With US President Donald Trump "temporarily suspending" country-specific reciprocal tariffs until July 9, India sees the three-month window as an opportunity to renew its push for a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US and expedite finalisation of the first tranche of the trade deal.
The Gulf Cooperation Council will consider a proposal to define a time-frame ceiling for residency of the workers in member states. The proposal says after the expiry of the six year-contract, the worker will go back home to his original country.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured a 13-day custodial remand for Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, chairperson of the Al Falah group, accused of generating over Rs 415 crore dishonestly from students. The ED claims Siddiqui has incentives to flee India as his family is settled in the Gulf.
Kuwait, the world's third largest oil producer, on Wednesday, said it was keen on investing in Indian refineries even as it plans to sell more crude to India.
The Indian arm of the Norwegian investment company Orkla ASA, which owns spice brands like MTR and Eastern, is exploring the possibility of launching an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025, said a top company executive. "The ASA board just cleared the proposal. "We had done a pre-IPO study last year to understand what we need to do and based on that the board said, 'okay, let's go ahead and explore capital markets'," Sanjay Sharma, CEO, Orkla India, told Business Standard.
Developed countries who practice protectionism should not have high expectations from developing countries to open up their markets in sensitive sectors like agriculture, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.
India needs an investment equivalent to 35.1 per cent of its GDP to maintain a growth rate of 9 per cent over the next five years starting this fiscal, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.
'Christians, for example, make up 2 per cent of India's population but an estimated 16 per cent of those who were born in India now reside elsewhere,' said Pew.
India is expected to be the top recipient of remittances in 2023 as inflows increase 12.4 per cent to $125 billion, said a World Bank report on Tuesday. Mexico will come next by receiving $67 billion and China will follow it at $50 billion. The key drivers for remittance growth in 2023 are a tight labour market in the United States, high employment growth in Europe reflecting extensive leveraging of worker retention programs, and a dampening of inflation in high-income countries. India's growth in remittances is expected to halve to 12.4 per cent in 2023 from a historic peak of 24.4 per cent in 2022.
Acutely conscious that he's left with less than four years to create his legacy, Trump is undoubtedly a man in a hurry, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India is pushing for greater disclosures by credit card companies, fintech firms, and payment aggregators (PAs) at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so that the sender and recipient in a cross-border financial transaction can be easily identified and the information shared with law enforcement agencies. Separately, the inter-governmental group, which sets standards to curb money laundering, will release the fourth round of its mutual evaluation report on India on September 19. FATF in June had adopted the mutual evaluation report on India and placed the country in the "regular follow-up" category - the highest rating given by the global watchdog and a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries.
Exports of high-quality basmati rice from India grew by 22 per cent to $5.2 billion during April 2023-February 2024, amid robust demand, primarily from West Asia. According to data compiled by the commerce department, exports of basmati rice increased to 4.68 million metric tonnes (MMT) in April-February, from 4.1 MMT during the same period a year ago, registering a growth of 14 per cent.
India is in talks with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to conclude a free trade agreement and a framework agreement for the FTA has already been signed, a leading Indian banker in the region has said.
Close on the heels of a Free Trade Agreement with Thailand, India is now focusing on signing more such trade deals with member countries of Association of South East Asian Nations, MERCOSUR
India and the Gulf Cooperation Council are working to finalise the Free Trade Agreement by this year-end, which will give further fillip to bilateral trade ties.
India and Bahrain firms have formed a JV to provide solutions for telecom infrastructure.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and India are expected conclude a free trade agreement for boosting trade within a year, K K M Kutty, former chairman of industry chamber CII (southern region), has said.
The Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bharain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates -- present a lot of trade opportunities for India, he said. The Assocham has been promoting India as an investment destination for infrastructure, biotechnology, power, roads, IT and allied sectors. It has also created an Andhra Pradesh Investment Cell to attract investments to the state.
India and Qatar on Tuesday agreed to elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership and double bilateral trade to USD 28 billion over the next five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani signed agreements and MoUs to strengthen economic cooperation, including a revised double taxation avoidance agreement. The strategic partnership will cover the "entire spectrum" of the bilateral relationship, including trade, energy security, and regional and international cooperation. Both leaders also discussed ways to further strengthen and broaden the energy partnership, including "exploring mutual investments." The Amir's visit provided an "excellent opportunity" for the top leadership of the two countries to discuss and "cement a strategic partnership for enhanced future cooperation."
Another priority in the first 100 days could be the launch of an e-platform -- Trade Connect -- to help exporters connect with stakeholders of international trade.
Migrants do many of the dirty and dangerous jobs in the region, from construction to the oil industry, transport and services
A year after a Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 and the ensuing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, India's trade with most West Asian countries has largely escaped any major disruption, except with countries like Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. However, repeated flare-ups of geopolitical tensions in the region continue to drive up shipping and logistics costs.
The money sent home by Indians from West Asian countries took a beating in 2020-21 due to the pandemic. On the other hand, overseas Indians in advanced nations - the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore - emerged as important sources of remittance, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey. Indians working in informal sectors in West Asia seem to have been impacted the most due to the lockdowns and subdued crude oil prices as well as slower pace of migration in recent years.
Company launches claim guarantee scheme for customers.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.
The domestic technology industry's revenue is projected to grow 3.8 per cent to $254 billion this fiscal, industry body Nasscom said on Friday and highlighted creation of 60,000 more jobs during this period. The industry had clocked a revenue of $244.6 billion in the same period last year, according to Nasscom's annual strategic review report. Excluding hardware, the revenue is expected to touch $199 billion, a growth of 3.3 per cent over FY23, as per the report.
The countries with positive employment outlook included India, Mexico and Turkey, as also the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
Key economies like India and China are rapidly becoming the biggest trading partners of the Gulf countries as compared to other regions, a new study has said.
'Now that we are a pure-play India business, many investors are open to investing.'
'It was tough financially for the first few years but my friends and family supported me and once he did well at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, there was no looking back.'
'Modi has visited all these three countries (the UAE more than once, inexplicably) but has left out Kuwait and Oman, the two Gulf countries that are closest to India in their political, cultural and civilisational ethos,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a 25 per cent rise in net profit attributable to the owners of the company for the January-March quarter of 2024-25, owing to higher revenues and an exceptional gain. For the quarter under review, L&T posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,497.3 crore, while revenue rose 10.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 74,392.28 crore.
Pakistan was put in the inglorious list in 2018 for its failure to check risk of money laundering, leading to corruption and terror financing.
The European Commission will propose scrapping tariffs on jet fuel imports starting January 1, an official said on Friday.
India and Saudi Arabia on Monday decided to expedite implementation of the $50 billion West Coast refinery project, and identified energy, defence, semiconductor and space as areas for intensified cooperation during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
A dossier will be given to the FATF, an international terror financing watchdog.
Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting on Thursday announced the acquisition of Brahmins - a Kerala-based traditional vegetarian, spice mix and ready-to-cook brand - and it has also drawn up plans to launch its snacks brand targeting the southern market. The company will focus on the southern market and is in the process of launching its own brand in the fast-growing ready-to-eat and snacks segment, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting and managing director Vineet Agrawal told PTI. He further said Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting would take the acquisition route for expanding in the spices segment.
The proposed India-Israel trade pact should be beneficial to both nations and until New Delhi gets a good deal, it would not do an agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. India and Israel are negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) since May 2010. "With Israel, until we get a good deal, we will not do an FTA. It has to be reciprocally beneficial," the minister said in San Francisco on Tuesday while interacting with the Indian community.
Of $90 billion remittances that India is expected to receive in 2022, only $27.4 billion has come in the first half of the year.
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