Domestic customers will get access to high-quality Swiss products such as watches, chocolates, biscuits, and clocks at lower prices as India will phase out customs duties under its trade pact with the EFTA bloc on these goods over a period of time. India and the four-European nation bloc EFTA signed a trade and economic partnership agreement (TEPA) on Sunday to boost trade and investments between the two regions. The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
There was positive news from across the country especially from the South.
Shobha Deshpande staged nearly a 20-hour protest in Mumbai after a city-based jeweller allegedly refused to speak in Marathi and asked her to leave his shop where she had gone to make a purchase.
Rising prices of essential commodities have dampened the Eid shopping
The iconinc Zaveri Bazaar in south Mumbai does business of around Rs 3 trillion a year.
Despite the recent imposition of import rule and high duties, the yellow metal continues to attract buyers.
For a change, this Akshya Tritiya on April 20, an auspicious occasion for Hindus to buy gold, women are not rushing to buy gold jewellery. Instead, they are eyeing platinum, diamonds and rubies.
With coronavirus cases on the decline, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday withdrew restrictions such as night curfew and Sunday lockdown while permitting schools to reopen on February 1 for classes 1 to 12.
Exports of gold jewellery fell 23.13 per cent to $1153 million.
India's e-commerce market alone is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026, making it a prime industry for ambitious entrepreneurs, explains rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
'Durga Puja is also a time to catch up on the gossip and when the girls of the family get together it's a beautiful feeling that is hard to describe.'
West Bengal is home to 43,000 Durga Pujas, and the business around it is a major economic driver.
A local court on Saturday directed the police to register a case of murder against Uttar Prasdesh dairy development minister Avadhpal Singh Yadav.
Rediff.com's Priyanka travelled to the Tibetan camp in Majnu ka Tila, which has virtually been sealed off to prevent Tibetans from coming in the way of the visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Arun Jaitley has rejected the demand for rolling back the levy.
'A 10 to 15 per cent allocation to gold in portfolios reduces risk without compromising on potential returns.'
If Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar is full of jewellery shops and Delhi's Chandni Chowk has got hundreds of saree merchants vying for customers' attention, Zurich has got a street full of Swiss banks -- known for their secrecy veils.
Customers who possess gold jewellery but are either being denied a personal loan or are being asked for a high interest rate due to their poor credit profile may consider a gold loan.
Travel portals have started to tie-up with online shopping portals and offline retail outlets to jointly promote their value-added offers as shopping portals gather huge traffic around festival time. They reason it will help them tide over the current lean phase in the economy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget for 2016-17 had proposed 1 per cent excise duty on jewellery without input credit or 12.5 per cent with input tax credit on jewellery.
As per the offer 'Ilish Khao, Sona Pao', customers who buy Hilsa fish worth Rs 500 from some designated fish vendors would get a rebate of Rs 50 on making charges of gold ornaments. The shop had earlier offered free Hilsa to every customer buying jewellery worth above Rs 5,000.
But despite the growth, the base of really 'active' online buyers (those who buy online at least once a month) is almost stagnant at 2.2 million, same as 2006.
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A recent survey by Bureau of Indian Standards in Delhi revealed that there was indeed cheating on the part of jewelers and consumers were getting much lesser value for gold for the amount they pay.
After being alerted by Odisha, its Andhra Pradesh counterpart intercepted a vehicle with Delhi registration number and nabbed the five persons, including two women.
Set off by a delicate flower, this pair gives you a more feminine look.
United States has the world's largest gold reserves.
An encyclopedia to the best Durga Pujo eating.
In an outbreak of communal violence, 25 houses were torched and as many ransacked in three villages of Howrah district on Monday after which curfew was clamped in the riot-torn areas. Superintendent of Police Niraj K Singh said trouble erupted on Sunday night when a person went to a jewellery shop owned by Ashis Parui and told him to mortgage some gold ornaments.
Here's a list of some of the all-time best places in Delhi where you can shop for the festival without burning a hole in your pocket
Alok Mohanty, who owns a furniture store in Cuttack city and is a fan of anything made of the yellow metal, said an N-95 mask has been used as a base for manufacturing the golden protective gear which weighs around 100 grams.
Uzbekistan lives comfortably in several centuries but is also a forward-looking nation, Deepa Gahlot discovers on a visit to this Central Asian country.
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