India on Friday said it would lay down clear guidelines on imports of genetically modified crop varieties, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said.
Director General of Foreign Trade said on Thursday that India will have to double its exports to $80 billion while maintaining a growth rate of 12 per cent in order to increase its share of global trade to one per cent by 2007.
Ahead of unveiling the Foreign Trade Policy, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Wednesday said the government was looking at cooperating with states to bring down transaction costs to make exports more competitive. India's exports have been on a downslide since October 2008.
Banks have raised concerns over the new international trade settlement in rupee, fearing that facilitation of such a mechanism could result in them facing the ire of economic sanctions by the West, people aware of the matter said. Large banks with overseas operations have sought clarity and assurance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that they will not be targeted with sanctions for facilitating rupee trade with a sanction-hit country such as Russia. The present payment mechanism is a shift from earlier such arrangements, like the one with sanction-hit Iran, which involved banks facilitating settlement of international trade that did not have business in the sanctioned nation.
One of the most favoured duty reimbursement schemes among exporters - the Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) scheme - is likely to be scrapped, as the government gears up to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1.
India on Friday said it would make imports of precious metals and stones easier in order to promote gems and jewellery exports.
The zero-duty EPCG scheme is in addition to the 3 per cent EPCG scheme that was introduced last year.
It is thanks to the policy of liberalisation conceived by Manmohan Singh and enforced by P V Narasimha that the Indian economy has now become the world's 5th largest economy by nominal GDP, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The government on Tuesday indicated that forthcoming Foreign Trade Policy may grant some sops for the ailing textile sector especially exporters, who were disappointed over the Budget proposals.
From the Sensex basket, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest laggards. Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were the major gainers.
One priority for Delhi (for the new foreign secretary in particular) is to have an in-depth discussion with Dharamsala as soon as possible, suggests Claude Arpi.
Market players attribute the rally in small and midcaps to flows from retail investors and domestic institutions.
'India needs many more job creators, both in manufacturing and services, to make it big.' 'For that, the red carpet must be rolled out fully and for all investors without holding back,' suggests Nivedita Mookerji.
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty declined nearly 1 per cent on Wednesday, falling for the fourth day running amid profit-taking by cautious investors ahead of the results of the Lok Sabha polls. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 667.55 points or 0.89 per cent to settle at 74,502.90. It went below the 75,000 mark to hit the day's low of 74,454.55, plunging 715.9 points or 0.95 per cent.
Britain's third female prime Minister, Liz Truss, was out of office on Thursday after the shortest tenure at 10 Downing Street in London and without a cherished India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) under her belt as a Brexit prize.
The recent Foreign Trade Policy announcement to waive service tax for exporters had the backing of the Prime Minister, Commerce Ministry sources said on Tuesday.
The Israeli government on Sunday approved the appointment of Reuven Azar as the new Ambassador to India.
Xi Jinping's recent actions in South Asia have amply demonstrated the disastrous impact of China's embrace, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and China expert.
Stock markets will be driven by quarterly earnings by index majors, global trends and the RBI's interest rate decision this week after digesting news on budget proposals and US Federal policy outcome, say analysts. The trading activity of foreign investors and the movement of global oil benchmark Brent crude would also dictate trends in equities. "On the domestic front, the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) meeting is scheduled from February 6-8.
It appears that the focus of commerce minister Anand Sharma, when he unveils the new foreign trade policy, will be to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and thereby help reduce transaction costs for exporters, while retaining the basic framework of the present FTP.
Since 2014, many of Mohan Bhagwat's speeches have acted as cues for government policy.
India is all set to achieve the target of one per cent share of the world trade in exports well ahead of schedule, Director General of Foreign Trade L Mansingh asserted on Tuesday.
"Exports of $150 billion are certain this year. If there is a surge, they could even go up to $155 billion," Commerce Secretary GK Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meeting on Foreign Trade Policy.
Foreigners cannot rent a womb in India, the central government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
According to CITU, around 90% of the 1,723 workers of the Sriperumbudur plant are participating in the strike. Samsung said it is ready to talk to employees and not a third party like CITU.
The government on Friday put on hold the preferential market access (PMA) policy that provided for sourcing of sensitive telecom and electronic equipments and technology from domestic manufacturers over security concerns.
India's historical focus on its continental borders has overshadowed its maritime ambitions, but that is changing quickly, notes Ajai Shukla.
The government has notified a list of 57 countries in Africa and South America that would get duty benefits under the Focus Market scheme, announced in the Foreign Trade Policy early this year, to boost exports.
Many industry executives have said the draft e-commerce policy is being perceived as nationalistic but not overly protectionist and it is providing preference to Indian players against foreign companies. This might have an impact on investment by large players such as Walmart and Amazon in the country, said the executives. They said e-commerce was a very small portion of the retail industry and at a nascent stage and did not require heavy hammer regulations. Though the policy talks about being equally applicable to foreign and domestic players, it mentions that foreign direct investment (FDI) takes precedence over the e-commerce policy in any area of overlap.
In order to make India a major refuelling stop for airlines, the government on Friday announced that supplies, such as food and beverages, to international flights will be treated as exports.
Financial subsidies that are not WTO-compatible will have to be phased out and GSP benefits will not be available for long. Things have just got tougher.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Saturday that India now must gear up for agricultural exports apart from export of manufactured goods and services.
India has set a target of $160 billion for merchandise exports during 2007-08.
Exports to Greece from India are $360 million a year.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be on a two-day official visit to India from Thursday, his first trip to the country since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last month.
The commerce ministry is currently firming up the annual supplement to the FTP, which is likely to be unveiled in April. Referring to the export performance during 2007-08, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said, actual export was likely to remain short of the target of $160 billion. The exports during the year were likely to reach a level of $152-155 billion, he added.
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