British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday unveiled a new scheme for the world's 100 most talented young professionals in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) as part of his vision to make the UK a "beacon" to attract the "brightest and best" from around the world. Addressing the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference in Birmingham, Sunak told an audience of business chiefs and professionals that control over the country's post-Brexit immigration policy remains crucial. However, he pledged to create "one of the world's most attractive visa regimes for entrepreneurs and highly skilled people" and make use of the "Brexit freedoms" to strike trade deals with "the world's fastest-growing economies".
'For the common man, the economic conditions are not going to get better.'
Newly-elected Conservative Party leader and prime minister in waiting Liz Truss is among the senior British politicians known for championing deeper India-UK strategic and economic ties, describing them as a "sweet spot" of global trade dynamics.
The visit, which is expected around April 22, is long overdue after Johnson was forced to cancel planned visits to India twice last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eyeing greater cooperation with South East Asian countries on economic and security issues, India on Thursday announced a separate Mission for ASEAN region to be set up in Jakarta with a full-time resident Ambassador.
Exports had recovered in November to grow at 0.59 per cent from a 12 per cent contraction in October.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made a clear break with the past on UK-China relations as he declared that the "so-called golden era" of bilateral ties is over in the face of the "systemic challenge" posed by the Chinese regime to British values and interests.
Spiraling steel prices led the government to cut customs duty by 2.5-5.5 per cent on a range of products from semi-finished to flat and long products for the benefit of MSMEs, that have been at the receiving end.
Panagariya also stressed that India must continue the liberalisation of its top tariff rates and the country should not revert back to import substitution.
Taking India's Look East policy a step further, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday announced visa-on-arrival facility for citizens of Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Laos; and emphasised the need to speed up the finalisation of a free trade agreement in services and investment between India and South East Asian nations.
As India goes into firming up trade deals with developed nations like Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the regional bloc, and the European Union (EU), it will have to be well prepared to negotiate on new-generation issues, such as data protection regulation, e-commerce, and environment. India is yet to negotiate pacts with its trading partners on these evolving issues since discussions between them have until now been largely focused on tariff and non-tariff barriers and the rules of origin. "We can no longer look at trade just as trade. We have to look at it in totality of global and regional conditions.
"It will be ensured that such agreements (free trade agreements) do not have a detrimental effect on domestic manufacturing in India," according to the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), cleared by the Union Cabinet on October 25.
His visit to India followed a few cancelled plans since he took office in July 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic crisis, with the two leaders holding several virtual talks and eventually meeting in person on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November.
The people will view it from their viewpoint, their immediate interest, historical experiences, their insecurities, he said.
The agreement on services, if ratified by all member countries, could prove to be a game changer for Indian professionals in education, healthcare & IT.
Existing trade deals, especially the 2009 pact with the Asean bloc, have been panned by the Centre for not boosting exports but flooding the domestic market with cheap imports. Subsequently, New Delhi has called for reviewing FTAs with Japan and South Korea. Going by that, a trade deal with the US is unlikely to be beneficial, say experts.
Piyush Goyal, who held the post of finance minister when Arun Jaitley was undergoing treatment, told the Confederation of Indian Industry's annual session: "All stakeholders, including the RBI, should introspect on their respective roles (on low economic growth)."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar left London at the end of a four-day visit to the United Kingdom on Friday with a message of convergence as the two countries agreed on an ambitious '2030 Roadmap' towards a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
ICT products make up a minuscule $ 407 million, out of the $ 35.54 billion of total inbound shipments from the US, as of now.
Leveraging Indo-Asean trade talks means a stronger Look East policy.
Aiming to give fillip to India's Look East policy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to announce new initiatives to take forward ties with the ASEAN by setting up a mission and appointing an ambassador for the 10-member grouping.
Indian companies struggle in face of a set of common challenges related to logistics, labour regulations, tax and tariff policy
The bill will now go to the House of Lords on Monday for voting before royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II to become law.
After staging a strong recovery from COVID-induced slowdown in 2021, India's exports are likely to extend the growth story to the New Year also on increased demand in the global markets, boost in domestic manufacturing due to production-linked incentive schemes and implementation of some interim trade pacts. Expectations of positive growth in the country's exports are also backed up by the outlook of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which predicts a 4.7 per cent expansion in the global merchandise trade volume in 2022. Exporters believe that the outbound shipments would cross $400 billion mark in this fiscal going by the current momentum and may reach $475 billion in 2022-23.
India can become one of the world's automotive export hubs of the 21st century.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is very much aligned with the foreign policy priorities of the Modi 2.0 government, says Sana Hashmi.
'In the Asean market, the train left at the same time for India and China, but while India's ride has been symbolic of India's rickety railways, it seems that China's has been on a bullet train,' note Renjini V R, Manmeet Ajmani and Devesh Roy.
India is among 75 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on Automatic Exchange of Information.
Chandrasekaran, who is the co-recipient of this year's USIBC Global Corporate Leadership Award, also said it is possible to have a limited deal between India and the US before the elections there in November if both sides work together to get something done and not try to solve all issues at once.
'We don't need to hinge India-UK relations on shared hostility toward China,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Apple and Samsung are international players and should work as a team with domestic companies to transform India into a global powerhouse: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Protectionist and exclusionary FTAs weaken multilateralism.
The prime minister also welcomed convergence of views between India and ASEAN for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
The road will help in transportation of goods and further development of SMEs in North East India
Giving a fresh impetus to its ties with ASEAN, India today said it would soon draft a five-year action plan starting 2016 for enhancing connectivity and cooperation in diverse areas and hoped the long-delayed free trade pact on services and investment will be signed later this month.
Mr Modi has indicated he will carry on, and intensify, India's 'Look East' policy. But this start is hardly inspiring.
'Fear psychosis has gripped the entire world.' 'Nobody is going to enter shops freely in the next 5, 6 months.' 'Secondly, the priority has changed.' 'Now that they have seen the bottom of the economy, people will prefer to save for tomorrow.'
'It seems a wiser decision to pull out at the right moment than regret after joining the pact,' explains Dr Rahul Mishra.
In another round of economic booster, Sitharaman announced steps to help homebuyers and push exports.
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