Any government support or incentive to help exporters deal with high freight and insurance costs is unlikely.
The final policy may be out only after formation of the new government, according to sources
The government is expediting visa-related issues to bring technicians to India from any country, not just China, as and when required, to ensure the smooth implementation of the flagship production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing. "If those under the PLI scheme need to get their equipment installed, we try to expedite the ability to get technicians into India from any country, whichever it may be," Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told Business Standard in an interview.
US President Donald Trump has announced a 25 per cent plus tariff on India from Aug 1. Trump, describing India as a "friend", said the US has done relatively "little business" with the country because of its high tariffs.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor welcomed the revival of long-stalled India-UK FTA negotiations, posting a selfie with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and the UK's Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds. Tharoor's post comes amid a row over his recent article praising the Kerala government's investment climate, which drew criticism from some Congress leaders.
The draft favoured up to 49 per cent foreign equity in inventory model in the case of 100 per cent made in India products sold through Indian management-controlled platforms with resident Indian founders/promoters.
A government official said India and the US are exploring an interim trade deal within 90 days.
Indian and US officials will begin deliberations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in Washington from Wednesday with an aim to iron out issues and give an impetus to the negotiations.
India and the US desire to give preferential market access to each other's businesses and teams of both the countries are working together on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said. In February, US President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced plans to negotiate the first tranche or phase of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall (September-October) of 2025.
Senior officials of India and the US will begin three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday amid threats of reciprocal tariffs from the Trump-administration, an official said. To formally start the negotiations on the pact, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of officials, is in New Delhi.
The "construct of the DPDP Act" cannot be changed at this stage, though there may be some minor tweaks in the language of the Rules and formats in certain legitimate cases.
Isaacman's removal comes just days after Elon Musk's official departure from the White House, where the SpaceX CEO was serving in the role of a "special government employee" leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
'The US has agreed to negotiate with us a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement, which will go for reduction of tariffs on both sides so that our trade can grow.'
He had promised his daughter that he would be there, come what may, a kin said. But fate had a different plan.
'The US is strongly placed to expand its crude supplies to India.'
Retailers claim online firms' predatory pricing strategy disrupting business
The Indian government has appointed Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Pandey, a 1987-batch IAS officer, will replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year tenure ends on February 28. Pandey's appointment comes at a time when the markets are experiencing bear pressure due to withdrawals by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Pandey has extensive experience in the finance ministry, having served as the longest-serving secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). He also played a key role in the framing of the 2025-26 Budget and the drafting of the new Income Tax Bill. Pandey's appointment is for an initial period of three years.
A team of senior officials from India will again visit Washington this month to hold discussions with their US counterparts on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), government sources said on Thursday. To give impetus to the talks, India's chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary in the Department of Commerce, and Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch had last month held three-day talks in Washington.
Exports to eight out of India's top 10 destinations, including the Netherlands, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), witnessed positive growth during the first six months of FY25, despite muted global demand amid geopolitical challenges, commerce department data showed.
An Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said. The visit, which comes within weeks of a high-level US team visiting India, indicates that the talks for the BTA are gaining momentum.
Go-getter, ambitious, dynamic, workaholic are some of the adjectives that officials who worked closely with B V R Subrahmanyam use to describe him.
The move by the US President came following a retaliatory move by China, where it increased its tariff on US goods from 34 per cent to 84 per cent starting April 10.
The commerce department has reaffirmed its plans to launch the 'Trade Connect' e-platform to help exporters connect with stakeholders of international trade, as a part of the new government's 100-day action plan, a senior government official said.
The government is at a "fairly advanced stage" of finalising a well-coordinated e-commerce policy and consumer protection rules, which will incorporate provisions of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Thursday. "E-commerce rules and e-commerce policy will be congruent with each other... That exercise is at a fairly advanced stage," Singh told reporters. The remarks come on a day the number of daily transactions on the platform has gone up 500 times since the beginning of this year with the number of retail merchants added to its roster growing 40-fold.
Seasoned bureaucrat and a stickler for rules Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey will be at the helm of capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for three years. The 1987-batch Odisha-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Pandey, would replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year term ends on Friday.
Smartphones, for the first time, emerged as India's largest individual export commodity by value over 10 months of any financial year, during the April-January period of FY25, based on harmonised system (HS) codes. During the period under review, smartphone exports from India reached $18.31 billion, according to data from the Department of Commerce, surpassing automotive diesel fuel exports, which stood at $16.04 billion.
Many industry executives have said the draft e-commerce policy is being perceived as nationalistic but not overly protectionist and it is providing preference to Indian players against foreign companies. This might have an impact on investment by large players such as Walmart and Amazon in the country, said the executives. They said e-commerce was a very small portion of the retail industry and at a nascent stage and did not require heavy hammer regulations. Though the policy talks about being equally applicable to foreign and domestic players, it mentions that foreign direct investment (FDI) takes precedence over the e-commerce policy in any area of overlap.
Starlink's application for offering satcom services in India had been held up for the company's inability to comply with mandatory ownership disclosure norms.
Companies have been approached to set up incubation centres that will offer financial and non-financial support to manufacturing startups at various levels.
Exports of 19 major commodities, including petroleum products, coal and marine items, saw growth in terms of volume during April 2023-February 2024, even as they witnessed contraction in value terms during the same period. Government officials said the rise in export volume despite a decline in value implies that these commodities show a stronger market demand.
India and the US will sit together in the next couple of weeks to decide on the nature of the proposed trade agreement and finalise its broad contours, a senior official said on Monday. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced to more than double the two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.
Ahead of the visit, officials from key government departments held intense discussions to identify key trade-related proposals.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
'We have to be prepared for the larger disruption that is likely to take place.'
The Indian industry is paranoid about the USA's plan to impose reciprocal tariffs and wants early conclusion of a bilateral trade agreement, sources said on Wednesday. They said that the talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement are going well.
The steep cut in Customs duty on silver in the FY25 Budget to 6 per cent from 15 per cent may provide the government temporary relief by checking the spurt in silver imports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). In FY24, silver imports from the UAE jumped to $1.7 billion from only $11.18 million in FY23, according to commerce department data. In May, about 87 per cent of India's silver imports came from Dubai.
India's recent move to remove additional 'retaliatory' duty on eight products from the United States (US), including apples and walnuts, would not have any negative impact on the domestic producers, the government clarified, even as the issue threatened to snowball into a political slugfest between the ruling and Opposition parties. The move would, in fact, result in competition in the premium market segment, ensuring better quality at better prices for consumers, especially for apples, a senior government official said. "There were certain concerns that were being raised on the mutually agreed solution that has come in, more specific to seven-eight agriculture products where we had levied additional import duties in retaliation to the steel and aluminum measures (imposed by the US)," Peeyush Kumar, additional secretary in the commerce department, told reporters in a briefing.
Smartphones have been a key success story of the government's production-linked incentive scheme, helping India become the second-largest mobile phone manufacturing country, after China.
India stares at the risk of an influx of Chinese products as US tariffs on a range of Chinese goods, including solar panels, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, syringes, and steel, are set to take effect from September 27. With higher tariffs reducing China's access to the US market, there is concern that China may divert its exports to other markets, including India, which could lead to potential dumping of goods. This situation could challenge Indian industries, particularly in sectors where competition with Chinese products is already fierce.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sought a meeting with quick-commerce (qcom) platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto on Tuesday to discuss issues regarding violations of food safety standards, according to sources familiar with the matter. This comes at a time when there have been issues raised about food safety standard violations by qcom platforms for packaged food products, including violations related to expiry and best before dates.
