UTTAR PRADESH
Industrial, IT parks to maintain continuity of employment in UP
As the country battles the second wave of coronavirus, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has focused on maintaining continuity of employment for people of the state, both in cities and villages. The government has directed the authorities concerned to provide speedy approval to investment proposals to create job avenues for the urban population while offering jobs under MNREGA and other schemes to the rural population to avert large-scale unemployment, which was witnessed last year.
The state government has decided to set up a number of industrial and IT parks to create job opportunities for the youth on a massive scale. Decks have been cleared for the setting up of industrial parks in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Agra, Moradabad and Azamgarh. Lands have already been identified for the parks in these districts so that willing investors could get land at reasonable rates. Apart from this, the government will start building IT parks in Bareilly, Lucknow, Aligarh and Saharanpur from next month. An IT park will provide employment for at least 5,000 youths.
Besides, the state government is trying to ensure continuous supply of raw materials to small industries so that their production did not get interrupted and authorities have been directed to ensure smooth functioning of industries to avoid shutting down of units leading to unemployment.
INTERNATIONAL
First BRICS Employment Working Group (EWG) Meeting
The first meeting of the BRICS Employment Working Group took place virtually. India was the host nation. In 2021, India will take over the BRICS presidency.
The member countries addressed fostering social security arrangements among the BRICS nations, women’s participation in the labour force, and labour market formalisation.
Members of the BRICS countries, as well as representatives from the International Labour Organization and the International Social Security Agency, attended the conference..
To resolve the issue of the Social Security Agreement, the members agreed to engage in dialogue and consultations with one another.
COVID-19 has informalized the labour market, as the countries discussed.
Indonesian and Indian Navies Conduct Exercise in Arabian Sea
The Indian and Indonesian Navies conducted Passage Exercise (PASSEX) in the southern Arabian Sea with a center of attention on similarly enhancing their interoperability.
Highlights:
The exercising used to be aimed at enhancing interoperability and understanding between both the friendly navies.
From the Indian Navy, INS Sharda, an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) with a Chetak helicopter participated in the exercise. From the Indonesian Navy, KRI Sultan Hasanudin, a 90m Corvette took part in the exercise.
PASSEXes are frequently conducted by IN with units of Friendly Foreign Countries. The remaining PASSEX between IN and the Indonesian Navy was once performed on 13 Mar 21 between INS Kalpeni, IN Dornier and KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda.
NATIONAL
Google Pay Customers in the US Can Now Transfer Money to India
Alphabet Inc’s Google has announced foreign money transfer agreements with remittance firms Wise and Western Union Co.
Google Pay users in the USA can now send money to app users in India and Singapore, with plans to extend to the 80 countries supported by Wise & 200 countries supported by Western Union by the last of the year.
Western Union and Wise, both of which have incorporated their services into Google Play, have collaborated with the company.
Launched the Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) and Area Officer Monitoring Appliction
The Ministry of Rural Development launched the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app and the Area Officer Monitoring App.
Highlights:
The NMMS App allows for real-time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGS worksites, as well as geotagged photographs.
This will increase citizen oversight of the programme while also potentially allowing for faster payment processing.
The Area Officer Monitoring App allows them to record their findings online, along with a time stamped and go-coordinate tagged photograph, for all Department of Rural Development schemes.
This would also allow for better record keeping of inspections by field and supervisory officials, as well as analysis of the findings for better programme implementation.
FDI inflows rise 9.8% to record $82 billion in FY21
Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India rose 9.8% to a record $81.7 billion in 2020-21 on a gross basis on the back of record investment into companies such as Reliance Jio.
Fresh equity inflows are estimated to have increased by an impressive 19% to $59.6 billion, while reinvested earnings went up 14% to $16.2 billion.
Singapore was the top source, which is now followed by the United States with Mauritius — once the dominant source of FDI due to tax benefits under the tax avoidance treaty — pushed to the third spot.
In terms of growth, inflows from Saudi Arabia. jumped from $90 million in 2019-20 to $2.8 billion last year. And with e-commerce and IT being the major draw for overseas investors looking to tap into the India consumption story, computer software and hardware emerged as the most attractive sector to invest, cornering nearly 44% of the FDI equity inflows. Next was construction (infrastructure), which accounted for a 13% share. Among the states it was Gujarat that was the top recipient, according to the Centre’s data, accounting for 37% of the inflows, followed by Maharashtra (27%) and Karnataka (13%).
The government has been seeking to bolster FDI especially in the manufacturing sector and some of the investments are related to companies such as Apple’s vendors and Samsung pumping in funds to set up bigger production facilities for mobiles and electronics goods.
The government has identified close to 1,000 companies and is working with Invest India to tap companies that are seeking to diversify their production bases.