The government has decided to postpone the release of the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) and extend the existing one by six months on account of global uncertainties and currency fluctuations. The government was scheduled to announce the new FTP by the end of September. The current policy was to end on September 30.
Reacting sharply to the proposal by some US states to ban outsourcing of state data processing contracts to developing nations, Union Law and Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said the move was against the principle of market access.\n\n\n\n
Credit card spending has crossed Rs 1.13 lakh crore in May compared to Rs 1.05 lakh crore in the previous month according to official data. The month-on-month rise in spending through cards indicates a pick-up in economic activity. The latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that 7.68 crore credit card holders spent about Rs 71,429 crore for buying online, while the amount was spent through swipes at Point of Sale (PoS) machines stood at Rs 42,266 crore in May.
E-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, and others are expected to witness blockbuster festival season sales of around $9 billion this year, surpassing pre-pandemic sales of $5 billion in 2019. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce, with more consumers shopping online at a higher frequency than last year, observed analysts. This year's festival sales (gross merchandise value or GMV) are expected to grow 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $4.8 billion during the first week of the season and potentially clock over $9-billion GMV during the whole festival month, revealed consulting firm RedSeer's e-commerce festival season report.
'We told the government that we won't dance to their tunes this time.'
The company's plan was conveyed by IKEA chief executive officer Mikael Ohlsson, who met Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi on Monday, sources said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said she has requested banks to work with all state governments to push the 'one district, one product' agenda. Banks have also been requested to have interaction with export promotion agencies, chambers of commerce and industry to understand and address the requirement of exporters on a timely manner, Sitharaman said while addressing the media in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared utilisation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for provision of mobile connectivity in 7,287 uncovered villages across five states at an estimated cost of Rs 6,466 crore. Briefing media on the Cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said these uncovered villages of 44 aspirational districts across five states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha will get 4G-based mobile services.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said that a broad political consensus was necessary on the deal. Nath pointed out that it was because of this consensus that economic reforms have continued despite changes in governments and prime ministers. He said that it needs to be looked more as an energy deal rather than nuclear deal. To ease the tight power situation, he said India is looking for clean coal technology as also alternative sources of energy.
Inaugurations and foundation-stone laying ceremonies might have been low-key but that doesn't mean Tamil Nadu stood still while J Jayalalithaa was out of office, Aditi Phadnis opines
The country's exports for the first time crossed the $400 billion mark in a fiscal on healthy performance by sectors such as petroleum products, engineering, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, according to the commerce ministry's data released on Wednesday. The merchandise exports rose by by 37 per cent to $400.8 billion in 2021-22 until March 21 against $292 billion in 2020-21. Previously, the outbound shipments had touched a record of $330.07 billion in 2018-19.
Drones are being sold by e-retailers like Flipkart and Snapdeal for less than Rs 40,000 apiece.
Coming Wednesday, Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 2023 Union Budget - the last full Budget ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While India exited 2022 as a relatively bright spot in the global economy, the FM will endeavour to present a Budget that insulates India's economy against global headwinds and recession in advanced economies, while sticking to the path of fiscal consolidation. In this, she is being helped by her core team of trusted advisors.
Even as the Group of Seven (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil enters into force as of December 5, India has been assured it will continue to receive the existing deep discounts on Russian oil, for the time being, informed officials. "We have been assured by our Russian partners of uninterrupted crude supplies at the existing rates for the time being. "There were a lot of reports of changes in (India's) buying patterns after the global price cap took hold.
The members of the advisory panel, which was constituted by the West Bengal School Education Department in November, 2019 for monitoring pending recruitments of teaching and non-teaching staff in the schools, were questioned by CBI sleuths earlier.
At an event at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in south Mumbai, Modi first flagged off the the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat Express and later another semi high-speed train linking the financial capital to Sainagar Shirdi temple town in Ahmednagar district.
In a response to the August 3 order, the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said till the time either the legislature or the poll panel steps in, the top court must lay down "dos and don'ts" for political parties in the 'larger national interest.'