Page 48 - India

Australian Parliament okays FTA with India; to help double bilateral trade

The agreement, once implemented, will provide duty-free access to the Australian market for over 6,000 broad sectors of India, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery

Himayat Ali Mirza, working as socialist and helping others through his foundation

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India's fiscal consolidation trend intact; to see strong revenues: Moody's

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday said the trend of gradual fiscal consolidation remains intact for India and going forward the country will see strong revenue performance and debt stablisation. Moody's Investors Service Senior Vice President Christian de Guzman said India's 'Baa3' sovereign rating balances its strength of relatively high economic growth and weakness of one of the most highly indebted emerging market sovereigns. The country's healthy financial system is reflected in deleveraging by Indian corporates. "We expect that India is going to be the fastest growing G-20 economy next year... (but) high inflation pose a downside risk to India's growth as households and businesses have less purchasing power," Guzman said in a Moody's virtual event 'Sovereign Deep Dive'. Moody's had earlier this month cut India's growth projection for 2022 to 7 per cent, from 7.7 per cent projected earlier. It expects growth to decelerate to 4.8 per cent in 2023 and then to rise to around 6.4

India-UK trade pact high priority; next round of talks slated in Dec: Goyal

The proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK is a high priority for both the countries and the next round of negotiations for the pact is slated to happen next month, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday. He said that things are progressing well and it will yield good results. "We are all very well aware that it was progressing very fast until we had a little bit of a blip because of political happenings in the other country. Fortunately, we have a stable government. I believe in office now (in the UK) and I am already in touch with my (UK) counterpart. We are working together to possibly have an in person meeting also very soon but our teams are already engaged. Next month, the next round of negotiations are slated to happen," Goyal said here at a steel industry event. He said that industry support is required for the agreement and it should be a fair, equitable and balanced FTA. He also said that there should not be any strict timelines

Nepal should develop relations with India, China for prosperity: NC leader

Prakash Man Singh, a senior leader of the ruling Nepali Congress, has said that the new government in Nepal should develop cordial and friendly relationships with both India and China and seek support from all friendly countries for the landlocked Himalayan nation's prosperity. Singh, a former Deputy Prime Minister, won the House of Representatives election with a margin of just 127 votes against former BBC Nepali Service journalist Ravindra Mishra, a candidate fielded by the pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) in the November 20 general elections. If an appropriate opportunity comes, I will contest the election to the Parliamentary Party leader to head the new government, Singh told PTI while responding to a question at his residence here shortly after winning the election. He said that "the new government needs to develop cordial and friendly relationships with both the neighbours, India and China and seek the support, assistance from all the friendly countries for ...

Five bacteria types claimed 680,000 lives in India in 2019: Lancet study

Five bacteria types -- E. coli, S. pneumoniae, K. pneumoniae, S. aureus and A. baumanii -- caused nearly 6.8 lakh deaths in India in 2019, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. The analysis found that common bacterial infections were the second-leading cause of death in 2019, and were linked to one in eight deaths globally. There were 7.7 million (77 lakh) deaths in 2019 associated with 33 common bacterial infections, with five bacteria alone connected to more than half of all deaths, the researchers said. The deadliest bacterial pathogens and types of infection varied by location and age, they said. In India, five bacteria -- E. coli, S. pneumoniae, K. pneumoniae, S. aureus and A. baumanii -- were found to be the deadliest, causing 6,78,846 (nearly 6.8 lakh) deaths in 2019 alone, the researchers found. E. Coli was the most deadly pathogen, claiming 1,57,082 (1.57 lakh) lives in India in 2019, according to the study. Globally, bacterial infections were second only

Rozgar Melas in NDA-ruled states benefit of double engine governments: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday handed out job appointment letters to more than 71,000 youngsters, saying similar campaigns have been held in NDA-ruled states and union territories in the past one month. "This is the double benefit of double engine governments. The campaign to hand over appointment letters to the youth shall continue in a sustained manner," Modi said addressing the second 'Rozgar Mela' (employment fair) organised by the central government. Double engine government has been a campaign issue for the BJP in several assembly elections, including the recently concluded in Himachal and the upcoming polls in Gujarat. The prime minister distributed a total of 71,056 appointment letters to new recruits via video conferencing. Physical copies of appointment letters were handed over at 45 locations across the country, except Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh where the Model Code of Conduct is in force. Modi said in the past one month alone union territories and NDA-ruled

Committed to nomination of US envoy to India, ties important: White House

The United States continues to seek the expeditious confirmation of the Los Angeles Mayor, as the ambassador to India, following a long delay in the confirmation of his nomination.

India in talks with Fiji to set up language lab to promote Hindi

In a bid to promote Hindi, officials from India and Fiji are in talks to set up a modern language laboratory in the South Pacific nation, Indian High Commissioner to Fiji Palaniswamy Karthigeyan said

India condemns recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch by N Korea

India has joined the US and a dozen other nations to condemn North Korea's recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch, with New Delhi voicing concern over the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies, saying they have an "adverse impact" on peace and security in the region, including on India. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj told the UN Security Council meeting on North Korea on Monday -- the Council met for the second time this month on the issue -- that New Delhi condemns the recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch by North Korea. The latest North Korean missile launch on November 18 which landed about 125 miles from Japan's coastline came after other ballistic missile launches in the preceding months. Kamboj said these launches constitute a violation of the resolutions of the Security Council relating to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and affect the peace and security of the region and beyond. US Ambassador

Global intellectual property filings touch record levels in 2021: UN

The UN agency said that despite the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, this bucked previous economic downturn trends.

India imports 2.34 mn tons of fertiliser including urea, DAP in October

The country imported 23.4 lakh tonne of fertilisers, including urea and Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP), in October this year, according to official data. Out of the total fertiliser imports, DAP was maximum at 14.70 lakh tonne, followed by urea at 4.60 lakh tonne, Muriate of Potash (MoP) at 2.36 lakh tonne and complexes at 1.70 lakh tonne in the said month, the data showed. Meanwhile, the domestic production of fertilisers was 36.19 lakh tonne in October, lower than the target of 41.54 lakh tonne set for the month. Against the assessed requirement of 71.47 lakh tonne fertilisers for October, the availability was less at 64.28 lakh tonne, and sales stood at 53.34 lakh tonne during the period, as per the data. Barring urea and ammonia, prices of DAP and fertilisers had shown an increase in the global market in October when compared to the year-ago period. Urea is highly subsidised at Rs 5,360 per tonne in the country. The government also offers subsidies on other fertilisers to ensure

As property market hits a slump in China, are investors turning to India?

-date period till October, investment in real estate development fell 8.8% compared with the same period in the previous year, commercial floor space sold dropped 22.3%

Rise in Indian corporate lending to locals signals new investment cycle

That international slowdown will limit the strength of the new Indian cycle, economists say.

Sovereign investors favour US, India as top 2022 investment markets: Study

Among developing nations, India has overtaken China as the most popular emerging market, having climbed to No. 2 in 2022 from No. 9 in 2014.

Multilateral agencies judging third world on false reports: Govt advisor

A senior government advisor has accused World Bank and other multilateral agencies and rating agencies in assessing third world countries like India based on factually incorrect reports being peddled by vested interest private agencies to suit their politically coloured views. Sanjeev Sanyal, a member in the PM's economic advisory council, while addressing the ongoing global summit of accountants here on Sunday evening also said it's high time that the World Bank and rating agencies question such reports because the parameters on which they have been prepared are bizarre most of the time and thus are far from reality. Most of the western reports, be it political or economic, are prepared by a narrow group of individuals who pedal their politically mired opinions as facts, Sanyal said, adding and when such reports are about India I can say that they are very far from reality. I'd request the World Bank to look into such politically biased reports being flaunted as factual because the

Good and bad news

COP27 does not push forward India's agenda significantly

India to chair Global Partnership on AI for 2022-23, says IT ministry

India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence for 2022-23 at a meeting of the body in Tokyo on November 21, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said on Sunday. In the election to the Council Chair, India had received more than a two-thirds majority of first-preference votes while Canada and the United States of America ranked in the next two best places in the tally - so they were elected to the two additional government seats on the Steering Committee, the ministry said in a statement. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar will represent India at the handover ceremony in Tokyo. "Close on the heels of assuming the presidency of G20, a league of world's largest economies, India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an international initiative to support responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)," the statement said. GPAI is a congregati

India should nudge US to appoint judges to hear appeals at WTO

Dispute settlement is the central pillar of the multilateral trading system, and the WTO's unique contribution to the stability of the global economy

WEF looking at solutions from India to help accelerate decarbonisation

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is looking at solutions from India to help accelerate decarbonisation worldwide as the focus is to try and bring the best practices from wherever they are to everyone else, according to a senior executive. "What India has done with the acceleration of renewables, deployment of new renewables is quite outstanding. If I am not mistaken, the numbers are saying that your demand has grown but you have decoupled the demand for energy from the demand for coal. That is a very important element," WEF's Roberto Bocca told PTI here. Bocca is a Member of the WEF's Executive Committee and the Head of Shaping the Future of Energy and Materials. Regarding India, the forum is working on the demand side as well as on cities, transportation and industrial demand. "This transition will not happen just because (of the shift) from fossil fuels to renewables, it will also happen out of efficiency," he noted. When asked whether the forum is looking at solutions from India t