News on Indian Economy
The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), which operates trains and executes projects partially in Bihar and West Bengal besides the northeastern states, will link India with Bangladesh and Nepal via rail in the next nine months.
Union Minister Shri Hardeep S Puri has said that the Government has not only implemented the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee to increase MSP to 1.5 times of the cost of production but it increased MSP in the range of 40-70% in case of all crops and expenditure of procurement at MSP increased by 85% in 2014-19 from 2009-14.
North East’s first-ever specialised “Ginger” Processing Plant at district Ri-Bhoui in Meghalaya is being revived and is likely to become functional in the beginning of 2021.
In view of the challenges faced by taxpayers in meeting the statutory and regulatory compliances due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Government brought the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (‘the Ordinance’) on 31st March, 2020 which, inter alia, extended various time limits
Government has fixed target of 10% blending of fuel grade ethanol with petrol by 2022, 15% blending by 2026 & 20% blending by 2030. With a view to support sugar sector and in the interest of sugarcane farmers, the Government has also allowed production of ethanol from B-Heavy Molasses, sugarcane juice, sugar syrup and sugar; and has been fixing the remunerative ex-mill price of ethanol derived from C-heavy molasses, B-heavy molasses and ethanol derived from sugarcane juice/ sugar/ sugar syrup for ethanol season. For ethanol supply year 2020-21, Government has now increased the ex-mill price of ethanol derived from various feed stocks.
In FY2019-20, Amazon invested over Rs. 11,400 crores (US$ 1.5 billion) across its market, payments and wholesale lines of business in India to strengthen its foothold in India.
India’s economy could prove to be the “most resilient” in the subregion of South and South-West Asia over the long term, according to a report by the UN
India’s space agency plans to build an additional fab at Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), its chip making facility in Chandigarh, in a bid to scale up capacity to meet the growing demand for chipsets for rockets and satellites as it opens up the space sector to private firms and startups.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has sanctioned Rs. 135 crores to IIT Hyderabad under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to set up a Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems (UAVs, RoVs, etc.). The Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Remotely Operated Vehicles at IIT Hyderabad, known as ‘TiHAN Foundation’ has been incorporated as a Section-8 company by the institute in June 2020.
Indian Railways has 13 Vistadome coaches that are currently operational in select routes in India, namely, Dadar and Madgaon, Araku Valley, Kashmir Valley, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Kalka Shimla Railway, Kangra Valley Railway, Matheran Hill Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway.
