dighi in Maharashtra, Palakkad in Kerala, Agra and Prayagraj in UP, Gaya in Bihar, Zaheerabad in Telangana, Orvakal and Kopparthy in AP, and Jodhpur-Pali in Rajasthan, and one in Haryana. A decision in this regard was taken in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
'After his warm and affectionate farewell speech, the Chief of Staff of the formation asked me, "So, now you are off to Coorg to look after your coffee estates?"' For the last time, in Army uniform and much to his surprise, I replied, "Sir, I am not from Kodagu.".'
India and the US have settled the last trade dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over poultry products, according to a joint statement released on Friday. With this, the two countries have mutually resolved all the seven pending trade disputes at the WTO. "The leaders lauded the settlement of the seventh and last outstanding WTO dispute between India and the United States.
Concerned over the fallout of the Red Sea crisis and severe shortage of containers against the backdrop of a steep decline in merchandise exports in August, the Union government is pulling out all the stops to find a solution. To begin with, the government has devised a strategy aimed at boosting container supply and supporting exporters.
No other corporate house in India is in a better position than Tata group for the takeover of debt-laden airline Air India, former deputy chairman of erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday. Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of the state-run airline but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah. "You can't have a better corporate, with a better position than the Tatas, we can hand it (state-run airline Air India) over," he said while replying to a question in a virtual event.
Stressing that while framing any policy, there is a need to look at it from India's strategic point of view, Modi said there were instances when notes from the national security council were not given due importance.
Pakistan on Wednesday called for "stability and predictability" in Indo-Pak relations, saying governments on both sides should have the courage to withstand pressure in the wake of "unfortunate incidents" and prevent derailment of ties.
The first meeting of leaders of the National Democratic Alliance after the election results was held at caretaker Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
The 58-year-old Rajya Sabha MP will face several challenges, including strengthening of the combat capabilities of the army, navy and the air force due to changing regional security matrix and geo-political dynamics.
The USA-India Chamber of Commerce has said the annual budget presented by the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is a massive piece of fiscal stimulus which would spur growth and employment in the country.
Leterme contended that there is a need for the United Nations Security Council to adapt to the realities of the 21st century as it requires representation that goes beyond the structures established in the 20th century.
'An important dimension that shone through was the enormous pride in India, a general belief that as Indians we are starting to count globally and we are at the forefront of the world.'
According to exporters, withdrawal of incentives under GSP would impact India's export worth $5.6 billion to the US.
Any government support or incentive to help exporters deal with high freight and insurance costs is unlikely.
We welcome all companies from India to come and invest and do business there. We have almost no restrictions in any sector at all. However, we expect similar reciprocity in India for our apples, pistachios, helicopters, and disaster relief materials, besides other products. We do not restrict such items from entering the US markets.
India ranks 130th out of 189 economies on the World Bank's Doing Business report.
'Even last time, when I defeated Shatrughan Sinha, I did not take his name.'
The California walnuts shipped from the US to India have seen a sharp uptick with imports more than doubling from September to November against the same period last year. This comes after New Delhi removed its retaliatory customs tariffs on the key dry fruit. Two days ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit on September 9-10, India dropped additional customs duties on about half a dozen US goods that were imposed in 2019 in response to America raising tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products coming from India.
India has asked Indonesia to remove barriers on import of pharma products, in a bid to boost trade ties between the two countries.
100-day agenda: Commerce ministry pushes for separate logistics department
The government on Friday came out with Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 which seeks to boost the country's exports to $2 trillion by 2030 by shifting from incentives to remission and entitlement based regime. Unlike the practice of announcing 5-year FTP, the latest policy has no end date and will be updated as and when needed, said Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Sarangi while briefing media about FTP 2023. Earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal unveiled FTP 2023 which will come into effect from April 1, 2023.
The US is taking several measures, such as increasing the number of staffers, to further facilitate the issuance of business visas in India, a senior US government official said on Tuesday. "We have also made significant progress by issuing more H1B and L visas in 2022 than we did even in 2019 before the pandemic. "This is a significant improvement. We are in the process of raising our staff," Arun Venkataraman, US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for global markets, said.
Tata Group is set to become India's first homegrown iPhone maker after Taiwan's Wistron Group agreed to sell a plant in Bengaluru to India's largest conglomerate. Wistron's board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd to Tata Electronics for $125 million, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer said in a statement on Friday. The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru.
