- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news related to Indian economy and business for Monday, August 21, 2023:
India’s science and technology minister Jitendra Singh on Monday highlighted in New Delhi India’s big strides in space technology under the leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi and that the country has taken the lead in using it for aiding infrastructure and development work. Expressing confidence in Chandrayaan 3’s upcoming lunar touchdown, Singh revealed plans for a preliminary mission this year, paving the way for the 2024 Gaganyaan manned mission. He mentioned two unmanned missions, including one with a robot, preceding the manned mission. Singh underscored how the Modi government has opened up the space sector, increasing awareness about India’s space prowess. Responding to Russia’s lunar mission failure, he said it used a distinct route and technology.
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations have committed to expediting negotiations for the revision of their current free-trade agreement on goods, aiming to finalise talks by 2025, according to an official statement. This decision was reached during the twentieth AEM-India Consultation meeting held in Semarang, Indonesia. The primary focus of the meeting was the prompt review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), initiated in 2009 and effective since January 2010, the commerce ministry said. AITIGA’s Joint Committee meeting set the roadmap, terms of reference and negotiation plan for the review. This move, long urged by Indian businesses, is anticipated to bolster bilateral trade by addressing imbalances and expanding economic ties.
A new book by author Nalin Mehta, pieces together the story of the digital revolution and how it transformed India in the past decade. “India’s Techade”, scheduled to release on Wednesday (23), is touted to be a “crisp yet comprehensive account of the systems, the innovators, the processes, and the political will that drove the digital enterprise across India”. It is published by Westland Books. “While researching India’s political transformation for my last book, ‘The New BJP’, it became clear to me how much the wider changes we are seeing in India were linked to its digital shift, from direct benefit transfers and social welfare to UPI. “This digital revolution has created its own special dynamic and has huge ramifications not just for India but for global tech. ‘India’s Techade’ is the outcome of that realization and the first draft of this history,” said Mehta in a statement.
India can become a net exporter of payment technology, software and hardware even as it is expected to touch 500 million payment consumers and 100 million merchants, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has told shareholders in its annual report, Moneycontrol reported. “True economic GDP growth benefit of reaching the last person in the financial system will be our success. We have set our mission to enable 500 million Indians to get benefits of mainstream economic growth. This begins by enabling them with mobile payments and helping extend various other financial services like loan, insurance etc. to them,” Sharma said in a letter, the report added.
Chinese smartphone brand Honor is set to reenter the Indian market via a licensing partnership with a local firm, intending to commence domestic production by early next year, as per the brand’s country head’s statement to Reuters. Honor had reportedly withdrawn from India’s smartphone market last year due to budget constraints and portfolio management issues. Counterpoint Research’s Neil Shah noted that India wasn’t a priority for Honor until 2020, when it was compelled to rethink its approach after being spun off from Huawei Technologies. Reuters reported that Honor’s return is underpinned by a deal with a new Gurugram-based firm Honor Tech but the costs tied to technology and hardware transfer remain undisclosed.
(With agencies inputs)
