India has recorded a 3 per cent increase in the area sown under Kharif crops to 904.60 lakh hectares so far this year, compared to 879.22 lakh hectares in the same period last year, according to the latest data compiled by Ministry of Agriculture.

The area under key crops including paddy, pulses, oilseeds, millets, and sugarcane has gone up this year due to better monsoon rains which have facilitated the sowing in unirrigated areas of the country.

The agriculture sector is expected to get a further boost as Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman has announced an outlay of Rs 1.52 lakh crore in Budget 2024-25 to increase production and resilience in the agriculture and allied sectors.

The measures unveiled to enhance productivity and resilience in the agriculture sector include digital public infrastructure, ‘atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds and large-scale clusters for vegetable production.

Sitharaman said that a strategy is being put in place to achieve atmanirbharta for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower. The government will strengthen their production, storage and marketing.

The Finance Minister also said that large-scale clusters for vegetable production will be developed closer to major consumption centres. The government will promote farmer-producer organisations, cooperatives and start-ups for vegetable supply chains including for collection, storage, and marketing of the products.

The Government has also announced higher Minimum Support Prices a month ago for all major crops, delivering on the promise of at least a 50 per cent margin over costs. AGENCIES

Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Saturday said that the 5th meeting of the joint committee for the review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) was held at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

“It marks a significant milestone in enhancing economic cooperation between ASEAN and India,” the ministry said.

It said that the Indian delegation also held bilateral meetings with counterparts from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam on the sidelines of 5th AITIGA meeting to develop a common understanding of the issues being discussed in the AITIGA review.

“Separate meetings were also held with ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Kao Kim Hourn as well as ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Satvinder Singh to discuss the possibilities in enhancing economic cooperation between India and ASEAN through a review of AITIGA,” the ministry added.

It said that the AITIGA Joint Committee had initiated discussions for review of AITIGA in May 2023 and after finalising its Terms of Reference and Negotiating Structure, AITIGA JC and its Sub-Committees started negotiations in February 2024.

“The first two rounds of negotiations were held in February 2024 in New Delhi and in May 2024 in Putrajaya, Malaysia,” the ministry said.

During the 3rd round of negotiations in Jakarta, Indonesia, all eight Sub-Committees dealing with ‘National Treatment and Market Access’, ‘Rules of Origin’, ‘Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures’, ‘Sanitary and Phytosanitary’, ‘Legal and Institutional Issues’, ‘Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation’, ‘Trade Remedies’ and ‘Economic and Technical Cooperation’ met alongside 5th AITIGA JC and held substantive discussions making significant progress during this round, the ministry said.

It added that all the Sub-Committees reported the outcomes of their discussions to the 5th AITIGA JC which provided further guidance to steer their future work.

“ASEAN is an important trade partner of India with about 11 per cent share in India’s global trade. The review of AITIGA, signed in 2009, will help create further opportunities for businesses on both sides to enhance the level of India-ASEAN trade. The next meeting of the AITIGA Joint Committee will be held in India from 19-22 November 2024,” the ministry said.

The meeting was held between July 29 to August 1 which was co-chaired by Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, India and Mastura Ahmad Mustafa, Deputy Secretary General (Trade), Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry, Malaysia.

“Delegates from all 10 ASEAN Countries and India participated in the meeting,” the ministry said. AGENCIES

The Union government empowered more than 10,000 technology startups through various schemes in the last five years, said Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

The Centre disbursed a total funding of Rs 580 crore to startups through incubators including over 3,600 tech startups supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with a total disbursed funding of Rs 212 crore.

Under the Startup India initiative, “the government undertook flagship schemes such as Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) and Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)”, Prasada said.

These schemes helped the startups to raise investments from angel investors or venture capitalists or seek loans.

Prasada said with the help of these schemes there are over 1.43 lakh startups operating in India that are recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Initiatives taken by MeitY include Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0), Startup Accelerator of MeitY for Product Innovation, Development, and Growth (SAMRIDH), Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), Domain specific Centres of Excellence (CoEs), and Theme-based Incubation Centre, Prasada said.

TIDE 2.0 was initiated by MeitY in 2019 with an outlay of Rs 264.62 crore over a period of five years, to extend financial and technical support to institutes of higher learning and premier R&D organisations.

SAMRIDH provides support to selected accelerators for extending accelerator services to startups along with one-to-one matching funding support of up to Rs 40 lakh.

The NGIS Scheme has solution-oriented architecture and aims to handhold 300 tech startups in Tier-2/3 cities over a period of three years with a total budget outlay of Rs 95.03 crore.

MeitY has also envisaged and operationalised 42 CoEs that will aid in making India an innovation hub in emerging technologies.

Entrepreneur parks have also been established through STPI New Delhi, Makers Village in Cochin Kerala, IIIT-Patna and the government of Bihar on medical electronics and Fabless chip design incubation centre at IIT-Hyderabad to boost innovation-led electronic system and design manufacturing. AGENCIES

India ranked fifth in cross-border real estate investments in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting 9 per cent of the total volume of investment within the region in the first half this year, a report showed on Saturday.

According to a Knight Frank report, the total cross-border investments in APAC touched $11.5 billion, with India receiving $3 billion from global private equity investors.

Cross-border investments in Asia-Pacific are projected to rise by more than 33 per cent in H2 2024.

The expected turnaround of global economies in the second half of the year is likely to encourage more foreign private equity players to take advantage of the country’s robust domestic macros, according to the report.

“This influx of investment would boost the performance of Indian real estate and maintain the growth of industry assets,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India.

The office sector accounted for 36 per cent of the total global capital allocation, reflecting the strong appeal of commercial real estate assets.

The industrial sector followed closely with 30 per cent of the investment share, while the residential sector received 15 per cent and retail accounted for 10 per cent, as per the report.

According to the report, cross-border capital flows are significantly shaping the commercial real estate landscape in APAC, driving the search for new investment opportunities. AGENCIES

The Portuguese government announced that it has greenlit a series of significant investments by Redes Energetics Nacionais (REN) aimed at extending and developing the National Transmission Network (RNT).

The approval, announced in a statement by Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho on Friday, underscores the country’s commitment to enhancing its energy infrastructure and promoting sustainability, Xinhua news agency reported.

The specific investment plan by REN includes the creation of grid connection capacity in the high-demand area of Sines and reinforcements to integrate a photovoltaic plant into the grid.

Additionally, the development of the RNT in the northeast of the country will focus on integrating renewable energy sources and supplying new very high-voltage grid infrastructure.

The minister emphasised the strategic importance of these investments, noting that they serve as a “sign of encouragement” to both domestic and international companies looking to invest in Portugal.

“We want to encourage companies, both domestic and foreign, to invest in our country and contribute to building a more sustainable future,” she stated.

The move aligns with Portugal’s broader energy strategy to foster renewable energy integration and infrastructure development, positioning the country as a leader in sustainable energy solutions in Europe. AGENCIES

In a fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make India a global semiconductor manufacturing hub, Tata Electronics on Saturday held the ground-breaking ceremony of its chip assembly and testing unit at Jagiroad in Morigaon district, Assam.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and N. Chandrasekaran, Tata Sons’ Chairman.

Touted as Northeast India’s largest investment project, the Rs 27,000 crore Tata semiconductor plant is likely to generate over 27,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

The first phase of the plant is set to be operational by mid-2025.

In March this year, PM Modi virtually laid the foundation stone of a state-of-the-art semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat and a Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Jagiroad.

The Rs 91,000 crore chip fabrication plant at Dholera will generate over 20,000 skilled jobs in the region.

The Centre in February approved three semiconductor plants – two in Gujarat and one in Assam – for about Rs 1.26 lakh crore. AGENCIES

Indian equity indices witnessed a loss in the last week due to fear of recession in the global market.

On Friday, Sensex ended at 80,981, down 855 points or 1.08 per cent and Nifty closed at 24,717, down 293 points or 1.17 per cent. With this frontline indices snapped an eight-week rally.

On a weekly basis, Sensex and Nifty both posted losses of 0.43 per cent and 0.37 per cent respectively. This is the first time in the last eight weeks that both benchmarks posted a loss.

On a weekly basis, Eicher Motors (5.7 per cent), LTIMindtree (4.8 per cent), Grasim Industries (4.8 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (4.8 per cent), Wipro (4.3 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (3.7 per cent) were the top losers in the Nifty. NTPC (5.9 per cent), BPCL (5.6 per cent), Asian Paints (5.3 per cent), Divis Laboratories (4.2 per cent), Power Grid Corporation (4.1 per cent) were the top gainers.

Market experts said: “The domestic market saw a broad-based sell-off, indicating that it may have reached an exhaustion point due to a lack of new triggers for further upward movement. Q1FY25 earnings have been lacklustre so far, while broader market valuations remain significantly high.”

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Realty (3.76 per cent), Nifty IT (3.04 per cent), Nifty Auto (2.04 per cent), Nifty FMCG (1.57 per cent) and Nifty (1.16 per cent) were the biggest losers. On the other hand, Nifty Energy (2.53 per cent), Nifty Pharma (1.39 per cent) and Nifty Media (1.19 per cent) were the top gainers in the last week.

“Additionally, weak earnings from the US IT sector, a potential rise in unemployment, the possibility of further rate hikes by the BOJ, and a slowdown in China’s growth are all dampening market sentiment,” they said. AGENCIES

The American Rock band Aerosmith is officially hanging its touring boots up after Steven Tyler suffered a vocal injury, and is unable to fully recover.

The ‘Walk This Way’ band made the heartbreaking announcement nearly one year after Tyler, 76, fractured his larynx during a September 2023 show, reports ‘People’ magazine.

The band released a statement, which read, “As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible”.

It further stated, “We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage. We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time.” As per ‘People’, the band also thanked their fan base for their constant support.

“Thanks to you, our Blue Army, that spark caught flame and has been burning for over five decades”, the statement continued.

“Some of you have been with us since the beginning and all of you are the reason we made Rock ‘n’ Roll history. It has been the honour of our lives to have our music become part of yours. In every club, on every massive tour and at moments grand and private you have given us a place in the soundtrack of your lives”, the statement added.

Back in February, Tyler’s daughter Mia told ‘People’ that her famous father was doing “much better” but not quite following the doctor’s orders.

She said, “He’s not supposed to be talking sometimes, so I have to literally yell at him and be like, ‘You can’t be on the phone with me right now, let’s just text'”. AGENCIES

The death toll from the partial collapse of a residential building in the Russian city of Nizhny Tagil has risen to 10, said the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The Ministry said on Friday that rescuers have found 10 bodies and 15 people have been rescued from under the rubble, Xinhua news agency reported.

Five people are reportedly in critical condition at a hospital.

Local authorities have declared August 3 as a mourning day for the victims of the tragedy.

According to the Ministry, search and rescue operations are ongoing.

The tragedy occurred on Thursday when two entrances of a five-storey gas-powered building in Nizhny Tagil, a city located in Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, caved in due to an explosion of a gas-air mixture, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. AGENCIES

Hawaii Governor Josh Green announced a settlement totalling over $4 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits filed after last year’s deadly wildfires which claimed over 100 lives on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

“Less than a year after devastating wildfires on Maui, the seven defendants — state of Hawaii, County of Maui, Hawaiian Electric, Kamehameha Schools, West Maui Land Co., Hawaiian Telcom and Spectrum/Charter Communications — undertook significant efforts to find a resolution that addresses the needs and ensures the well-being of plaintiffs, all affected individuals, and their families,” said Green in a statement.

Under the proposed terms of the global settlement agreement, which remains subject to final documentation and court approval, the seven defendants will pay 4.037 billion dollars to provide compensation to all those who have brought claims for compensation arising from the August 8, 2023 windstorms and wildfires on Maui, including the approximately 2,200 affected parties who filed lawsuits, according to the statement.

The settlement agreement, reached after more than four months of mediation between the defendants and attorneys, resolves the approximately 450 lawsuits filed by individuals, businesses, and insurance companies in state and federal courts for fires in Lahaina and Upcountry Maui.

Once a final settlement agreement is signed, it will take effect following judicial review and approval. The contribution to the settlement from the state of Hawaii must be approved by the Hawaii State Legislature, the statement added.

The statement pointed out that the payments would begin after such approval and are expected to start by mid-2025.

The wildfires, which broke out on August 8 last year, had a catastrophic impact, claiming 102 lives, and injuring numerous people. The fires destroyed more than 2,200 buildings and caused about 5.5 billion dollars in damages, according to data released by the US government. AGENCIES