EU trade talks: India to offer regulatory certainty in manufacturing to woo FDI (The Indian Express)
India is proposing a new investment chapter in its trade talks with the EU to offer long-term regulatory certainty in manufacturing, aiming to attract FDI and address mutual concerns over China’s industrial overcapacity in key sectors like electronics, defence, and clean energy. The move builds on India’s recent strategy, seen in deals with the UK and EFTA, where it allowed 100% FDI in telecom and secured $100 billion in investment pledges over 15 years. With negotiations showing “substantial progress” on services, investment, and dispute resolution, both sides are pushing to finalise the Free Trade Agreement by the end of 2024.
'Asia must open up': ADB president says world won't return to pre-Trump era (Business Standard)
ADB President Masato Kanda urged Asian economies to pursue structural reforms and reduce dependence on global supply chains, saying the world has fundamentally shifted since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. To boost regional resilience, the ADB has pledged $10 billion each to Southeast Asia’s cross-border power grid and India’s metro infrastructure, even as it lowered India’s FY26 GDP forecast to 6.5% (from 6.7%) due to U.S. tariffs and global uncertainty. Kanda emphasised that Asia must avoid turning inward, strengthen ties with Europe, and focus on sustainable public finance, warning that resilience cannot come from “gimmicks”.
4 years on, long-pending national retail policy still just a draft (Business Standard)
Despite preparing a draft four years ago, the government may shelve the proposed national retail trade policy, citing existing initiatives like the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and the National Traders’ Welfare Board as sufficient support mechanisms. Launched in 2022, ONDC aims to bring small and local sellers into the digital economy, while the Welfare Board was set up in 2023 to ease compliance, improve access to finance, and offer social security benefits to traders. However, voices like MP Praveen Khandelwal argue a dedicated policy is still essential for India’s 80 million small traders, who continue to face challenges like regulatory ambiguity, digital exclusion, and rising pressure from unregulated e-commerce platforms.
Fresh tourism policy on anvil for investment, economic growth in UP (Business Standard)
Uttar Pradesh is crafting a new tourism policy to attract private investment, generate local jobs, and support its broader vision of becoming a $1 trillion economy. With over 650 million visitors in 2024 alone—up from 480 million in 2023—the state is leaning on religious, heritage, and rural tourism, while actively promoting its Buddhist circuit to countries like Japan, Thailand, and South Korea. Events like the upcoming UP International Trade Show (Sept 25–29) aim to spotlight the state’s cultural assets, ODOP crafts, and public-private tourism ventures through technology-led storytelling and global outreach.
