Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe has sought India’s help in establishing policy reforms, governance, capacity building, digitalization, and public service delivery, an official statement issued by India’s Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said. The Indian delegation led by the Director General of the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Bharat Lal met Sri Lanka’s President on April 1 and discussed policy reforms, good governance, digitalization, capacity building and training, institution building, and assured public service delivery. The Sri
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in a report has said that China’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and strong demand in India will drive strong economic growth in Asia this year. Asia’s developing economies are on course for faster growth and moderating inflation this year and next, even as advanced economies are contributing to a darker global outlook, the report issued on April 4 added. The ADB projected that China’s economy will grow 5 percent this year and 4.5 percent next year — better from last year’s 3 per cent growth, but slower than its long-term average. India’s e
India saw the sale of over one lakh electric vehicles (EVs) every month from October 2022 to March 2023, says the data shared by the Government. In October 2022, 117,252 EVs were sold. The next month, Indians bought as many as 121,389 EVs as against 104,783 in December 2022. EV sales touched a fresh high for a month in March 2023. In the financial year 2023, as many as 11,71,203 EV units were sold in India, an increase of over 150% against the sale of 4,58,748 EVs in the financial year 2022. Record 1,30,430 EV units were sold in March 2023. In FY23, India bought as many as 11,70,916 EV uni
The Ministry of Defence, Government of India has signed a ₹1,700-crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace (BAPL) for procurement of next-generation maritime mobile coastal batteries (long range) and BrahMos missiles. These systems will enhance multi-directional maritime strike capability of the Indian Navy, said the ministry in a statement. The delivery of the batteries is scheduled to begin from 2027. “The systems will be equipped with supersonic BrahMos missiles and will significantly enhance multi-directional maritime strike capability of the Indian Navy,” the statement added. BAP
The United Kingdom reached an agreement with Indo-Pacific partners to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) at a virtual ministerial meeting late March 31, 2023. The CPTPP is a free trade agreement between 11 countries. “After 21 months of negotiations, this is the UK's biggest trade deal since Brexit and [it] becomes the first European country to join CPTPP,” the government said. The 11-country trans-Pacific trade pact includes Japan and Australia. The deal is important, as Britain looks to deepen ties in the Indo-Pacific region and
Sri Lanka plans to seek a fresh $1 billion temporary credit facility from India to buy essential items such as food and medicine, said official media on March 27. Its ministry officials met with Indian counterparts to secure the facility, said the state-run Daily News newspaper in a report. The island country had in March received the first tranche of the $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout plan to help it overcome its economic crisis and catalyse financial assistance from other development partners. Speaking at a discussion hosted by the Central Bank’s Centre for Ban
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has constituted a nine-member team with the goal to make India a “product developer and manufacturing nation,” a news report said on March 27. The panel, which includes some of the veterans from the Indian electronics industry, has reportedly been given a period of two months to submit its recommendations. The panel will be headed by MeitY additional secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar, while Joint secretary (electronics) Amitesh Kumar Sinha will serve as its member convenor. Indian electronic industry veterans, including HCL founder
The World Bank has warned that average potential global economic growth will fall to a three-decade low of 2.2% per year through 2030, bringing in a “lost decade” for the world’s economy, if policymakers fail to adopt ambitious initiatives to boost labour supply, productivity and investment. In a new report, the World Bank said that failure to reverse the expected slowdown in potential gross domestic product (GDP) growth would have profound implications for the world’s ability to tackle climate change and reduce poverty. Concerted efforts to boost investment in sustainable sectors,
New York is the top financial centre in the world, says a list released by think-tank Z/Yen. The list of top 10 financial centres includes London, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Chicago, Boston and Seoul. Mumbai stands 61st in the list, followed by New Delhi at 65th position and Gujarat’s GIFT City at 67th rank. Published on 23 March 2023, the thirty-third edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 33) evaluated future competitiveness and rankings for 120 financial centres around the world. An initiative of China Development Institute (CDI), Shenzhen
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja signed a customs deal on March 26 that paves the way for the countries’ free trade agreement to come into force. The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was present on occasion. The agreement will go into force on April 1. The Israel-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was signed in Dubai last May, but could not go into force until the two countries signed the customs agreement on Sunday. The customs agreement took time to conclude as the countries had to carefully go th