The government has notified Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for automobile and auto components after approving it on September 15. The PLI Scheme aims to overcome the cost of disabilities and encourage the industry to make fresh investments to make advanced auto products. It is estimated that in five years, this PLI Scheme will lead to fresh investments of over Rs 42,500 crore (€8.5 billion), and incremental production of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore (€27 billion). It will create additional jobs of over 7.5 lakh jobs and enhance India's share in the global automotive trade

During the pandemic, India has reported the highest increase in the use of AI at 45%, as compared to other major economies (the US at 35%, the UK at 23 % and Japan at 28 %). In fact, AI startups in India attracted total funding of $836.3 million in 2020. Also, despite the total number of high-value funding shrunk, the companies that received funding almost doubled in 2020 compared to 2019,” according to homegrown independent Transaction Advisory firm, RBSA Advisors. According to the study titled ‘Artificial Intelligence & Its role in Delivering Economic Value to Indian Enterprise, investment in AI has accelerated in India during the pandemic and the country has a potential to be a global epicentre of AI. IT services and technology sectors contribute to more than 60% of the AI market, followed by BFSI, engineering and retail.

Tata Power-DDL and AutoGrid are jointly launching a behavioural demand response program for company’s residential customers to reduce peak demand and network capital costs. This pilot project aims to empower customers, by helping them understand their consumption patterns and evaluate the effectiveness of demand response (DR) programs. AutoGrid is a global leader in AI-based energy management solutions, to undertake joint project around demand response (DR), distributed energy resource management (DERMS), electric vehicles (EVs), virtual power plants (VPPs), energy storage optimization, flexibility management, forecasting, and renewable integration. Tata Power-DDL and AutoGird both will strive to develop and deploy cutting-edge energy management technologies to optimize usage for the larger benefit of Tata Power-DDL customers.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has chalked out a 1,000-day agenda, aiming to make India a $1 trillion digital economy over the next few years. Key to the initiative will be making India the largest connected nation in the world, bringing coherence into digital governance, simplifying rules and legislations for technology and social media companies, and focusing on building India’s high-tech prowess.

Centre has formed 11 committees, each led by a ministry, to prepare action plans for transitioning from a linear to a circular economy in their respective focus areas. Aiming to deal with e-waste as part of the larger plan of the govt. to encourage circular economy or ensuring zero to minimal wastage in the use of electronics and electrical sector, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has formulated a policy paper that deals with these issues. The paper, "Circular Economy in Electronics and Electrical Sector," focuses on the life cycle of electronics including stages of raw material acquisition, design, manufacturing /production stage, consumption to end of life (e-waste) management, and secondary raw materials utilisation.

Government of India has announced the National Hydrogen Mission for making hydrogen roadmap for the country. Department of Science & Technology (DST) has launched Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program to support research on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell that aims to develop transformational technologies to reduce the cost of hydrogen production, distribution & storage, diversify feedstock available for economic hydrogen production, enhance flexibility of power grid, and reduce emissions through novel uses of low-cost hydrogen. DST has supported twenty-nine projects and two Energy Storage Platforms on Hydrogen under this program.

India and UK are aiming to launching the negotiations on FTA by November 2021. Proposed FTA between India & UK is expected to unlock extraordinary business opportunity and generate jobs. Both sides have renewed their commitment to boosting trade in a manner which benefits all. Since the ‘Declaration’ on launch of Enhanced Trade Partnership, announced by Prime Ministers on 4th May 2021, both countries have made substantial progress on various aspects of partnership.