Go-getter, ambitious, dynamic, workaholic are some of the adjectives that officials who worked closely with B V R Subrahmanyam use to describe him.
Exports had recovered in November to grow at 0.59 per cent from a 12 per cent contraction in October.
India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad.
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.
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.
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.'
Amid demands for snapping trade ties with China for its transgressions on the border, former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya has opined that cutting trade with Beijing at this juncture would amount to sacrificing India's potential economic growth. Instead, Panagariya suggested that India should try to enter into free trade agreements (FTA) with countries such as the UK and the European Union to expand its trade. "Engaging China in a trade war at this juncture will mean sacrificing a considerable part of our potential growth... purely on economic grounds, it will be unwise to take any action in response to it (transgressions on the border)," the eminent economist told PTI.
The talks between the two leaders covered the entire gamut of bilateral ties as well as key regional and global issues, including the Ukraine conflict.
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.
Indian drug firms get a shot in the arm in the $12 bn Australian drug market as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia agrees to accelerate the drug approval process in that country for Indian players who already have an approved plant and product from one of the stringent regulatory authorities like US, EU or Canada. From current sales of $340 mn, the Indian firms can see a significant upside in sales; felt Dinesh Dua, former chairman of the Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), and the MD of Nectar Lifesciences. He highlighted that only 12 percent of the Australian drug market is generic, as against 80-90 per cent in the US or EU. Of this $1.5 bn generic drug market in India, Indian companies have a small share.
Panagariya also stressed that India must continue the liberalisation of its top tariff rates and the country should not revert back to import substitution.
The CEOs on both sides, headed by Thomas d'Aquino, chief executive and president of Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and Tarun Das, president of Confederation of Indian Industries, submitted a 14-page report on September 2 to the two trade ministers in Canada and India for their considerations and follow-up actions.
Braverman, 42, resigned from the cabinet of former prime minister Liz Truss last week, having breached the ministerial code by sending secure information from her private email.
Consumers can expect duty-free imports of a range of products like capital goods, some textiles, electronic goods and chemicals from next year after India successfully concluded negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement for goods with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore on Thursday.
'We have got Brexit done and we can now take full advantage of the fantastic opportunities available to us as an independent trading nation, striking trade deals with other partners around the world,' Downing Street said in a statement.
The action came after investigations carried out by an inter-ministerial committee formed by the home ministry in 2020.
India has received the third set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under an automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, as part of an annual exercise under which the European nation has shared the particulars of nearly 33 lakh financial accounts with 96 countries.
Among the current FTAs with significant trade deficits for India, five are with countries from the 10-nation Asean bloc. Exports to the 10 economies stood at $ 37.4 billion in 2018-19, up by 9% year on year. On the other hand, imports were higher at $ 59.31 billion, up by 25% from the previous year's $ 47.13 billion.
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.
After his wide-ranging talks with Modi on the second and final day of his India visit, Johnson said the new defence and security partnership will enable India to strengthen its domestic defence industry as well as help the two countries protect vital shared interests in the Indo-Pacific.
The visit next week, which is yet to be formally announced by Downing Street, follows the successful completion of four out of 26 chapters in the ongoing India-UK free trade agreement negotiations.
Currently, the trade between India and Association of South East Asian Nations stood at $80 billion.
Stating the volume of trade between India and Finland is "not big enough", Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb today said it would increase only after signing of the much-talked about free trade agreement between India and European Union.
A feasibility study on the proposed Free Trade Agreement, officially known as the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, has long been finalised but cannot be acted upon in the absence of Russia joining the WTO.
Two-way trade between ASEAN and India in 2011-12 reached $80 billion.
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.
India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement talks are in troubled waters with Asean insisting on New Delhi to eliminate its big list of negative items, contrary to the stand taken by the former.
Roadblocks in the way of ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement appear to have been removed following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention on the crucial issue of sensitive farm products like pepper, rubber, palm oil, coffee and tea.
The visiting minister said that trade and economic relations between the two countries are constantly gaining momentum.
India is close to signing a free trade pact with the South-East Asian nations to boost exports in the face of a global economic downturn and rising protectionism, a top official said on Wednesday.
The people will view it from their viewpoint, their immediate interest, historical experiences, their insecurities, he said.
Talks on the ambitious India-Asean Free Trade Agreement have received another setback due to the violent protests at the Asean summit venue in Thailand last Sunday.
The FTA will provide Indian trade and industry with access to a large and vibrant market in a region that is increasingly prosperous. This market is bound to expand further as the Asean trading bloc is already in talks with countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand for free or preferential trade pacts.
In fact, India stands to gain in sectors such as textiles, handicrafts, chemicals and pharmaceutical from its trade with the Asean economies.
After more than a year since the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) became operational, it is now approaching consolidation.
The European Union may back off from its insistence on including non-trade issues like human rights in the proposed free trade pact with India.
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