Search Result for : Amitabh Kant

The Dollar Business Bureau NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday it is highly important for India to ratify free trade agreement (FTA) with Europe at the earliest as nations such as Vietnam and Bangladesh already have preferential access to EU markets.  “Countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam are having preferential access in European Markets and hence it is extremely important that we get the FTA with Europe ratified at the earliest,” Kant said while speaking at an event organised by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). The Government think tank’s CEO further said there is immense opportunity for India in the apparel sector as China has started moving out of the sector. “Today, the wages in China are 2-3 times that of India and ...

Anishaa Kumar On the eve of the inauguration of the eighth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), set to be inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and First Daughter and Special Advisor to President of the United States, Ivanka Trump, newly appointed US Ambassador to India, Kenneth L Juster highlighted the importance of encouraging entrepreneurs and the US and India ties. The GES will be Juster’s first major event since his confirmation as US Ambassador to India. Speaking to the media a day before the three-day (November 28-30) event to be held in Hyderabad, Juster said, “This is the most dynamic region of the world and the India and US are major democracies playing an important role in the ...

The Dollar Business Bureau NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday that the infrastructure sector in India has suffered on account of under-investment for a long time. Kant pitched for channelling pension and insurance funds to finance infrastructure projects and also to completely re-examine the scheme of Viability Gap Funding (VGF). “We need to build up environment to tap pension and insurance funds for investments in infrastructure projects. VGF scheme needs a complete re-examination,” he said at CRISIL India Infrastructure Conclave in New Delhi. Launched in 2004, VGF scheme meant to support infrastructure projects that come under the public-private-partnerships (PPPs). VGF means a one-time or deferred grant to support the projects that are economically viable but are not financially ...

The Dollar Business Bureau  NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant said on Thursday that the strong push by the Government towards e-mobility is targeted towards making India an export hub for electric vehicles. “The vehicle penetration in the country is the lowest among the developing countries. At present, India has 20 cars per 1,000 people whereas the US has 800 cars,” Kant said while addressing the 57th Annual Convention of SIAM in New Delhi. “Other countries will have the problem to make the switch to electric but India has the advantage to become the leader because of its low penetration levels. We must make India the export hub for electric vehicles,” he said. He also said that the country may be slow ...

The Dollar Business Bureau India needs to accelerate its economic growth, and in order to materialise it, the country must lift vast number of people out of poverty, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday. "We are growing at over 7 per cent. We need to accelerate growth...The real challenge is that you cannot accelerate growth rate if vast number of people are living below poverty line," he said when speaking at the Tata Trusts, Tech 4 Transformation conference. Laying importance on the power of innovation and harnessing the power of technology, he said, ‘India has become integral part of the global supply chain and to maintain the rapid acceleration of growth, we must focus on social sectors like education and healthcare.’ He ...

The Dollar Business Bureau  Ports can act as a catalyst for India to achieve a consistent growth rate of 10% per cent, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said. Addressing a workshop organised by the Ministry of Shipping under the Sagarmala programme on ‘Accelerating Sagarmala Implementation, Engaging with States’, Kant said that the Sagarmala programme is a game-changer.  "Ports can act as the catalyst of growth and help in achieving 10 per cent consistent growth rate for the country, hence making Sagarmala programme the game-changer for the country’s development," Kant said.  The main objective of the workshop was to enhance the engagement among the shipping ministry, other line ministries and various maritime states of India, an official statement said.  Citing examples, he said success stories emerged ...

The Dollar Business Bureau  Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has been selected for the US-India Business Council’s (USIBC) ‘Transformative Chief Minister Award’ for his role in strengthening the partnership between India and the US at the state level. The award would be presented to the Chief Minister on May 8, 2017 during the Annual West Coast Summit of USIBC in the Menlo Park, California, according to a statement. The summit will see an assembly of 150 industry leaders from across sectors including information technology (IT), manufacturing, healthcare, food processing, clean energy, banking, digital payments and officials from the Government of India for exploring the effects of manufacturing in India, the country’s move towards digitisation and cashless society and the future of ...

PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the need for a consolidated approach and adherence to strict timelines with regard to completion of infrastructure projects as he reviewed progress of sectors like roads, railways, airports and digital. At the meeting, a presentation was made by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant in which it was stated that a "remarkable progress" has been made in several areas and infrastructure sectors. The meeting was told that the highest ever average daily construction rate of 130 kms has been achieved for rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). This has led to an addition of 47,400 kms of PMGSY roads in 2016-17 and 11,641 additional habitations have been connected with roads in the same period, according to ...