External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday held a virtual meeting with Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Minister of Trade and Industry, and Co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) to push investment and trade ties.

 

The Co-chairs reviewed the progress achieved in the various Working Group and Sub-Group Meetings under the IRIGC-TEC framework since their meeting in Moscow in November 2022 and gave guidance to prepare ground for the next in person meeting of IRIGC-TEC which will be held in New Delhi at mutually convenient dates.

 

The two sides agreed to work together to unlock the full potential of India-Russia bilateral trade and economic relations including through addressing the trade deficit and market access issues, according to a MEA statement. India Russia trade last year touched a record high of 31 bn usd and is expected to grow further in 2023.

 

The Inter-governmental Commission is a mechanism for regularly monitoring bilateral progress across the sectors of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries which was set up by an Agreement on inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation signed in May 1992.

 

The first session of IRIGC was held on 13 and 14 September 1994. So far, 23 IRIGC meetings have been held. 23rd Session of IRIGC was held on 14 September 2018 in Moscow. The 24th IRIGC-TEC meeting will be hosted by India.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said skilling the youth holds the key to India becoming the third-largest economy in the world from the fifth now.

 

Virtually addressing a 'Rozgar Mela', or employment fair, organised by the Gujarat government at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar, Modi said nearly 1.5 lakh youth were given government jobs in the state during the last five years.

 

The PM emphasised on the need to create a skilled workforce on a large scale to tap growing opportunities in various sectors. 'For the new opportunities being created in the country, we need to create skilled manpower on a large scale. India can achieve the target of becoming the third-largest economy only by skilling its youth,' he said.

 

India became the world's fifth-largest economy last year. Modi said nearly 18 lakh youths received jobs through employment exchanges during the last few years in his home state of Gujarat, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 'During the last five years, the Gujarat government gave jobs to 1.5 lakh youths.

 

Moreover, nearly 18 lakh youths received jobs through employment exchanges during the last few years in Gujarat,' said the PM. At the event, attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, more than 2,500 youths were given appointment letters.

A conference of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its affiliated institutes, agricultural universities and industries was organized in New Delhi today. Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of State Shri Kailash Chaudhary participated in this. Through the conference, ICAR aims to work with organizations from industry, research and academia, that are interested in ICAR's technologies, so that while achieving mutual benefits, the tie ups can widely benefit the country including Agriculture sector in the long run. Agriculture Universities along with more than 100 institutes affiliated to ICAR have various agricultural facilities including well equipped research/development facilities, laboratories/infrastructure which can be mutually used for public good.

 

Addressing the conference, Union Minister Shri Tomar said that if feedback is received on how industries can apply the research done by ICAR, how to take it forward by complementing each other, what do the industries working at the grassroots level want, then the delivery will improve. The importance of our agricultural products has increased in the world. It is everyone's responsibility to ensure that the quality of our products is good. The shortcomings or gaps in this sector need to be filled, as well as how India can achieve excellence in the agriculture sector while facing the current international challenges, everyone from farmers to industry should work together in that direction. The importance of such discussions increases even more during the Amrit Kaal. Our thinking should be towards fulfilling the expectations of the world from India. To render India's increasing importance on the political scene of the world and to strengthen it further and to fulfill the goal that India should stand as a developed country by the year 2047 (Amrit Kaal), towards this goal it is very necessary our discussion should be comprehensive and meaningful. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi himself thinks in this direction and it is his insistence that others should also move in this direction. In the global scenario, the opinion about India is changing rapidly, which needs to be changed and established faster, for this we all need to work together and move at a faster pace.

 

Shri Tomar said that India has made a lot of progress in the agriculture sector, but there are many challenges in the field of agriculture, identifying them and working towards their solution, so that the agriculture sector should play a bigger role in strengthening the country's economy. There should be more discussion in the direction. There is a need to work in a planned manner, moving beyond traditional agriculture, as well as making full use of technology from lab to land. Scientists associated with ICAR have done a lot of remarkable research, which is useful for the country and the world today. There was a time when we wanted to learn from the world but today the world wants to learn from India in agriculture sector. There is a need to work faster in this direction so that the farmers get the benefit of good inputs and technology, production quality improves, post-harvest losses are reduced and private investment in the agriculture sector multiplies. Although the Government of India is working on all these at its own level, the results of which are evident before all of us, but we all know that the farmers, their produce, along with research & technology besides industries, if all of them come together then this will make the economy strong. We have to ensure the farmer gets a fair price for his produce, hence the contribution of Industry assumes significance.

 

MoS (Agriculture) Shri Kailash Choudhary; Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director General, ICAR; coordinator of the conference, Dr. Praveen Malik, CEO, Agrinovate India Ltd, - the commercial arm of ICAR; along with industry representatives Shri Hemendra Mathur and Shri Salil Singhal also spoke on the occasion.

India’s fresh onion exports jumped 49 per cent in volume to 1.72 million tonnes (mt) and gained 15 per cent in dollar terms at $394 million during the first nine months of the current fiscal compared with the same period a year ago on robust demand from South-East Asian countries and West Asia.

 

The Agricultural and Processed Food Exports Development Authority (APEDA), which has taken several steps including the creation of an Onion Export Promotion Forum, is confident that the shipments for the financial year 2022-23 will exceed last year’s levels on higher supplies and rising demand from key buyers such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia among other countries.

 

'As per the trade feedback at present, the demand for Indian onions is increasing in the international market and we expect the shipments to exceed last year’s levels,' said APEDA Chairman, M Angamuthu. India exported onions worth $460 million in 2021-22 and major destinations were Bangladesh, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Qatar, Vietnam, Oman, Kuwait, Singapore, Saudi Arab, Bahrain, Maldives and Mauritius.

 

Special initiatives

India, which accounts for about a fourth of the global onion output, is the third largest exporter after Netherlands and Mexico. In a bid to give further impetus to onion shipments, APEDA has taken up initiatives such as regular interaction with the trade for addressing the issues in supply chain, sensitisation of trade towards compliance of standards prescribed by the importing countries and regular follow-up with concerned stakeholders including government agencies, Indian missions abroad, exporters, R&D institutions among others, Angamuthu said.

 

Ajit Shah, President, Horticulture Produce Exporters Association, said while the exports are good, the growth in overseas demand is not in sync with the rise in our production. 'Due to the impact of the ban on exports imposed by India in 2019-20, countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Bangladesh among others, which are key buyers of onions, have started growing their own product, affecting the demand. Moreover, countries like the Philippines tend to favour Chinese onions and are not importing from us,' Shah said.

 

Further, Shah said though the exports may grow in volume terms, in value terms the shipments are likely to hover around last year’s levels as prices have come down this year.

This is despite a delayed start to the export season and negative factors such as a duty increase by one of the major buyers, Bangladesh, and slower shipments to Russia due to the war situation, according to exporters.

 

'Demand from Europe is strong. We expect this year's exports to exceed those of 2019,' said Vilas Shinde, Chairman and Managing Director of Sahyadri Farmers Producer Company Ltd (Sahyadri Farms), a major fresh grape exporter.

 

India's grape exports reached an all-time high of $335 million in 2018-19, but have since fallen due to factors such as a Covid-related lockdown, soaring freight rates caused by global logistics challenges, and a drop in output due to inclement weather. Despite the fact that the export season was delayed by a fortnight this year and began in the third week of January due to the impact of unfavourable weather, shipments have picked up and gained pace.

 

Europe accounts for over one lakh tonnes of the nearly 2.4 lakh tonnes of fresh grapes exported from India, followed by Bangladesh at around 60,000 tonnes. The remainder is accounted for by other geographies such as West Asia and Russia.

 

According to the most recent APEDA data, India shipped out grapes worth $69.65 million during the April-November period of the current fiscal year, a 23% increase over the same period last year. Because grapes are a short-season fruit, the majority of fresh grape shipments occur between January and March. India is currently the world's 11th largest grape exporter, with shipments increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% over the last decade.

 

'This year will be good for grape exports. We will do very well,' said APEDA Chairman M Angamuthu. 'Because of our strong traceability system, upgraded with blockchain technology, we have managed to tap the high-value European market, which has given a boost to grape exports. 'APEDA is attempting to enter new markets while also improving product diversification and value addition,' Angamuthu added.

 

India's grape exports in 2021-22 were $305.7 million, a 2.6% decrease from the previous year's $314 million. During 2021-22, the top ten grape export destinations were the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Grape production is expected to be 3.47 million tonnes in 2021-22, up from 3.358 million tonnes in 2020-21, according to the third advance estimate.

Close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi christening millets as ‘Sri Anna’ (divine foodgrain), the Uttar Pradesh government is looking to more than double the cultivated area of indigenous foodgrains.

 

The state is targetting to increase the millets acreage from about 1.1 million hectares to over 2.5 million hectares. UP is among the top millet producing states in India with its basket comprising jowar, bajra, kodo, ragi, kottu and sanwa.

 

At the same time, the state will launch exclusive millet outlets and engage women rural entrepreneurs and self-help groups (SHG) in its value chain.

 

According to the agriculture department, the current cultivated area of jowar and bajra in UP stands at more than 170,000 hectares and 900,000 hectares, respectively.

 

'Apart from increasing the acreage of millets, the state is also taking steps to augment the institutional procurement of ‘Sri Anna’ to encourage farmers to adopt its cultivation,' a senior official said.

 

Millets offer a spectrum of low-risk crops, which are resilient to climate change. As such, the state has decided to promote the cultivation of such nutritious cereals in the rain-fed areas.

 

Meanwhile, the government has drafted a multi-pronged strategy to promote consumption of millets and popularise cuisine based on such cereals. UP Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra issued a circular in this regard to the departments concerned, including tourism, food & civil supplies, rural development, etc.

 

While the state is planning to introduce millets in the mid-day meal scheme, the tourism department will organise cooking competitions for hotels and restaurants focussing on the cereal. Foodchains, hotels and restaurants have been advised to prominently display millet-based menus.

 

Under the one district one product (ODOP) template, bajra cultivation will be promoted in Agra and Kanpur divisions, while Mirzapur and Sonbhadra divisions will be entrusted with boosting kodo and sanwa.

India, the world's second largest sugar producing nation after Brazil, can export an additional 1 million tonnes of the sweetener if the domestic output reaches an estimated 33.6 million tonnes this year, a senior food ministry official said on Monday. The government will take a call next month on allowing more quantities of sugar exports, after assessing domestic production, he said.

 

Sugar availability is comfortable in the country and as a result wholesale and retail prices of the sweetener are on a decline in the last one month.

 

The food ministry has allowed 6 million tonnes of sugar exports for the current 2022-23 marketing year (October-September).

 

India exported a record 11 million tonnes of sugar in the previous year.

 

'More exports are possible and we have a cushion for exports of additional one million tonnes, suppose the overall production reaches the estimated 33.6 million tonnes this year,' the official said.

 

Sugar production has already reached 24.7 million tonnes till February of the ongoing 2022-23 marketing year, while mills have despatched 4.3 million tonnes for exports so far this year, he said.

 

The crushing operation will come to an end by the next month and the government will review exports after assessing the final production figures, he added.

 

According to the food ministry, the country's sugar production has been estimated lower at 33.6 million tonnes for the 2022-23 marketing year, due to fall in production in the top three producing states.

 

Sugar production in Maharashtra, the country's leading sugar producing state, is estimated to be lower at 12 million tonnes in the 2022-23 marketing year, as against 13.7 million tonnes in the previous year.

 

Production in Uttar Pradesh is also likely to decline marginally to 10 million tonnes, as against 10.2 million tonnes, while that of in Karnataka it is estimated to drop to 5.5 million tonnes, as against 6.2 million tonnes during the comparable period, as per the official data.

 

About 5 million tonnes of sugar will be diverted for ethanol production this year, much higher than 3.6 million tonnes in the previous year.

 

Despite an estimate of lower sugar production, the official said India's total availability of sugar would be 40.1 million tonnes in 2022-23, which includes a carry-over stock of 7 million tonnes.

 

Initially, carry-over stock was projected to be 6.1 million tonnes but it has risen to 7 million tonnes after actual verification of stock by state governments, he added.

 

The official asserted that there is no supply concern and both wholesale and retail prices are on a decline in the last one month.

 

Wholesale price of sugar was ruling at Rs 3,841 per quintal on March 3, as against Rs 3,860 per quintal a month ago. Retail price of sugar too was down marginally at Rs 41.61 per kg, as against 41.8 per kg during the comparable period, the official added.

 

On cane arrears, the official said the current year has been one of best years as mills have cleared maximum dues.

 

Out of Rs 1,18,271 crore dues payable during 2021-22 marketing year, the pending arrear is only Rs 432 crore.

 

Similarly in the ongoing 2022-23 marketing year, mills have a clear 77 per cent of Rs 69,381 crore dues payable to the growers so far. Pending dues is about Rs 15,842 crore which will be paid soon, the official added.

India and Iceland Monday reviewed the status of ties, including trade and investments and the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) negotiations.

 

India and Iceland held their third Foreign Office Consultations with the Indian side led by Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, and the Iceland side led by Martin Eyjlfsson, Permanent Secretary of State in Iceland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

During the talks, both sides comprehensively reviewed the status of relations in all fields, including political, trade and investments, India-EFTA-TEPA negotiations, fisheries, geothermal cooperation, capacity building, cultural relations and people-to-people contacts, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

 

Detailed discussions were held on the future direction of cooperation, including in the multilateral fora, particularly the UN, it said.

 

EFTA is limited to four countries - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

 

The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) negotiations started in October 2008. Several rounds of negotiations have been held so far.

 

The consultation on Monday provided an opportunity to exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, including developments in the neighbourhoods of India and Iceland, the EU, the Ukraine conflict, the Arctic and gender issues, according to the statement

India, the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, is considering raising its import duty on palm oil to help support local farmers reeling from a crash in domestic rapeseed prices, government and industry officials said on Monday.

 

The increase in the tax on palm oil could lift local prices, making the tropical oil a little less competitive than rival soyoil and sunflower oil.

 

'We have proposed an increase in import duty on palm oil to support rapeseed prices,' said a government official, who declined to be named in line with official rules.

 

'Rapeseed supplies from the new season are putting pressure on prices, which have fallen below MSP (minimum support price),' said the source referring to the government-set rate which acts like a benchmark for the domestic market.

 

If commodity prices fall below MSPs, the government usually tries to help prop up rates to protect farmers.

 

In spot markets, rapeseed prices were around 5,000 Indian rupees ($61.21) per 100 kg, below the government-fixed price of 5,450 rupees per 100 kg.

 

Indian farmers plant rapeseed, the main winter-sown oilseed, in October and November, with harvests from March. Higher prices encouraged farmers to expand the area under rapeseed.

 

After abolishing the basic import tax on crude palm oil (CPO) last year, India continues with a 5.5% tax on CPO shipments. The country also levies a 12.5% import tax on refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil.

 

'Since world prices have dropped, India is looking at raising the duty,' the source said. 'Overall food inflation might be a concern for the government, but vegetable oil prices have dropped.'

 

Lower rapeseed prices have hurt farmers from India's western state of Rajasthan, and the government would like to protect growers ahead of the state election, trade and industry officials said.

 

Rajasthan accounts for more than half of the rapeseed production.

 

'There is a proposal to raise the duty, and an inter-ministerial panel is looking into it,' said the second source, who also didn't want to be named citing official rules.

US Secretary of Commerce HE Ms Gina Raimondo will be visiting New Delhi, India between 7-10 March on the invitation of Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles.

 

During the visit, India - USA Commercial Dialogue and CEO Forum will be held on 10th March 2023 to discuss cooperation in various sectors that could unlock new trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.

 

The Commercial Dialogue is a cooperative undertaking encompassing regular government-to-government meetings to be held in conjunction with private sector meetings, with an aim to facilitate trade, and maximize investment opportunities across a broad range of economic sectors.

 

The last India-USA Commercial Dialogue was held in February 2019. Since then, due to pandemic and other factors it could not be held. It is proposed to re-launch the Commercial Dialogue with strategic outlook with focus on supply chain resiliency & diversification and new emerging areas, after a gap of three years.

 

Earlier, India-US CEO Forum was soft-launched by Indian Commerce & Industry Minister and US Secretary of Commerce on 9th November 2022 via video-conference for which identified key priorities were increasing supply chain resilience, enhancing energy security & reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, advancing inclusive digital trade; and facilitating post-pandemic economic recovery, especially for small businesses.

 

Trade, Commerce and Economy had always enjoyed a place of prominence in the India-US multifaceted strategic bilateral relations. Today, the two countries are leading trading partners of each other. India is the ninth largest trading partner for the US, while the US is India’s largest trading partner and the largest export destination. The bilateral trade in goods saw very robust growth during CY 2022, surpassing $131 billion in goods, thus doubling since 2014 (in 8 years) while total trade in Goods and Services is expected to cross US$ 180 billion. US is also the third biggest source of FDI for India, and USA is one of the top five investment destinations for India. This visit will immensely contribute towards furthering trade and commercial ties between the two countries.