Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Monday that the Indian economy will be USD 3 trillion by the end of the current 2022-23 fiscal and is expected to be USD 7 trillion in the next seven years. The government had previously said India would become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025.

 

Speaking at a session organised by MCCI, Nageswaran said virtually that the calendar year 2023 began in the context of the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which will 'create geo-political and geo-economic uncertainties'.

 

The other major aspect is the opening up of China after two years of the pandemic and its impact on the world economy, particularly on retreating oil and commodity prices and also on the growth of the advanced economies of the US and Europe.

 

'In these contexts, the Indian economy will be of the size of USD 3 trillion at the end of March 2023 and USD 7 trillion in the next seven years, which is not impossible,' Nageswaran said.

 

The CEA also said the most important issue is that the US is expected to lower its interest rates in 2024 or 2025, which will have an impact on the Indian rupee.

 

The National Statistical Office has predicted that the economic growth of the country in 2022-23 will be seven per cent in real terms and 15.4 per cent in nominal ones, the economist said.

 

Nageswaran also mentioned that the realistic medium-term growth is 6.5 per cent in contrast to eight or nine per cent, which was witnessed during the 2003-2008 period.

 

'During the 2003-2008 period, there was a global boom in terms of capital flows into India. The Chinese economy and commodity economies grew strongly. Now, the situation is different due to global monetary tightening, which will have a lag effect on all the economies,' he said.

 

The CEA also said India had undertaken a lot of structural reforms, including the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, since 2016.

 

Jan Dhan accounts have facilitated the seamless transfer of government benefits, he said.

 

The economist also said improvements in digital infrastructure 'has the potential to contribute 0.2 to 0.5 per cent of the country's GDP'.

 

The corporate sector is now deleveraged and willing to borrow, and private capital formation is taking place at the moment, while banks are having low NPAs and are also keen to lend.

Did you know that India and Australia have entered into an Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement? Yes, the #IndAusECTA was signed last year, on 2nd April, 2022; after Ratification and Exchange of Written Instruments, the Agreement has come into force on 29th December 2022.

 

A Win-Win for both India and Australia

 

It helps matters that Australia exports largely raw materials to India, while India exports finished goods. The ECTA builds on this complementarity, creating win-win opportunities for the two countries. Here is what Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industry, Rajesh Agrawal says: 'The Department of Commerce has achieved the unique distinction of operationalizing two Trade Agreements this year - India UAE FTA and Ind – Aus ECTA. The coming into force of Ind – Aus ECTA brings together two major economies of the world - India the 5th largest economy and Australia the 14th largest economy. Since the trade between the two countries is hugely complementary, this offers opportunities on both sides and will pave the way for a win-win solution for both India and Australia.'

 

So, what are these complementarities? Before we explore that, let us look at the current position of trade between the two countries, the before-position so to say, to understand how the picture will change in wake of the agreement.

 

Current trade trends between India and Australia

 

India’s imports from Australia amount to 17 US $ billion while its exports to Australia amount to 10.5 US $ billion. However, what we need to realize that India’s imports from Australia are primarily (96%) raw materials & intermediate goods.  They are highly concentrated in Coal (74% of Australia’s exports to India) out of which 71.4% is coking coal. On the other hand, India’s exports to Australia are broad-based and dominated by finished products (consumer goods). India also spends $ 4 bn approx. each year on education of students in Australia.

 

The above composition of our bilateral trade is very well reflected in the statements made by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, during the event held in Mumbai on December 29, 2022, the day the agreement came into force.

 

'There is a lot of potential for exporting finished goods to Australia, since they hardly manufacture anything, they are largely a raw material and intermediate producing country, we will get cheaper raw materials which will not only make us more competitive globally but also enable us to serve Indian consumers better; enabling us to provide more quality goods at more affordable prices.'

 

'Australia, which is largely dependent on imports, will benefit hugely, they will soon start seeing a lot more finished goods coming in from India, providing huge amount of work and job opportunities in both goods and services, provided by Indian talent.'

 

The #IndAusECTA covers the following major areas:

 

Trade in Goods

Trade in Services

Rules of Origin

Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures

Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation

Trade Remedies

Legal & institutional Issues

Movement of Natural Persons

So, let us see how the Agreement will benefit India and Australia and hence the world as well.

 

Benefits under Trade in Goods

 

Indian goods on all tariff lines to get access to Australian market with zero customs duty

 

The Agreement will benefit various labor-intensive Indian sectors that are currently subjected to 5% import duty by Australia.  The agreement will result in immediate market access at zero duty to 98.3% of tariff lines accounting for 96.4% of India’s exports to Australia in value terms. The remaining 1.7% lines are to be made zero duty lines over 5 years. Overall, Australia is offering duty elimination on 100% of its tariff lines.

 

Cheaper Raw Materials, Faster ApprovaI for Medicines

 

Immediate duty-free access covers all labour-intensive sectors such as Textiles and Apparel, Agricultural and Fish products, Leather, Footwear, Furniture, many Engineering Products, Jewelry and select Pharmaceuticals. As a result, many industries such as steel, aluminium, garments and others will get cheaper raw materials which will enable them to become competitive. Both sides have also agreed to a separate Annex on Pharmaceutical products under this agreement, which will enable fast-track approval for patented, generic and biosimilar medicines.

 

90% of Australian exports by value to get zero duty access to Indian market

 

India is offering zero duty access to 90% value of products from Australia (including coal). Zero duty on 85.3 % value of products will be offered immediately while zero duty on 3.67 % value of products will be offered progressively over 3, 5, 7 and 10 years. India has offered concessions on Tariff lines of export interest to Australia like Coking coal and Thermal coal, Wines, Agricultural products – 7 of them with TRQ (Cotton, Almonds shelled and in shell, Mandarin, Oranges, Lentils, Pear), Metals (Aluminium, Copper, Nickel, Iron & Steel) and Minerals (Manganese Ore, Calcined Alumina). Many sensitive products such as milk and other dairy products, wheat, sugar, iron ore, apple, walnuts and others, have been kept in India’s Exclusion list.

 

10 Lakh More Jobs, 10 Billion Dollar More Exports in Five Years

 

Immediate Duty-Free Access is projected to potentially create 10 lakh jobs in India and additional exports of $ 10 bn from India to Australia in the next five years.

 

Benefits under Trade in Services

 

More than 1 lakh Indian students in Australia to benefit from post-study work visa

 

The commitments made by Australia under Trade in Services are the best it has made in trade agreements till now and match its recent FTA with the UK. Australia has committed its schedule in the negative list and has also made wide-ranging commitments in around 135 sub sectors with Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status in around 120 sub-sectors.  The Agreement provides for an Annual Quota of 1,800 for Yoga teachers and Indian Chefs. Post study work visa (18 months – 4 years) will be made available for Indian students. This will benefit more than 1,00,000 Indian students in Australia. Along with this, the #IndAusECTA makes an arrangement for Work and Holiday Visa for young professionals.

 

Australian services to get Negative List Treatment after 5 Years

 

India has for the first time agreed to Negative listing after 5 years of coming into force of the Agreement. (But what is negative listing? Under the negative listing approach, a country treats imported and locally produced goods / services equally in all areas, and areas where this is not done are listed – in the negative list - as exceptions. So, in this case, India would provide this treatment to services exports from Australia, after a period of 5 years.)

 

India is also making a commitment to Australia in around 103 Service Sub-Sectors with Most Favoured Nation status in around 31 Service Sub-sectors for the first time. Australia gets commitments in banking, insurance, other financial services, business services.  The Agreement opens avenues for investment in computer related services, telecom, construction, health & environmental services. All these are similar to past FTAs signed by India.

 

Commitments have also been made to pursue Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) in professional services in 12 Months.

 

Protective Features to guard against Unintended Consequences

 

The #IndAusECTA also has certain ‘protective features’ aimed at guarding both countries against unintended consequences on trade; let us examine what they are.

 

The following protective features have been put into place keeping in mind any concern on leakage / diversion of products made in a third country, to India through Australia.

Stringent Rules of Origin – Value Addition of 35% + Change in Tariff Subheading (CTSH)

In calculation of Value Addition, 2 different values agreed to (35% or 45%) depending on method of calculation (based on whether profit is excluded or included)

Product Specific Rules negotiated for 807 products

Requirement of ‘melt and pour’ for iron & steel products included in the Product Specific Rules for these products.

Strict Operational Customs Procedures

A specific clause included to ensure only items made in Australia count for value addition, no other country products

A Bilateral Safeguard Mechanism will be available for 14 years in case of surge in imports

A special clause on Review has been agreed upon to enable either country to request a Review for parts of the Agreement which may be a cause of concern, after 15 years

Review compulsory if requested (it shall happen)

Must be completed in 6 months

End to Double Taxation

 

The Agreement has removed the discrepancies with regard to use of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement for taxation of Indian firm royalties, fees and charges.

 

Australia has no domestic provision for charging tax on royalties, fees and charges by firms sending these to parent companies. A provision in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) was used to tax this remittance. However, as an outcome of Ind - Aus ECTA, Australia has made changes in its tax laws, removing this discrepancy. This will eliminate Double taxation from 1st April 2023. As a result, the IT sector can earn higher profits and become competitive.

 

This is what the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has had to say on this: 'The Agreement will also eliminate Double taxation on IT services which were making us less competitive and making us less profitable in IT sector, the double taxation has now been removed by amending the law, from 1st April, double taxation for IT sector will be over, we will save millions and millions of dollars right now, and over a billion dollars going forward, maybe 5 - 7 years going forward, giving us competitive edge and also creating a lot many jobs.'

 

An Agreement Suiting the Specific Requirements of Indian Economy

 

Great care has been taken in negotiating the agreement to suit the peculiarities of the Indian economy. Here are some of its beneficial features:

 

India has not provided access and kept out milk and other dairy products, wheat, sugar, iron ore, apple and walnuts from its offers to Australia. This is normally impossible as these are the major exports of Australia.

Australia hopes for gains for its products such as Coal and Wines plus a few quotas in agriculture / horticulture products (almonds, cotton, lentil, pears, oranges, etc.) which are already being imported.

Australia has offered Zero duty access to 100% of its lines & trade whereas India has so far offered only 70% of its lines for duty free/ reduced duty access to Australia.

India can benefit hugely in the pharmaceutical sector. Through the Agreement, drugs approved in other developed jurisdictions will get quicker approval in Australia. This will enable easy penetration of the Australian medical market (India is just 3%).

Major gains are expected for India’s labour-intensive sectors such as textiles/ apparel, leather/ footwear, gems and jewellery, fish products, machinery and electrical goods. They will gain duty free access on par with Vietnam and other countries, making them competitive.

Liberal grant of work visas to students, employee/ worker visas, agriculture worker visas.

This agreement hopes to encourage other developed countries such as UK, Canada, Europe to sign similar agreements with India.

The Agreement allows India to overcome any loss it would have incurred as a result of walking out of RCEP, which was virtually an FTA with China.

Total India – Australia trade expected to cross US $ 45-50 billion by 2035

 

As a result of the aforementioned provisions, projections point to a number of long-term gains for the Indian economy.

 

The coming into force of the India Australia ECTA is expected to consolidate and help in the growth of market share of Indian products and services. New markets for Indian goods in Australia are also likely to emerge. There is an expected growth in pharmaceutical products with the easing of Australian regulatory processes. There is expected to be a vertical movement in value chains with the increasing presence of higher value products of advanced technology. Exports are expected to increase by 10 billion by 2026-27 with a creation of approximately 10 lakh jobs. The total bilateral trade is expected to cross US $ 45-50 billion by 2035. It is expected that there will be enhanced job opportunities for Indians in Australia and increased remittance and investment flows to India from Australia.

 

Governments of both India and Australia have worked together to achieve this milestone and are optimistic about its consequences not only for the trade between the two countries but also for further strengthening the bilateral relations.

 

Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese notes that the agreement will deliver new opportunities to Australian businesses. He says that, accepting the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, he is going to visit India in March with a business delegation committed to improve the trade between the two countries.

 

Responding to his Australian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi observes that the coming into force of the ECTA is a watershed moment, which will unlock the enormous potential of our trade and economic ties and boost businesses on both sides.

 

Addressing the media briefing to mark the coming into force of the #IndAusECTA, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that the ECTA has been negotiated with the speed of Brett Lee and the perfection of Sachin Tendulkar and is a labour of love between the two countries. The Minister further assured that the Indian government will continue to negotiate for a bright future for the people of the country, for innovation, education, health and technology.

 

Writing about the Agreement, Senator the HON Don Farrel, Minister of Trade and Tourism, Australian Government has said that India’s youthful population, diversified economy and growth trajectory present significant opportunities for Australian businesses, including in education, agriculture, energy, resources, tourism, healthcare, financial services, infrastructure, science and innovation and sport. Read the Minister’s article in full here.

 

All the necessary notifications required for entry into force of Ind-Aus ECTA on 29.12.2022 have been issued by Department of Revenue and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the Department of Commerce.

 

More information on procedural issues and queries regarding the India Australia ECTA can be found below:

 

Customs Notifications:

On Tariff concessions (Customs Tariff Notification)

On Rules of Origin (No. 112/2022-Customs (N.T.)

DGFT Notifications & Public Notices:

List of Agencies for Certificate of Origin (Public Notice No: 44/2015-20; Dated 22.12.2022)

Trade Notice on Electronic filing & Issuance of Preferential certificate of Origin (Trade Notice No. 23/2022-23; 22.12.2022)

TRQ allocation (Public Notice)

DGFT Helpdesk for Common Digital platform for issuance of Certificate of Origin:

Tel No.:1800-111-550

Email: coo-dgft[at]gov[dot]in.

Weblink for online CoO: coo.dgft.gov.in

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today expressed confidence that the structural reforms taken by the Government in last 8 years will help India emerge among the top three developed economies in the world. He was interacting on the occasion of 27th edition of Wharton India Economic Forum via VC. The theme of today’s event was India leading innovation in the age of uncertainty.

 

Speaking on the most impactful economic reforms that will pave the way for India’s growth story in coming years,  Shri Goyal said a lot of structural changes that have taken place in the last eight years have had a significant impact on the way the Indian economy is poised to take off. He spoke of GST as one of the important reforms and highlighted that despite the challenging global scenario recent GST collections have been very robust.  He also mentioned that India is now a more honest, transparent economy and people are now getting used to paying their taxes. He said Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is also an important reform measure that has resulted in robust banking systems in India. These banks have been able to provide the resources for industry to grow. He also mentioned reforms such as privatisation,  digitization of the economy, particularly the financial sector, decriminalisation of laws, simplification of compliances to enable ease of doing business.

 

Responding to a question of which sectors are strategic priorities for the government, Shri Goyal said that infrastructure, Semiconductor, Domestic manufacturing are some of the priority sectors. He also pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's focus is on building a robust infrastructure in India. Private sector is also contributing in this endeavour. Shri Goyal said Semiconductor is another critical sector for the Indian economy. Another important area is domestic manufacturing, and the government has introduced PLI schemes to kickstart Indian manufacturing in over 14 sectors. The Minister mentioned the Government is also encouraging the Private sector/ industry associations to determine themselves what support in what areas it needs from the Government.

 

Sharing his views on the current geopolitical environment in relation to tensions between Russia and the West, Shri Goyal reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s belief that today's era must not be an era of war. He further said India believes that dialogue and diplomacy is the only way forward to resolve the crisis and called for quickly resolving the conflict.  He also highlighted that Prime Minister Modi has had several conversations with world leaders on this issue. India played a critical role in trying to get consensus at the G 20 meeting in Bali. Minister said due to Prime Minister Modi's intervention, world economies were able to come to an outcome at G 20 and hoped that it would set the path forward to finding solutions to the Russia Ukraine war. Shri Goyal said, in India, the Government has been focussed on meeting the needs of the common man, ensuring availability of sufficient foodstocks, energy needs, adequate seeds, adequate fertilisers.

 

Speaking on India’s renewed focus in signing free trade agreements in the past five years, Shri Goyal emphasised that India today has emerged out of the shadows of the past. India has recognized that multilateral engagements often lead to economic partnerships which may not be in the best interests of all the stakeholders. He cited the example of India walking out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) bcos it was a very unfair, unbalanced agreement. He said India's interest is to enter into bilateral free trade agreements that are balanced, in the best interests of both countries. We are engaging with like minded countries particularly countries with a rules based order, transparent economic systems and entering into agreements which are a win win for both sides.

 

Speaking on lessons learnt from the covid pandemic, Shri Goyal said  upgradation and expansion of our health infrastructure is the topmost priority. He highlighted that the Government has improved the quality of hospital infrastructure, expanded ICU beds and oxygen capacity many fold, almost doubled the number of medical colleges in the country. He also mentioned that focus is on skill development training of healthcare workers. He also spoke of India’s free health care program, world’s largest, wherein 500 million people are eligible for free health care in India through a government sponsored program.

 

He said another learning has been recognizing the importance of resilient supply chains. He recalled the nation’s struggle for critical equipment like PPEs during covid pandemic despite the best efforts. He said that the Government is now focusing on strengthening India's capabilities in all these areas. He highlighted that these challenges were converted into opportunities for India's future India's growth story. Our Indian industry truly rose to the occasion, and India is now the manufacturer of personal protective equipment. He said that in the last few years, India has been focused on building enabling infrastructure, environment, to attract investors who believe in  a robust, rules based system. He said focus is on structural reforms, massive infrastructure development, digitization, and the huge talent that India is offering to the world, which is helping rewrite India's future. 

 

Speaking on challenges and opportunities for the next 25 years, Shri Goyal said one of the biggest challenges is going to be changing the mindset of the nation to recognize and value the importance of quality. He termed this as the defining factor for the future of India. He said the Government will continue to support manufacturing to create jobs for a large number of people, focusing on digitization, making India a knowledge based economy.  He mentioned that India did over 74 billion financial transactions digitally, which is more than Europe, US and China combined. He said the challenge is to get the mindset of the nation to work towards being a high quality, high technology, high service oriented, which can meet the needs of the rest of the world.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said negotiations for bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) with several countries are 'well on track' and India is also looking at some multilateral pacts that are fair and equitable for all the member countries.

 

At the 27th Wharton India Economic Forum, he also said it is essential that the agreements are balanced and in the best interest of both the countries.

 

'We are well on track in discussions with several other countries to look at bilateral trade agreements. We are looking at one or two multilateral trade agreements also where we believe we can get benefit,' Goyal said. He said India cannot make every product efficiently and that imports are important for those goods.

 

India implemented an FTA with the UAE in May 2022 and with Australia in December 2022, and is negotiating such pacts with Canada, the EU and the UK.

 

He said India is competitive in several sectors such as labour-oriented areas like textiles, leather, footwear and pharma, and for that these trade agreements would be beneficial. Due to this 'we decided that we must talk to like-minded countries particularly countries which have a rule-based trading order, which are transparent in their economic systems as India is and enter into arrangements which are win-win for both the sides and which are fair, equitable and balanced'.

 

On the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India decided not to join in 2019, Goyal said it was a very unfair and unbalanced agreement, and one of the member countries in the RCEP group has a 'very opaque' trading system.

 

He said that going forward, it is important to focus on quality products and services, and that infrastructure, semiconductor and domestic manufacturing are some of the priority sectors for the government.

 

'In 2022, India did 74 billion financial transactions digitally. It is more than Europe, the US and China combined. India is working towards becoming a high quality, high technology and a service-oriented economy, well equipped to meet the needs of the rest of the world,' Goyal said.

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that agriculture is the country's fastest growing sector and there will be no constraint of central funding for its development. Referring to the northeast, he said the Centre and the northeast states governments are working together to develop the agriculture sector given its potential for organic farming.

 

'Agriculture is the fastest growing sector in the country and the Center is making continuous efforts to make farming profitable. There will be no constraint of central funding for development of agriculture sector,' the union minister said inaugurating the newly constructed administrative and academic buildings of Pasighat Agriculture College in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.

 

The Centre has endeavoured to establish a link between research and farming and provide scientific advice to farmers at the ground level. The setting up of the institute as visualised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give an impetus to the development of agricultural education and research in Arunachal Pradesh along with other northeastern states, he said.

 

'Giving importance to agriculture in bringing about development and security of livelihood in the northeast, farming activities are being strengthened through agricultural education and research,' Tomar said.

 

The minister said the Centre is working to ensure that the country's agricultural sector remains strong to be able to meet all challenges to make sure that there are sufficient food reserves at all times, an official communique said on Friday.

 

Steady efforts are on to connect farming with modern technology and research institutions and agricultural universities have a vital role to play in that direction, Tomar added.

 

He congratulated the people of East Siang district and hoped that the students after graduating will actively contribute in empowering the country's agriculture sector. He also hoped that the new facilities provided to the college would encourage and motivate students to work harder and help in increasing their capacity by providing technological benefits.

 

Tomar also visited the two-day Kisan Mela organised in the college campus and interacted with farmers, the communique said.

 

Arunachal Agriculture Minister Tage Taki emphasised the importance of locally grown crops for enhancing farmers' income, export opportunities and encouragement for natural and organic farming for sustainable increase in production.

 

Taki also informed that all centrally sponsored welfare schemes are being implemented to enhance income and living standards of the farming community in the state, the communique added.

India, with its  price and product competitiveness and production of agri products, is aiming to reach the fourth or fifth position in agri exports by 2030, said M Angamuthu, Chairman of APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority).

 

In his special address on 'Agriculture exports – Striking a balance with domestic demand in meeting the $60 billion target' at the businessline Agri-Business and Commodities Summit in New Delhi on Friday, Angamuthu said: 'We have not only price competitiveness, we have production and the product competitiveness also.' The range and the number of products India has cannot be compared with other countries.

 

The agri export competitiveness index focuses on products range, cost-effective and price-competitive product matrix.

 

He said, India which was at 12th position four years back in agri exports, has gone up to the eighth now. With inching towards seventh position now, he said, India hopes to reach fourth or fifth position by 2030.

 

The summit is powered by Bayer with NCDEX as exchange partner and Tata Chemicals, Rallis India Ltd, APEDA, Olam Agri, NSE and SSVM Insitutions and Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka as associate partners. State Bank of India is the banking partner of the event, Casagrand the Realty Partner and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University the knowledge partner.

 

Angamuthu said India’s agri exports touched $50 billion in 2021-22. The country, which used to export to around 100 countries a few years ago, is now exporting to almost 200 countries. In the agri export basket, India is the dominant player in rice with 40 per cent share in global trade.

 

On other commodities, especially animal products, India is touching almost 50 per cent share globally. The country has a 700-plus different product range. He said there is an increasing momentum where there is a deliberate focus on improving the product range for the past seven years .

 

FPOs are sourcing points

Highlighting the role of FPOs (farmer producer organisations) in the agri exports, he said nowadays they are acting as a sourcing point for exports. The most critical factor for export is FPOs. Apart from sourcing, they are acting as aggregators, he said.

 

GI product

Stating that there is a focus to promote GI products, he said, around 150 of them have been identified for this purpose. The country has sent around 100 GI products to different countries. 'There was so much of reception where we have a good advantage for our our GI product,' he said.

 

The country has touched $1 billion in organic products export in the last one year. The country has an excellent potential in this sector, and it intends to promote natural products, vegan products, etc.

 

The Government’s schemes such as PLI and Gati Shakti Yojna are helping the export also, he said.

 

Referring to the cluster approach for horticulture product exports, he said this has helped the country to export around 15 per cent of its total grapes production. This approach is being tried for banana and mango exports also, he said.

 

Tech-driven approach

Highlighting the technology-driven approach of the Government for promoting agri exports, he said technologies such as blockchain, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence are being used in this regard. 'There is a plethora of technology driven platform wherein we can promote our agri and food products,' he said.

 

Stressing the need to promote a start-up ecosystem to boost agri exports, he said over  500 startups are working on food products. Around 100-plus start-ups have been identified in millets alone.

The India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), set up to resolve trade and investment issues between the two countries, will hold a meeting in Washington on January 11, the commerce ministry said on Sunday.

 

The TPF has five focus groups, on agriculture, investment, innovation and creativity (intellectual property rights), services, and tariff and non-tariff barriers. The meeting will be co-chaired by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and US trade representative Katherine Tai. Goyal will be on an official visit to New York and Washington DC from January 9-11, the ministry said.

 

The 12th TPF meeting was held in Delhi on November 23, 2021, after a gap of four years.

 

'Working groups were reactivated after the last ministerial,' said the ministry. “TPF is a platform for continuous engagement between two countries in the area of trade and to further the trade and investment relations between the two countries. Both countries are looking forward to the meeting and confident of making progress on the trade issues.'

 

The meeting was deferred earlier in November.

India's agri exports are growing at a healthy pace and there is a need to focus on the processed food sector as it holds huge potential to boost the country's outbound shipments, Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) said on Sunday. Keeping this in mind, the council's three-day IndusFood expo kickstarted on January 8 in Hyderabad.

 

It was inaugurated by Additional Secretary in the commerce ministry Rajesh Agrawal and Joint Secretary in the ministry Srikar K Reddy.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Agrawal said there is a need to create global brands in the food and beverages industry.

 

'Ideally, we need to create 50 brands, then we will be able to do our job well. We must think globally and build brands. We must pay serious attention on how to promote Indian cuisine abroad,' TPCI said in a statement quoting Agrawal.

 

He added that though India is doing well in the agri exports front, 'our share of processed food is less than 1 per cent in exports of processed food category. We must aspire to take up our share in the global market to 10 per cent'.

 

Mohit Singla, Founder Chairman TPCI said Indusfood has been able to bring institutional buyers from the remotest corners like French Guinea, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Reunion, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sint Maarten, Syria, Togo and Turkmenistan.

 

'This year's exclusive focus is on millets. India is globally regarded as the land of vegetarian food with a huge variety of products. So, we have also been focusing on plant-based protein,' Singla said.

 

India's food and beverages exports at present are at USD 42 billion.

 

The first ever edition of the expo in Telangana is hosting over 1,300 buyers from over 80 countries interfacing with over 600 Indian exhibitors.

 

'The three-day event is expected to negotiate aggregate business deals worth USD 1 billion. Nearly 50 plus global food retail chain brands and their representatives are taking part in the exhibition,' the council said.

 

The FSSAI has issued a draft to amend the labelling and display regulations and sought comments from the stakeholders. The draft called Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Amendment Regulations, 2022, aims at certain clarification with respect to nutritional info and unprocessed products comprising single ingredient, amongst others.

 

In the proposed regulation, the unprocessed products now have been defined as ‘raw agricultural minimally processed products such as wheat, rice, cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables and/or products that comprise a single ingredient governed under the labelling requirement'.

 

According to the FSSAI, the minimally processed foods are the ones that are slightly altered for the main purpose of preservation but which do not substantially change the nutritional content of the food. This may involve cleaning and removing inedible or unwanted parts, grinding, refrigeration, pasteurisation, fermentation, freezing, and vacuum-packaging.

 

Also, the draft proposes that per serve percentage (%) contribution to RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) and number of servings per pack may not be given for Infant Nutrition products as defined under Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Regulations, 2020.

 

Further, it lays down that the compliance to the quantity of declared nutrients on the label shall have the tolerance of ± 20 per cent of the value for that nutrient declared on the label at any point in time within declared shelf life of the product.

Pesticide-free organic food products were on display at the three-day Organic Mahotsav, which will conclude on December 8 (Sunday).

 

The organic millets and seafood products exhibition was organised by The Natural Farmers Corporation, Bhoomi Organics and ACIC-KL StartUp company at SS Convention Centre. It is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., said the organisers

 

The ACIC-KL provides marketing linkage between the farmers and various government departments, drawing global attention and thereby getting good prices for the produce, said ACIC-KL CEO Alok Govil.

 

Farmers from different parts of the state displayed their products at the 80 stalls in the exhibition. The AP Food Processing Society, Agriculture, APEDA, NFDB and other departments extended their support for the expo, said Bhoomi Organics managing director Maguluri Raghuram.

 

'Farmers of Rythu Sadhikara Samsta (RYSS) of the Agriculture Department arranged about 35 stalls in the expo. The RYSS supplies 25,000 tonnes of organic jaggery to Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams annually for preparing prasadams,' informed RYSS State Marketing Director B. Prabhakar.

 

Akshayakalpa Organic, who was trading organic cow milk, has showcased nutritious milk products in the exhibition, said its marketing executive Madhav.