The defence budget was on Thursday increased to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore amid India's continuing border row with China in eastern Ladakh as well as concerns over evolving security situation in the strategic waterways.
The interim free trade agreement between India and Australia will come into force on Thursday, providing duty-free access to thousands of domestic goods such as textiles, and leather in the Australian market. The agreement will help almost double the bilateral commerce to $45-50 billion in around five years, according to exporters and industry players. The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which was signed on April 2, would provide duty-free access to Indian exporters of over 6,000 broad sectors, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery in the Australian market.
In a major development, India and the US have agreed to end six trade disputes at the WTO through mutually agreed solutions, while New Delhi will remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples.
'India's manufacturing will take 10-15 years to catch up with China.'
'Narasimha Rao asked me why China was doing so well in attracting foreign investments and I gave my frank opinion.' 'I told him that giving thrust to exports had to be a national effort.' 'But in India, the system was very centralised in the Government of India and the state governments had no role to play.'
India has airlifted more than 6 million COVID-19 doses to nine countries in Phase-I under its initiative termed "Vaccine Maitri".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders Declaration, a significant victory for India's G20 presidency that came amid increasing tensions and divergent views over the Ukraine conflict.
Modi and Biden will have a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday before holding high-level talks.
India and the US have mutually resolved all six trade disputes pending at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in line with the commitment made by the two countries during the US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, an official said. The official said that both countries have informed the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) about the resolution of all the pending disputes. The WTO has already issued a communication with regard to one of the disputes related to the imposition of additional customs duties by India on 28 US products.
During the 13th annual summit, the two prime ministers reviewed developments in bilateral relations and explored new areas of cooperation, focusing on shared vision for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, where China is flexing its muscles.
What is more surprising is that a surge in Russian oil supplies has come after the G7 imposed stringent sanctions on Moscow.
While addressing the 14th ASEAN-India summit, the PM noted that growing radicalism and spread of extreme violence are the other security threats.
The cooking oil national industry body -- Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) of India has suggested immediate initiation of government to government (G2G) dialogue with Indonesia on the proposed palm oil export ban from April 28 by them as it would have an adverse repercussions in India. Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer of palm oil and meets nearly 50 per cent of the total palm oil requirement in India annually, had announced to ban exports till further notice apparently to contain edible oil prices in their domestic market. "We have suggested our government initiate dialogue with Indonesian counterparts at the highest diplomatic level on the cooking oil export ban.
'My understanding is that by the time President Xi Jinping came for the Chennai summit [2019], he had already instructed his army to undertake the action in Galwan in the summer of 2020.'
India is unlikely to join the ongoing negotiations for a plurilateral deal on e-commerce at the World Trade Organization (WTO), notwithstanding a change in stance on data localisation and cross-border flow of data. Under the new draft digital personal data protection (DPDP) Bill, put out on Friday for public consultation, the government has proposed free cross-border flow of data with 'friendly' nations, significantly easing its earlier stance on data localisation. India has so far stayed out of a group of 87 countries, including the US, European Union, China, and Japan that are negotiating trade-related aspects on e-commerce since December 2017.
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After announcing the September quarter results on Tuesday which showed a 34 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 4,702 crore (Rs 47.02 billion), its chief executive officer and managaing director N Chandrasekaran had hinted at ramping up hiring for the fiscal.
The defence ministry billed the 615-acre factory as India's largest helicopter-manufacturing facility and it has been planned as a one-stop solution for the country's chopper requirements.
Bengaluru-headquartered HAL plans to produce more than 1,000 helicopters in the range of 3-15 tonne with a total business of more than Rs 4 lakh crore over a period of 20 years at this facility in Gubbi taluk, officials said.
The leaders of the Group of Seven on Sunday (local time) mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin over his shirtless, bare-chested horse-riding picture.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on March 17 had announced that State Bank of India (SBI) would extend a term loan of $1 billion to Sri Lanka, fully guaranteed by the Indian government, and this was part of India's financial aid to the troubled island nation. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi was quoted saying by news agency PTI that the loan would be used for importing food, medicines, and other essential items. "India has always stood with the people of Sri Lanka and we will continue to extend all possible support at this juncture.
'It was a machinery of death. A large number of Hindus were first converted and then persecuted from 1560 all the way to 1812!' says novelist Richard Zimler.
If India wants to become a globally competitive manufacturing hub, it will have to rethink the notion that the traditional SMEs will form the manufacturing backbone, argues Prosenjit Datta.
He addressed a seminar on India and Sweden in Stockholm.
'Nirmalaji's Budget announcements have long-term implications and are not backed by enough money when the short-term outlook looks bleak,' notes T N C Rajagopalan.
Gift Nifty will provide Indian investors cues on how domestic markets could react to global events.
Prime Minister Sharif will be visiting Beijing with a high-powered delegation from November 1, 2022, where minutes of the joint coordination committee meeting will be signed.
Nearly 50 million doses of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin lying with the firm are set to expire early next year as there are no takers owing to poor demand, company sources said.
The minister emphasised that India will play its due role in advancing global food security and it will do so in a manner in which it upholds equity, displays compassion, and promotes social justice.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after talks in Beijing between officials from the two rival Middle East powers, Iranian state media reported on Friday.
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.
India will need to travel back in time and seek inspiration from football greats Tulsidas Balaram and Chuni Goswami to deftly dribble around and sidestep the West-imposed price cap on exports of Russian seaborne crude oil. India depends on imported oil to meet 86 per cent of its needs, of which nearly a quarter now comes from Russia. The copious flows are roughly 10 per cent cheaper than competing suppliers helping India save billions of dollars in fuel costs.
Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as the market prepared for a gradual increase of Iranian exports into an already oversupplied market from 2016.
India's drug regulator has initiated a probe and sought further details from the WHO after the global health body issued an alert that cough syrups manufactured by an Indian firm could potentially be linked to the death of children in Gambia.
The prime minister is likely to talk about its possible extension.
Samples of the cough syrup have been taken from the manufacturing premises in Noida and sent to the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL) in Chandigarh for testing, Mandaviya said.
The procurement is expected to signal a major upswing in India's strategic ties with the Philippines which has been focusing on ramping up its naval prowess in the face of its lingering friction with China in the South China Sea.
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
India's economy grew 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23, pushing up the annual growth rate to 7.2 per cent, official data showed on Wednesday.
A probe has been initiated by India's drug regulator after the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued an alert saying cough syrups manufactured by an Indian firm could potentially be linked to the death of children in The Gambia, official sources said.
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