Category: Economy

The representation of women on boards of companies in India during the last ten years sped up to 18 percent in 2022, but the country is still lagging behind France, Sweden, the US, and the UK, according to a report. From 2013 to 2022, India made noteworthy and rapid progress in increasing women’s representation on boards from 6 percent in 2013 to 18 percent in 2022, leading consultancy EY’s report titled ‘Diversity in the Boardroom: progress and the way forward”, said.

France stood at the number one position with 44.5 percent women representation on companies’ boards, followed by Sweden (40 percent), Norway (36.4 percent), Canada (35.4 percent), the UK (35.3 percent), Australia (33.5 percent), US (28.1 percent), Singapore (20.1 percent), as per the report.

The findings for India are based on a detailed survey of Nifty 500 companies comprising 4,500 directors and public source data.

The report noted that the current 18 percent women representation on Indian boards is mainly due to a result of the corporate law mandate in the country.

Nearly 95 percent of the Nifty 500 companies now have a woman on their boards of directors. However, not even 5 percent of companies have women chairpersons, it noted.

During the week from October 9 to 16, Telangana secured investments from three companies totalling Rs 1,850 crore, confirming its position as India’s premier investment destination. As a result of these three investments, approximately 4,500 jobs could be created. There were contributions from a wide range of industries, including life sciences, edible oils, and jewellery.

A positive start to the new week for Telangana was provided by pharma company Hetero, which announced plans to invest around Rs 600 crore in an acquired manufacturing unit. The project will create employment for about 2,000 people. A new Global Analytics and Technology Centre of Excellence (GATE) has been announced by global pharma company Roche as well.

Investment flow to Telangana has been driven by the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-iPASS). KT Rama, IT and Industries Minister, summarised the state’s achievement, saying, “Telangana continues to attract fresh investments thanks to the stable government, business-friendly atmosphere, and path-breaking policies like TSiPASS.”

As a result of Telangana’s policies, a second Green Revolution, a Blue Revolution, a Pink Revolution, and a White Revolution have already been initiated. Now, it is promoting oil palm cultivation on a large scale as part of the Yellow Revolution (oil).

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was summarised by signing a series of memorandum of understanding (MoU) between both countries. As per the report shared by a Saudi state news agency on Monday, the estimated value of those memorandums of understanding is worth more than $15 billion. Both countries agreed on cooperation in the field of agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and direct investment cooperation.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday, October 14, for a State Visit, which concluded on October 16, 2022.

Along with President Ramaphosa, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, welcomed the signings and stressed the importance of building cooperation and consensual ties between the two countries.

The meeting between these two leaders was meant to discuss business and economic collaboration. During the meeting, they discussed boosting cooperation between the two countries in the field of the private sector.

Both leaders also applauded the efforts of the Saudi-South African Joint Committee, an undertaking to enhance cooperation between the two countries. The joint committee’s vision also falls in line with the plans of South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

World Bank President David Malpass has expressed his interest to work with India to take its successful digitization efforts to other countries so that they can also reap benefits from it, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

Sitharam, who was in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, spoke about this to Indian reporters on Saturday during a press conference. Sitharaman said India was requested to exhibit how Indian people have recognized the intense digital applications.

“In fact, today, in my meeting with the World Bank President David Malpass, he said that you should now showcase the deepening of digital applications in India and how common people have accepted it, Sitharaman said after she met Malpass at the World Bank headquarters.

Referring to her meetings on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, she said India received a lot of appreciation for its digitization success.

“There’s certainly a lot of appreciation. In fact, with a sense of amazement that India could do it in such a short period, its digital applications which have been successful, how people have adapted to it. And the way in which across the board, now digital is panned out, it’s not just payment, it is also health, it’s also education, it’s also looking at health-related vaccinationCOVIN and so on, “, she said.

The U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) will be held on November 8 in Washington DC. U.S. trade officials will arrive in New Delhi next week to set the seal on issues for discussion, an Indian government official said. A few weeks ahead of this meeting, it seems likely that the gains are most probably going to be moderate and result in a positive change in the immediate future, considering the structural differences in both economies and political factors in India and the U.S. — both of which have general elections in 2024.

The 12th TPF was held in New Delhi in November 2021, after a gap of four years, offering some gains over the past year, such as the restarting of sales of Indian mangoes and pomegranate arils to the U.S. post-pandemic, and the arrival of U.S. cherries on the Indian market.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) officials, Christopher Wilson, and Brendan Lynch were in New Delhi in August–but the visit was not formally termed as ‘intercessional’.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will lead the Indian delegation to the U. S capital next month with the USTR, Katherine Tai, leading the American delegation.

“A mismatch between bilateral ambition and sensitivity has been an issue at times. The U.S.’s ambitions are commensurate with what you would expect for a highly developed economy,” former Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan, who retired in 2021, told on Saturday.

Trade and investment will be a focus area for Singapore and Thailand, as well as tourism cooperation and digital economy collaboration.

In Bangkok on Tuesday and Wednesday, the sixth ministerial meeting on Enhanced Economic Relationships between Singapore and Thailand was co-chaired by Dr Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry, and Mr Jurin Laksanawisit, Thai’s Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister.

As part of the agreement, Singapore and Thailand formed a Cruise Tourism Task Force to develop a comprehensive road map for promoting cruise tourism between the two countries. The term of reference for the task force will be worked out by both tourism ministries, with teams from both countries expected to complete their work by December.

Before the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-28) in 2023, Dr Tan and Thai DPM Jurin plan to develop an Implementation Agreement and identify potential projects for collaboration. On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting, Singapore and Thailand entities signed four memorandums of understanding (MOUs).

Dr Tan said, “The good progress we made at the meeting will propel our friendship to greater heights and benefit Singapore businesses looking to explore the Thailand market, and visa versa.”

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday India is talking to different countries to make RuPay acceptable in their nations.

“Not just that, the UPI (Unified Payments Interface), the BHIM app, and NCPI (the National Payments Corporation of India) are all now being worked in such a way that their systems in their respective country, however, robust or otherwise can talk to our system and the inter-operability itself will give strength for Indians expertise in those countries,” the FM said.

An Indian student studying at the University of Maryland told Sitharaman how proud she was of the UPI system in India and asked the FM about the future plans of the UPI system and if it was possible to have the UPI in the United States as well, to which the FM replied: “We are working together with several countries”. Ms. Sitharaman mentioned this at the prestigious Brookings Institute think-tank during an informal conversation with well-known economist Eshwar Prasad.

Ms. Sitharaman added that India has been talking to different countries. Singapore and the UAE have all come forward now to make RuPay acceptable in their countries.

Sterling has fallen by 1% after the dollar wavered and British Prime Minister Liz Truss defended her government’s economic plans that led to the drop in the pound. Defending the new plans laid by the British government, Truss said that the big tax cuts were the right path for the nation and refused to give a second thought to making any changes to the “mini-budget”.

The pound was last down 0.3% to $1.0854 after hitting a low of $1.0764. However, the euro was 0.12% lower against sterling at 89.27 pence. Not only on other currencies, the new budget has affected the UK government bond market as wekk, forcing the Bank of England to intervene to protect pension funds, which are big holders of long-dated gilts. The BoE said it would buy 65 billion pounds of government bonds to restore market functioning.

“We are facing difficult economic times,” Truss said on local BBC radio. “I don’t deny this. This is a global problem. But what is absolutely right is the UK government has stepped in and acted at this difficult time.”

Jonas Goltermann, senior markets economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said that he does not think the Bank of England’s intervention would help boost the Sterling in the long run.

“I don’t think (the BoE’s intervention) is going to be a long-term boost for sterling, although it might prevent an extreme downturn,” he said.

The September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng on 23 September 2022. Some of the new policies have attracted wide criticism. On 27 September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement in which it criticised the plans, saying “the nature of the UK measures will likely increase inequality”. 

A new report released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on 29 September shows India has made significant progress in the global innovation index ranking, reaching the top 40 for the first time.

In the report, the most innovative economies in the world are Switzerland, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Furthermore, India jumps to 40th place, while Turkey moves up to 37th place, with emerging economies showing consistently strong performance.

It has made its way into the top 40 this year after entering the top 50 earlier in 2020. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, research and development (R&D) and other investments that drive worldwide innovation continued to boom in 2021, but challenges arise in translating these investments into impact.

As part of its 15th edition, the GII 2022 report is published by WIPO in collaboration with Portulans Institute and with the support of corporate partners such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ecopetrol (Colombia), the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), and the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).

The WIPO report said, “India is the innovation leader in the lower middle-income group. It continues to lead the world in ICT services exports and holds the top ranking in other indicators, including venture capital receipt value, finance for startups and scaleups, graduated in science and engineering, labour productivity growth and domestic industry diversification.”

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday announced plans to provide at least $14 billion in financial support for the Asia-Pacific region’s worsening food crisis, which is a direct impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and global climatic conditions. The funding will be done over 2022-2025.

The funding was announced by Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa during the 55th ADB annual meeting, conducted via a virtual press conference.

$3.3 billion will be spent in 2022, while $10.7 billion is to be utilized between 2023-25.

Mr. Asakawa highlighted global climate changes and food security as two prime target areas.

“This is a timely and urgently needed response to a crisis that is leaving too many poor families in Asia hungry and deeper poverty,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, in remarks at ADB’s 55th Annual Meeting. “We need to act now before the impacts of climate change worsen and further erode the region’s hard-won development gains. Our support will be targeted, integrated, and impactful to help vulnerable people, particularly vulnerable women, in the near-term, while bolstering food systems to reduce the impact of emerging and future food security risks.”

The organization, whose headquarter is in Manila, takes charge to support the member nations. ADB is owned by 68 members, of which 49 belong to the Asia-Pacific region.