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Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday met World Trade Organisation Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and reiterated India's support for strengthening the multilateral trading system.

During the meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 here, Goyal said India is committed to the WTO's efforts to strengthen the multilateral trading system to ensure free and fair trade among member countries.

He also met Swiss State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch and exchanged views on enhancing India-Switzerland trade ties.

"India is an attractive market for Swiss cutting-edge technology and expertise to achieve scale and serve the world," the minister tweeted later.

Among his various meetings, Goyal also met Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and held talks on ways to further strengthen and renew Indo-Dutch ties by expanding business and investment opportunities while also exploring prospects of joint cooperation between the two countries.

He also met UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Indian Energy Alliance Executive Director Fatih Birol; Denmark's Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Simon Kollerup; and Bangladesh's Private Industry and Investment Adviser to PM Salman F Rahman.

Also Read:- Modi Govt @ 8| Two vexing defence problems the Narendra Modi government has dealt with

May 26 marks eight years since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India, and since 2014 a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been in power at the Centre. Where defence and national security are concerned, the people of India have been told that this government is sufficiently alert and effective in protecting national interests and territory.

The government has proved particularly adept in wrapping itself around the flag and associating with the military. Unwittingly though while resolving some longstanding issues, other equally baffling problems have been created.

The government has delivered, for instance, on its ‘One Rank, One Pension’ promise — a nettlesome issue previous governments kicked down the road for want of financial resources. In the 2022 defence budget of Rs 5.25 lakh-crore, the Rs 1.19 lakh-crore pensions bill combined with the outgo on payroll expenses exceeds the spend on force modernisation and maintenance costs. Should this trend continue, India will soon be able to afford either an adequately sized force, or the weapons to equip it supported by minimal stocks of spares and ammo — not both.

It may be recalled that based on the projected economic growth rate, and assumption of annualised 10 percent increase the defence budget was expected to reach the 3 percent GDP level recommended by the 11th Finance Commission by 2004. In reality, the defence budget has stagnated at the 2-plus percent of GDP level, and budgetary increases have barely kept pace with inflation. The result: No buck, no bang! Still the armed services have managed somehow to contend with live, disputed, borders with China and Pakistan. How well? Don’t ask.

There is a simple two-pronged solution that has not so far occurred to the Government of India. First, to match the military manpower cuts, the strength of 400,000 ‘defence civilians’ employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) should be slashed by half. India needs DRDO scientists, engineers, and the like, but can do without the horde of peons, clerks, stenographers, and section officers clogging up the MOD and other government offices everywhere. Official business conducted through a safeguarded computer network will eliminate the hopeless files-system and the endless numbers of babus associated with it, and coffee/tea machines can replace peons, and improve the MOD’s dismal operating efficiency.

Second, the defence civilian pensions should be shifted to the Government of India administration pensions account, thereby, at a stroke, freeing up roughly 80 percent of the defence pensions bill monopolised by retired defence civilians. It is monies the armed services can utilise to sharpen their war-fighting capability.

Through these two steps the Prime Minister can be credited for, (1) modernising the Indian military, making it razor-sharp, without raising the defence allocation, (2) digitising and de-bureaucratising the MOD (as a test bed for upgrading the government’s conduct of business), and; (3) removing the demeaning caste-like hierarchy featuring low-grade workers.

The other major change in the defence sphere is the drive to make India self-reliant in armaments. Again, Modi had the right idea with his aatmnirbharta policy. Except, in the years since he mooted it, there has been more confusion and drift than genuine progress; a situation not improved by a series of updated defence procurement procedure documents issued by the MOD that regularly trip up Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and ministry officials as much as they do the military brass and public and private sector defence industrial companies.

No one is quite sure what aatmnirbharta means. Do foreign companies producing dated military products (F-16 fighter plane, say) fit the guidelines? But doesn’t that undercut the objective? To compound the confusion, Singh in the past year has released lists of military goods the armed services can no longer import, including major weapons systems such as helicopters, artillery guns, warships, and submarines. It is supposed to encourage in-country research, design, development and production of advanced weaponry, and support systems, save the country tens of billions of dollars in hard currency, seed a vibrant defence industrial ecosystem to meet the armed services’ equipment needs, to generate export revenues, and have a multiplier effect on the rest of the economy.

Singh’s negative lists, prima facie, suggest the government wants results fast, to obtain which it is prepared to throw all concerned parties into deep water, and hope they learn to swim. This, incidentally, is the correct approach to shock the armed services, the MOD, and defence public sector units, habituated to weapons systems screw-drivered from imported completely knocked down (CKD) and semi-knocked down (SKD) kits, out of their licensed manufacture comfort zone.

Denied the import option, the military will have to take ownership of indigenous weapons projects and, crucially, prepare to fight with Indian-designed armaments that may not initially meet the foreign weapons standard. It is an unavoidable stage in making aatmnirbharta work.

The Modi years to-date have seen a refreshingly bold departure from the past when the government seemed unwilling to deal with the two main tasks at hand, namely, the pensions issue that had the entire military community up in arms, and the more debilitating matter of reliance on foreign arms.

The solution for the first problem was enabled by the government’s readiness to sequester the necessary funds and take a financial hit, and for the second, was the decision to kickstart the Indian defence industrial economy by closing off the imports channel, and incentivising the public sector and private sector companies with promise of full order books. India may finally be on the way, hiccups apart, to consolidating its military power.

Bharat Karnad is Distinguished Fellow at the United Service Institution of India and Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Policy Research. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.

As many as 853 foreign direct investment proposals have been disposed of through the foreign investment facilitation portal in the last five years, the commerce and industry ministry said on Tuesday.

The Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) was developed after the abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in May 2017.

After the abolition of FIPB, granting of government approval for overseas investment under the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) policy and FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations was entrusted to the concerned ministries/departments, the commerce ministry said in a statement.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the ministry, was made the nodal department.

It said, "853 FDI proposals have been disposed of through FIFP since abolishment of FIPB.”

Seeking greater investments in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday proposed celebrating Japan's contribution to the country's development journey in the form of a Japan Week'.

Modi chaired a roundtable with Japanese business leaders here in which top executives and CEOs of 34 Japanese companies participated. The majority of these companies have investments and operations in India. The companies represented diverse sectors, including automobiles, electronics, semiconductors, steel, technology, trading and banking and finance, an official statement said.

"Met top business CEOs and highlighted the numerous investment opportunities in India," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

Stressing that India and Japan are natural partners, the Prime Minister lauded the business community as brand ambassadors of the immense potential of India-Japan ties. The Prime Minister recalled that during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida to India in March 2022, both countries had set an ambitious target of investment of Japanese Yen 5 trillion over the next five years.

He highlighted recent developments in economic ties, such as India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP) and Clean Energy Partnership, among others.

He talked about initiatives such National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, and semiconductor policy and highlighted the robust startup ecosystem of India. The Prime Minister noted that despite the slowdown in global FDI, India has attracted a record FDI of USD 84 billion in the previous financial year. He termed this a vote of confidence in India's economic potential.

"He invited greater participation by Japanese companies in India and proposed celebrating Japan's contribution to India's development journey in the form of a Japan Week'," the release said.

Top executives of companies like Honda Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corporation, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Sumitomo Chemical Co, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Fujitsu, Nippon Steel Corporation, and Mitsubishi Corporation, attended the meeting.

Key business bodies and organisations from India and Japan such as Keidanren, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan-India Business Consultative Committee (JIBCC) and Invest India also participated in the event.

Prime Minister Modi is in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

The IPO of eMudhra Limited, India's largest licensed certified authority in the digital signature certificates space, was fully subscribed by the morning of May 24, the third and final day of subscription.

Investors had bid for 1.18 crore shares against an IPO size of 1.13 crore units. Retail investors booked 1.73 times or the shares set aside for them.

Non-institutional investors booked 17 percent of the shares allotted to them, while qualified institutional buyers' portion was subscribed 47 percent against a quota of 31.34 lakh shares.

The company is looking to garner about Rs 413 crore through fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 161 crore and an offer-for-sale of 9,835,394 equity shares, aggregating up to Rs 252 crore by the shareholders and promoters.

After the issue, the promoter shareholding will decline by 18.16 percent to 61.03 percent.

Around 50 percent of the net offer has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35 percent for retail investors and the remaining 15 percent for non-institutional investors.

The company intends to utilise Rs 35 crore of the net proceeds from the fresh issue to pre-pay or repay loans, while Rs 40.2 crore will be used for meeting working capital requirements.

The company intends to purchase equipment and set up data centres across India and overseas, for which it will be using Rs 46.36 crore from the fresh proceeds.

It also plans to spend Rs 15 crore on product development and Rs 15.3 crore on augmenting its business development, sales, marketing and other related costs for future growth and other general corporate purposes.

The company will not get any proceeds from the OFS portion, the proceeds of which will go to the promoters.

The company did a pre-IPO placement of 1,603,617 equity shares for a cash price of Rs 243.a share for an aggregate amount of Rs 39 crore to Baring Private Equity India AIF 2, Acacia Banyan Partners, Motilal Oswal Equity Opportunities Fund Series III, Negen Capital Services Private Limited, Value Wise Consultancy Private Limited, Jagadeesan Kumar, and Krishna Kumar.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips of experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisionsAround 50 percent of the net offer has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, 35 percent for retail investors and the remaining 15 percent for non-institutional investors.

The company intends to utilise Rs 35 crore of the net proceeds from the fresh issue to pre-pay or repay loans, while Rs 40.2 crore will be used for meeting working capital requirements.

The company intends to purchase equipment and set up data centres across India and overseas, for which it will be using Rs 46.36 crore from the fresh proceeds.

It also plans to spend Rs 15 crore on product development and Rs 15.3 crore on augmenting its business development, sales, marketing and other related costs for future growth and other general corporate purposes.

The company will not get any proceeds from the OFS portion, the proceeds of which will go to the promoters.

The company did a pre-IPO placement of 1,603,617 equity shares for a cash price of Rs 243.a share for an aggregate amount of Rs 39 crore to Baring Private Equity India AIF 2, Acacia Banyan Partners, Motilal Oswal Equity Opportunities Fund Series III, Negen Capital Services Private Limited, Value Wise Consultancy Private Limited, Jagadeesan Kumar, and Krishna Kumar.

This is the third phase of a joint 17 MWp on-site solar project developed by the two companies, of which 10 MWp has already been installed, a company statement said.

The two companies have recently inked a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for this solar project. The rooftop installation is collectively expected to generate 23 million units of electricity, mitigating 5.23 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide. This will be equivalent to planting 8.36 lakh trees over a lifetime.

Rajesh Khatri, Vice President, Operations, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd, said, with the new installation, Tata Power will move closer to its goal of 100 percent renewable energy. "Post commissioning of this capacity, we will become the largest on-site solar installation in India," he added.

Tata Motors, as a signatory to the RE100, is committed to using 100 percent renewable energy in its operations and has taken many steps toward this objective by gradually increasing the proportion of renewable energy used in its operations.

Tata Power has executed multiple large solar rooftop solutions including one of the world’s largest rooftops (16MW) at a single location at Radhasoami Satsang Beas (RSSB), Amritsar.

All logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, entailing investment of over Rs 500 crore, would now route through the network planning group (NPG) constituted under the PM GatiShakti initiative with the finance ministry issuing the necessary instructions, an official said.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has also created a national master plan digital platform.

The PM GatiShakti plan was announced last year with an aim to break departmental silos and bring in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects with a view to addressing the issues of multi-modal and last-mile connectivities.

This will help bring down the logistics cost and promote effective and efficient planning of infrastructure projects.

An integrated infrastructure network planning group (NPG) has been constituted which has representations from various connectivity infrastructure ministries/departments involving their heads of network planning division for unified planning and integration of the proposals.

"We have created the national master plan digital platform. We have provided training to people concerned and now we have this mandatory provision from the finance ministry. So, now all logistics and connectivity projects will be approved on the principles of PM GatiShakti. All those projects, costing over Rs 500 crore will be considered by NPG," the official said.

The DPIIT has conducted several training sessions with various government departments and held regional conferences across the states.

NPG consists of heads of the network planning wing of respective infrastructure ministries and it will assist the empowered group of secretaries (EGOS), which is headed by the cabinet secretary. EGOS consists of secretaries of 18 ministries as members and Head of Logistics Division, under the DPIIT, as member convenor.

NPG will clear the projects as all infrastructure projects would have to come here. The Technical Support Unit is also in place.

All the departments will approach the NPG first for approval before making a DPR (detailed project reports) at the planning stage, the official said, adding after the NPG's clearance, the project would follow the normal procedure of approval by the finance ministry and the Cabinet, depending upon the projects.

For example, if railway is planning a project on a specified route, so by putting the relevant information on the the PM GatiShakti national master plan portal before finalising the DPR, it can see whether the proposed track is crossing through public land or private property or forest or canal or highways.

Over 600 layers of data are there on the portal.

Addressing the 7th India Ideas Conclave in Bangalore on Sunday hosted by the India Foundation, at the panel Commerce & Industry 2.0. President of the USIBC Atul Keshap discussed India's impressive development, the success of government-led digitisation efforts, and the country's status as the fastest-growing large economy.

Digital economy trade is the goose that lays the golden eggs between both of our countries...My appeal to you would be that we make sure that we create the structures, and the regulations, and the legal framework to ensure the continued vitality and continued growth of the digital economy in the United States and India, Keshap, also a former top American diplomat, said.

There is a sweeping revolution happening in India, and it is going to have an enormous positive impact on India, on America, and on the entire world. After centuries of disruption, India is returning... to its historic stature as one of the largest and most dynamic and prosperous economies on earth, Keshap said.

The former State Department diplomat, who recently served as the Charg d'affaires of the US Embassy in India, was speaking on transformations in infrastructure, economic policy, and the digital economy among other areas.