by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Economy, News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering his address at Wembley Stadium, in London
London:(IANS) Asserting that diversity was India’s pride and strength, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hard sold brand India during his much-awaited address to the Indian diaspora here even as he urged industry captains to push India-Britain ties.
“India is full of diversity. This diversity is our pride and our strength,” Modi said as a frenzied crowd of 60,000 British Indians chanted “Modi, Modi” at the iconic Wembley Stadium here.
“Kabir and Rahim have been our inspirations. The Sufi tradition is the best antidote to terrorism,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Modi was hosted for lunch by Queen Elizabeth II.
“India has no reason to remain poor. I can say that after my experience during the last 18 months,” Modi, who started his Wembley speech in English and then turned to Hindi, said.
“Such a youthful nation like India cannot lag behind in development,” said Modi in his over an hour long speech.
He said the fact that the world’s confidence in India was increasing was proved by the fact that foreign direct investment into India has increased by 40 percent over the past year.
“It shows the increasing international confidence in India,” Modi said in the speech he delivered in Hindi.
“Two dreams that we are working towards — a clean India and India with 24/7 electricity,” he said.
Modi said that 18,000 villages in India that were not connected with electricity would get this basic facility within the next 1,000 days.
“The pace and direction of progress in India is such that the fruits of development will be seen very soon,” Modi said.
Modi said that by the year 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he would ensure that there was 24 hours of electricity all over the country.
Much to the delight of the people of Gujarati origin sitting in the crowd, he announced the start of direct flights between London and Ahmedabad from December 15 this year.
Modi also thanked British Prime Minister David Cameron for the latter’s affection towards India and Indians.
“Whenever I meet the prime minister (Cameron), I find that he is very proud of the Indian community in UK,” he said.
Speaking ahead of Modi, Cameron sent the crowd into raptures by greeting them with “Namaste, Wembley” and said a time would soon come when there would be a British-Indian prime minister.
“It won’t be long before there is a British-Indian prime minister in 10, Downing Street,” Cameron said citing the contributions of British-Indians in various fields.
Britain is home to a 1.5 million-strong Indian diaspora, one of the largest in the world.
The British prime minister said that “India-UK ties are about people and about prosperity”.
He also backed India’s claim for permanent membership in the UN Security Council.
Adding to Modi’s pre-election Hindi slogan of “acche din aane wale hain”, Cameron said: “Acche din zaroor aayega” (Good days will definitely come).
A cultural extravaganza preceded Modi’s speech in which Indian pop and Hindi film playback singer Alisha Chinai belted out her evergreen “Made in India” number from the 1995 album of the same name. It was obviously in keeping with Modi’s “Make in India” initiative.
Apart from Alisha, British singer-rapper Jay Sean, Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor, and Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, as also the London Philharmonic Orchestra, were among those who enthralled the crowd.
Keeping with the spirit of Diwali, the night that was charged with electricity, ended with a dazzling display of fireworks over the world famous football stadium.
Earlier on Friday, Modi asked industry captains to contribute to India-Britain ties since the political will of the two countries was well established.
Addressing the UK-India CEOs Forum here, Modi said it was for industry captains to push bilateral ties with Britain as the political will of the two nations’ leadership was well established.
“India and the United Kingdom are economically made for each other. This relationship has to be driven by private sector CEOs now,” Modi said.
Cameron, who also addressed the meeting, echoed Modi and said: “We both have the political will to take our political relationship forward.”
On Friday, in a signal honour to India, Modi was hosted to a luncheon banquet by Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace here. Modi gifted the British monarch a set of photographs from her first visit to India in 1961, award-winning Darjeeling tea, quality honey from Jammu and Kashmir Tanchoi stoles that are a speciality of Varanasi.
The Indian prime minister started his second day of his three-day visit to Britain by continuing one-to-one bilateral discussions with Cameron at the Chequers, the countryside retreat of the British.
On Saturday, Modi will leave Britain for Turkey where he will attend the annual G-20 summit.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews

Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh
By Prashant Sood
New Delhi::The country’s political atmosphere has been vitiated by the “confrontationist attitude” of the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an “autocrat” who is not making efforts to reach out to the opposition, Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has said.
Ramesh also slammed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for his remarks about “indirectly elected” Rajya Sabha holding up reform proposals passed by the “directly-elected” Lok Sabha.
Asked about the perception that relations between the government and the main opposition party were marked by bitterness, Ramesh said that Modi was not making any attempt at reaching out.
“Mr. Modi is not making any attempt at reaching out. It is not in his nature. It is not in his DNA. There is no communication. His whole approach is confrontationist. His rhetoric is confrontationist. His body language is confrontationist. It does not seem to me he is interested in working with people,” Ramesh told IANS in an interview.
“He has not reached out to his own ministers, forget the Congress party. He is autocrat to the core,” the Congress leader added.
The three-week-long monsoon session of parliament that concluded Aug 13 was washed out due to the stalemate over the Congress demand for the resignation of three BJP leaders. It was also marked by personal attacks and acrimony between the leaders of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Within and outside parliament, the Congress pressed for the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for their alleged help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi who is facing an Enforcement Directorate probe.
The party also sought the resignation of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the Vyapam scam.
Asked if the party was sticking to its demand for the resignation of the three BJP leaders, Ramesh asserted: “Yes. Absolutely.”
Ramesh, a former rural development minister and a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, said the government has to take the initiative to break the logjam in parliament.
“It is not the job of opposition to create a consensus. It is the job of the government to reach out. It is the job of the opposition to meet half way. He (Modi) has to play (a more proactive role). We all know this is a Modi-driven government. The PM is the fount of all accountability,” Ramesh said.
Asked about Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar’s remarks that the political bitterness was at its worst since the 1975-77 emergency, Ramesh said: “The political atmosphere has been vitiated because of the government’s confrontationist attitude.”
Asked about the government mulling a special session of parliament to get the Goods and Services Tax Bill passed, Ramesh said he had no idea of the government’s plans.
“We have made our stand very clear on GST. We want an 18 percent ceiling, compensation for panchayats and nagar palikas, a dispute settlement mechanism and one percent additional tax to go. The government should consider our suggestions,” Ramesh said.
The GST bill is pending in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks a majority. The Congress is the single largest party in the upper house with 68 MPs.
Asked if the Congress will allow the Rajya Sabha to function, Ramesh said the question should be put to the party’s floor managers.
Ramesh, who worked closely with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on the previous UPA government’s Land Act, slammed Jaitley for his remarks that the time had come for a debate on to what extent an “indirectly elected” house can hold up reform proposals passed by the “directly-elected” Lok Sabha which represents the will of the people.
“I don’t understand where he gets this strange theory from. The constitution of India makes no distinction between the two except insofar as money bills are concerned,” Ramesh said.
“In the constituent assembly debates, people saw the need for an upper house. Just because they don’t have majority in the upper house does not mean you run down the upper house. Both houses are equally important and have a role to perform,” Ramesh said.
(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance

Anil Ambani
New Delhi:(IANS) With the recent acquisition of Pipavav Defence, Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani announced on Thursday that an additional investment of Rs.5,000 crore will be made as part of India’s emphasis on “Make in India” for military hardware and cut imports.
He also underscored the need for larger public-private partnerships in the defence domain, and called for pooling of resources so that India becomes self-reliant in protecting its boundaries and cuts reduces its dependence on the global markets.
Quoting extensively from the experiences he gained from his late father, the legendary industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, the Reliance Group chairman said his father’s vision was to meet the aspirations of generations with self reliance, adding that the Make in India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a major step towards that.
“This initiative of the government redefines the defence ecosystem in India with our Navy in the lead… For a country with one of the longest coastlines in the region and vast expanse of territories over the seas, self reliance in naval capabilities is an ever challenging imperative,” he said.
The Reliance Group chairman said the acquisition of the Pipavav Defence Company in Gujarat with assets worth more than Rs.10,000 crore was his company’s contribution towards self reliance.
“Pipavav has the largest dry dock in the country and the second largest in the world. With more than 30 lakh sq ft of covered area for fabrication and integration alone, this is perhaps the largest single location defence manufacturing facility in India,” he said.
“We will invest an additional Rs.5,000 crore over the next few years as part of our commitment towards indigenisation efforts.”
He said that the Pipavav facility will be capable to deliver “all requirements of the Indian Navy from frigates to aircraft carriers to submarines”.
Russia, meanwhile, has chosen Pipav as a partner to build three updated versions of Talwar-class frigates, likely to be the biggest-ever warship-building project for private sector in India worth around $3-$3.5 crore.
Ambani said self reliance in defence is also needed so that India does not have to compromise on its foreign policy.
“Large part of our Defence inventory have dependency on global relations. This creates limitations and sub-serves our foreign policy. Self-reliance gives us the flexibility to pursue our foreign policy objectives,” he said.
He said since the sole consumer for domestic defence hardware was the government, “specific measures towards ease of doing business will encourage industry participation”. Accordingly, he suggested an advisory committee with chief executives from public and private sectors to meet regulary to “align and converge the understanding and aspirations of all stakeholders”.
“There is need to institutionalise private sector participation not only for indigenisation but the entire spectrum of defence production through groups comprising Private Sector companies and PSUs at MoD to pool resources,” he said also suggesting a separate joint secretary in the defence ministry for the private sector.
“Today, in the ministry of Defence we have joint secretaries responsible for different public sector undertakings. I believe there is a case for a joint secretary exclusively to engage at the business level with the private sector,” he said.
Ambani also expressed hope that the updated defence procurement procedure (DPP) will help “in ease of doing business with MoD… Transparent, fair procedures and processes creates a favourable climate, encourage competitiveness and eventually deliver the best overall value for the country,” he said.
Another suggestion from the industrialist was to introduce courses at IITs, IIMs and other higher learning institution related to the requirements of the defence industry.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, News

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi at the Welcome Ceremony during the BRICS Summit, in Ufa, Russia on July 09, 2015.(Photo: PIB)
Ufa (Russia), (IANS): China and India should work together to build a closer, and more comprehensive partnership among the BRICS countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said here.
Xi made the remarks on Wednesday when meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city of Ufa, ahead of two multi-lateral summits, Xinhua reported.
The Chinese president recalled his meeting with Modi in May in the Chinese city of Xi’an, where the two leaders reached important consensus on enriching the bilateral strategic partnership and forging a closer development partnership.
The meeting sent positive signals to the international community that the two major developing nations are committed to cooperating for common development, said Xi.
The agreements reached back then are now being translated into steady progress in bilateral cooperation in such areas as parliamentary exchange, railway, industrial parks and smart cities, Xi said.
The president called on the two countries to make concerted efforts to maintain the positive momentum in the development of bilateral ties and open new prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation.
On border issues, Xi called on the two sides to properly manage and control their differences, and jointly safeguard peace and security in the areas.
China and India should also make joint efforts to push forward the development of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS New Development Bank and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor, said Xi.
In recent years, India and China have further expanded their trade cooperation and made steady progress in the areas of science and technology, outer space and infrastructure, Modi said.
It is the fourth bilateral meeting between the two leaders since their first in Fortaleza, Brazil, last July. In September 2014 and May 2015, Xi and Modi visited each other’s country, respectively.
The meeting came before the seventh summit of BRICS, an emerging-market bloc that consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
The SCO summit is expected to pass a resolution on starting the procedures of granting India and Pakistan full membership of the organisation.