Prime Minister's participation in Annual Meeting 2018 of World Economic Forum

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Commerce & Industry
9 -January, 2018 18:19 IST

Prime Minister's participation in Annual Meeting 2018 of World Economic Forum

The Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum shall be held from 23-26 January 2018 at Davos in Switzerland with the theme of 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'. Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will be participating in the Annual Meeting. He will be the first Prime Minister to attend the Annual Meeting of the Forum since 1997. The Annual Meeting will be attended by 350 political leaders (among them over 60 heads of state or government), the chairs and chief executive officers of the world's most important companies and over 1,000 leaders from among other walks of life.

The Prime Minister will address the Inaugural Plenary Session at 11:00 AM [3:30 PM 1ST] on 23rd January 2018. He will also meet top Global Business Leaders in Davos. He will also be interacting with the members of the International Business Council consisting of 120 top chief executives of major transnational corporations across sectors.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry will also host the Welcome Reception for the participants of Annual Meeting 2018, WEF in the evening of 22nd January 2018 which will showcase business opportunities in India as-well-as Indian heritage and Indian cuisine.

Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Commerce & Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal, Rail and Coal Minister, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Petroleum and Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister, Dr. jitendra Singh, In-charge Minister of Ministry of DONER and Minister of State of PM°, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, and Shri M. J. Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs will also be participating in the Annual Meeting 2018. The Ministers will represent India in around 25 sessions organized on Next Generation Industrial Strategies, Infrastructure acceleration, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Future of employment

in manufacturing and production etc. in the Annual Meeting and share the Prime Minister's vision of transforming the nation into 'New India' by 2022.

11 roundtables will also be organized by Invest India' and CII with existing and potential investors.

India will showcase in this Annual Meeting the enormous business opportunities in India as well as the path-breaking reforms that have been implemented in the last 3 Y2 years. These include wide ranging FDI reforms which has brought in 195 billion dollars of FDI in this period. The recent 30 rank jump in the World Bank Doing Business report which is the highest of any country in 2017, combined with the biggest ever tax reform of GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and other reforms will also be showcased during the Annual Meeting.

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[Hindustani78]

The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu briefing the media about the government’s agenda and participation, at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum at Davos, in New Delhi on January 09, 2018. The Secretary, DIPP, Shri Ramesh Abhishek is also seen.

The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu briefing the media about the government’s agenda and participation, at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum at Davos, in New Delhi on January 09, 2018. The Secretary, DIPP, Shri Ramesh Abhishek is also seen.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/652709/india-rejects-us-solar-claim.html

India hit back on Monday at Washington's latest legal assault on its solar power policies at the World Trade Organization, rejecting a U.S. legal claim and exploring possible new protection of India's own solar industry.

Last month the United States triggered a new round of litigation at the WTO, arguing that India had failed to abide by a ruling that it had illegally discriminated against foreign suppliers of solar cells and modules.

In a statement published by the WTO on Monday, India said it had changed its rules to conform with the ruling and that a U.S. claim for punitive trade sanctions was groundless.

"India underscores that the United States' request is not a valid request," the Indian statement said.

It said Washington had skipped legal steps, failed to follow the correct WTO procedure, and omitted to mention any specific level of trade sanctions that it proposed to level on India, leaving India "severely prejudiced".

India would be vindicated if the proper process was followed, it said.

"In view of the above, India strongly objects to the U.S. request of 19 December 2017," it said.

Renewable energy has become an area of severe trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles.

India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution.

But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying U.S. solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent. The WTO judges agreed that India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules.

In a separate move that could protect its solar industry from global competitors, not only U.S. rivals, India told the WTO last week that it was considering the case for imposing temporary emergency tariffs on solar cells, modules and panels, after a petition from the domestic industry.

So-called safeguard tariffs are permitted by the WTO if there is evidence of serious harm, or threat of serious harm, to a country's production from a sudden, unforeseen surge in imports.

India said the market share of imports had increased from 86 percent in 2014-15 to 90 percent in 2017-18, with growing losses for Indian producers and a fourfold rise in inventory levels.

That amounted to prima facie evidence of serious injury to Indian firms, India said in the WTO filing.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
25-January, 2018 17:48 IST
Several decisions taken to ease business: Dr Jitendra Singh

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has said that over the last three years, the Government led by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken a number of decisions to "ease doing of business". As a result of this, India has began to attract investors from all over, who are willing to set up ventures even in the hitherto lesser preferred regions like the North Eastern part of country. In other words, Dr Jitendra Singh said, India, including the Northeast, is fast emerging as a preferred destination for business and entrepreneurship.

Speaking at a "Luncheon Round-table" meet on the topic "Sustainable Production through Fourth Industrial Revolution Innovations" in Davos, Switzerland yesterday, Dr Jitendra Singh allayed the fears expressed by some of the participants about excessive regulatory controls exercised by certain governments across the world and said, that in the last over three years, the Government of India has made a conscious effort to bring in ease of business through relaxation of avoidable regulations. He said, within a short span of 3 to 4 years, the Government has done away with nearly 1,500 such rules and regulations which had become obsolete and irrelevant in this age.

Expressing his views on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots to promote production and business in the times to come, Dr Jitendra Singh said, while these technological advances can prove an asset by contributing to sustainable development, the challenge, however, would be to ensure that human intelligence does not end up becoming a slave of Artificial Intelligence. He said, since this is the first generation faced with this new phenomenon, it might take another one or two generations to actually evolve a mechanism of healthy synergy between the Human Intelligence and the Artificial Intelligence. The most ideal situation would be when the human and the artificial components supplement each other's resources to accomplish Fourth Industrial Revolution Innovations, he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, while the international markers indicate that the year 2020 will be a milestone for evaluating progress towards the 2030 agenda, in India, an important milestone would be 2022, the year which marks the completion of 75 years of Independence. Several of the Government's recent initiatives have been targeted to meet their end point by 2022, following which the further journey would be to boost competitiveness and aim at targets beyond.

Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to the steps taken recently by India to resort to alternative sources of energy with the twin-objective of meeting the growing energy needs of India and at the same time, taking cognizance of the environmental factors. In this regard, he said, when, for example, over 50% of global Greenhouse Gas emissions result from the cradle-to-factory journey of goods, India has already geared itself to astounding levels of innovation in all spheres.

In addition, Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to new opportunities for public-private collaboration being facilitated by the Government with least intimidation or interference from the Government. This would also serve as an incentive for small and medium enterprises to stay relevant in future scenario changes, he added.

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