Cuba and India held bilateral political consultations this Monday in Havana where both delegations discussed ways to strengthen the partnership between both countries.

 

Saurabh Kumar, the secretary (east) of the Union ministry of external affairs led the Indian delegation while Anayansi Camejo, the vice minister of foreign affairs led the Cuban delegation.

 

The delegations discussed issues of common interest in bilateral relations. Discussions were also held on regional and international issues between both delegations.

 

The delegations highlighted the positive state of relations between the two nations.

 

During the discussion the signing of a Credit Line Agreement worth 100 million euros for procurement of rice from India for Cuba took place along with an expression of common interest expanding economic relations between both nations.

 

Both countries approved the desire to further deepen bilateral collaboration across sectors like health, biotechnology, renewable energy sources, agriculture, telecommunications, sports and education, according to a release by the Union ministry of external affairs.

 

'Both sides comprehensively reviewed the entire gamut of their bilateral relations, including development partnership projects, trade and economic relations, and cooperation in areas such as renewable energy, health including traditional medicine and yoga, biotechnology, agriculture, sports, health, science and technology and ICT,' the MEA said.

 

The delegations emphasized on India and Cuba’s desire for multilateralism and on cooperation and support in international forums for each other.

 

Cuban vice minister Camejo expressed her gratitude towards India for making a historic move by rejecting the US government’s economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

 

She also reiterated the invitation extended to Union external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar to visit Cuba by the Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

 

The Indian delegation was welcomed by deputy prime minister Ricardo Cabrisas and acting minister of foreign affairs Gerardo Peñalver.

 

This was the second edition of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between India and Cuba. Both delegations said the talks were held in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

 

The Cuban government also released a postal stamp to commemorate 75 years of India’s Independence.

 

India supported Cuba against US supported resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and also consistently voted in favor of Cuban sponsored resolutions in the UN General Assembly calling for lifting of the US-sponsored blockade.

 

Cuba also has supported India’s demands of democratizing UN and expansion of the UN Security Council.

The Centre has almost finalised model by-laws for primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) to make them economically viable by diversifying from their core business, when 2.37 lakh such societies are created in next two years, which could impact the business of each of current 63,000 such units. However, the success of such a scheme will depend on States’ adoption since cooperative is a State subject.

 

'The draft ‘model PACS by-laws’ will be ready in a month, and we will seek comments from the States. The model by-laws will be advisory in nature,' said a top Cooperation Ministry official on Wednesday. Asked if such model laws will see the same fate as that of model APMC Act, he said APMC is a different matter, whereas PACS will see benefits in adopting the bylaws.

 

In 2017, the Centre had drafted and shared with States the ‘The State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act 2017, and among the major States, only Gujarat has adopted it so far. Though Uttarakhand had adopted it earlier, after the farm laws (now repealed), the States had abolished the APMC law. Karnataka has modified its APMC law by incorporating some provisions from model law.

 

The Centre has already announced to create 3 lakh PACS, and is hopeful to achieve the target in next two years.  PACS account for 41 per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of the KCC loans given by all entities in the country, and 95 per cent of these is kisan credit card (KCC) loan (2.95 crore farmers) through PACS are availed by only small and marginal farmers.

 

With such increase in their number, PACS may also see reduced business and sensing that probability the Centre has created the bylaws that will allow these societies to offer 20-odd services — Bank Mitras and common service centres (CSCs), cold storage, warehouse, fair price shop (under PDS), dairy, fishery, irrigation and biogas among others. Unless there is economic viability, why people will show interest to set up new society, he asked.

 

When asked current laws in most States do not allow a new PACS to come up in the same locality if there is already an existing one, even though it is defunct or non-operational, the official said the proposed bylaws will take care of this aspect and once a PACS is declared defunct and liquidation process starts, another PACS can be allowed to set up.

 

While Nabard provides refinance facilities to cooperative banks channelised through State Cooperative Banks and District Cooperative Banks, PACS are at the bottom of the three-tier short-term cooperative credit structure in the country comprising 13 crore members.

 

At present, majority of PACS have not computerised their operation and still functioning manually resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit.

 

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA), on Wednesday, approved ?2,516 crore for computerisation of all PACS aimed at promoting financial inclusion. Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, in a statement, hailed the government’s decision to computerise PACS, and said that it would improve their efficiencies and also enable them to become a nodal centre for providing other services like crop insurance.

 

State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) have already been automated by Nabard and brought on Common Banking Software (CBS). However, majority of PACS have not been computerized and are still functioning manually. In some of the states, stand-alone and partial computerization of PACS has been done. There is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the DCCBs and StCBs. The Centre aims to bring all PACS on a common platform at National level and have a Common Accounting System (CAS) for their day to day business.

 

'In this digital age, the decision of computerisation of PACS will increase their transparency, reliability and efficiency and will also facilitate the accounting of multi purpose PACS,' Shah said.

 

Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has said his government aims at doubling farmer income through value addition and boosting exports.

 

'Our products are going abroad. Farmers will be benefitted. We are looking at increasing the exports and unless there is an increase in products, the financial perspective is there to consider,' the CM said, while inaugurating the second Horticulture Integrated Pack House in the northeastern region at Agartala Tuesday.

 

Tripura earlier exported its queen pineapples, lemons and jackfruits to West Asia, Germany, Europe, and south-east Asian countries like Bangladesh apart from different states in India.

 

The pack house, which is expected to boost the exports, involves technological inputs to wash, treat, dry, sort, grade, pack horticulture products and seal them in cartons before shifting them to a loading area.

 

Nagicherra Horticulture Research Complex in-charge Dr Rajib Ghosh said that the processing and packaging of citrus fruits, jackfruits and pineapples were earlier done in traditional methods manually. With the introduction of the mechanised processing and packing chain, things would be faster and more efficient, he said.

 

The integrated pack house launched at Agartala was set up at a cost of Rs 2.73 crore, against the budget requirement of Rs 5 crore or above, since an existing infrastructure was repurposed and upgraded to cut costs.

 

The installation was set up under RKVY funds of the Government of India. It can handle 10 MT products in a single shift and runs for 12 hours in a shift.

 

Union Minister of state for agriculture Kailash Chaudhury said the pack house is a part of the central government’s continued efforts to boost agriculture and horticulture.

 

'The central government is putting extra efforts on North-East India. This region has a lot of potential in agriculture sector. People used to import horticulture products earlier. Now they are exporting elsewhere. There are organic products coming out of here. I’ve been visiting farmers. This pack house will bring integral change in their lives. It will make the farmers Atmanirbhar,' the union minister.

 

Earlier in February, Tripura announced to start work-in-mission mode over the next five years to promote the growth of pineapples and jackfruits for facilitating their export to foreign countries after their 'augmented' growth figures were still behind the expected numbers.

 

However, the pineapples are not yet grown in sufficient quantities so as to popularise them in foreign destinations, owing to which the ambitious mission-mode project was decided to boost production figures.

 

Among the different initiatives to boost pineapple growth, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) centre of Tripura designed a high-density weed resistant, climate-resilient pineapple cultivation technology to intensify pineapple cultivation in the state in July, 2021.

 

Tripura grows an estimated 1.28 lakh MT pineapples every year in over 8,800 hectare orchards across districts. Some of these orchards are run by the government, but most of them are owned by private parties. Over 4,000 pineapple growers are directly connected to the cultivation of the fruit in the state.

 

Traders on the ground say the business isn’t really great as a single piece of the fruit costs Rs 38-39 from wholesale dealers, who can sell it at Rs 59 at best. Calculating the damage, rot and other factors, the profits do not stay very high, Ashim Deb, a pineapple trader at Jogendranagar area of Agartala city, said.

India’s wheat export ban has come under fire once again at the WTO in the first agriculture meet following the recently concluded Ministerial Conference in Geneva with seven members, including the US, the EU, the UK, Japan and Canada, alleging that the ban had further rattled the global  food market.

 

They further said the ban may not be actually necessary going by production forecasts for 2022-23 made by institutions, including the US Department of Agriculture, according to a Geneva-based trade official.

 

Defending its decision to impose export restrictions, India said the global price hikes were mostly due to large buyers’ behaviour and  it was unfair to blame it for the same as it was not a  major wheat exporter, the official added.

 

Prices shot up

India also pointed out that wheat prices returned to their usual range one week after the measure was announced. New Delhi’s comment was in reaction to the seven countries, which also included Brazil and Paraguay, claiming that global wheat prices shot up by 6 per cent on the first day of trading on the Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures following the Indian announcement on wheat export ban on May 13 2022.

 

'The Group of Seven stated that they doubted if a ban on wheat exports was necessary because various institutions, including the USDA, are forecasting that India is likely to produce almost 100 million tonnes of wheat in 2022-23 (April-March), which was well above the average annual volume of production achieved during the five years to 2020 of 96 million tonnes (FAO numbers),' the official told BusinessLine.

 

New Delhi had banned wheat exports after unseasonal heat wave affected the crop and increased domestic prices. India’s wheat production in the 2021-22 crop season, ending June, is estimated to be around 106.41 mt, which is 3.8 mt less than the previous year’s output, per the Agriculture Ministry. It is also lower than the projected 111.32 mt for 2021-22. However, it is higher by 2.53 mt than the last five years’ average wheat production of 103.88 mt.

 

Victims of export ban

At the WTO’s Committee of Agriculture meeting, the US projected Bangladesh as one of the victims of India’s export ban as it would earlier pay less than $400 per tonne for Indian wheat and was now pushed to procure from more expensive sellers, the official said.

 

Japan reminded India of the new MC12 declaration on food security which reaffirmed the importance of keeping trade flowing while Thailand insisted that India should clarify how long it intended to continue with the ban.

 

'India said that in due course it will notify a policy which would come up with specifics and also that the condition of implementation of the existing measure had been explained in the notification issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade in May 2022,' the official said.

 

Before the heat wave affected the wheat crop, India was hoping to export a record 10 mt of wheat in 2022-23, compared to 7.86 mt the previous year.

Exports of fresh onion touched a three-year high in dollar terms during 2021-22 on higher realisations and increased demand from countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal. Shipments in dollar value grew 22 per cent to $460 million in 2021-22 from the previous year’s $378 million, while the volumes were down marginally at 15.37 lakh tonnes.

 

In rupee terms, the onion shipments were up 21 per cent at Rs.3,432 crore during 2021-22 compared to Rs.2,826 crore in the previous year.

 

Bangladesh, the largest buyer of Indian onions scaled up its purchases during the year to 6.58 lakh tonnes, up 19 per cent from the previous year’s 5.52 lakh tonnes. In value terms, the shipments to Bangladesh increased 72 per cent to $174 million over previous year’s $101 million.

 

Similarly, the exports of fresh bulbs to Sri Lanka grew 12.5 per cent to 1.62 lakh tonnes from the previous year’s 1.44 lakh tonnes. In value terms, the onion exports to Sri Lanka were up 25 per cent at $55.33 million from the previous year’s $44.19 million.

 

Shipments to Nepal, another large neighbouring buyer went up 48 per cent to 1.67 lakh tonnes during 2021-22, from the previous year’s 1.13 lakh tonnes. In value terms, the shipments to Nepal registered an increase of 69 per cent at $37.48 million from previous year’s $22.22 million.

 

Onion exports to Malaysia, the second-largest buyer of Indian bulbs fell 14 per cent in volumes to 1.70 lakh tonnes from the previous year’s 1.98 lakh tonnes. However, in value terms, the onion exports were up 6.5 per cent at $65.93 million during 2021-22 from the previous year’s 61.92 million.

 

UAE, one of the large buyers of Indian onions imported lesser quantity during 2021-22. The onion exports to UAE fell 28 per cent to 1.22 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 from the previous year’s 1.70 lakh tonnes. In value terms, the shipments declined by a tenth to $37.54 million from the previous year’s $41.91 million.

 

Higher freight costs

Trade sources said the higher freight rates during the year have also contributed to the higher export value of the onions.

 

Jital Shah, an exporter, attributed the increase in overall value of the shipment to the higher freight rates. 'The growth in rupee value terms is due to higher freight rates pushing up the CIF value and also due to the depreciation of rupee against the dollar. The freight rates were up by about three times,' Shah said.

 

Currently, the demand is okay for Indian onion as shipments are happening across Asia. The harvest has just started in China. Also, with Egypt set to harvest the new crop, Shah said adding that demand from West Asia may get affected, but traditional markets will continue to buy.

 

Commenting on the decline in shipments to UAE during last year, Shah said, 'there was a point when prices had gone up and we were not competitive. In between Pakistan was very competitive till March while India was expensive.'

The J&K government has launched new initiatives to promote the marketing and export of specific products from the union territory. Geographical Indication (GI) tagging is also one such initiative which would go a long way in marketing and exporting specific products like saffron.

 

Kashmir saffron, which is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir, has been given the GI tag by the Geographical Indications Registry. The spice is grown in some regions of Kashmir including Pulwama, Budgam, Kishtwar and Srinagar region of J&K.

 

This is a landmark development. The application was filed by the Directorate of Agriculture, Government of Jammu & Kashmir and facilitated by the Sher-e- Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology, Kashmir and Saffron Research Station, Dussu (Pampore).

 

With the GI tag for Kashmir saffron, India has become the only saffron producing country for which the indication has been assigned. India as a signatory of WTO's TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and an active member of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) has a law for protection of GI, viz 'Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. The GI tag is issued after the GI registry under the Department of Promotion, Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

 

According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as originating in a given place.

 

In India, Karnataka has the highest number of GI tags, i.e., 47 products followed by Tamil Nadu (39). At international level Germany has the largest number of GIs in force (9, 499), followed by China (7, 566), the EU (4, 914), the Republic of Moldova (3442) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (3, 147).

 

Saffron growers of Kashmir are hopeful to get better prices for their product after the introduction of GI tag. This would enable India to be an important player in the global saffron market in which Iran, the world's largest producer of saffron in the world, has the largest market share.

 

Kashmir saffron is grown at an altitude of 1600m to 1800m above mean sea level, which adds to its uniqueness in comparison to other saffron varieties.

 

The Government of India and UT of J&K are together taking steps to promote Kashmiri products with their own unique selling proposition (USP). With the vision to promote sustainable trade and create market linkages, a mega buyer -- seller meet was organised on April 21, 2022 at Jammu and Kashmir under One District One Product Initiative (ODOP) of (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry with the support of Jammu & Kashmir Trade Promotion organisation (JKTPO).

 

The ODOP initiative, which is an outcome of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (Self- Reliant India, programme aims at increasing farmer's and small scale industries' income covering about 700 products cutting across sectors like agriculture, textiles, handicrafts and manufacturing. There are many Kashmiri products which may be popularised for their USP including carpets, shawls, wood carving, phoolkari, etc. There are some specific agricultural and horticultural products including apple and saffron and sericulture products. Kashmir has the best quality Bivoltine Meberry silk in India. This silk is well- known for superior quality, soft texture, extended length and adaptability to all types of climate changes.

 

Alongside the buyer-seller meet, an e-commerce boarding session was also held by one of the leading e-commerce players in the country in order to support J&K based sellers to expand trade into web-based sales. Previously, the ODOP initiative had facilitated the sale of 6750 Kgs of apples and 2000 Kgs of walnuts from Budgam, Kashmir to Karnataka based buyers who were previously importing the same.

 

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has also begun new initiatives to popularise some of the agricultural products from the union territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh such as fragrant rice variety Mushkbudji, Acacia honey and Kashmir valley apples. Already, commercial shipments of Ladakh Halman apricots from Leh to Dubai have begun.

Indian companies are looking to bolster their operations in Russia, eyeing the opening left by the exodus of European, American and Japanese companies after the country's invasion of Ukraine.

 

From drugmakers to consumer good firms, a number of Indian companies are either bagging new projects or are gearing up to pitch for more contracts as Moscow seeks fresh partners and vendors to fill the void. Indian retailers are also in talks to open stores in Russia, President Vladimir Putin told a BRICS business forum last week.

 

New Delhi has avoided condemning Putin's grinding invasion of Ukraine as it needs Russian weapons -- one of its biggest source of arms. India, along with China, has already been snapping up cheap Russian crude that's then processed by domestic refiners including Reliance Industries Ltd, taking advantage of discounted barrels as global prices soar. Putin said oil flows to the top two Asian consumers are 'growing noticeably,' defying Western pressure to cut off trade with Moscow.

 

For Indian companies, the chance to grab a bigger slice of the Russian market is alluring despite the risk of a global backlash after corporate giants like Apple Inc., Ikea and Fast Retailing Co shuttered stores or paused sales in Russia.

 

'We'll be going very aggressively to convert those opportunities into orders,' said Rajneesh Chopra, global head of business development at VA Tech Wabag Ltd, a Chennai-based builder of water and sewage treatment plants that secured a Russian order worth 18 million euros ($19 million) in June. Chopra said its European rivals have put their Russian projects on hold, prompting clients to look for alternatives.

 

'Silver lining'

Srijit Dasgupta, the chief financial officer of Berger Paints India Ltd, said last month he saw 'significant opportunity' in Russia as multinational paint companies pull out. Russia is also a key medium-term growth area for Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, one of India's largest drugmakers, Saion Mukherjee, a Mumbai-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc, wrote in a report last week following an investor meet held by the pharmaceutical firm.

 

 

Products from Uttar Pradesh's 'One District One Product' program were used for the enviable purpose of diplomatic gifting by prime minister Narendra Modi at the recently held 48th G7 Summit in Germany with the PM gifting eight products from eight different districts marked under the ODOP programme to heads of different international governments during his visit.

 

The ODOP is an initiative of the UP government to encourage indigenous and specialised products and crafts by assisting artisans in improving quality of their products, helping them with marketing and branding with a larger aim to increase their incomes and generate higher employment.

 

'These were all ODOP products and we are indebted to Hon’ble Prime Minister for promoting these ODOP products at the international level and our Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for generating the Idea of ODOP in the state. This will encourage lakhs of artisans to innovate in their art and craft and popularise the local art for their livelihoods,' Navneet Sehgal, additional chief secretary, MSME, export promotion, khadi and village industries said. The ODOP scheme constituted about three-fourths of the state's exports that increased by 30% from April 2020 to March 2020, to Rs 1.40 lakh crore and is poised to play a dominant role in the government's efforts to double exports over the next five years.

 

Modi gifted black pottery pieces of Nizamabad in Azamgarh to prime minister of Japan Fumio Kishida and a 'Gulabi Meenakari' brooch to and cufflink set to president of the United States Joe Biden. Gulabi meenakari is a geographical indicator (GI) tagged art form of Varanasi- also prime minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency. The cufflinks were prepared for the president with a matching brooch for the First lady.

 

France's president Emmanuel Macron was gifted 'itr' (perfume) bottles with fragrances unique to India, encased in a 'Zari Zardozi' box hand crafted in Lucknow. The box was especially hand embroidered on khadi silk and satin tissue in colours of the French national flag. Further, the fragrances included 'attar mitti' - a unique perfume produced in India's perfume capital Kannauj in UP that captures the fresh odour of the arrival of the first rain showers over through a 5000-year old traditional distilling method using sandalwood oil. Other fragrances included jasmine oil giving out the perfume of freshly plucked 'bela' flower, attar shamama- a unique perfume capturing essence of a host of ancient herbs and spices , attar gulab- giving out the fragrance of rose and garam masala- a newly formulated edible natural oil combination of extracts and essential oils derived from the distinct Indian spice blend or Garam Masala.

 

UK PM Boris Johnson received a platinum handpainted tea seat from the ceramic hub of UP- Bulandshahr, the crockery outlined with platinum metal paint in honour of the Queen's platinum jubilee being celebrated this year. Moradabad, the 'brass city' of UP sent a metal Marodi carving matka or a nickel coated, hand engraved brass vessel for German chancellor Olaf Scholz. A marble top with inlay work from Agra that also houses the marble wonder Taj Mahhal was gifted by the PM to Italy's PM Mario Draghi whereas 'moonj' baskets made in Amethi, Sultanpur and Prayagraj districts of the state and cotton durries hand woven in Sitapur district were gifted to Senegal president Macky Sall.

 

Indonesia's president Joko Widodo received a lacquerware Ram Durbar made oN 'goolar' wood, with its roots in Varanasi. Goolar is a plant native to tropical Asia along with Australia. The principal characters in the artwork are Shri Ram, Goddess Sita, Lord Hanuman and Jatayu.

Honey from saharanpur district of UP will now spread sweetness across the world. Its first consignment will go to America. At the same time, Australia's order is also in the final stage.

 

The honey of saharanpur district will now spread its sweetness after the country and all over the world. After wood handicrafts and mango, honey will also be exported from the district. Its first consignment of 400 quintals will go to America. With this, Australia's order of 200 quintals of honey is in the final stage. While the export of its by-products has started. In whose first consignment ten tonnes of Bee Wax (bee wax), 30 quintals of wax sheets and 500 beekeeping cartons have been sent to Australia.

 

Under the Prime Minister's Micro Food industries Upgradation Scheme, the district has been selected for honey under one district-one product. The district occupies a prominent place in the state in bee keeping. More than five thousand people are associated with this business here. Each of these mounkeepers have hundreds to several thousand cans of bees.

 

Bees get honey from mustard, eucalyptus, litchi, mango etc. in the month of february to april in the district. Bees are transferred in May-June from Mathura, aligarh to Rajasthan, haryana and uttarakhand etc. Where bees get honey from Lahi, Sunflower, Neem, drumstick etc. According to an estimate of the Horticulture Department, eight thousand to ten thousand quintals of honey is produced annually in the district. Considering the productivity of honey in the district, Ajay saini of Gangoh, who has been doing beekeeping since 1990, has established a high quality honey processing unit. Located on the Gangoh-Nanauta road, the unit has a daily capacity of 30 tonnes of honey processing. With the export of honey, the farmers of the district are expected to get better prices for their honey.

 

The honey of the district will now be exported all over the world. Its first order of 400 quintals has been received from America. The second order of 200 quintals from australia is in the final process. While ten tonnes of Bee Wax, 30 quintals of wax sheets and 500 cans of Silence have been sent to australia in the hall itself.

 

Ajay saini, Silent Guardian & Exporter

 

Beekeeping is done on a large scale in the district. Here about five thousand mounkeepers do the business of beekeeping. The production of honey in the district is about eight to ten thousand quintals per annum. Beekeeping is providing employment to a large number of people in the district. - Arun Kumar, district Horticulture Officer

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that India wants to capture the world market in all sectors and the country would 'very soon' become a $30 trillion economy from the level of $3 trillion at present.

 

Goyal said that if India grows at 8% every year on a Compounded Annual Growth basis, the economy will double in about 9 years’ time at $6.5 trillion and in 18 years from now, it could be $13 trillion.

 

'In 27 years from now, the economy growth can be calculated as $26 trillion and hence after 30 years, it can be confidently put that India will be a $30 trillion economy,' he said at the Exporter’s Meet at Tiruppur.

 

Goyal, who is also textiles minister, said the domestic textile industry has huge potential to generate jobs in coming years and the centre is working actively with various countries to finalise free trade agreement (FTA) which will give zero-duty access to India’s textile sector in the world market.

 

A Sakthivel, President, Federation of Indian Export Organizations said that the ongoing negotiation with the UK, EU, GCC, and others will throw open new opportunities for Indian exporters and suggested including left over sectors like iron & steel and pharma in Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products scheme, solution on money struck for exports made to Sri Lanka, implementation of Rupee Payment System for export to Russia, creation of MSME Market promotion fund, and market access for emerging sectors in services.

 

Sudhir Sekhri, Vice Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council suggested for export of cotton and cotton yarn to be suitably calibrated to ensure that cotton and cotton yarn is available to the exporting units at competitive prices.

 

ONDC

At a separate event on Saturday, Goyal said that India’s economy has grown due to its trustworthiness, decisive leadership and democratic structure favouring transparency at all levels.

 

While interacting with members of Confederation of Indian Industry in association with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade on Saturday, he said reforms undertaken by the industry department are empowering Indian industries to bring about global growth.

 

Goyal said that launching the ONDC network (Open Network for Digital Commerce) has the potential to break barriers by enabling and empowering customers to engage with sellers of their choice seamlessly. As per an official release, Goyal said that the current e-commerce platforms were restrictive and favour products of the platform developers’ choice but through ONDC, MSMEs and startups can harness opportunities provided by digital advancement in connecting with their customers.

 

The ministry launched the pilot phase of the ONDC on April 29, a UPI-type protocol, in five cities to democratise the fast-growing e-commerce sector, help small retailers and reduce the dominance of e-tailing giants.

 

The minister visited a grocery store in Coimbatore, one of the pilot cities of ONDC, on Saturday to witness how it helps the small merchants. Goyal also told the industry that the government will support the of trade diversification and expansion to advanced economies like Japan for textiles and assured to resolve representations on integrating multiple accreditations necessitated for the pump industry in a few days.