Highlighting the potential of energy storage in India, Gupta said that the NITI Aayog is also focusing on Make in India for cells used in battery in electric vehicles along with policy for demand creation and measures to incentivize investments. He highlighted that energy efficiency is one of the priority areas which the government is focusing on.
India is the only country that holds exercises with all the P-5 countries (US, Russia, China, France and UK), apart from others like Australia, Japan, South Africa and Brazil as well as Asean countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. “With nations grappling with global terrorism, piracy and gun-running on the high seas, violence by rebel militias and other such threats, the exercises serve to enhance military interoperability, strategic cooperation and confidence-building among nations,” said a senior defence official.
The agreement will ensure that Indian warships and air force planes, among other things, will be able to enter, refuel and pick up provisions in Japanese defence bases and vice-versa. This is another example of the growing closeness between the defence establishments of both countries. India has a similar agreement– the LEMOA– with the United States. A similar one with Russia is almost ready for signing.
FDI from Japan forms up to 8% of India’s total FDI (2000 to 2017). The number of Japanese companies operating in India went up to nearly 1,370 in 2017 from a mere 550 in 2008. Japanese investments have grown from $266 million in 2005 to $4,709 million in 2017.
According to the data provided by Capitaline, this is higher than the 20.81 per cent stake held by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in these companies in the June quarter and the 20.50 per cent in the September quarter last year.
With this, till now 85 officers including 64 high-ranking tax officers, in which 12 who were from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), have been compulsorily retired so far this year.
The two-day official visit, on the invite of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will see the two leaders discuss regional security, peace and economic development.
Considering that India’s diaspora is the largest in the world, at 17.5 million (as of mid-2019), this ranking in terms of remittances is not surprising. India’s remittances were 14% of the global remittance figure of $689 billion. China was next in line, with remittances of $67.41 billion (which is 5.4% of the global remittance figure).
While the Japan pact may be signed over the next weekend during the maiden 2+2 meet before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s India visit in December for the annual summit, the Australian agreement is expected during Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s state visit mid-January. In the ‘2+2’ format, the foreign ministers and defence ministers of two countries have a joint meeting to discuss strategic issues.
India’s federal Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the government has approved forming a Defence Cyber Agency to mitigate any possible online threats. He told the Indian Parliament on Wednesday that all the three Services have established their respective Cyber Emergency Response Teams.
