No change in India’s stand on WTO: Nirmala Sitharaman New Delhi, Aug 01 (ANI): Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, who met US Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker in New Delhi said country’s position remained unchanged on the WTO impasse. The ministers had met to review the trade ties between the two nations before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to United States in September this year. New Delhi has insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Meanwhile, Sitharaman added that both India and United States are looking for good deliverables.
Nepalese Commerce Minister meets Indian counterpart over trade & other issues New Delhi, Aug 01 (ANI): Nepalese Commerce Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa met his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Himalayan country. Thapa, who is on a four-day visit to India, has discussed issues of bilateral concerns, including trade, investment and petroleum supplies, during his meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other leaders. Modi would go to Kathmandu on August 03 for a two-day visit. Both the countries are likely to sign some agreements to further boost trade and investment in areas like power, infrastructure and services sector. Earlier, India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Nepalese counterpart Mahendra Bahadur Pandey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on various projects in
Kathmandu.
SC appoints one member commission to enquire into 2006 Meerut fire tragedy Meerut, Aug 01 (ANI): Supreme Court of India appointed a one-member commission for inquiry into a fire tragedy, which took place at a consumer fair in 2006 in Meerut city of Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 51. The Court bench has ordered that the commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge SB Sinha. The court also approved a compensation of rupees five lakh for families of the deceased, two lakh for seriously injured and 75,000 for people with minor injuries to be given by the state government. The petitioner, Sanjay Gupta, said the next hearing of the case is scheduled for February 11, 2015.