Ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices for considering options to tame rising inflation, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday the government is looking at further cuts in duties on import of essential commodities. "Yes, we are looking at further cuts. There is increase in international oil prices and it has to be met with import duty caliberation which we are considering," Nath told reporters in New Delhi.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has ridiculed the move as 'hypocrisy' saying Congress leaders had termed Lord Ram as an imaginary character.
Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday he was forewarned that the Plan panel would not allow him to achieve a 20 km-a-day road-building target.
Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, who arrived in Washington had critical bilateral discussions with senior administration and Congressional leaders on issues related to WTO and bilateral issues.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin on Wednesday discussions with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who asked the UK telecom giant to follow best commercial practices in its bid to acquire Hutch-Essar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday cruised to a two-thirds majority in Madhya Pradesh assembly, winning as many as 163 of the 230 seats in the House, leaving the Congress a distant second at 66.
Ahead of the last Assembly polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had promised to implement a farm loan waiver scheme in the state if the party came to power.
The commerce minister ought to seek validation for his incentives with the finance ministry.
Britain's new points-based immigration system may become a 'retrograde step' as it prevents India and other developing countries from exporting information technology systems and personnels to the country, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said. "The new regime can make it harder for software and other IT executives to travel back and forth between India and the UK, imperiling their ability to fulfill service contracts," Nath told the Financial Times.
A United States judge has dismissed a court complaint against Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying the court has no jurisdiction over the Indian leader in the case.
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.
In the ongoing World Economic Forum, Kamal Nath asserted that US recession will not slow down India's economic growth.
Concerned over a number of companies resorting to job cuts to curb their losses due to the global economic turmoil, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has asked India Inc not to boost profits by resorting to firing staff.
Referring to high oil, food and metal prices across the world that has left an increased pressure on inflation, Nath said the present global food market scenario was a call on the economies of the South East Asian region to remap their positions and reallocate resources. Pointing out that several countries had taken steps to scrap export of food products, the minister said India had announced the National Policy for Farmers.
Launching the annual survey of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said the government has started a 'revolution' in farming sector by waiving farm loans of Rs 60,000 crore. He said improving the agriculture sector is an important challenge for the Asia-Pacific region & deserves a 'serious response'. The report would open up solutions to the socio-economic issues across the region Nath said on the occasion.
Kamal Nath on Thursday took over as Urban Development Minister with an ambitious plan of giving a boost to urban transportation for which he intends to expand Delhi Metro network to make it bigger than its London counterpart by 2017.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said that India will retaliate if faced with non-tariff trade barriers for its exports.
Industry estimates suggest that over the next four years, organised retail in India will receive investments in excess of $25 billion from domestic and foreign players, taking the size of organised retail to $ 75 billion.
On Monday, former state health minister Rustam Singh quit the Bharatiya Janata Party after being denied a ticket from Morena and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has fielded his son from the seat.
The proposed legislation on special economic zones would give a big boost to the inflow of foreign direct investment in the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in New Delhi on Friday.
The government on Friday said it is looking at having a uniform foreign direct investment cap in different business segments within a sector as part of the review to streamline foreign investment regulations.
India's highways development project, the largest public private partnership programme in the world, is likely to attract a whopping investment of $41 billion, including FDI, from the private sector, Highways Minister Kamal Nath said.
The Commerce Ministry is set to unveil the annual review of the Foreign Trade Policy on April 11. It would not be exports alone which would be the focus, but steps to ease imports are also likely to give a boost to supply of essential commodities.The government is facing political pressure from many quarters, including the Left parties, to check the rising prices within a couple of weeks.
US recession is likely to help Indian economy as it wil attract more global investments, said Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.
Sanjay Singh Masani said the state needs Congress's chief Kamal Nath not Chouhan as the CM.
With the economy slowing and an impending general election, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday announced 26 measures to promote exports, mostly simplifying foreign trade schemes, even as he lowered the export target for 2008-09 to $175 billion against the $200 billion announced in April 2008.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said a hefty cut in the US interest rates will have a positive impact for the Indian exports, but industry leader Rahul Bajaj felt the move will further hit exporters. "The US Fed's decision would rather boost Indian exports to America as it would raise demand in the biggest economy of the world," Nath said at the World Economic Forum annual meet in Davos.
The government planned to build 12,000 kilometres of roads, including highways, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) in the current financial year, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said.
The minister said there is a need to ramp up road construction 10-fold to achieve the development targets set for the next decade.
The much-hyped target set by Union road transport and highways Minister Kamal Nath, to build 20 kilometres of roads every day, might be revised to a more achievable target, informed sources say. Sources close to the development say there is talk within the ministry of a more feasible target. "The target of 20 kilometres per day is not sacrosanct. That is what the minister wanted to achieve.
The US on Tuesday made an offer to reduce its overall trade distorting subsidy to $15 billion. India's commerce and industry minister on Wednesday rejoined the crucial negotiations to break the Doha deadlock after his government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday.
The government will next month review the foreign direct Investment policy to lay down norms for preventing companies from breaching the sectoral limits, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday.
Transport Ministry has set an ambitious target of building 35,000 km of highways network by March 2014 that translates into 20 km a day.
The two bodies have been fighting a running battle over the targets for construction of highways.
Political instability in Madhya Pradesh, which saw three chief ministers in last two years, has discouraged investors
Already two stimulus packages have been rolled out by the Centre to neutralise the impact of the global financial meltdown on the country and the Reserve Bank of India, through a series of monetary steps, released about Rs 3,20,000 crore (Rs 3,200 billion) in the system. Nath said that India is likely to receive foreign direct investment of about $30 billion during 2008-09. The government had set a FDI target of $35 billion for the fiscal.
Accusing the Union government of using the central agencies to target leaders like former finance minister P Chidambaram and others, Kamal Nath expressed hope that the court will take a right decision in the case.
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