The Department of Fruit Science, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi, for enhancing the production potential of commercial grape varieties suitable for export.

 

As per the MoU signed on Monday, APEDA will provide a grant-in-aid of ?97 lakh to establish research and development activities. Vice-CHancellor V. Geethalakshmi said the MoU would pave the way for the university and APEDA to work together in areas of mutual interest.

 

The MoU documents were exchanged between R. TamizhVendan, Registrar, TNAU, and Shobana Kumar, Assistant General Manager, APEDA, Chennai, in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor, and R. Ravindra, General Manager, APEDA, Bengaluru.

India has proposed an institutional mechanism at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to keep a check on actions taken on decisions in favour of developing countries and ensure that the development issues are not lost sight of.

 

In a submission, New Delhi said that the WTO's key committee responsible for work on development and issues relating to the trade of developing countries, is unable to deliver on its mandate.

 

As per the submission, a lack of institutional mechanism, within the WTO, as regards the continuous review by the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) of participation of developing country members is impeding it from acting as a focal point for development, as envisaged.

 

'As a result, CTD is not able to deliver on its overarching mandate of focal point on development,' India said.

 

It proposed an institutional mechanism for sharing of information by other WTO bodies on development related work to CTD, and co-ordination between the CTD and other committees.

 

Besides continuously reviewing participation of developing members in multilateral trading system, the CTD should highlight challenges, measures and initiatives and report regularly to the General Council in a structured manner on the development function for appropriate action.

 

India also told the WTO General Council last month that such a move would make sure there is a proper repository of development discussions in the WTO at a single place and CTD acts as a catalyst for ensuring discussion.

 

However, it clarified that such a mechanism will not usurp upon the powers of any of the bodies of WTO but only consult and coordinate, ensure that the discussions on the issues would continue to happen in relevant bodies and be the custodian of some of the information which can work as institutional memory.

India and Russia are discussing a free trade agreement (FTA), Russian deputy Prime Minister Denis Valentinovich Manturov said on Monday. The move is seen further boosting bilateral trade ties after New Delhi’s sharp increase in crude imports from Moscow since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

 

Russia’s share in India’s crude oil import basket rose to a record 28% in January compared with a mere 0.2% before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

 

As a result, India’s imports from Russia more than quadrupled to around $46 billion in FY23.

 

'We pay special attention to the issues of mutual access of production to the markets of our countries,' Manturov, who is also Russia’s trade minister, said at an event in New Delhi. 'Together with the Eurasian Economic Commission, we are looking forward to intensifying negotiations on a free trade agreement with India.'

 

Foreign minister S Jaishankar said the Covid pandemic had disrupted discussions on an FTA between India and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, and that he hoped 'our colleagues will pick up on this because we do believe it will make a real difference to our trade relationship'.

 

Jaishankar said payments, logistics and certification are some of the key areas, and it is possible to find solutions to them.

 

In his address at the India-Russia Business Dialogue, Jaishankar said, 'We are discussing the importance of connectivity and the north-south and maritime corridors have been considered. There is also discussion on payment issues like international trade settlement in Indian rupee.'

 

Manturov also said Russia would consider widening the use of 'national currencies and currencies of friendly countries'. India has been keen on increasing the use of rupee for trade with Russia.

 

Manturov said road construction material and equipment and chemicals and pharmaceutical products were in demand in Russia, and 'I am sure that this will create opportunities for Indian companies to increase their supplies to Russia'.

 

Trade ties between India and Russia are on an upswing notwithstanding the increasing disquiet from Western powers over the Ukraine war.

 

By importing fuel, India chose to protect it’s citizens from hardening global commodity prices.

 

New Delhi is also currently engaged in FTA discussions with the UK and the European Union, among others.

 

Russia’s efforts to improve trade with India form part of its strategy to help evade the impact of Western sanctions by boosting commerce with Asian giants, including China.

 

On February 25, the two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank heads of the G20 countries concluded in Bengaluru without producing a joint communique, given the irreconcilable differences between the G7 segment of the grouping and Russia-China on how to describe the one-year-old Ukraine conflict. The G7 insisted on unequivocal condemnation of Russia for invasion of its neighbour, while Russia, with support from China, wouldn’t budge and demanded that it be called 'a special military operation'. As the chair, India had sought a consensus and suggested the word 'war' could be dropped.

The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi, is hosting a Turkish Food Festival at Seasonal Tastes, their all-day dining restaurant, with renowned expat Chef Mehmet Altindag, who will be bringing together a delightful spread of authentic delicacies from his homeland; till April 23, 2023. Altindag has an experience of over three decades, working across Europe, and possesses an extensive and in-depth knowledge and expertise of Turkish cuisine.

 

Be it the spice markets of Istanbul, the country’s rich traditional heritage or the appetising cuisine, the festival is sure to transport you to the land of the Turks in all its magnificence. The food festival will include a delectable buffet spread, with a specially curated menu comprising of Turkish delicacies such as Babaganoush mezze, Pepper Borane Mezze and Tzselaniki mezze, paired with ChilliEzme, Sarai Cheze, Crete Dip, Hummus  and Beetroot Dip, amongst others.

 

The buffet will also see an assortment of Kebabs and Casseroles, including the Adana Lamb Kebab, Pistachio Lamb Kebab, Tavuk Chicken Sis and the Mushroom and Sheese Casserole amongst others. To add a sweet touch to your meal, the menu also includes Chef Altindag’s signature dessert, Fig Muhallebi, a Turkish pudding made with rice and milk with a fresh fig infusion. The event was inaugurated by Firat Sunel, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the Republic of Turkiye.

 

On this occasion, cluster general manager Rahul Puri said, 'It was a pleasure to have hosted H.E. Firat Sunel for the inaugural ceremony of the Turkish Food Festival that commences today at Seasonal tastes, The Westin Gurgaon New Delhi; in collaboration with Turkish Airlines. Helmed by our renowned expat Chef Mehmet Altindag, the festival is sure to transport you to the land of the Turks in all its magnificence.'

India’s rice exports have crossed a record $11 billion in 2022-23, an increase of 16% from FY22. The volume of shipment, however, remained around the same level as last year at 21 million tonne (MT).

 

Officials attribute the spike in rice exports to factors such as robust global demand, especially from West Asian countries, Africa and Europe, and flood that hit a large chunk of paddy crop in Pakistan, a major grain exporter.

 

In FY22, India, which has an around 45% share in global rice trade, exported more than 21 MT of rice valued at $9.6 billion.

 

The increased realisation in rice exports has been achieved despite India last year banning broken rice shipment and the imposition of exports tax of 20% on white rice.

 

According to preliminary estimates, India has shipped $11.14 billion of rice, which includes basmati ($5 billion) and non-basmati ($6.14 billion) during FY23.

 

In terms of volume, the country has exported 4.9 MT of aromatic and long grain basmati and 16.1 MT of non-basmati rice.

 

India annually exports 4.5-5 MT of basmati rice and has an 80% share in the global trade of aromatic rice.

 

'Demand for rice has been robust because of resumption of shipment to Iran and spike in demand in Gulf countries especially from Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE and others for the ongoing Ramadan months,' K Kaul, senior executive director, All India Rice Exporters’ Association, told FE.

 

India has been the world’s largest exporter of rice since 2012. Currently, India exports more rice than the combined shipments of the next three largest exporters – Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan.

 

The United States department of agriculture (USDA), in its April 2023 crop outlook, has stated, 'India’s prices are the most competitive among global suppliers and its total supply of rice is near-record high.' It has also stated that India’s price quotes for 5% broken-kernel rice were reported at $434 this month and are virtually unchanged since late January.

 

'Competitive pricing have ensured a surge in rice exports in the last fiscal and adherence to quality parameters has resulted in a significant demand for Indian rice with the grain being shipped to more than 75 countries,' M Angamuthu, chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development Authority, said.

 

In September, India had imposed a ban on broken rice exports and put a 20% export tariff on the non-basmati and non-parboiled rice, a measure aimed at improving domestic supplies due to the expectation of a decline in production in the 2022-23 crop season (July-June).

 

However, the fear of loss of production was allayed with the agriculture ministry estimating a record rice output of 130.83 MT in the 2022-23 crop year.

 

In terms of volume, Bangladesh, China, Benin, Nepal and Iran are five major export destinations for rice. Geographical Indication (GI) tagged basmati rice is a premium variety cultivated in the Himalayan foothills, mostly in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

The commerce ministry on Monday laid out a procedure for applying for amnesty scheme for one-time settlement of default in export obligation by certain exporters. The directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT), under the ministry, directed the regional authorities to process any such applications within three working days.

 

'Application for AA (advance authorisation)/EPCG (export promotion for capital goods) discharge/closure shall be filled online by logging onto the DGFT website and navigating to services,' the DGFT said in a policy circular.

 

The government announced the new foreign trade policy (FTP) on March 31. It included an amnesty scheme for exporters for one-time settlement of default in export obligation by the holders of advance and EPCG (export promotion for capital goods) authorisations.

 

Under the scheme, all pending cases of the default in meeting export obligation (EO) of certain authorisations can be regularised by the authorisation holder on payment of all customs duties that were exempted in proportion to unfulfilled EO and interest at the rate of 100 per cent of such duties exempted.

 

In another trade notice, the DGFT notified new HSN codes for technical textiles items.

 

In trade parlance, every product is categorised under an HSN code (Harmonised System of Nomenclature). It helps in systematic classification of goods across the globe.

 

It said that despite having specific codes for technical textiles, it has been noted that imports/exports have not been booked under correct HS codes and the trade seems to be still being booked under other available codes.

 

'Accordingly, the matter has been reviewed in consultation with the textiles ministry and it is reiterated that all importers/exporters should file their bill of entry/shipping bill with specific HSN codes available for man-made fibre and technical textiles under...and to avoid using any other codes,' it said.

 

A list of 32 codes has been notified to facilitate the industry for easy recognition and helping them to book their import and exports under correct product category.

 

It asked the industry to suggest more codes, if they require.

India is going to have solid economic growth, but it will not be nearly as solid as if global conditions were like in the early 2000s, said World Bank chief economist and senior vice president for development economics, Indermit Gill. In an interview to ET's Deepshikha Sikarwar, Gill, who is the second Indian chief economist at World Bank, said isolated bank failures won’t be a danger to India, but if it's a generalised banking crisis, then that could lead to a global recession and a noticeable slowdown in India. Gill, who spearheaded the influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography and is known for introducing the concept of the 'middle-income trap,' said there's less work, there's less investment and there's less trade and cautioned that if you have less of those three things there's no other outcome than slower economic growth, unless governments do something about it soon. Edited excerpts:

 

The world economy, as per the World Bank, is staring at a ‘lost decade.’ Can policy interventions help recoup some ground when new challenges are cropping up?

The last time the world had a lost decade--or at least large parts of the world lost a decade of development--was in the 1980s. Three, four things that happened then are like what's happening now. One of them was oil price hikes. Then we started to get interest rate hikes in the US; they were faster and greater than what we've seen now. This left a trail of developing countries bankrupt because the cost of borrowing went up. That's what we worry about today since we are starting to see the same sort of things. Growth is slow and we have high inflation. As a result, monetary policy must become progressively tighter. While the interest rate hikes are not as big this time around, we don't have fiscal policy instruments because many countries, especially the advanced economies, spent a lot during the pandemic.

 

What about India…

Fortunately for India, we are going to have solid economic growth. But it will not be nearly as solid as we might have expected if global conditions were more like what they were in the early 2000s. Countries like India did better fiscally (during the pandemic). Many emerging market economies like India didn't spend a whole lot though there were pressures on the finance minister to spend more. I think she did well to not overspend. As a result, we now have a stable fiscal situation.

 

The developed world banking crisis looks contained for now, but can further rise in interest rates cause another turbulence and will there be a spillover impact on the emerging world?

The answer is yes and yes. These things are hard to forecast. For example, if you go back to the time of the global financial crisis, we had bank failures interspersed by periods of optimism. Bear Stearns failed, then things looked contained for nearly 12 months, and then Lehman happened. Sometimes it takes a while for something that might seem to be an isolated banking crisis to turn into something more generalized. I don't think we can rule that out. If that happens, I don't believe there will be serious financial contagion to countries like India. But there will be economic contagion; in the sense that slower growth in the world will affect every economy—even well-managed ones. While this is unlikely, you can't rule out the likelihood of a global recession. Global recession, by the way, is if global GDP growth falls below 1 percent. The world economy is skirting pretty close to that edge. And if you have something like that, then it's going to be very hard for India to not be affected. If you have isolated bank failures, I don't think that's a danger to India. But if it's a generalised banking crisis, then that could lead to a global recession and a noticeable slowdown in India.

 

Inflation has emerged as a key challenge over the past few months. OPEC’s decision to cut output has made it tougher. How do you see the situation?

I think there is a tendency to over interpret each of these events. When China opened, there was this sudden euphoria. You started to see some things improving again, and started to see optimism. Then you had these bank failures and suddenly, pessimism returned. Then we thought that these financial risks are contained, and expectations started to moderate again. Most recently, we have this news about OPEC plus cutting production and the world starts to go into a funk. I think people are overinterpreting this too, perhaps because they were building in lower commodity prices into their forecasts and suddenly, they went up. I don't think we should pay too much attention to each of these events. It would be better to see what's happening behind these economic gyrations. So, what's happening to GDP growth in advanced economies? What is happening to potential growth in emerging markets? And, when you do this, it's not an encouraging picture.

 

Look at growth in the big emerging economies. There is a rebound for China, which will go from about 3% growth last year, which was one of its lowest growth performances in a few decades, to something more normal in a rebound; closer to 5%. But China’s growth is masking a general decline in emerging market growth rates, which will decline if you exclude China. So, one must look beyond these sorts of one-off events. This is what worries us a lot more. At the World Bank, we have just finished a detailed report on potential growth across the world—in advanced economies, in middle-income countries, and in low-income countries. It’s called 'Falling Long-Term Growth Prospects'—nothing subtle about the title, and it should get everyone worried. Whichever way you look at it, you find potential growth rates are going down compared to the first decade of this millennium. There's less work, there's less investment and there's less trade. And if you have less of those three things, there's no other outcome than slower economic growth, unless governments do something about it soon.

 

Are we done with interest rate increases?

Essentially, tighter monetary policy is trying to make real interest rates positive. If you examine real interest rates, you find three different trends. The first is that in the case of countries like India, real interest rates were positive even before these hikes and they've gone up over the last year. In the case of the US, real interest rates were negative before these hikes, and now they are positive but still low. In the case of the Euro area, they were negative before and they are still negative. So, we should expect to see higher interest rates in Europe, more so than in the US. Countries like India and Indonesia and others were quicker to respond to inflationary pressures compared to the Fed and the European Central Bank. They are not playing catch-up now. What they are doing is that they are responding to the pressures that are coming their way; because the US Fed is playing catch up and the European Central Bank is playing catch up.

 

You spoke about potential growth. What can the world do to lift it amid multifarious challenges at this juncture including geopolitics and climate change?

I'll start with the things that could make it worse. Financial crises make matters worse, and the effects of a financial crisis last for the next 5 years. It is obvious that the first thing you must do is avoid a financial crisis. Central banks must walk this narrow path between trying to keep inflation down and being careful you don't risk a financial crisis on the other side. The second one is supply disruptions, like war. If the war spreads or if it becomes worse, all these bets are off. We must prioritise a quick end to the war in Europe. The third thing is pandemics and lockdowns. Those are shocks that one has to manage and manage them right as compared to the last time. I don't think we managed things well the last time; developing countries copycatted richer countries, without the public finances and private markets advanced economies had.

 

I don't think there's a quick fix to this, but there are fixes that actually can work over 2-4 years. The first is that in the parts of the world where you still have a lot of poverty, sub-Saharan Africa, or where you have serious employment problems, like the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, you also have pools of human capital that are not being utilised. In general, female labour force participation in these places is low and somewhat stagnant. We have been much better at educating girls than encouraging women to participate more fully in the economy. But it does not have to be this way. We publish an annual report called 'Women, Business and the Law' and it details what can be done in countries like Turkey, India and Jordan. The recent experience in Saudi Arabia shows that you can improve these conditions quickly. Of course, you also need a robust economy, but some of these countries—most notably India, already have a robust economy.

 

The second one is that we must increase investment. Over the last three years, the investment climate has deteriorated because policymakers have stopped prioritising things like pro-business reforms. A lot of countries slowed down on that because they were doing other things, for very understandable reasons. But now one must get back to making conditions for business better and ask how we can most quickly prioritise private investment. An important part of the greater investment is predictability in fiscal policy, predictability in monetary policy, and so on. But there is more. We are working on a new report that measures the 'business readiness' of 180 countries: we call it the Business Ready Report, or B-Ready.

 

The third thing is to recognize that China is not going to be growing at 10% a year as it did in the early 2000s. It is going to be growing at less than half of that. It will be difficult for any other economy—even one as large and dynamic like India’s—to emulate that performance. But if we do a few things right, the global economy can recreate China in the aggregate. A big part of that is going to be India, but India is not going to be all of it. But imagine if India gets an extra one percentage point; Indonesia, which is doing well, gets another; Bangladesh gets it, Vietnam gets it, and Brazil and Mexico get it. A worldwide change in growth rates to bring you back the same potential growth rates that we had 10-15 years back. For that, you need one more thing: international trade. If we don't revive international trade, then you will not get this. Governments in the developing world should be giving the World Trade Organization a lot of support. So again, what every country needs is more work and more investment; but what will make it happen across the world is more trade.

 

You said India could be one of the countries that could provide that kind of growth. Can the existing policy framework support it? Also, one is hearing of ‘nearshoring’, ‘friend-shoring’ and emphasis on shifting supply chains. Can this really infuse efficiency and help global growth?

We don't really worry about India these days. India doesn't figure much in the international press. That's a wonderful thing because generally when a country figures prominently in the international press, it's usually not for a good thing. India is growing already at 6% and the questions are about how it can get to 8% or something near.

 

On your point about trade fragmentation, friend shoring, nearshoring etc., we must think about it in more simple terms, like China plus one. It's not so much a political problem as it is a diversification problem, because the world doesn’t want to put all its eggs in the China basket. It's not as if China won't participate in these value chains. Policy makers just want some redundancy built in, to the extent that things that have happened over the last few years don't happen again. In many things China plus one, equals India. You do find that there are lots of things that India could be taking advantage of, and India is taking advantage of. I’m so impressed by what Apple India has been doing, for example. You could question the pace of these changes in other parts of the Indian economy, you could say that we could be doing a lot more. We should be attracting a heck of a lot more rather than just iPhones and a few other things. But here one must sort of look not just at union government policies, but also state government policies. At this stage what I would really like to see in India is some states starting to do big and bold things about issues on the concurrent list -- labour reforms, land reforms. Many of the things that India needs to do now are not on the Union list and not entirely on the state list, they are on the concurrent list.

 

There is a big push from the government for capex in India. But private sector investment is yet to catch up. What do you think is holding it?

That's not just an India thing, that's everywhere. I think we have expectations of the private sector that are too high. We want the private sector to be working on problems that are of public interest rather than private profit. I don't think India is doing badly on this score. Those are the kinds of discussions that we have here in Washington all the time: how we can get much more private-sector participation in matters of public interest. You have options like public-private partnerships, loan syndication and green bonds. The evidence on all this is not particularly encouraging in other parts of the world, and India might actually be doing better than most. I would keep expectations modest, even in the case of India.

 

In terms of its trade engagement, how do you see the shift in India’s approach? Focus has now turned to trade agreements with large economic entities like the US and EU.

There is a very good report coming out soon from our India team called the Country Economic Memorandum and that answers questions like the one that you are asking. The general answer I would give is that India has been a little too passive about globalization. We think that the rules of globalization should be made somewhere else. But India is no longer a small economy. India has the G20 Presidency right now but, even if it didn't, India is an influential country. India has credibility in both camps, the ones that we are talking about, the ones that might threaten globalisation. I think that India should be much more active in setting the rules of globalization.

 

There are apprehensions that the US may slip into recession later this year. Is that a cost that must be paid for inflation or is it time to really pause monetary measures?

The last time that we ran our numbers we did not think that the US would go into recession. We thought that the US would narrowly avoid a recession. If it does not, that is what is called a 'hard landing,' in which you must start to shrink economic activity to cut inflation rates. But that has dangers of its own. Once you start to shrink economic activity, you increase the likelihood of businesses failing, which means that the banks that have loaned money to these businesses then will also get into trouble. We do not like to think about such scenarios just yet, because there are too many other problems already.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the Plenary Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee at the IMF Headquarters on Friday. She stated that the Indian economy is expected to grow at a rate of 7% in 2022-23, and emphasized that the country's strong economic performance is a result of a favorable domestic policy environment and the government's focus on structural reforms.

 

'Both the IMF and World Bank project India to be the fastest-growing major economy in 2023. The Indian economy will stay on course and is projected to grow at seven per cent in 2022-23, as per the Economic Survey 2022-23,' she said.

 

In a series of tweets from the Finance Ministry, Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted during her intervention that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of digitalization, particularly Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), in driving the global economy. She also pointed out that India's DPI has greatly improved access and facilitated the growth of a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.

 

Referring to the global sovereign debt roundtable, the finance minister said it has demonstrated a constructive way forward with multi-stakeholder cooperation for other vulnerable countries, and India is pleased to be a part of the team that provided solutions for Sri Lanka and Surinam.

 

Sitharaman reiterated the commitment to exploring solutions through stakeholder engagements to pressing global challenges, which disproportionately harm the poorest and most vulnerable.

 

She further urged all the G20 members to continue to support multilateral efforts and emphasised engagement in positive dialogue to fight the challenge of global fragmentation.

Senior Officers from the Department of Consumer Affairs visited 10 various locations across four States to interact and observe stock disclosure status of Tur and Urad during past days.

 

In this regard, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Shri Rohit Kumar Singh took an internal meeting with these officers who visited major pulses markets and interacted with various market players. During the last week, apart from holding a meeting with All India Dal Mills Association at Indore by the Secretary, Government of India, on 15th April, 2023, the Department deputed 12 senior officers to visit various places in the States of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to take stock of ground reality.

 

The interactions with ground level market players and State officials revealed that while the number of registration and stock disclosure on the e-portal is increasing, substantial number of market players have either not registered or failed to update their stock positions on regular basis. It has been observed that stocks under transaction, like, farmer’s stocks lying in mandi for auction, stocks awaiting customs clearance at ports etc. escaped the current monitoring mechanism. Further, it has also been observed that millers and traders/dealers have resorted to holding their stocks in warehouses in the name of farmers in a deliberate attempt to escape stock declaration.

 

Senior officers of the Department visited various locations, namely,Indore, Chennai, Salem, Mumbai, Akola, Latur, Sholapur, Kalaburagi, Jabalpur and Katni and interacted with officers of the State Governments, millers, traders, importers and port authorities and conducted meeting with associations of millers, importers and traders. The market players were sensitized on the importance of stock declaration and have been asked to declare their stocks truthfully and regularly or else stringent action such as seizure and confiscation of undeclared stocks may be done by the State Government. 

 

The office bearers of Importers association informed that Traders from other States like Telengana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka are also importing Tur Dal from Chennai Port and requested clarification about their reporting in the State of Importers or in the State of receiving the import to ensure no duplication of data.It was clarified that the stocks should be reported in the State where it is physically available/stocked.

 

The Department has already directed State Governments and District Administrations to intensify the enforcement of stock declaration by conducting stock verification and take strict action on undisclosed stocks under relevant sections of the EC Act, 1955 and the Prevention of Black marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980. States have also been asked to look into the data pertaining to FSSAI licences, APMC registration, GST registration, warehouses and custom bonded warehouses and encourage these entities also to report their declarations of stock in order to widen the coverage of market players.

 

To improve the stock disclosure data, the Department is making certain changes in the e-portal https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp/ such as, incorporating text boxes for providing warehouse in which stock is held, provision for dealer/commission agent/mandi trader to upload stock data of farmer lying in his shop yard for auctioning etc. Further, the Department has been in touch with Customs to take necessary action on importers who have deliberately delayed clearance of their consignments.

 

The Department affirms its intention to sustain the efforts on monitoring the stocks of Tur and Urad. In this regard, subsequent follow up visits are being planned in addition to the weekly review meetings taken by the Committee for Stock Monitoring under the chairmanship of Mrs. Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs.

 

Russia's Gazprombank has expanded its links with banks in India to expedite trade between the two countries in national currencies, a key executive told Reuters on Monday, as Russia this year has become the biggest supplier of oil to India.

 

Trade between India and Russia has surged since the West imposed sanctions against Russia for its invasion last year of Ukraine, which has altered flows of oil and other goods.

 

'We worked hard to establish our level of partnership with Indian banks and our representatives here worked hard,' Elena Borisenko, deputy chairman of the board of management of Gazprombank, told Reuters on the sidelines of an India-Russia business dialogue event in New Delhi on Monday.

 

'Now we have infrastructure, we have payments from banks ... it is much better than it was three months ago,' she added.

 

Gazprombank is Russia's third-largest lender by assets and a key conduit of the Russian energy trade.

 

Due to higher purchases of oil, the trade balance is tilted increasingly in favour of Russia. That balance could be improved through Russian companies investing in infrastructure projects in India, Borisenko said.

 

'We are hoping that it (trade) will be better, it will be improving, and ... payments between Russia and Indian will be more and more in national currencies,' the executive said.

 

India last year implemented a broader framework to facilitate overseas trade in rupees and since then many foreign banks, including Gazprombank and other Russian institutions, have opened vostro accounts with Indian banks.