by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business
Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi in a group photograph with the leading Fortune 500 CEOs, at a special event, in New York
By Arun Kumar
Washington:(IANS) Looking at the euphoria surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley, analysts have suggested that it can indeed spark India’s tech economy provided he can make it easier to do business with his country.
“The euphoria arises partly because Indians here are still optimistic that Modi will transform India – after decades of economic stagnation under socialist governments,” writes Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian-American tech entrepreneur turned academic.
“But his greater appeal to the tech community is due to his being one of the world’s few truly tech-savvy leaders,” he wrote in a column in the Washington Post
But the CEOs of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Adobe who are lining up to meet Modi “need to ensure that there be no regulatory roadblocks in India, which will have a market twice as large as the US market”, Wadhwa writes.
“But my hope is that it goes beyond the star power and that Modi gets to see the can-do attitude of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs,” he said, taking note of exponentially advancing technologies they are using.
Wadhwa cites several examples of what is possible for India – and what Modi needs to support.
These include smart cities, sharing economy, health apps, devices, and genomics, education, agriculture and turning children into innovators.
Hoping “Modi will take back with him a grand vision of the future; an understanding of what has become possible”, Wadhwa said, “his challenge is to inspire Indian entrepreneurs to achieve to the same degree as their kin in Silicon Valley”.
The Wall Street Journal said Silicon Valley wants Modi to deliver on two of his government’s promises: making it easier to do business with India, and making the country’s taxes more transparent.
Investors, according to the Journal, say that despite the rhetoric, investing in India remains bureaucratic, weighed with paperwork and rules and regulations.
Investors also want more transparency and simplification in India’s tax system, it said.
Some investors, the Journal said, want “the government should create a more conducive environment for entrepreneurs to set up business or create products in India”.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi:(IANS) Saying khadi sales had doubled over one year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday again urged people to purchase khadi products.
Pointing out that there would be a month-long discount on khadi products from October 2, he said the income from handloom and khadi sales go to the poor weavers or their widows.
“So I urge you all to give space to khadi in your homes this Diwali,” the prime minister said in his Mann Ki Baat address on All India Radio.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce that khadi sales have doubled over one year,” he added, thanking people for having responded generously to a similar appeal he made last year.
Modi also announced that over three million families had surrendered their cooking gas subsidy following his call.
“Over 30 lakh families have surrendered their LPG subsidy, and not just the rich. Most are from the lower middle and middle classes like retired teachers, pensioners,” he said.
“This is nothing but proof of that a silent revolution is on,” he added.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi (File Photo)
Toronto:(IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Canada this year cost taxpayers more than 373,000 Canadian dollars ($283,100), a media report said.
The information on the expenditure on his visit includes 17,600 Canadian dollars ($13,340) on beverages such as alcohol, 80,000 Canadian dollars ($60,600) on receptions, and 106,400 Canadian dollars ($80,600) on motorcade cost, said The Huffington Post Canada on Wednesday, citing Canada’s Access to Information Act’s report.
The other expenditures include $10,448 Canadian dollars ($80,600) on hotel rooms, 30,000 Canadian dollars ($22,750) on audio-visual equipment, 21,708 Canadian dollars ($16,455) on unspecified consultants.
“About 73,213 Canadian dollars ($55,519) on public servants’ travel, 14,790 Canadian dollars ($11,215) on health services were spent during Modi’s visit,” the report added.
Nearly 3,650,00 Canadian dollars ($277,285) on flowers and wreaths, 1,584 Canadian dollars ($1,200) on gifts, 5,981 Canadian dollars ($4,535) on interpreters and translation and 75 Canadian dollars ($56) for a flag were spent during the events he participated in.
The bill did not include security costs.
According to the report, the largest expense during Modi’s visit was an event in Toronto and the cost was not borne by taxpayers but by private citizens and businesses.
“The event at the Ricoh Coliseum arena, in which Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed over 10,000 Indo-Canadians, cost 600,000 Canadian dollars ($454,997),” president of National Alliance of Indo-Canadians Azad Kumar Kaushik was quoted as saying.
The event also became controversial as it proved to be a shot in the arm for Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) MP Patrick Brown, who was campaigning for leadership of Ontario province.
“We did not look at it from (an electoral) perspective. Our goal was to create bonding between India and Canada,” Kaushik noted.
Meanwhile, Gilles Bisson, leader of New Democratic Party of Ontario, has demanded that Brown — who is now leader of the PCP, should pay taxpayers back for some of the cost of Modi visit.
“You cannot have somebody do a political activity and then have it paid by the state,” Bisson pointed out.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, News
Prime Minister,Narendra Modi chairing a high-level meeting on the global economic scenario, in New Delhi
“The prime minister said that somebody’s pain shouldn’t be our gain. Instead, we should make our own efforts domestically to take up the opportunities from the current global situation,” Confederation of Indian Industry president Sumit Mazumdar cited him as saying at meeting here with union ministers, corporate heads and economists to discuss the global markets’ turmoil sparked off by the Chinese economic slowdown and attendant opportunities for India.
“Our economic foundations are strong, that is why we have not been affected by recent Chinese events. However, the prime minister told us that in this situation we should, as industry, also show some risk-taking ability,” he told media persons after the meeting.
Among the ministers present were Arun Jaitley (finance), Suresh Prabhu (railways), Nitin Gadkari (road transport and shipping), Nirmala Sitharaman (commerce), Dharmendra Pradhan (petroleum) and Piyush Goyal (coal, power and renewable energy).
Describing India as transiently impacted by recent events in China, Jaitley told reporters after the meeting that the global situation instead presented an opportunity for the country as it is a net importer of commodities and oil is in free fall.
“India is one of the lesser impacted economies (by China devaluation, slowdown), partly because our own fundamentals are reasonably strong,” Jaitley said while briefing reporters.
“The main thrust of the meeting was that since India is relatively touched little except for a transient impact on the markets, it should therefore strengthen its domestic economy so that the larger benefits of the global economy may come India’s way,” he said.
“Being a net importer of commodities globally, the low oil prices are an opportunity for us,” the finance minister added.
Global crude oil in free fall touched the $40-a-barrel mark in trading late in August, having already dropped under $50 for the second time this year from the level of over $100 last year.
The meeting, that lasted over three hours, discussed the global situation that impacted India economically like a possible hike in the US Federal Reserve rate, the world powers’ nuclear deal with Iran contributing partly to cheaper oil and the way the Chinese slowdown opens up opportunities.
A slowdown in the Chinese markets, which led to global markets’ crash, coupled with rupee volatility and the risk of a US rate hike, knocked out the Indian equity markets in August.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and Aayog member Bibek Debroy also attended the meeting on ‘Recent Global Events: Opportunities for India’.
Apart from heads of industry chambers, top industrialists such as Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani, Tata group chief Cyrus Mistry, Wipro chief Azim Premji, Sun Pharma CMD Dilip Sanghvi, ITC’s Y.C. Deveshwar and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd chairman Ravi Parthasarathy were among those who attended.
“The general consensus was that growth of emerging economies is all slowing down, except that we (India) are growing at seven percent. So how can we take advantage of this opportunity (of slowdown elsewhere),” said Mazumdar after the meeting.
“The prime minister said this is an opportunity for us to take advantage of and invest. Cost of capital is too high but I don’t know how many people can go ahead to take risk and invest… many of us raised the issue of interest rate,” said Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) president Jyotsna Suri.
“The Chinese slowdown means that for India, which has a lot of untapped potential in infrastructure, the costs of creating it are going to come down with lower input costs like steel and cement,” said Subramanian.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi:(IANS) Normal life was hit in many states on Wednesday as millions of industrial and blue collar employees struck work in the first nationwide protest since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power more than a year ago.
Leaders of central trade unions which called the day-long strike claimed “unprecedented success” as banks, insurance companies and state-run as well as private factories shut across the country. Transport unions and traders too joined the protest in many places, leading to the closure of educational institutions and thin attendance in government offices.
“The response has been unprecedented,” veteran union leader Gurudas Dasgupta from the All India Trade Union Congress told IANS. “In Delhi we are seeing such an impact for the first time. We didn’t expect this.”
The strike is in support of 12 demands, including withdrawal of labour law amendments, a minimum wage of Rs.15,000 a month and against privatisation of public sector units. Unions said about 300 million workers were involved in the protest.
The strike was largely peaceful except in parts of West Bengal where clashes were reported in Murshidabad, Howrah and North 24 Parganas between Left activists and members of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Financial services were hit hard as lakhs of bank and insurance employees – including those from cooperative banks and regional rural banks – joined the strike, All India Bank Employees Association general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS in Chennai.
He said the strike was a success in major cities like Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, as well as New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
But unions in State Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank did not take part.
In Mumbai, union leader V. Utagi said: “The strike in the banking and financial services sector is near total. Work at Mumbai Port Trust is hit. And Maharashtra’s 1.50 million government employees have joined us.”
But public buses and Mumbai’s suburban trains plied though their unions lent “moral support” to the strike. A section of cabs and auto-rickshaws in Mumbai also joined the strike, which Utagi said was “a major success”.
In Delhi, banks, insurance companies and industrial areas observed a shutdown. Most auto-rickshaws, the poor man’s taxi, went off the roads. But Delhi Metro reported normal operations.
The strike hit hard life in Kerala, a Left bastion. Most IT firms in Technopark and Infopark reported very thin attendance. Work at the Cochin Port was affected.
The shutdown evoked mixed response in Karnataka. Buses and autos didn’t ply while factories, banks and shops were closed. Thousands of commuters were stranded in cities and towns across the state.
The strike hit transport and banking services in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh too.
Buses of state-owned road transport corporations in both states went off the roads as did auto-rickshaws in Hyderabad and other towns. Truck owners and drivers also joined the strike in some places. Petrol bunks were shut in a few places.
In Bhopal, all state-run public buses remained off the roads. Shops and banks too were shut. The strike was particularly effective in major cities like Indore, Jabalpur and Ujjain.
Normal life was hit in Bihar as thousands of workers in the government and private sector joined the strike. In some places, strike supporters blocked roads and halted train services.
The strike was total in Left-ruled Tripura. All offices, shops, markets, banks and educational institutions were shut while vehicular traffic went off the roads.
In Kolkata, while educational institutions and commercial establishments were largely closed, buses and the metro operated normally. But there were fewer commuters.
Train services on the Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway were hit as strike supporters blocked the tracks in several areas.
The strike had the least effect in Tamil Nadu although life was hit in industrial areas besides banks and insurance companies.
The impact of the shutdown in Himachal Pradesh was seen in Shimla, Rampur, Theog, Solan, Mandi, Nahan, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Dharamsala, Palampur, Kangra, Kullu and Manali towns as bus operators joined the protest.
In Goa, markets and public transport were hit hard, union leaders said. Police arrested about 200 workers who had blocked National Highway 17 near the Verna Industrial estate, 25 km from Panaji.
