India to deploy Rs.17,500 crore (2.5B EUR) to boost local telecom products. India has proposed to set up three funds with a combined corpus of Rs.17,500 crore to boost local research and manufacturing of telecom products as it seeks to cut dependence on imports at a time when the current-account deficit has widened to a record and also to reduce security concerns posed by such imports, particularly from China. The government will initially allot Rs.5,000 crore to the Telecom Research and Development Fund, Rs.2,500 crore to the Telecom Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund and Rs.10,000 crore to the Telecom Manufacturing Promotion Fund during the 12th Five-year Plan ending March 2017. Read More

Union Minister of Commerce, Industry & Textiles Shri Anand Sharma, met Director-General, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Mr. Pascal Lamy and Director-General, WTO-Designate Mr. Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo in Paris. During the meeting, Mr. Sharma told them that India will play a constructive role in ensuring successful outcome in the Bali Ministerial. While recognising the importance of Trade Facilitation (TF) and upgrading infrastructure at border, ports and custom procedures for giving a boost to exports, underscored the need for addressing the concerns of food security which have been outlined in a proposal presented by G-33 countries. Read More

Needs to boost manufacturing to bridge CAD, trade gap – Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP): India needs to boost its manufacturing sector to bridge the ballooning current account deficit (CAD) and trade imbalance, a top government official said on Thursday. The top five countries which have trade surpluses, three are manufacturing power houses – Germany, China and Japan. The remaining two are oil rich nations. “For sustainable manufacturing there has to be a depth in manufacturing, in R&D and production” Stated by the Secretary in the DIPP, Saurabh Chandra. Read More

The Ministry of IT and Communications has notified the guidelines under which 30 per cent of all equipment supply contract will be reserved for companies with manufacturing base in the country. The quota for locally made goods will increase over the next few years. Read More

Invest India, set up as a joint venture between FICCI, the DIPP and state governments and UK India Business Council (UKIBC) have signed an agreement under which British businessmen would get information on investment opportunities and regulatory environment in India. Read More

EU and India in dialogue over standards governing international personal data transfers. Read More

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) & the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will have to take a call in the next few months on whether to allow European authorities to supervise Indian clearing houses that are at the centre of most financial market trades. Read More

India takes another step to meet looming EU API rules – Drug makers in Europe have been worried that the bulk drug industry in India they lean on as a cheap source of active pharmaceutical ingredients would not get its act together to meet the July 2 deadline for certifying APIs. Indian government agency has just laid out the guidelines for API makers to follow in order to meet the new EU standards. Read More

Indian Power Minister leads high-level delegation to Germany for Smart Grids=> Seeking to obtain a first-hand perspective of the overall energy situation in Germany and the efforts being made for a dramatic shift towards renewable energy, Minister of State for Power Jyotiraditya Scindia recently led a high-level delegation on a visit to Berlin. Scindia also visited state-of-the-art facilities in Berlin, such as the Smart Grid Energy Management Centre of VATTENFALL; 50 Hertz office and a modern Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Tri-generation plant. Read More

Committee headed by the Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram has recommended to raise the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit to 49 percent from 26 percent at present in almost all sectors like multi-brand retail, defence and telecom through automatic route. Read More