Tag Archives: piyush goyal

Piyush Goyal to attend Indo-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEF) Ministerial meeting in Los Angeles tomorrow

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Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal will continue his tour of the US and travel to Los Angeles today to attend the first in-person Ministerial meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEF), US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) meeting and other significant events.

Earlier in the day, Shri Goyal had a luncheon engagement with ‘Indiaspora’.

Interacting with media later in the day, ahead of the IPEF Ministerial, Shri Piyush Goyal said that discussions at IPEF would focus on opening opportunities for the member nations to work in partnership with each other to ensure that particularly during challenges and difficult times, supply chains remain open and business and people of countries don’t suffer because of chaotic conditions like covid and conflict.

Ministry of Commerce/photo:en.wikipedia.org

 

Terming IPEF as a new and unique initiative and a partnership between rules-based, like-minded countries which have transparent economic systems, Shri Goyal said that IPEF would work to ensure that the Indo-Pacific Region would remain secure and open for business.

Elaborating further, the Minister said that at the IPEF Ministerial, discussions would focus on facilitating open trade, keeping supply chains open. He said that as trading relations with IPEF nations expand, investments, both from and into India, would also get a leg up. All the countries meeting tomorrow have a lot to offer each other in terms of trade, investments and technology and we will work together on all fronts, he added.

Responding to a query, Shri Goyal said that US and India share a very good and strong business relationship. The US is India’s largest trading partner and many Indian companies do a lot of work for their counterparts in America. There is a lot of investment flowing from US to India, he added.

Observing that US and India are getting closer together, the Minister said that the relations between the two nations were strengthening by the day through two Quads now- one with Japan and Australia and another with Israel and UAE. 2 plus 2 ministerial dialogues between India and USA are robust and vibrant and our engagements in several areas including geopolitical and sensitive areas are expanding. The leaders of both countries, the businesses of both countries and the people of both countries are closer than ever before, he added.

Highlighting some of the milestones India has achieved in international engagement such as USD 675 billion worth of foreign trade despite challenges of conflict, inflation, threat of recession and pandemic and record FDI in the last eight years, the Minister expressed confidence that India is and would remain a preferred trading partner and investment destination to the world, thanks to the huge market, honest government and transparent economic policies, rule of law, vibrant media and judiciary. This will improve the well-being of people of India provide jobs, thrust to economic activity and thus growth, he added.

The Minister also engaged with top companies and labs of semiconductor manufacturing and research to explore greater collaboration with Indian companies. He held a meeting with Tim Archer, CEO of Lam Research.

“Building on our pool of young & skilled workforce, discussed how India in collaboration with Lam research, can provide a leading edge in semiconductor innovation”, he tweeted after the meeting.

India to Join 100 Other Nations to Ratify Paris Climate Pact on April 22

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Reiterating India’s commitment to carbon emission reduction, Union Environment, Forests & Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said India, along with 100 other nations would ratify the COP 21 Global Climate Agreement on April 22.

The pact, COP 21, reached at Paris summit in December 2015 would be ratified at a high level signing ceremony to be convened at the UN Headquarters in New York. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track by limiting global warming below 2 degree Celsius.

Speaking at a Symposium “COP 21 – Building Synergies, Shaping Actions” organized in the University of Mumbai, Javadekar said, “All countries have decided to walk the green path as per their common but differentiated responsibilities… India was always perceived to be a naysayer and negative in its approach and took a corner seat in most of the international conferences. But in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the concept of climate justice driving home the message of sustainable development.”

The minister said climate change by 1 degree rise in temperature caused by 150 years of uncontrolled carbon emission by the developed world needs to be reversed. He said while 30% of cumulative contribution was that of the United States, 50% by Europe, Canada and other developed world and 10% by China, India was responsible for only 3% carbon emission but still “it wants to be part of the solution.”

Highllighting some pro-active measures to discourage use of fossil fuels in a bid to reduce carbon foot print by levying Rs 400 per tonne green cess on coal, he said: “If the developed world followed India’s example and levied higher taxes on coal, billions of dollars would accrue to pursue clean energy programmes.”

Further the proposed Compensatory Afforestation Funds Bill 2015 would unlock Rs 40,000 crores for the ‘Green India’ initiative and other plans to control vehicular pollution by moving to Bharat VI emission norms, policies on waste management, Swachch Bharat initiative, Ganga rejuvenation among others would contribute to contain climate change, said the minister.

Union Minister of State (IC) for Coal, Power, New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal said his portfolios put him in an awkward situation. “I am a polluter as well as a pollution container”, he said. On solutions undertaken to contain climate change, he said India has launched the world’s largest renewable energy programme by scaling up the target for solar energy. “The solar energy mission envisaged 20,000 Mw of solar electricity generation by 2022. But this target has been pushed ahead by the Prime Minister to 1,00,000 Mw (1Gw),” Goyal said. But all renewable energy programmes will be sustainable only if they become economically viable, he noted.

“While one is aware of pollution caused by the thermal power plants, their importance cannot be overlooked. Therefore, our thrust is on adopting clean coal technologies” he added.