NEW DELHI: Additional Finance Secretary Dinesh Sharma has been elected as the Chairperson of the Governing Council of International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
Sharma, who is India’s governor to Rome-based IFAD was unanimously elected as the chairperson of the Governing Council for a period of two years in 39th session held in Rome on February 17-18, a Finance Ministry press release said.
According to the statement, speaking on the occasion, the Italian President Sergio Mattarella said that hunger and poverty are insidious, and are at the root of conflict and instability and are the link in chain that we need to break first to deal with emergencies and humanitarian disasters.
IFAD was set-up in 1977 as the 13th Specialised Agency of the United Nations and works towards removing poverty and hunger in rural areas all over the world.
India is a founder member of IFAD and a key contributor among the member countries.
The council is managed by two main governing bodies — the Governing Council and the Executive Board. The Governing Council is the highest decision making body and consists of 176 member countries.
The Governing Council Session was marked by special focus on inclusive growth and on the investments required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in the realm of eradicating poverty and hunger.
India emphasised that economic growth must be inclusive and participatory; and should result in an enhanced access to opportunities to all.
India further added that access to formal finance at an affordable cost and in a transparent manner, would be crucial for a meaningful financial inclusion.
The Indian Delegation also apprised the gathering about the steps taken by the government to promote financial Inclusion through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
@Agency report.
New Delhi: Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and chess maestro Viswanathan Anand will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 17th edition of the ‘Mann ki baat’ programme on Sunday.
Prime Minister Modi will share his thoughts on upcoming board exams in his radio address, which would be broadcast on the entire network of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan at 11 am.
The radio address will also include tips to cope with stress and other associated issues while preparing for board exams.
The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) Class 12th board exams are being held from March 1 to April 24, while class 10th exams will begin from March 1 and end on March 28.
Prime Minister Modi has in the past shared his thoughts on a range of issues including drug addiction, farmers problems, menace of corruption, declining sex ratio, promotion of Khadi and high rate of casualties in road accidents, in the programme.
@Agency report.
A U.S. appeals court on Friday overturned a $120 million jury verdict against Samsung, finally handing the South Korean smartphone maker a significant win in its longstanding patent feud with top rival Apple.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd did not infringe Apple’s “quick links” patent, and that two other patents covering the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features were invalid. The court also said Apple was liable for infringing one of Samsung’s patents.
In a statement, a Samsung spokeswoman said: “Today’s decision is a win for consumer choice and puts competition back where it belongs – in the marketplace, not in the courtroom.”
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment.
Apple and Samsung have been battling over mobile device technology patents for years. Apple has mostly prevailed, and in December, Samsung paid Apple $548.2 million stemming from a separate patent case, which Samsung has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NEW DELHI: Presenting an optimistic picture of Indian economy, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian’s Economic Survey 2015-16 said that amidst the gloomy landscape of unusual volatility in the international economic environment, India stands as a haven of stability and an outpost of opportunity.
The survey says the country’s macro-economy is stable, founded on the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation and low inflation. The Survey underlines that India’s economic growth is amongst the highest in the world, helped by a reorientation of government spending toward needed public infrastructure. Describing these achievements as remarkable, the Survey emphasizes that the task is now to sustain them in an even more difficult global environment.
The Survey further states that the country’s performance reflects the implementation of number of meaningful reforms. There is palpable and pervasive sense that corruption at the centre has been meaningfully addressed which has been reflected in transparent auctions of public assets. FDI has been liberalized across the board and vigorous efforts have been undertaken to ease the cost of doing business. Stability and predictability has been restored in tax decisions reflected in the settlement of the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) imposed on foreign companies. Major public investment has been undertaken to strengthen the country’s infrastructure. In the farm sector, a major crop insurance programme has been instituted. The Survey has highlighted creation of bank accounts for over 200 million people under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojan (PMJDY), the world’s largest direct benefit transfer programme in case of LPG with about 151 million beneficiaries receiving Rs. 29,000 crore in their bank accounts and the infrastructure being created for extending the JAM (Jan Dhan Aadhar Mobile) agenda to other Government programmes and subsidies.
However, the Survey has expressed concern over approval of GST Bill being elusive so far, the disinvestment programme falling short of targets and the next stage of subsidy rationalization being a work-in-progress. It adds that corporate and bank balance sheets remain stressed affecting the prospects for reviving private investments. It further says that perhaps the underlying anxiety is that the Indian economy is not realizing its full potential.
The Survey states that the country’s long run potential growth rate is still around 8-10% and realizing this potential requires a push on at least three fronts. First, India has moved away from being reflexivity anti-markets and uncritically pro-state to being pro-entrepreneurship and skeptical about the state. But being pro-industry must evolve into being genuinely pro-competition. Similarly, skepticism about the state must translate into making it leaner. It emphasizes that the key to creating a more captive environment will be to address the exit problem which affects the Indian economy. Second, the Survey calls for major investments in health and education of people to exploit India’s demographic dividend to optimal extent. Third, it says that India cannot afford to neglect its agriculture.
The Survey points-out that the upcoming budget and economic policy will have to contend with an unusually challenging and weak external environment. It suggests that one tail risk scenario that India must plan for is a major currency re-adjustment in Asia in the wake of a similar adjustment in China.