1.   

India for cooperation with China in infrastructure areas

Aiming to return to 7-8 per cent growth rate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India and China should forge cooperation in eight critical areas like infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and agriculture to negate the effect of prolonged global economic crisis. Addressing future leaders at the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School, Singh said underlying fundamental of Indian economy, particularly investment and saving rates, are strong and can help get the nation get back to 7-8 per cent per annum economic growth rate.

2.   

Rangarajan sticks to 5.3% GDP growth estimate for this fiscal

Describing IMF and World Bank’s recent downward revision of India GDP growth forecast as "unduly pessimistic", the Prime Minister’s key policy advisor C. Rangarajan today expressed optimism over economy recording 5-5.5 per cent growth this fiscal. This is consistent with the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) recent move to peg the economic growth forecast for current fiscal at 5.3 per cent.

3.   

Taiwan eyes deeper trade ties with India

Taiwan today said it is looking at enhancing trade and investment ties with India, especially through collaboration in sectors such as IT, food processing and tourism. "We would like to collaborate with India on sectors like information technology, food processing and tourism," said Chung-Kwang Tien, Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India.

4.   

India eyes FTA with Customs Union- Putin

India is interested in signing a free trade agreement with the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan), and this issue should be considered seriously, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of the heads of states in Minsk on Thursday. The Russian leader noted the words of Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev that Turkey asked to join the Customs Union.