Piyush Goyal is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre. A Leader of the Rajya Sabha, he has been representing Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha since 2010. He earlier served as Minister of Railways between 2017 and 2021. In the previous term of the BJP government, Goyal had also donned the hat of the finance minister twice in 2018 and 2019, standing in for then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during phases of the latter’s ailment. Goyal presented the Interim Budget for 2019-20, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. During his 35-year long political career, he held several other portfolios -- Minister of Coal (2014-19), Minister of State (I/C) for Power, New and Renewable Energy (2014-17), and Mines (2016-17). He has been the National Treasurer of the BJP. Goyal was an all-India second rank holder Chartered Accountant (CA) and second rank holder in Law in Mumbai University. Before joining politics, he worked as an investment banker and advised top corporates on management strategy and growth. He also served on the board of India’s largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda as Government nominee. More
India's forex kitty jumped USD 3.553 billion to USD 599.529 billion for the week ended May 12, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
Addressing the media on Tuesday after the first India-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting in Brussels, he also said India has to keep its customs duties high on many products at times to compete with certain geographies which are "very non-transparent" and the developed countries face the "unintended consequence of the high tariffs".
The TTC was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during her visit to India in April last year.
S Jaishankar arrived in Brussels on May 15 evening for the last leg of his three-nation tour covering Bangladesh, Sweden and Belgium.
In February, in one of the largest aircraft orders by an airline, Air India announced it will buy 470 narrow-body and wide-body planes from Airbus and Boeing, with the total deal value estimated to be worth USD 80 billion (over Rs 6.40 lakh crore).
Standards for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) -- drones for agricultural purposes are developed and now work is on for UAV to be used for general requirements, and testing requirements of sub-systems and cybersecurity.
Addressing a national seminar on maize to ethanol, Goyal said ethanol is a "sunrise sector" and asked the industry to set up factories for manufacturing of this green fuel which can operate on dual feed stock (sugarcane and food grains).
He said that a certain section thinks that India is hesitant to negotiate these new issues in a free trade agreement with its trading partners.
He also said that often consumers purchasing goods on the e-market place platform to avail benefits of flash sales are diverted to entities preferred or promoted by the online retailer, which is a cheating and against the foreign direct investment rules.
ONDC aims to increase the penetration of e-commerce to 25 percent, from about 4-5 percent currently, in the next two years by reaching 900 million buyers and having 1.2 million sellers likely having a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $48 billion.
Specific app for ONDC important to create a clear narrative in consumer's mind, says PhonePe executive
Entrepreneurial abilities in the country with innovation, new ideas, new ways of marketing and branding products can unleash the true potential of the country, the Commerce and Industry Minister said.
Goyal said that reduction in Indian yarn export is a good sign for the country as this will provide more opportunities to Indian startups through value addition within the country.
Piyush Goyal said that Italy and France have offered unstinted support for the early conclusion of negotiations for the India-EU trade agreement.
Piyush Goyal said that the electronics industry works like this as first they put a basic set up and then they keep sourcing different components to add into their ecosystem.
Last year, the RBI and finance ministry asked the top management of banks and representatives of trade bodies to push export and import transactions in the rupee.
He said that some people mix up mobility and immigration but they are two separate subjects. Mobility is about expanding trade, business, providing temporary visas for people who visit a country either for work or for studies, he said.
He said that the procurement of wheat has started and the numbers for the first week of buying are ”very” satisfactory.
The minister will be on an official visit to France (Paris) and Italy (Rome) on April 11-13. He will be accompanied by a delegation of top Indian CEOs.
The final export and import data for 2022-23 would be released by the mid of April.
Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) chairman T Rajkumar said India was expected to breach USD 760 billion exports with the new foreign trade policy.
The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 was unveiled by Commerce and Industry Minister Piysh Goyal on Friday. It will come into effect from April 1, 2023.
Talks are ”going on very well” with the UK, Goyal said, adding, ”trade stands on its own legs”.
Goyal also said talks with the UK over a Free Trade Agreement were going on "very well". Many other countries, he added, were keen on signing trade pacts with India.
Piyush Goyal and S Jaishankar were present at News18's Rising India Summit 2023 on Wednesday.