Category: Economy

India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have launched UAE-India Business Council (UBIC) to bolster economic ties and facilitate enhancing bilateral trade and investment. The two sides aim to increase non-oil bilateral trade to $100 billion and attract $75 billion in investment from the UAE to India.

The UAE chapter of the UIBC was launched on February 18, 2023, on the completion of one year of signing of the India-UAE comprehensive free trade agreement. The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi launched the UIBC-UAE chapter (UIBC-UC) in the presence of India’s Ambassador to the UAE Sunjay Sudhir, Consul General of India in Dubai Dr Aman Puri, and founding members of the UBIC-UC. The chapter will serve as the counterpart organisation to the UIBC-India Chapter, which was established in New Delhi in 2015.

The members of the Council include business groups such as TATA, Reliance and Adani, and tech innovators like OLA, Zerodha, Udaan and EaseMyTrip, besides eminent Indian corporations based in the UAE such as KEF Holdings, Buimerc Corporation, Apparel Group, EFS and Lulu Financial. The founding members of the UIBC-UC from the UAE include Mubadala – Sovereign Wealth Fund of the UAE, Wizz Financial, DP World, EMAAR, Emirates Airlines, and Emirates NBD Bank.

The Council’s focus is to identify significant strategic projects that can be undertaken by both countries. This includes investments in large infrastructure projects in India, advancements in manufacturing and technology, and providing Indian manufacturers with the ability to use the UAE as a base for their global expansion.

India can achieve the ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2070 much before the target, said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

In an interview, the IMF MD said that with the ambition India now demonstrates, it could take additional actions that could help in carbon neutrality being achieved earlier than expected. She added that it is important that a country like India plays a leading role against climate change, and underlined that phasing out coal is a big issue for the country.

Georgieva noted that what India has done is “quite admirable” because it is a country that has nearly 1.4 billion people that need access to development opportunities. Therefore, the pressure to expand the use of resources is exceptionally high. Yet, the country is managing to put in place very ambitious objectives: reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by the year 2030, from 2005 level. She also applauded New Delhi for its programme of using solar as a main source of energy and taking it to the global level through the International Solar Alliance.

The IMF MD also mentioned India’s innovation, such as the applicability of green hydrogen and making the public investment to accelerate movement in the area, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for right individual choices that empower a society to guard its resources, to be contributing to the vision.

India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026, and about half of the current workforce would require to re-skill themselves in areas of emerging technologies, according to a report by employment services provider TeamLease.

At present, India has about 500 million people of working age, and industry data suggests that only 49% of total youth (age group of 22-25 years) in the country is employable. The TeamLease Services’ survey indicates that 75% of companies face a skill gap in the industry. Even among people who can stay in their current jobs, 40% of fundamental abilities are likely to change and, thus, re-aligning the skill strategy will be crucial for companies, it adds.

Over 2 million jobs in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, and Blockchain are expected to remain unfilled in 2023. In addition, the workplace is evolving so rapidly that 76% of the global workforce is not equipped with the requisite skills to function in the new digitally focused workplaces, the report said.

The report suggests that by developing a skills matrix, carrying out skill audits directed at specific learning journeys and intermingling upskilling within the company culture, a comprehensive skill development strategy can be created to lead to a more sustainable work future.

It is estimated that more than Rs 1,000 crore will be spent by various Delhi government agencies on the preparations for the G20 (Group of 20) summit and related events to be held in the city this year, officials said.

The Indian capital will host the main summit meeting of the G20 countries and seven other related events, starting in March, during the country’s G20 presidency. The preparations that will include upgrading the civic infrastructure and beautification work among other measures by various departments of the city government and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will cost Rs 1,084 crore.

The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia has written a letter to the Centre, seeking a grant of Rs 927 crore to take up special development projects for the G20 summit. According to the officials, 26 Delhi government departments and central agencies are working on the preparations for the summit.

The Public Works Department (PWD), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the NDMC will mainly be associated with civic infrastructure improvement and beautification work. It is estimated that the PWD, the MCD and the NDMC will spend Rs 448 crore, Rs 249 crore and Rs 78 crore, respectively, on their work. The Tourism Department of the city government has planned various events and programmes and estimated a budget of Rs 72 crore.

The non-convertible green municipal bonds of Indore Municipal Corporation were oversubscribed by 5.90 times after raising about Rs 720 crore till the last date for application for the bonds. The issue opened on February 10 and closed on February 14.

Indore is India’s first urban body to introduce green bonds, seeking to raise Rs 244 crore to install and operate the plant of 60 megawatts in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district. It is expected to be the largest solar plant meant for pumping and supplying water from river Narmada. In response, the Indore Municipal Corporation raised Rs 661.52 crore on the first day itself. “The investors and commoners have overwhelmingly responded to the green bonds,” tweeted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Green bonds are debt securities issued by a public or private organisation to finance or refinance projects that have a positive impact on the environment. Uttar Pradesh’s civic body Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam had issued India’s first green municipal bond for setting up of a tertiary water treatment plant.

The Indore civic body was expecting 10 to 15 times oversubscription of its bonds against the 1.26 times witnessed in 2018 when the city became the first city in India to list municipal bonds on the National Stock Exchange’s debt securities platform.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the 1380-km, eight-lane Delhi-Mumbai expressway on February 12. The 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section will be open to the public, reducing the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to about three hours.

The expressway passing through Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from over a day to just 12 hours. The expressway is also set to benefit various cities along the way, cutting down travel times between them as well. The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, in a tweet said that the Sohna-Dausa stretch of the highway “will enable a hassle-free 2-hour journey between Delhi and Jaipur”. The reduction in distance and travel time is set to result in annual fuel savings of more than 320 million litres and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 850 million kg, the Ministry estimates. More than two million trees and shrubs are also planned to be planted along the highway.

The expressway is being constructed with an initial budget of Rs 98,000 crore. The work on the expressway started in 2018 and is set to be completed by the end of 2023. Depending on the volume of traffic the expressway sees, there are plans in place to expand it to a 12-lane expressway in the future.

India has called on Group of 20 (G20) nations to adopt ‘3S’ strategy, i.e., ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’ agriculture which should ‘serve’ all, to address global food security concerns.

Speaking on the sidelines of the first G20 Agriculture Deputies’ Meeting in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on February 14, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that agriculture for India has always been a priority, and for the world it has fully come to the fore now. For smart agriculture, he emphasised on adopting drones and other new technologies for increasing the crop yield. For sustainable agriculture, he advised that farmers should focus on achieving higher yields, using better inputs besides focusing on advanced technologies and marketing.

The minister said that India has made significant progress in agriculture, and is the top nation in the world in milk production, second in vegetables and fruits, and third in food grains production.

The first Agriculture Deputies’ Meeting of the Agriculture Working Group (AWG) under India’s G20 presidency was held in Indore from February 13-15. The second day of the meeting held deliberations on four key priority areas of food security and nutrition; sustainable agriculture with climate smart approach; inclusive agriculture value chain and food supply system; and digitisation of agriculture transformation. The next meetings of G20 AWG are likely to be held in Chandigarh, Varanasi and Hyderabad.

Air India on February 14 announced its plans to acquire 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing in deals potentially worth tens of billions of dollars. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have hailed Air India’s multi-billion dollar deal to buy planes from Airbus and Boeing.

During the video call with Macron, Modi described the agreement with Airbus as an important achievement for the bilateral strategic partnership and said, “Today, the India-France partnership is playing a direct role in ensuring international order and a stable and balanced multilateral system.”

Macron pointed to bilateral cooperation in areas such as space, cyber, defence, health and energy transition, and said, “Now, we have the historic opportunity to go much further, given the potential of India and the Indian people.” There is a “deep commitment” in France to provide state-of-the-art and efficient technologies to India, and be part of the “Make in India” strategy, he said.

Later, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch also welcomed the deal. Joe Biden underlined how the Air India-Boeing deal will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, and help Air India meet growing demands for air transportation in India.

Modi invited Boeing and other US companies to make use of opportunities arising from India’s expanding civil aviation sector. The two leaders further agreed to bolster people-to-people and to remain in contact to ensure the success of India’s G20 presidency.

India has regained the fifth place among the world’s top equity markets by value after being briefly taken over by France.

India’s market capitalisation stood at $3.15 trillion on February 10, making France and the UK the world’s sixth and seventh largest markets by value, respectively, says the data compiled by Bloomberg that shows the combined value of companies with a primary listing in each country. The outlook for earnings growth helped revitalise the appeal of India’s equities that have outperformed most global contemporaries for the last two years. Nevertheless, the total value of India’s market was about 6% lower than January 24.

In another positive development for the Indian equity markets, foreign investors seem to have regained some confidence and were net buyers during two of the seven sessions this month through February 9. The development came after the government announced higher capital spending outlay in the Union Budget 2023. The new quarterly earnings season was also fairly positive and market analysts estimate that earnings per share at MSCI India companies will increase 14.5 per cent this year. Though this is similar to China, it is better than most major markets around the world, said the Bloomberg data.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that increased metal recycling can bring down the cost of auto components by 30 per cent and automatically increase the industry’s export competitiveness.

Addressing the three-day conference of the Material Recycling Association of India on material recycling on February 3 through videoconferencing, the minister said the government has set a target of doubling the size of the automobile sector to Rs 15 lakh crore and creating an additional 5 crore jobs. India overtook Japan to become the world’s third largest automobile market in 2022.

The international conference in Kochi was attended by over 2,000 delegates from across the world.

Noting that India faces shortages in copper, aluminium and steel, Nitin Gadkari encouraged the recycling industry to get into joint ventures with foreign companies so that the scale of the industry that is highly unorganised can increase. He also appealed to the automobile manufacturers to set up large scrapping units and offered them concessions at the forthcoming new dry ports in Wardha, Sangli and Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Noting that the whole world is adopting a “waste to wealth” philosophy, he said the government will do everything to encourage more imports of scrap so that our shortage of key metals can be addressed.