Month: March 2023

India’s total exports crossed $750 billion with two-to-three days still left in financial 2022-23 and are the highest by the country ever.

The milestone export figures were provided by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal today speaking at industry body Assocham’s annual session.

“The naysayers have been proven wrong. I am happy to share today that India has crossed USD 750 Billion of exports. There has been growth in both goods & services exports,” Goyal said at the event.

“Given the fact that the whole world is in recession, inflation is at an all-time high for most developed countries, interest rates are shooting up and there’s a sense of doom & gloom in the rest of the world, India’s performance has filled us with pride,” he added.

India is opening doors wider to international trade, Goyal said.

During April-February, India’s exports figures were about USD 703 billion, data showed. During the same period of 2021-22, the export figures were USD 605.01 billion. (ANI)

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Delhi recorded 214 fresh Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, marking a sharp uptick in infections over the last 24 hours.

However, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi Health department, the Capital did not register a single death from Covid over the last 24 hours.

Further, according to the bulletin, as many as 1,811 swab samples were tested over the last 24 hours, of which 214 tested positive for Covid-19.

The national capital currently has 671 active Covid cases, with the infection rate at 11.88 percent, the bulletin stated.

Further, according to the release, a total of 4,07,83,273 Covid tests have been conducted so far.

It stated further that a total of 81 Covid patients recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 19,81,866.

Also, with no new fatality from Covid reported over the last 24 hours, the overall toll in the national capital remained at 26,524.

Also, as part of the continued vaccination drive in the national capital, a total of 3,74,04,495 vaccine doses have been administered so far, of which 151 doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

Earlier, on Friday, the national capital recorded 152 new Covid infections. The total number of active cases was recorded at 424 while the positivity rate jumped to 6.66 percent.

According to a bulletin issued by the Health department on Friday, 74 Covid patients recovered from the virus in the city, taking the total number of recoveries to 19,81,492. (ANI)

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Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that India will become the largest civil aviation market in the next decade.

Union Minister Scindia was addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) International Conference on Advanced and Short-Haul Air Mobility for All (ASHA): Technologies for Ease of Transport. “India has crossed the pre-COVID number of air travellers by 10 per cent to reach 455,000 passengers daily, with airlines now operating at 80-90 per cent load factor,” Scindia said.

He said that we need more aircraft because India has an insatiable desire to travel.

While stating that India is proving itself to be a manufacturing hub in the aerospace sector, Scindia invited global companies to be part of India’s journey.

Technology has jumped forward and has become an important protagonist in future of mankind,” the minister said.

“In that period of change and dynamic flux, the civil aviation sector is making unimaginable strides as never before,” he added.

Speaking about opportunities in the advanced air mobility sector, the minister said the drone market will become a Rs 3 lakh crore market by 2030 employing 3-4 lakh persons.

He underscored the need to have a good ecosystem and said that advanced air mobility must have its basis in strong civil aviation infrastructure.

“For the infrastructure to be built, he said urban city planners needed to be involved,” he said.

The minister also emphasised that the government was no longer a regulator but a facilitator and partner to the industry.

Salil Gupte, president, Boeing India and chairman, CII National Committee, said, Advanced air mobility can do to India’s transport what telephony did to its communications.

“In telecom, India skipped stages where the rest of the world was stuck. We have seen India leapfrog from landline to mobile to 4G to 5G roll-outs at lightning speed. India can do the same in transport if it chooses to embrace the AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) technologies and create the right ecosystem for it,” Gupte said.

He said that the AAM comprises drones, helicopters, e-VTOL (electric, vertical take-off and landing systems) and other air systems, used for ferrying people and goods over short distances.

“An average Indian traveller spends a substantially higher time commuting compared to short-haul travel his counterpart in other Asian cities and other global cities. Technologies that we are discussing since yesterday, drones, helicopters, and e-VTOL have the opportunity to reduce this drastically and India can leapfrog in urban mobility. India is good at that. That is exactly what has happened through telephony in the last 25 years,” Gupte said.

“India can do the same in transport if it chooses to embrace the AAM technologies provided the country creates the right ecosystem for it, he added.

“For instance, technologies have to be evaluated from many perspectives not only from civil but also from a defence angle. We need sustained electrification of these technologies. At a time, when Boeing with its partners like International Air Transport Association (IATA ), International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and others are committed to achieving Net-Zero by 2050, we cannot do anything with the advanced mobility sector that makes it a bogeyman in (green) space,” Gupte added.

He also said while India moves ahead in the AAM sector, other related areas that will need close attention include cyber security to keep this ecosystem safe and integrated airspace management.

Besides this, Kamal Bali, President and MD Volvo Group in India, and chairman, CII Southern Region said, “the take-off of AAM will need a robust ecosystem that includes vehicles, training and education, research and development, landing structure, fleet management, demand management, linkages with other mobility systems.” “For the industry, it will mean huge new value chain, new economic clusters and many new jobs,” he added. (ANI)

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Amid the protests by the Congress against his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on April 5 will address a public meeting at Kolar in poll-bound Karnataka, the same place where he made the remark for which he was convicted of criminal defamation and stripped off his membership of the Lower House.

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, a senior Congress member in Karnataka said the disqualified MP will return to Kolar for a campaign event on April 5.
It was in Kolar that Rahul made the remark using the surname ‘Modi’ while headlining a campaign rally for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

A Surat court held him guilty of criminal defamation over this remark and sentenced him to 2 years’ imprinsionment. While the sentence was later suspended for a period of 30 days during which he can challenge his conviction in a higher court, Rahul was disqualified as an MP on March 24, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Under the ruling, any MP or MLA stands to be disqulaified automatically if convicted and sentenced to 2 years or more.

At the rally in Karnataka in April 2019, Rahul, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.

After Rahul’s disqualification, the Lok Sabha Secretariat on March 27 sent him a notice, asking him to vacate the government bungalow following his disqualification as MP. The allotment of the government bungalow will be cancelled with effect from April 24.

Responding to this, in a letter to Deputy Secretary, MS Branch, Lok Sabha Secretariat dated March 28, Rahul wrote, “As an elected Member of Lok Sabha over last four terms, it is the mandate of the people to which I owe the happy memories of my time spent here. Without prejudice to my rights, I will, of course, abide by the details contained in your letter.”

Addressing a press conference a day after his disqualification as an MP, Rahul hit out at the BJP claiming that he was not scared of going to prison and his disqualification was aimed at distracting the people from the “Adani issue”. (ANI)

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Pakistan has decided to participate in the upcoming National Security Advisor meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which is being hosted by India, said a source, adding that the mode of participation is yet to be finalised.

On March 29, India will host the meetings of SCO national security advisers (NSA) and top national security officials in New Delhi.
The SCO consists of eight member states — China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with several others as inviting or dialogue countries.

NSA Ajit Doval is likely to make opening remarks before the SCO NSAs level meeting will begin on Wednesday.

Sources said the Pakistan representatives will also participate in the meeting.

Earlier, Pakistan also participated in the Meeting of Heads of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tourism Administrations held in ‘Kashi’ (Varanasi).

G Kishan Reddy, Union minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region, chaired the SCO Meeting. The action plan for ‘Year of Tourism Development in the SCO Space in 2023’ was also adopted at the meeting.

Earlier, Tribune reported that Pakistan has begun in-house consultations to decide whether to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings of the defence and foreign ministers in India since New Delhi has already extended invitations to Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

The defence ministers’ meeting is scheduled in April in New Delhi while foreign ministers would meet in May in Goa.

India is the current president of the eight-nation SCO is holding a series of events. Barring one event where Pakistan was denied entry over a map controversy, Islamabad has attended all other events, including the chief justices’ conference and meeting of energy ministers via video link, Tribune reported.

India denied Pakistan’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) seminar on armed forces’ contributions to military medicine, healthcare and pandemics, held in New Delhi on March 21.

India objected to the map used by the Pakistani side, showing Jammu and Kashmir as its territory. After the matter came to the notice of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Pakistan side was asked to show the “correct map” or to stay away from the seminar.

Tribune reported that the Pakistani delegation chose to stay away while Pakistan media sources in Islamabad said India effectively withdrew the invitation.

A three-member Pakistan military delegation, headed by a brigadier, attended the meeting of an expert working group under the Council of Defence Ministers in person in New Delhi on Thursday, Tribune reported.

Sources said Foreign Minister Bilawal is keen to go to India for the SCO meeting. If Pakistan attends the defence and foreign ministers’ meetings, it is possible that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif may also go to India in July for the SCO summit.

The relationship between Pakistan and India remains at a standstill despite efforts in recent times to normalise ties. If Pakistan sends a high-powered delegation to India for SCO, it may break the ice though it may not bring any dramatic change in the bilateral ties.

Sources said the final decision about Pakistani participation at the SCO ministerial meetings and a summit would be taken after due diligence. It would also depend on the political situation in Pakistan, they added, Tribune reported. (ANI)

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