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New industrial policy to be announced soon
The government will soon announce a new industrial policy aimed at promoting growth of industries and creation of jobs.
Addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President said work is underway in full earnest to transform India into a global manufacturing hub. "Keeping in view Industry 4.0, a new industrial policy will be announced shortly.
The new policy will replace the industrial policy of 1991 which was prepared in the backdrop of balance of payment crisis. This will be the third industrial policy after the ones released in 1956 and 1991.
The proposed policy aims at promoting emerging sectors and modernising existing industries. It will also look to reduce regulatory hurdles and encourage adoption of frontier technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.
Government looks to develop electronics component manufacturing base in India
of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)'s secretary said that the government is now working on policies to develop electronic components manufacturing base in the country and encourage exports. "From near assembly, India is right now moving in that direction seriously with policies to bringing sub-assemblies, component manufacturing in India.
Once printed circuit board (PCB or the motherboard) assembly takes off in India, it will not only cater to the mobile phone segment, but also other major electronic devices, he added. The last five years, the MeiTY secretary said, witnessed a resurgence of manufacturing in India, starting with assembling of mobile phones. "From around 6 crore mobile phones that were being assembled in 2014-15, we closed the last financial year with assembly of 29 crore mobile phones within the country.
New policy to supercharge handset making
An inter-ministerial panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to develop India as a hub for electronics exports will release its policy, focused on how to further boost handset manufacturing, within one month, top government officials said.
A larger policy for the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem will also be put in place in the next two to three months, which will include fresh incentives and sops to promote India as a global manufacturing hub. Electronics and IT minister said the time had come to make India a big hub for export of electronics and components. “India will offer you human resource, investor-friendly policies and incentives for making in India, and for exports,” he said, urging companies such as Apple and Samsung to expand their manufacturing base in India and use the country as an exports hub.
India to achieve most of COP 21 climate change goals in next 1.5 years
Prime Minister of India said that India will achieve most of the COP 21 climate change goals set for 2030 in the next one and half years. In his address to the Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters, he said there was a lot of talk about dangers of climate change but action was not evident.
The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Paris from November 30 to December 12 2015 that saw the participation of 195 nations.
The nations negotiated and adopted the Paris Agreement in which India made four commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35% below 2005 levels by 2030, under its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
India Ranked 52ndin Global Innovation Index-2019
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, launched the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 in New Delhi. India jumped five places to improve its position from 57th last year to 52nd in 2019.
The GII rankings are published every year by Cornell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and GII Knowledge Partners. This is the 12th edition of the GII rankings of 129 economies based on 80 indicators ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
Switzerland remains number one is the GII index followed by Sweden, the United States of America, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel.
Two more supercomputers to be functional soon
Two more supercomputers, set to be functional in the coming days, will power India’s research and development projects, as the first phase of the country’s National Supercomputing Mission gets underway.
The supercomputers, being installed at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, are expected to be functional within the next few days.
A total of six supercomputers are to be installed in the first phase of the National Supercomputing Mission, of which three have been installed, and rest will be installed at IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (JNIAS) by December.
India has an ally in France
PM Narendra Modi’s visit to France for a bilateral summit and French President Macron’s invitation to him to participate in the G7 summit at Biarritz marks a further consolidation of the strong Indo-French strategic ties.
Both Sides noted that there has been positive progress in the development of bilateral trade and economic relations between their countries. They reaffirmed that the India-France Administrative Economic and Trade Committee (AETC) provides an appropriate framework to assess and find ways to further promote the bilateral trade and investment as well as to speed up the resolution of market access issues to the benefit of economic operators. In this regard, it was decided to further jointly strengthen work on solving trade and investment issues of concern for the French and Indian companies, including by additional ways and mechanisms. Leaders jointly agreed that the high-level France-India economic and financial dialogue should be reactivated as quickly as possible
India, UK set up 3 new bilateral trade working groups
India and the UK have agreed to set up three new bilateral working groups to tackle barriers to trade in specific sectors of food and drink, healthcare and data services as part of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting in London.
The three new business-led working groups will be run by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) alongside the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
The purpose of Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) is to identify, and find solutions to, non-tariff barriers to trade. The Joint Trade Review, launched in November 2016, has made good progress – bilateral trade grew 22% in 2018, against the average of 8.8% per annum since 2002.
EU India step up cooperation in solar energy
The European Union delegation in India and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have jointly launched standard operation procedures and monitoring tool for Indian solar parks.
Solar parks are key for India to achieve its target of 100 GW by 2022, contributing to this target with 40 GW. 100 GW will avoid 0,15 gigaton of CO2 in the atmosphere yearly. The EU has been collaborating closely with India in deployment of climate friendly energy sources including solar energy.
Developed as part of the EU-India cooperation in Clean Energy and Climate Partnership Project, the Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) and monitoring tool were launched by Additional Secretary of MNRE, and Charge d'Affaires, Delegation of the European Union to India.
Indo-French Road map on Cyber security and Digital Technology
France and India intend to make digital technology a transformative factor in their societies, to foster economic growth, sustainable development and secure enhanced internet access which is essential to bridge digital divide.
Cooperation in the field of cybersecurity: France and India recognise the importance of the pursuit and the deepening of the cyber dialogue whose third edition was held in Paris on June 20th, 2019, and welcomed the joint statement adopted at its end. In this regard, they wish to strengthen their coordination in support of ongoing discussions in various multilateral fora dedicated to the discussion on application of international law and the implementation of the norms for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace adopted in previous UN GGE reports.
India-France Strategic Partnership is an important pillar of India’s foreign policy
The Vice President of India has described India-France Strategic Partnership as an important pillar of India’s foreign policy and said that India and France could act as harbingers of peace and stability.
Interacting with a delegation of French Parliamentarians led by Mrs. Sophie Primas, the Chair, and Senate Standing Committee for Economic Affairs, in New Delhi today, Shri Naidu called for closer cooperation between India and France to promote peace and harmony in the world.
The Vice President said that India always believed in peaceful co-existence with all countries, including its neighbours. “We don’t want anybody to interfere in the internal affairs of our country, nor do we interfere in the affairs of other countries”, he told the delegation.
Cabinet approves proposal for Review of FDI policy on various sectors
The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for Review of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on various sectors.
Major Impact and Benefits from FDI Policy Reform
- The changes in FDI policy will result in making India a more attractive FDI destination, leading to benefits of increased investments, employment and growth.
- In the coal sector, for sale of coal, 100% FDI under automatic route for coal mining, activities including associated processing infrastructure will attract international players to create an efficient and competitive coal market.
- Further, manufacturing through contract contributes equally to the objective of Make in India. FDI now being permitted under automatic route in contract manufacturing will be a big boost to Manufacturing sector in India.