Here are the key highlights of the BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' for the 2024 parliamentary polls.
Ministers' resignation accepted, portfolios farmed out
Apple Inc has requested the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) to give it 18 to 24 months' exemption to comply with the European Union (EU) regulation of putting an USB charging port in all its older smartphones, mainly iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, which are assembled, exported and also sold in the domestic market. Apple's stance is different from that of Samsung, which has been pushing for an immediate implementation of the EU regulation. All smartphones by the South Korean giant already comply with the EU rules.
Addressing an event in New Delhi, Gen Pande also said the recent global developments have underscored that the security of the nation can neither be outsourced nor be dependent on the largesse of others.
The government on Thursday tweaked curbs on imports of laptops and computers as it allowed importers to bring in shipments of IT hardware from overseas on a mere 'authorisation' upon detailing quantity and value. The new 'import management system' is aimed at monitoring shipments of laptops, tablets and computers into the country without hurting market supply or creating a cumbersome licensing regime. The announcement is likely to provide relief to companies in the IT hardware segment in India as they had flagged concerns over the imposition of a strict licensing regime for importers.
For India to be atmanirbhar, domestic manufacturers cannot remain merely assemblers of imported parts. Manufacturing in India cannot survive on support of imports forever.
Entities may be given about a year to tune their systems to comply with norms of Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of consultation with the industry, Chandrasekhar said the Data Protection Board and guidelines for the eight rules, including consent management, will be put in place within a month. "Industry wants some more time for age-gating, different timelines for transition for different data fiduciaries.
If Tesla comes in, India's position as a manufacturing hub will rise many notches, as it will become only the second country, after China, to have both Apple as well as Tesla.
Tata Sons-owned Infiniti Retail, which runs electronics and durable stores under the Croma brand, is expecting a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) from its newly launched online venture in two years. Cromaretail.com, the chain's e-retail venture, on Monday went live in 319 cities across 24 states.
Recently, the government relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for the space sector by allowing 100 per cent FDI in manufacture of components, systems or sub-systems for satellites, ground segments, and user segments. It also permitted 74 per cent FDI in satellite manufacturing and operation as well as satellite data products and 49 per cent in development of launch vehicles and spaceports. Following this, stocks of related companies saw an uptick on the bourses.
Investors seem to be shying away from stocks of companies in the 'digital' space with most counters that comprise the Nifty India Digital index giving negative returns over the past year. The index tracks the performance of a portfolio of stocks that broadly represent the 'digital theme' within basic industries, such as software, e-commerce, IT-enabled services, industrial electronics, and telecom services. The fall in some of these stocks over the past year has been steep; the sharpest decline of around 60 per cent was seen in shares of PB Fintech (parent company of Policybazaar).
Tokyo -- the songs Japan, Love In Tokyo and Sayonara from the 1966 Hindi film automatically pop up in the mind -- is buzzing and crowded like any other metropolis, discovers Deepa Gahlot. The modern apartment blocks are built cheek by jowl, so close together that one can open the window and borrow sugar from the neighbour in the next building. One of the fears of the Indian traveller is the unavailability of vegetarian food. Every city and town in Japan has an array of Indian restaurants that serve every variety of cuisine, right from Gujarati to Punjabi to Andhra and Kerala meals.
This would be the first time that the Indian artillery would have these types of 105 mm mounted howitzers and would add to the strength of the formations deployed in forward positions, they said.
LG, Samsung, Videocon, Sony and Panasonic have instructed their trade partners that products sold through online marketplaces without their knowledge during flash sales will not get the benefit of after-sale service and warranties.
The Indian IT services sector is scrambling to retain talent since digitisation-led transformation has increased the demand for a digitally skilled workforce. As a result, the pull for jobs for tech professionals is also coming from non-IT sectors, leading to higher attrition among IT companies. The average number of tech jobs from non-IT sectors has seen a 41 per cent uptick in March-May'21 versus March-May'19, according to data from Naukri.com.
This is based on the proposals given by a task force set by the government a year before to suggest measures to stimulate the growth of IT, IT-enabled services and the electronics hardware manufacturing industry. Electronics hardware production rose from Rs 84,410 crore (Rs 844.1 billion) in 2007-08 to Rs 94,690 crore (Rs 946.9 billion) in 2008-09, a growth of 12.1 per cent.
The biggest bounce is in the realty sector, where the industry index jumped 80%. There's been a turnaround also in automobiles and ancillaries (up 45%). The pharma and health care indices have a welcome return of roughly 35%.
As per use-based classification, primary good registered a growth of 7.4 per cent, intermediate goods 22.4 per cent, and infrastructure/construction goods 0.1 per cent in February 2020 as against the same period a year ago.
The government on Friday deferred the implementation of the import restriction order on laptops and computers (including tablet computers) by about three months till October 31, a move that gives more time to electronic companies to import these devices without a licence. Nw, these companies would need to take a licence from the government to import these devices from November 1. On August 3, the government put the import of these devices under a licence regime with immediate effect.
The message is clear: The 60-year-old wise uncles need to handhold the 40-year-old entrepreneurs when, obsessed with ambition and greed for growth, they become a victim of hubris, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
As a model of transport, the A380 strikes a parallel -- a shared fragility -- with giant container ships, observes Shyam G Menon.
'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.
US-based chipmaker Micron Technology is expecting demand for semiconductors to rise significantly in the next few years, globally and in India, as memory consumption is going up, largely driven by the widespread adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). "Memory consumption is expected to double by the end of the decade and the biggest driver in this is AI. "While it's natural to talk about compute and GPUs (graphics processing units) in the context of AI, it is not to be forgotten that the true enabler for AI is memory ... in all the AI engines that we talk about, there is a lot of need to access memory quickly," Anand Ramamoorthy, managing director, Micron Technology India, told Business Standard.
Over 65 Union ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers.
Considering the government's promise of electricity for all by 2012, the only specific mention in the entire Union Budget for the power sector includes the allocation of Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion)for RGGVY and Rs 2,080 crore (Rs 20.8 billion) for the RAPDRP programme, Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association, said. IEEMA welcomes the continuation of reforms, abolition of the fringe benefit tax and proposed introduction of GST on April 1, 2010.
'China is somewhat disappointing in its recovery, and slow growth, and India is reporting strong growth numbers.'
'The markets will correct, and they are bound to correct. The boom will turn into bust.' 'When this bust happens, people would lose like they have lost in the past.' 'Whatever you have made possibly in the last couple of years, you may lose in a couple of weeks. That's very much possible.'
The Israel-Hamas conflict is expected to impact the trade of gems and jewellery between India and Israel, exporters said on Monday. Colin Shah, MD, Kama Jewelry, said the war can "adversely" impact Indian exports to Israel. Total gems and jewellery trade between India and Israel stood at $2.04 billion in 2022-23 as against $2.8 billion in 2021-22.
I hope those who underestimate Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be proved wrong in this fight for Thiruvananthapuram's future, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
Wednesday's Vikravandi by-election has become a referendum on the Stalin government, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indian exporters are keeping their fingers crossed on account of rising Covid infections in China and other countries as it could again disrupt supply chains and affect demand for goods. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) director general Ajay Sahai said that if the cases continue to increase in the coming days, it may have implications on imports. "We are keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
Plug-in hybrids have two engines and the electric part has a much larger battery than in the regular hybrids. Car companies, led by the Japanese, are pushing the Indian government to look at hybrids in the interim if it wants to reduce carbon emission.
A day after announcing withdrawal from its chip-making JV with Indian conglomerate Vedanta, Foxconn on Tuesday said it is working on plans to apply for incentives under semiconductor and display fab programme, as the contract manufacturer pledged its commitment to India. The Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant said it has been actively reviewing landscape for optimal partners. The comment assumes significance as Foxconn has pulled out from the $19.5 billion semiconductor JV with Vedanta.
Indian exporters shipping goods to Israel may face higher insurance premiums and shipping costs due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to experts. Israel witnessed a surprise and unprecedented multifront attack by air, land and sea by the Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, in its southern parts on Saturday morning. The International trade experts said the conflict may reduce the profits of domestic exporters but will not impact trade volumes unless war escalates.
India, the world's fifth largest economy in the world, is likely to overtake Japan to become the world's third-largest economy with a GDP of $7.3 trillion by 2030, S&P Global Market Intelligence said in its latest issue of PMI. After two years of rapid economic growth in 2021 and 2022, the Indian economy has continued to show sustained strong growth during the 2023 calendar year. India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow 6.2-6.3 per cent in the fiscal year ending in March 2024, being the fastest-growing major economy this fiscal year.
Different industry and trade bodies have extended their support to BangaloreIT.in, the premier annual IT event organised by the Karnataka government and STPI. The three-day event will be inaugurated on the 29th of October in the premises of Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC).
The decision to delete rules governing locations under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act 1951 was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet. Earlier, the industries other than non-polluting electronics, computer software and printing were not allowed to be located within 25 km from the periphery of cities above population of one million.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday met top officials of the finance and corporate affairs ministries to review the implementation of various announcements of the Union Budget FY24. "The finance minister underlined the importance of continuous assessment of progress to ensure that various announcements are implemented in a time-bound manner," the finance ministry said in a tweet. Sitharaman also discussed in detail various issues on the digital competition laws with Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances