India to achieve service export target of one trillion dollars by 2030

The Election Commission today announced biennial elections to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Legislative Councils. Six seats in Maharashtra, 25 seats in Karnataka, 12 seats in Telangana and 11 seats in Andhra Pradesh will go to polls on 10th December. Notification for the polls will be issued on November 16.

-Domestic air passenger traffic grew by a whopping 67 percent, year-on-year, at around 87 to 88 lakh in October, on the back of festive season demand amid a continuous fall in the number of COVID-19 infection cases, says a report. According to credit rating agency ICRA, domestic passenger volume in October last year was at 52.7 lakh. Moreover, domestic carriers operated 46 percent more flights, at 72,000 during the month under review, over 49,150 departures logged in October 2020, ICRA said. However, higher Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices continue to pose a near-term challenge with prices seeing a sequential increase of 13.9 percent in the current month.

-Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Directorate of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D),  Ministry of Defence, Israel have entered into a Bilateral Innovation Agreement (BIA) to promote innovation and accelerated research and development in start-ups and MSMEs for the development of dual use technologies. The agreement was signed in New Delhi on Tuesday. Ministry of Defence in a statement said that under the agreement, start-ups and industries of both countries will work together to bring out next-generation technologies and products in the areas such as Drones, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum technology, Photonics, Energy Storage and Natural Language Processing. Products and technologies will be customised to meet the unique requirements of both countries. The development efforts will be jointly funded by DRDO and DDR&D, Israel. The Ministry said that the technologies developed under BIA will be available to both countries for their domestic applications.

-Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Kapil Moreshwar Patil, who is on a tour of Karnataka, held a meeting with the State Rural Development and Panchyat Raj Minister K. S. Eeswarappa in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Briefing the media persons later, the Union Minister said that the innovative development model adopted by Doddajala and Rajanakunte Gram Panchayats in Karnataka is worth emulation by other Gram Panchayats in the country.

-Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Tuesday  said that India is poised to achieve a services export target of one trillion dollars by 2030. He was addressing the Global Services Conclave-2021 in New Delhi. The Minister said that in 2020, India became the 7th largest services exporter in the world, moving up the ladder by two positions. Emphasizing that India had the potential to become the top services exporter in the world, Mr. Goyal said that the services sector is boosting India’s transition from an Assembly economy to a Knowledge-based economy. Goyal said that presently India’s services export largely comprises of IT and IT-enabled services. He stressed that we need to focus on other potential growth sectors. The Minister also highlighted the need for assisting states in formulating a comprehensive export strategy with districts as Export Hubs.