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New Delhi: Trade ministers of India and Japan on Tuesday raised the issue of trade deficit between the two countries and took up the review of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, ahead of the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe next week. In the hour-long meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal conveyed to Japanese Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama that "market access for India's goods and services with partner countries is very important but despite commitments in CEPA from Japan, market access for India's goods and services remains elusive". According to an official statement, Goyal also raised the issue of trade deficit between India and Japan and review of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries. "Commerce and Industry Minister informed the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan that balancing trade is a high priority for India with all partners. … [Read more...] about India, Japan trade ministers discuss review of CEPA ahead of PMs meet

By Bibhudatta Pradhan India is contemplating organizing an annual global investors’ meet in the country, akin to the World Economic Forum in the alpine resort of Davos, to carve out a bigger global role for itself. The move will help create a niche for Asia’s third-biggest economy within the international financial system, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget speech on Friday. China -- India’s geopolitical and economic rival -- already has its own version of such a summit, known as the Boao Forum for Asia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made his Davos debut last year, has used this tack before as the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat before becoming the nation’s prime minister in 2014. The biennial Vibrant Gujarat summit, which was followed by other Indian states, helped raise Modi’s profile. The idea for holding a summit is being mooted at a time the government is looking to attract more investments from overseas … [Read more...] about India is looking to create its own Davos for bigger global role

NEW DELHI: India has been the biggest success story amongst malaria endemic countries in the world in bringing down malaria cases and deaths, which have declined by 49.09 per cent and 50.52 per cent in 2017, respectively, as compared to 2013. This was apprised to the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a briefing on the progress under the National Health Mission (NHM) and decisions of the Empowered Programme Committee and Mission Steering Group of the NHM. Apart from the success in controlling malaria, there has been acceleration in decline of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), and Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) since the launch of the NRHM/NHM. At the current rate of decline, India should able to reach its SDG target much before the due year of 2030. As per the progress report, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has been significantly strengthened and intensified. Due to the intensified efforts, there is 16 per cent jump in … [Read more...] about India biggest success story among malaria-endemic countries

Signifying its commitment to sustainability and climate action, India has gifted solar panels -- one each for the 193 UN member states -- that are being installed on the roof of the United Nations headquarters here. The solar panels, which are valued about a million dollars and gifted to all the UN member states in a symbolic gesture, are powered up to reach the max of 50 KW of generation power. "India's promotion of use of solar energy @UN is now well known. 1 panel 4 every Member State - 193. India is a votary of equality too," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin tweeted on Friday with the hashtags 'ClimateActionNow' and 'Equality'. Last year on the World Environment Day in June, India announced that it will partner with the UN Secretariat to use renewable solar energy at the UN premises. India has contributed nearly a million dollars to the ambitious solar project at the world body headquarters that entails installation of solar panels on the … [Read more...] about India gifts solar panels to UN, one each for 193 member states

NEW DELHI: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday told Parliament that India decided to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement as its concerns and outstanding issues were not being fully addressed in the pact. Explaining that RCEP did not “adequately” address India's concerns over issues like non-tariff barriers to trade and opaqueness in subsidy regime in some countries, he told Rajya Sabha that these forced the country to back out from the trade deal. “The merchandise deficit with all the RCEP countries increased more than nine times from $7.1 billion in 2003-04 to $65.1 billion in 2013-14,” he said while stating India’s stand on the RCEP in the Upper House. India, he said, continued to focus on its core demand of level playing field, fair trade practices, transparency and market access during the trade negotiations. RCEP was negotiated among sixteen Asia-Pacific countries. These included … [Read more...] about RCEP did not adequately address India’s concerns, will review ASEAN FTA: Piyush Goyal