Tag: India

NATIONAL mean a person owing allegiance to and entitled to the protection of a sovereign state. CITIZEN is preferred for one owing allegiance to a state in which sovereign power is retained by the people and sharing in the political rights of those people.  the rights of a free citizen SUBJECT implies allegiance to a personal sovereign such as a monarch.  the king’s subjects NATIONAL designates one who may claim the protection of a state and applies especially to one living or traveling outside that state.

By 2027, India could assemble 1 in 2 Iphone according to a report.

India is projected to assemble up to 50 per cent of Apple’s iPhones by 2027, which will be a significant increase from the current rate of less than five per cent. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, it will bring India’s level of production in line with that of mainland China.

India could produce one in two of the world’s iPhones by 2027 as compared to the current percentage which stands at less than 5 percent, as per a latest  forecast by Luke Lin.

Here Luke Lin is an analyst at the research unit of Taiwan’s DigiTimes newspaper, in the South China Morning Post.

It appears that this  forecast is more aggressive than JPMorgan’s earlier prediction that India would assemble 25 percent of total Apple iPhones worldwide by 2025.

India's top 1 percent richest own 40 percent of total wealth.

The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on 16th january.

Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here, rights group Oxfam International said that taxing India’s ten-richest at 5 per cent can fetch entire money to bring children back to school.

On gender inequality, the report said that female workers earned only 63 paise for every 1 rupee a male worker earned. For Scheduled Castes and rural workers, the difference is even starker—the former earned 55 per cent of what the advantaged social groups earned, and the latter earned only half of the urban earnings between 2018 and 2019.

India's 75th Army day.

India celebrates Army Day on January 15 every year to commemorate the achievements of the first Indian Commander in Chief of the Indian Army — General (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa.

On this day, Cariappa, who led Indian forces to victory in the 1947 war, took over the command of the Indian Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of Independent India. The Army Day is celebrated every year to honour Cariappa and the defence forces.

As part of an initiative to take major events to other parts of the country, away from the national capital region, the 75th Army Day will be held in Bengaluru this year.

The rationale behind the move is to bring about increased visibility of these events and secure greater engagement with the local population.

Gold hits all time high.

Indian gold futures hit a record high on Friday, tracking gains in overseas market, but the price rise dampened demand in the world’s second biggest consumer of the precious metal, dealers said.

Local gold futures rose to 56,245 rupees ($691.45) per 10 grams, surpassing the previous record of 56,191 rupees hit in August 2020.

Fears of recession and rising interest rates led to a fall in stock prices in the developed world. At the same time, the fall of cryptocurrencies prompted investors to move toward safe haven. That spurred the demand for gold.

India wins the 2nd ODI and series against Sri Lanka

In the ongoing series India again displayed a noteworthy performance. The 2nd match of the ODI series was being played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

After winning the toss, the Sri Lankan team choose to bat first. In the first innings, they posted a total of 215. In their inning, Nuwanidu Fernando scored the highest run of 50. From the Indian side, Kuldeep Yadav took 3 wickets.

In the second innings, India started on a strong note but lost Rohit Sharma and Shuman Gill in quick succession. After the fall of both the openers, India was at 41. Then came Virat Kohli, who lost his wicket at a score of 4 and India was at 62 at that moment. Then Shreyas Iyer tried to steady the ship with K L Rahul. Shreyas fell at a personal score of 28 when India was at 86. Then a partnership was built by K L Rahul and Hardik Pandya. They both took India to a respectable score of 161, which kept India in the hunt for the win. Then Hardik Pandya fell for a personal score of 36. After that Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also came in to take India home. Axar Patel continued his good form and scored 21 at a run-a-ball pace, which also had a six and a four. Kuldeep on the other hand scored 10 runs in 10 balls and made sure that India made it home with 219 on board in 43.2 overs and 4 wickets in hand. Along with this win, India secured another ODI series victory over their home turf. They are now head of Sri Lanka with a 2-0 lead.

https://unsplash.com/photos/bY4cqxp7vos

In the second innings, Sri Lanka also performed well in the beginning. They were able to remove both openers in quick succession. Then, Viral Kohli also rapidly returned to the pavilion. But after that, K L Rahul and Hardik Pandya built a partnership that made sure that India won the match and also the series. In the bowling department, Chamika Karunaratne along with Lahiru Kumara took 2 wickets each. Also, Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was the most economical bowler and gave away just 28 runs in his quota of 10 overs.

With this series win Indian cricket team put their foot forward on a positive note in the new year.  This win will also help them in some way in their preparation towards the ODI World Cup, which will be played this year in India itself. It was an important series as Sri Lanka is the current champions of Asia after they won the Asia Cup in 2022. This series will also give them the confidence to face the next series. The next series for the Indian team will be against New Zealand, which is currently playing against Pakistan.NZ is also currently the winner of the ODI series against Pakistan with a lead of 2-1.

In the upcoming series against NZ, India will be playing 3 ODIs and 3 T20s. New Zealand will be touring India for this series, they will also have a chance to flex their muscle. In the last World Cup in 2019, New Zealand was unlucky to lose against England in the final.    

Benguluru tops among all Indian cities for startup funding in 2022.

Bengaluru topped the startup funding chart in India with $10.8 billion in 2022, followed by Mumbai at $3.9 billion, and Gurugram at a distant $2.6 billion.

Startups based in Delhi and Chennai registered $1.2 billion each in funding, followed by Pune at $1 billion, according to data provided by Tracxn, a leading global market intelligence platform.

In 2021, Bengaluru-based startups had raised $20.8 billion in funding and Mumbai-based startups had pocketed $5.2 billion in the same year, showing the impact of the deepening funding winter last year.

There were 22 unicorns in 2022, compared to 46 in 2021, and average funding before the unicorn round was around $160 million.

It is now taking an average of 5.1 years from Series A funding to the Unicorn round for the Indian startups.

India emerge among the top three economies in the world

 Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today expressed confidence that the structural reforms taken by the Government in last 8 years will help India emerge among the top three developed economies in the world. He was interacting on the occasion of 27th edition of Wharton India Economic Forum via VC. The theme of today’s event was India leading innovation in the age of uncertainty.

Speaking on the most impactful economic reforms that will pave the way for India’s growth story in coming years,  Shri Goyal said a lot of structural changes that have taken place in the last eight years have had a significant impact on the way the Indian economy is poised to take off. He spoke of GST as one of the important reforms and highlighted that despite the challenging global scenario recent GST collections have been very robust.  He also mentioned that India is now a more honest, transparent economy and people are now getting used to paying their taxes. He said Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is also an important reform measure that has resulted in robust banking systems in India. These banks have been able to provide the resources for industry to grow. He also mentioned reforms such as privatisation,  digitization of the economy, particularly the financial sector, decriminalisation of laws, simplification of compliances to enable ease of doing business.

Responding to a question of which sectors are strategic priorities for the government, Shri Goyal said that infrastructure, Semiconductor, Domestic manufacturing are some of the priority sectors. He also pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus is on building a robust infrastructure in India. Private sector is also contributing in this endeavour. Shri Goyal said Semiconductor is another critical sector for the Indian economy. Another important area is domestic manufacturing, and the government has introduced PLI schemes to kickstart Indian manufacturing in over 14 sectors. The Minister mentioned the Government is also encouraging the Private sector/ industry associations to determine themselves what support in what areas it needs from the Government.

Sharing his views on the current geopolitical environment in relation to tensions between Russia and the West, Shri Goyal reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s belief that today’s era must not be an era of war. He further said India believes that dialogue and diplomacy is the only way forward to resolve the crisis and called for quickly resolving the conflict.  He also highlighted that Prime Minister Modi has had several conversations with world leaders on this issue. India played a critical role in trying to get consensus at the G 20 meeting in Bali. Minister said due to Prime Minister Modi’s intervention, world economies were able to come to an outcome at G 20 and hoped that it would set the path forward to finding solutions to the Russia Ukraine war. Shri Goyal said, in India, the Government has been focussed on meeting the needs of the common man, ensuring availability of sufficient foodstocks, energy needs, adequate seeds, adequate fertilisers.

Speaking on India’s renewed focus in signing free trade agreements in the past five years, Shri Goyal emphasised that India today has emerged out of the shadows of the past. India has recognized that multilateral engagements often lead to economic partnerships which may not be in the best interests of all the stakeholders. He cited the example of India walking out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) bcos it was a very unfair, unbalanced agreement. He said India’s interest is to enter into bilateral free trade agreements that are balanced, in the best interests of both countries. We are engaging with like minded countries particularly countries with a rules based order, transparent economic systems and entering into agreements which are a win win for both sides.

Speaking on lessons learnt from the covid pandemic, Shri Goyal said  upgradation and expansion of our health infrastructure is the topmost priority. He highlighted that the Government has improved the quality of hospital infrastructure, expanded ICU beds and oxygen capacity many fold, almost doubled the number of medical colleges in the country. He also mentioned that focus is on skill development training of healthcare workers. He also spoke of India’s free health care program, world’s largest, wherein 500 million people are eligible for free health care in India through a government sponsored program.

He said another learning has been recognizing the importance of resilient supply chains. He recalled the nation’s struggle for critical equipment like PPEs during covid pandemic despite the best efforts. He said that the Government is now focusing on strengthening India’s capabilities in all these areas. He highlighted that these challenges were converted into opportunities for India’s future India’s growth story. Our Indian industry truly rose to the occasion, and India is now the manufacturer of personal protective equipment. He said that in the last few years, India has been focused on building enabling infrastructure, environment, to attract investors who believe in  a robust, rules based system. He said focus is on structural reforms, massive infrastructure development, digitization, and the huge talent that India is offering to the world, which is helping rewrite India’s future. 

Speaking on challenges and opportunities for the next 25 years, Shri Goyal said one of the biggest challenges is going to be changing the mindset of the nation to recognize and value the importance of quality. He termed this as the defining factor for the future of India. He said the Government will continue to support manufacturing to create jobs for a large number of people, focusing on digitization, making India a knowledge based economy.  He mentioned that India did over 74 billion financial transactions digitally, which is more than Europe, US and China combined. He said the challenge is to get the mindset of the nation to work towards being a high quality, high technology, high service oriented, which can meet the needs of the rest of the world.

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Indian rupees was worst performing asian currencies in 2022.

The Indian rupee ended 2022 as the worst-performing Asian currency with a fall of 10.14%, its biggest annual decline since 2013, as the dollar rocketed on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary policy stance to tame inflation.

The rupee finished the year at 82.72 to the U.S. currency, down from 74.33 at the end of 2021, while the dollar index was headed for its biggest yearly gain since 2015.

A rise in oil prices brought on by the crisis between Russia and Ukraine also hurt the rupee and resulted in India’s current account deficit reaching an absolute record high in the third quarter of that year.

Market participants anticipate that the rupee will trade with an appreciation bias in 2023.finding comfort in declining commodity prices and holding out hope that foreign investors will continue to purchase Indian stocks.

Heading into 2023, market participants believe the rupee would trade with an appreciation bias, finding relief from easing commodity prices and hopeful of foreign investors continuing to buy Indian equities.

India's first underwater tunnel to be built in West Bengal, expected to start by december 2023.

The first underwater tunnel in India is being built as part of the East-West Metro Corridor’s project, and it will take about 45 seconds for trains to cover the 520-meter stretch. The tunnel that goes under the Hoogly river in West Bengal is being touted as the Indian version of Eurostar’s London-Paris corridor. An estimated cost of Rs 120 crores is being spent on the project.

The tunnel, which is about 2.5 kilometres long, is expected to be commissioned in 2023 following the completion of the section between Sealdah and Esplanade.

The tunnel runs through the Salt Lake Sector V IT hub metro station in the east to Howrah Maidan in the west under the river. The construction of the tunnel has already been completed, and it is expected to be operational in December 2023 following the completion of a 2.5-kilometer section between Sealdah and the Esplanade.

Health experts says the next 40 days will be crucial for India amid covid surge in China.

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There is still no clarity on what is happening in China, with experts raising alarm that the country is witnessing a steep increase in the number of COVID-19 cases due to coronavirus variant BF.7.

The Union Health Ministry has, however, said that the next 40 days will be crucial in India – with the country likely to witness a surge in January.

“In the past, whenever a NBCOVID-19 wave was reported in India, it used to hit us in 30-35 days, starting from East Asia, it used to hit Europe in 10 days, moving towards America and the Pacific region, and then finally hitting India which would normally take 30 days,” a senior health ministry official told media, requesting anonymity.

The official added that the number of deaths and hospitalisations is likely to be low this time, even if India is hit by a COVID wave by the end of January.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is likely to make mandatory, from next week, negative RT-PCR reports for passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Filling up of ‘air-suvidha’ forms and 72-hour prior RT-PCR testing could be mandatory for arrivals from these countries.

The government has made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving in each international flight from December 24. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is likely to visit the Delhi airport to take stock of testing and screening facilities there.

Amid covid concerns, chinese are turning to black market India made meds.

Residents in China have been scouring the market for generic COVID-19 drugs and India seems to be the answer to their problem. In the recent past, the Chinese authorities have approved two Covid antivirals – Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Azvudine – for the treatment. While China has ran out of the medicine, the Indian market is filled with it and is slowly becoming the next favourite destination.

In the past few months, topics like “anti-Covid Indian generic drugs sold at 1,000 yuan (US$144) per box” has been making the rounds of the Chinese social media. Platforms like Weibo and WeChat are filled with such queries and experts believe that black market deals are being conducted on them.

While the distribution of drugs which are not approved in China is not illegal, there can be penalties imposed on the illegal imports. Even the doctors in China have warned the public against buying drugs on the black market with several patients displaying massive side effects to the medicines.

Medical Experts suggests of second covid booster dose amid rising concern.

In a meeting with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, doctors of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) suggested allowing people to take another booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. If approved, this would be the second booster dose, with the first one having been approved in early 2022. The meeting was held virtually between doctors, health experts, and the Union Health Minister on 26th dec to discuss preparedness as the apprehension of another COVID-19 wave seeps through the country.

In the meeting, the doctors stressed on the fact that despite the many efforts by the health system, only a small proportion of the population got their booster dose. Dr. Sahajanand Prashad Singh, President of IMA, said that only 30 percent of the population is covered with booster doses. He urged the Health Minister to take the necessary actions to vaccinate the maximum population with booster doses.

How the climate adversities hit India in 2022.

The year 2022 saw several extreme weather events all over the world due to climate emergency. These events are expected to increase if the effects of climate change are not mitigated.

Vulnerable countries also geared up this year for a renewed battle over compensation for the growing hazards of global warming from richer countries, also known as loss and damage, at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

There is more evidence of the worsening impact of global warming on the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) that straddles eastern Pakistan, northern India, southern Nepal and the whole of Bangladesh. 

A loss and damage fund was created at the COP27, focusing on particularly vulnerable countries. But questions remain about who is eligible to receive money and who has to pay it.

Every state and Union territory (UT) reported dengue cases till November 2022. The increasing burden of dengue has often been linked with climate change, among other factors. India recorded 63,280 dengue cases as of September 30, 2022. 

The average global surface temperature January-December 2021 was the sixth highest since global records began in 1880.

Most favourite spritual destination, report by OYO.

Northern India has emerged as the most favoured spiritual travel destination followed by Southern, Western and Eastern regions in the country, reveals OYO Cultural Travel 2022 Roundup Report by global hospitality chain OYO.

Regarded as the spiritual capital of India, Varanasi, which is also one of the oldest cities in the world, emerged as the top religious destination for bookers across India. This was followed by Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Haridwar, as per the report.

In the North zone, Varanasi emerged as the most popular destination due to its favored status among Hindus and Buddhists. This was followed by Prayagraj, Amritsar, Haridwar, Katra, and Rishikesh.

The cultural cities of Vijayawada, Mysore, Tirupati, Madurai and Vellore were most favored in South India. In the West zone, Shirdi received the maximum traction from travellers followed by Mahabaleshwar, Nashik, Ujjain, and Pushkar. Goa, which has always been a popular tourist spot, was the most favoured destinations in East India, along with Puri.

'Right to repair' portal launched to handle repair related issues among consumers.

Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday introduced a host of new initiatives, including a right to repair portal and an NTH mobile app and opened new premises of the National Consumer Helpline centre in the national capital.

On the ‘right to repair’ portal, manufacturers will share the manual of product details with customers so that they can either repair by self, by third parties, rather than depend on original manufacturers. Initially, mobile phones, electronic, consumer durables, automobile and farming equipments will be covered.

Speaking on the theme “Effective disposal of cases in consumer commission” on the occasion of National Consumer Day, Mr. Goyal lauded the consumer commissions for disposing of higher number of pending cases in last six months and expressed confidence of eliminating the backlog of cases across the country.

“In a short span of six months, we have doubled disposal of pending cases. About 90,000 pending cases were disposed (between July and November this year),” he said. About 38,000 pending cases were disposed of by consumer courts in the year-earlier period.