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.

With investments of $90 billion in renewable energy over the last decade, India is placed sixth in the list of countries that have made the most investments in clean energy, says a new study. China, the United States, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom are the top five countries. While China invested $758 billion, the US came in a distant second with $356 billion in the decade between 2010 and the first half of 2019.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

1. The changes in FDI policy will result in making India a more attractive FDI destination, leading to benefits of increased investments, employment and growth.
2. 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.
3. 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.