With the shifting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to the finance ministry, the government has now reconstituted the board appointing Finance Secretary S Narayan as its chairperson.\n\n\n\n
Wholesale inflation rate eased to 34-month low of (-) 0.92 per cent in April on easing prices of food, fuel and manufactured items. The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation has been on a declining trend for 11 months in a row and entered the negative zone in April. In June 2020 WPI was at (-) 1.81 per cent.
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to India declined to $74.01 billion in the calendar year 2021, which is 15 per cent lower from $87.55 billion recorded in the previous year, the ministry of commerce & industry said on Wednesday. The FDI inflow includes equity inflow, equity capital of unincorporated bodies, re-invested earnings and other capital. "FDI is largely a matter of commercial business decisions and FDI inflow depends on a host of factors such as availability of natural resource, market size, infrastructure, political and general investment climate as well as macro-economic stability and investment decision of foreign investors.
Wholesale price-based inflation rose to an eight-month high of 0.26 per cent in November, driven by a sharp jump in food prices, especially onion and vegetables. The WPI inflation was in the negative or deflationary zone for the past seven months since April and was at (-)0.52 per cent in October. The last positive WPI inflation was recorded in March at 1.41 per cent.
The Supreme Court on Friday said lawyers and professionals with 10 years of experience will be eligible for appointment as president and member of the state consumer commission and district forums.
India will unveil its much-awaited new Foreign Trade Policy 2023-28 on Friday, with a view to boost exports amid slowing global trade. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will announce the foreign trade policy, according to the ministry. The current foreign trade policy (2015-20) is in force till March 31, 2022.
'The days when less government, more governance were spoken of are well and truly behind us.' 'More government, it is now believed, means more governance,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The government on Friday came out with Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 which seeks to boost the country's exports to $2 trillion by 2030 by shifting from incentives to remission and entitlement based regime. Unlike the practice of announcing 5-year FTP, the latest policy has no end date and will be updated as and when needed, said Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Sarangi while briefing media about FTP 2023. Earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal unveiled FTP 2023 which will come into effect from April 1, 2023.
During April-August, the eight sectors grew by 4.4 per cent, against 4.2 per cent in the year-ago period.
The tourism industry expects a short-term impact, as it is counting on the state's proven expertise in managing such crises.
'There is a need for a national task force with a singular objective to increase automotive exports.'
'Das is friendly, but he finally does what he does. The quality of engagement is very good.'
The drug maker will lose some incentives if its membership is suspended, sources in Pharmexcil said.
The proposed e-commerce rule book issued recently by the ministry of consumer affairs does not mention foreign companies or foreign direct investment (FDI) at any place, unlike most other government guidelines for the sector so far. That is a heartening development since the latest proposals could be fine-tuned as e-commerce policy.
To tap into the growing demand for offices, several global and Indian co-working entities are creating stock in the top cities.
The talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Canada may have taken a pause but will resume once the political row between the two countries is resolved as the pact has economic benefits for both the nations, trade experts and exporters said on Friday. However, they said that India may not hurry for the trade agreement as 60 per cent of New Delhi's exports are already entering Canada at zero duty. Earlier this month, India and Canada paused the negotiations for the agreement due to political reasons.
The department of commerce has urged the agriculture ministry as well as the diplomatic mission in Tehran to apprise it of details as to why Iranian buyers have stopped import of rice and tea from India, a senior government official said. Exporters said that exports of items such as high quality tea and rice have stopped since last week. As of now, there has been no confirmation from the authorities and the response from the embassy in Tehran is also taking time, they said.
E-commerce players may soon rent out drones, so you can use them the way you book a cab on an app, and test viable use-cases for last-mile delivery.
The reshuffle could take place before the start of the winter session of Parliament.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry will soon seek Cabinet nod to give out inflation data every month instead of the present practice of weekly release.
A combination of externalities such as global trade wars and slowing growth, continuing glitches in accessing offsets under the GST regime, which has created a liquidity crunch for smaller exporters, and the growing competitiveness of smaller countries are causing the slowdown.
The government has granted Geographical Indications (GI) tag to various products, including Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, and an apricot variety of Ladakh. The commerce and industry ministry said on Wednesday that the total number of GI has reached to 432. "Famous Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, RaktseyKarpo Apricot of Ladakh, Alibag White Onion of Maharashtra have got their GI tags," it said.
Kumar, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is currently an additional secretary in the ministry of electronics and Information Technology.
The case has been registered against entities such as the Halal India Private Limited Chennai, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India Mumbai, Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra and others for allegedly exploiting religious sentiments to boost sales by providing halal certificates to customers of a specific religion, the UP government said in a statement on Saturday.
The California walnuts shipped from the US to India have seen a sharp uptick with imports more than doubling from September to November against the same period last year. This comes after New Delhi removed its retaliatory customs tariffs on the key dry fruit. Two days ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit on September 9-10, India dropped additional customs duties on about half a dozen US goods that were imposed in 2019 in response to America raising tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products coming from India.
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.
The Centre will invest around Rs 200 crore over five years for the exploration and development of these mines.
The central government is expected to complete the auction of the 5.9-million tonne (mt) lithium reserves discovered in the Reasi district of the northern Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) by the end of this calendar year, Union Mines Secretary Vivek Bharadwaj said on the sidelines of the launch of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) report on 'New-Age Energy Minerals' on Tuesday. "Auction will be over by the end of this year," said Bharadwaj, adding, "We have already recommended a transaction advisor to the J&K government for the auction of lithium reserves." However, the exact timeline for an auction will be decided by J&K authorities, Union mines minister Pralhad Joshi said in Parliament last month.
The government on Monday extended till July 21 the deadline for public comments on proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules, 2020. Earlier, the last date for public comments on the draft e-commerce rules was July 6. "It has now been decided to extend the timeline for receipt of comments/ suggestions on the draft e-commerce rules. "Views/ comments/ suggestions on the proposed amendments may be sent by July 21, 2021," a government notice said.
Amid domestic traders continuously complaining alleged violations of FDI norms by foreign online players, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the ministry will "very shortly" come out with certain clarifications on the e-commerce sector. Goyal said the ministry is not changing any policy on e-commerce for foreign direct investment as the policy is crystal clear. "We will also come out with the e-commerce policy and whatever clarifications... Certain instances have come to our notice where the policy is not being followed in letter and spirit, we will obviously be clarifying that very shortly," he told reporters in New Delhi.
'We are engaging in substantial open market sales of both wheat and rice to control food inflation; special measures of market intervention in vegetables, pulses and oil seeds were also taken to cushion the impact.'
In a meeting with the commerce minister, India Inc hammered Sharma on the collapse of investments, structural nature of the current account deficit and stagnant growth in agriculture.
Making the announcement, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday that India will hold the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and will convene the G20 leaders' summit in 2023 for the first time.
The commerce ministry is proposing a host of direct and indirect incentives such as deferral of import duties and exemption from export taxes to revamp Special Economic Zones through a new legislation, an official said. In the Union Budget this year, the government proposed to replace the existing law governing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with a new legislation to enable states to become partners in 'Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs' (DESH). The official said the commerce ministry has sought views of different ministries, including finance, on the new bill.
A top Republican lawmaker has welcomed India signing a trade deal with Australia, and urged the Biden administration to enter into a similar arrangement with New Delhi that can advance Washington's strong economic agenda in the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region. "I'm pleased to see #Australia & #India sign a strong trade deal," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch said in a tweet. "The US needs to do the same and advance a strong economic agenda in the #IndoPacific. "The Biden Admin's failure to lead hurts US growth and our partnership in the region," Risch said in another tweet.
The government on Wednesday unveiled the FTP for 2015-20.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce has observed that a massive shortfall in the budgetary allocation of over Rs 1,900 crore by the finance ministry to the industry department may have an adverse impact on the implementation of infrastructure (infra) projects in 2022-23 (FY23). While the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had sought Rs 10,267 crore from the finance ministry for FY23, it received Rs 8,348-crore allocation. For the National Industrial Corridor Development & Implementation Trust (NICDIT), the finance ministry has allocated Rs 1,500 crore instead of Rs 2,400 crore demanded for the project.
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