It is watching e-commerce policy fineprint before spelling out India plan
A team of more than 60 people under Neeraj Mittal, an IAS officer, was instrumental in getting up the New Industrial Policy 2021 targeting investments of around Rs 10 trillion by 2025.
The government is at a "fairly advanced stage" of finalising a well-coordinated e-commerce policy and consumer protection rules, which will incorporate provisions of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Thursday. "E-commerce rules and e-commerce policy will be congruent with each other... That exercise is at a fairly advanced stage," Singh told reporters. The remarks come on a day the number of daily transactions on the platform has gone up 500 times since the beginning of this year with the number of retail merchants added to its roster growing 40-fold.
Retailers claim online firms' predatory pricing strategy disrupting business
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
The move is expected to create space for more budding entrepreneurs in the country to be eligible for self-certification, relaxed public procurement norms, rebate in patent filing, start-up funding, investment and easier closure compliance.
The proposed policy is increasingly becoming an item of negotiation, as the US pushes hard to change India's stance.
Data localisation, an overarching theme across recent government policy proposals, has been a thorny issue with industry
At present, the NMP states a series of fiscal incentives, including tax sops, will be offered but only to small and medium enterprises.
Aggarwal, in this role, will define and lead important policy development initiatives for Facebook in India on an agenda that covers user safety, data protection and privacy, inclusion and internet governance, a statement said.
Conformity assessment procedures will be put in place to verify that goods and services sold on e-commerce platforms meet required standards and technical regulations, according to the draft e-commerce policy. The policy, which is under discussion, also stated that actions and things which cannot be done by the online platform entities "can also not be done" by any of its associates and related parties. Government may, from time to time, notify parties which fall in the definition of associates and related parties, it said.
A panel led by the secretaries of the DEA and the DIPP would conduct a quarterly review on the pending proposals.
In a meeting with the commerce minister, India Inc hammered Sharma on the collapse of investments, structural nature of the current account deficit and stagnant growth in agriculture.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
Trade links with Israel have strengthened in the past few years, even as the value of goods exchanged with Iran has diminished. Iran accounted for $3.9 billion worth of India's exports in the four quarters ending December 2019, compared to $3.6 billion to Israel. However, India's exports to Iran dropped to $1.2 billion as of December 2023, on a rolling four-quarter basis, while exports to Israel grew to $6.1 billion in the same period.
The report highlights that India's population in 2036 is expected to be more feminine compared to the 2011 population, as reflected in the sex ratio which is projected to increase from 943 in 2011 to 952 by 2036, highlighting a positive trend in gender equality.
India had been engaged in a contentious battle with the US over the issue, especially in the pharmaceutical sector.
A committee of secretaries will be meeting soon to consider a draft proposal, which suggests that decision-making on all policy issues pertaining to FDI be transferred from the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Ministry of Finance.
BPO is going to generate employment in all small cities.
According to CAIT, e-commerce policy should take within its ambit not only foreign players but also domestic ones.
A senior company official was killed and 100 others were injured in the violence at the Maruti's plant in Manesar last month.
The government, in February, had released the draft national e-commerce policy proposing setting up a legal and technological framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow and also laid out conditions for businesses regarding collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the Commerce Ministry proposes to scale back the Foreign Direct Investment ceiling for the tobacco industry from 100 to 74 per cent and insert a caveat that cigarettes manufactured in the new ventures or in upgraded facilities must be mainly for consumption outside India.Sources said the department, which is responsible for the policy on FDI, is finalising a cabinet note aimed at comprehensive review of the tobacco policy.
Even as the government today gave Saurabh Chandra, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), the additional charge of secretary, Department of Commerce, Dinesh Kumar Mittal has emerged as the front runner for the post.
E-commerce firms and sellers including Amazon and eBay have made recommendations to the government for a differentiated policy framework for e-commerce in the revised Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) which is expected to come into effect from April 1, 2021. This is because the existing policies on exports have catered largely to traditional, offline and business-to-business exports. Suggestions have been made to the government that through the FTP, it is important to create a conducive policy framework for e-commerce exports that lowers the entry barrier for small businesses to start exporting, according to the industry sources.
Bentonville-based Walmart has also raised apprehensions about the ongoing probe by investigating agency Enforcement Directorate, said an internal note of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
He also pointed out the high sums earned by the coaching centres leading to the commercialisation of education.
The company seeks easing of sourcing norms for retail FDI; govt unwilling to make exception.
AirAsia's Fernandes says CEO for India will be an Indian; proposed airline firm with Tata may hit ministry hurdle
Embargo on imports from a neighbouring country would send a chilling signal to foreign investors who look for transparency and companies with manufacturing units in India had requested the government to publish any change in port policy "to provide the business community with the visibility they need to function", says United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum.
DIPP's proposal is believed to have the support of the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution and was originally mooted by the Forward Markets Commission.
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.
Idea is to bring stakeholders together and explore ways to increase export of services from India.
The $100-million fund, which has the option to raise a further $200 million, will benefit small and medium enterprises engaged in defence production.
Three foreign single-brand majors apply in the past one month.
Numbers could be classified further into (140) marketing and (160 or 161) for service calls to easily identify the purpose of the call in the future.
The government has decided to set up a joint venture company with industry body Ficci for encouraging investment in the country."The Invest India company, a joint venture between the department of industrial policy and promotion and Ficci, would be funded by the government and managed by the chamber," commerce and industry Minister Kamal Nath said
The Industry Ministry is in favour of allowing foreign airlines to invest in domestic carriers, saying it would help the cash-crunch industry to raise equity, an issue that does not find support among many Indian airlines.
