1.   

India signs 8 pacts, to consider trade agreement

India on Monday signed eight pacts with China and even agreed to consider a bilateral Regional Trade Arrangement, as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang promised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Beijing would take measures to address New Delhi’s concerns over widening trade imbalance. Singh conveyed to Li New Delhi’s concerns over India’s trade deficit with China as it grew steadily from $ 20.02 in 2010 to $ 28.93 in 2012. He sought “increased market access” for India’s exports and investments in China.

2.   

FM suggests tweak in cereal procurement policy

Private sector procurement is being crowded out by the government's minimum support price policy, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said. Due to the manner in which the minimum support price (MSP) and the procurement policy were set, the government was the largest and, in many ways, the only bulk buyer of cereals, Chidambaram said during his inaugural speech at the Annual Day function of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) yesterday.

3.   

BRICS: Changing the paradigm of international relations

India, a motive force behind the founding of BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - has shown the world the importance of the development of democracy. By focusing on cooperation rather than competition, these five emerging world powers have shown that they are capable of changing the paradigm of international relations and promoting the democracy of development. The advent of the 21st century ushered in significant changes in the global dispensation.

4.   

‘Trade is at the core of the U.S.–India partnership’

With economic ties between the U.S. and India at an all-time high, the trade between the two countries is expected to cross the $100-billion mark soon, U.S. Consul-General, Chennai, Jennifer McIntyre has said. She was delivering the keynote address during a business seminar on ‘Doing Business with USA’, jointly hosted by the United States Commercial Services and the Karnataka chapter of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), here on Tuesday.