Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest producers of palm oil, have agreed to work together to fight “discrimination” against the commodity. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said this after meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Indonesia on Monday. Anwar was visiting Indonesia on his first overseas tour since taking office in November. Joko Widodo said the two countries would also strengthen cooperation through the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries to address concerns. During their bilateral meeting, Anwar and Jokowi signed eight memorandums of understandings
Under its Group of Twenty (G20) presidency, India is set to host the foreign ministers’ meet in Delhi in March 2023. The 2023 G20 Delhi summit is the upcoming eighteenth meeting of G20. Scheduled to take place in Pragati Maidan, it is expected to host leaders from member countries. India’s G20 presidency will see more than 200 meetings across 55 locations, culminating with the annual G20 summit on 9-10 September. The first G20 meeting — the Sherpa meet — was held in the first week of December in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The 55 locations for the meetings span big metros to smaller
Dubai on January 4 announced an ambitious plan aiming to boost foreign trade and investment, and double the size of its economy by 2033. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled in a series of tweets, the Dubai Economic Agenda, dubbed “D33”, with targets totalling 32 trillion dirhams ($8.7 trillion). The plan would “double the size of Dubai’s economy in the next decade and consolidate its position among the top three global cities,” Sheikh Mohammed said in a post. The objectives would be achieved through “1
In 2022, the sales of domestic passenger vehicles (PV) in India increased by 23% to 37.93 lakh units to become the highest ever sales in the industry for a calendar year. Last year’s record sales beat the sales of 33.3 lakh in 2018. The sales were led by Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors, which recorded their best sales on the back of pent-up demand and better semiconductor chip supply. The 2022 sales are 23.1 per cent more than that of 2021. The 2022 figure is about 14 per cent higher than the previous highest. The highest growth in annual domestic PV sales was witnessed by Tata
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an allocation of ₹19,744 crore, aimed at producing 5 million tonne of green hydrogen annually by 2030. Out of the total allocation, the Centre would provide incentives worth ₹17,490 crore for production of both electrolysers and green hydrogen for five years. The other outlays are ₹1,466 crore for pilot projects, ₹400 crore for R&D, and ₹388 crore towards other Mission components, said an official statement. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will formulate the scheme guidelines for
India has now overtaken China in terms of number of visitors to Singapore, becoming the second highest number of visitors arriving in the island nation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, China had the highest number of tourists visiting Singapore. According to Singapore Tourism Board (STB), 6,12,300 visitors from India arrived in Singapore till November 2022. These tourists also stay the longest with an average length of stay of 8.61 days compared with an average of 5.19 days. Indonesia is the largest source of foreign visitors to Singapore with 9,86,900 visitors up till November, while M
The Uttar Pradesh government has signed Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) with six UAE-based companies worth Rs 18,590 crore, according to the statement released by the state government. The MoUs will help in creating more than 20,000 employment opportunities. Astha Green Energy Venture and Shree Siddharth Infratech and Services will invest Rs. 4,480 and Rs. 8,000 crore, respectively, in the renewable energy sector, and create 2,560 and 4,800 new jobs. Sharaf Group and Hindustan Port will invest in the Logistics Park sector. Their investments will be Rs. 1,300 crore and Rs. 210 crore, r
National Skill Development Corporation of India and TakaMol Holding of Saudi Arabia have launched the Skill Verification Program (SVP) in India. The SVP aims to verify Indian professional workers for the required qualifications and skills for their professions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the SVP, a competency-based exam (theoretical and practical) across 17 benchmarked occupations such as welding, electrician, HVAC, and plumbing will be held to assess and raise the quality of skill and productivity in the Saudi labour market. Five professions, such as plumber, electrician, w
India is aiming to double the size of its automobile industry to Rs 15 lakh crore by the end of 2024, making it one of the world’s top countries in this sector, said Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday. Currently, India’s automobile industry is Rs 7.5 lakh crore. Speaking at a virtual session of Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nitin Gadkari said that his ministry will carry out project works worth Rs 5 lakh crore in 2023, of which Rs 2 lakh crore will come from the government and the rest will be raised from the capital market. The union m
Women entrepreneurs have been benefited the most under the government’s Stand-Up India scheme, with 80.2% of bank loans sanctioned till early December going to women-led businesses since the scheme’s launch in April 2016, said the government data shared in Parliament. According to the data shared by the Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad in the Rajya Sabha recently, 1,59,961 loans under Stand-Up India were sanctioned to entrepreneurs as of December 2, 2022. Of these, 1,28,361 loans were sanctioned to women entrepreneurs, while 23,797 loans were sanctioned to scheduled caste (S