India-Aussie signs pact for skill development in Agriculture Field

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between India and Australia signed for skill development in the agriculture sector.

Australian High Commission today in a statement said, an agreement was signed between the Agriculture Skills Council of India and AgriFood Skills Australia.

Australian and Indian Prime Ministers in October 2012 jointly committed to build bilateral partnerships between skills councils in key sectors such as telecom, retail, mining, media/entertainment and agriculture.

On this initiative, the Australian High Commissioner to India Patrick Suckling said, "This partnership aims to achieve quality industry-led skills training standards in the agriculture sector. With India projected to add 12 to 15 million workers to its labour force every year over the coming decades, employability and productivity gains will be inextricably linked to quality standards."

According to the joint statement it will promote cooperation in creating quality occupational training, assessment, certification, information and stakeholder engagement standards.

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Govt of India sets New Standards for Export of Medicines to EU to Comply EU's Updated Standards

The Indian Government has issued New Standards for exporting the drugs to European Union (EU). The change in the standards came after the EU issued new standards for importing drugs into it in 2011. These New standards of EU will be operational from July 2, 2013. So Government of India introduced the new procedural requirements of the European Union (EU) for import of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) into the EU.

"APIs are commonly referred to as bulk drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and are used in the making of formulations (medicines)."

The new legislation coming into force from 02.07.2013 requires a ‘written confirmation’ by a competent authority nominated by the Government of India that the API has been manufactured in accordance with EU-GMP standards and that the Manufacturing Facility where the API was manufactured is subject to control and enforcement of GMP standards and is equivalent to those in the EU countries.

The Department of Health & Family Welfare officially declared the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) on 12.11.2012 to comply with the above requirements. It was also decided that a protocol for the procedure to be complied by the India API Exporters would be laid down by the CDSCO which was also done.

Salient features of the guidelines laid down by the CDSCO:

1. Application for issue of “written confirmation” for APIs for medicinal products for human use is to be made by the exporter in prescribed format.
2. After satisfying the completeness of documents submitted, inspection shall be conducted and after satisfactory outcome thereof, formal written confirmation shall be issued.
3. Non-compliances noticed after inspection shall be communicated to the EU as per their requirement.
4. A time frame of 45 days has been prescribed for disposal of satisfactory applications and the written confirmation shall be valid for the three years.
5. Detailed forms have been laid down for purposes prescribed under various Articles of the EU Directives by the CDSCO – running into nearly 70 pages.
6. A online application filing and tracking system would be made available to bring in sufficient expediency and transparency in the system

As many members of the EU are raising concerns about India's ability to comply the new standards by 2nd July, but India is optimistic and almost sure that it is ready to do it by specified date.

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India and Iraq had a dialogue on MoU in the Area of Water Management

India had an expert level meeting today with the Iraq Delegation led by Mr. Mohanad Salman Al-Sady, Minister of Water Resources of Govt of Republic of Iraq to workout and finalize the nitty-gritty’s of a future Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the area of water management to be signed between the two countries.

Outlining the future of the cooperation, a draft of an MoU has been prepared between the two nations. The cooperation will be done by training of Iraqi engineers and experts in India, exchange of data and information relating to water management, land reclamation, irrigation and dams etc and to gather suggestions from Indian side for expanding cooperation between the two countries.

The Indian delegation was led by Union Water Resources Minister Shri Harish Rawat. After the meeting the two parties said that, they will have further discussions before finalizing the MoU. Also there will be more exchange of visits to develop co operations in specific areas.

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India and China talks are underway to sort out the differences on various issues

Chinese Premier H.E. Li Keqiang has been arrived in India for a three days delegation level talks. This is the first official visit for him to India.

Visiting Chinese premier Li Keqiang said "India is China's important neighbour," and that Beijing would handle differences with New Delhi keeping the overall bi-lateral relationship in mind.

The two leaders agreed that the relationship between the two countries is of growing significance and essential for our peaceful development and sustained economic growth, as well as for stability and prosperity in our region and the world.

"India and China are two civilizational neighbours and have lived in peace through the ages. We have had our differences in more recent times, but over the last 25 years, we have steadily built a mutually beneficial relationship. The basis for continued growth and expansion of our ties is peace and tranquility on our borders. While seeking an early resolution of the boundary question, Premier Li and I agreed that this must continue to be preserved," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The discussion between the them will be focused on key international, regional, and bilateral issues like border conflicts, sharing of Bramaputra water between the two countries and issues on trans-border rivers, and larger economic cooperation between the two countries.

The main issue that will be under the talks is the Boundary issue and to maintain peace and tranquility.

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Members of Forum on Tax Administration to share tax information by 'offshore leaks'

The Forum on Tax Administration (FTA), a 45-nation grouping on tax administration which includes India, has agreed to share among themselves tax information received by its member nations from "offshore leaks".

The "offshore leaks" is a recent financial scandal in April 2013, that bring to light the details of 2.5 lakh individuals and entities from over 170 countries, including India, who evaded taxes by setting up companies in tax havens.

The FTA, in its last meeting at Moscow held on May 16 and 17, decided to share more data among the member nations to address the menace of tax fraud. FTA was set up in July 2002 by the Paris-based think tank Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

According to the communique issued after the meeting, three FTA members - Australia, the UK and the US - have obtained a very significant amount of data, revealing complex offshore structures.

Several FTA members have called on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to share the data they have acquired about offshore evasion, mentioned the communique.

The ICIJ has reportedly found a trove of 2.5 million digital files, detailing "secrets of more than 1,20,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 1,30,000 individuals and agents".

FTA has also developed tools to improve the information gathering on cross-border financial transfers, to decode banking transactions and to identify the beneficial owners of complex structures.

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Mauritius's New Tax Info Exchange Agreement with India is ready

The African island nation, Mauritius's new Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with India has been negotiated and is ready to be signed. Mauritius Finance Secretary, Ali Mansoor, told that the pact would help the two countries exchange information on tax matters of the entities doing business in the two countries.

Meanwhile, the two countries are working on a new DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) and progress has been made on various fronts.

The concerns have been raised in recent years that the island nation is being used for money laundering and round tripping of illicit funds. The Mauritius based entities came to light in some cases of corruption and alleged tax evasion, which were suspected to have been set up by Indian entities to dodge the tax authorities in India.

To address India's concerns Mauritius has setup a joint working group for revision of DTAA and took number of steps within and outside the provisions of pact.

Indian auditors have been allowed to come and check the books of entities operating from Mauritius. A pact has been signed between market regulators of two countries, Sebi and Financial Services Commission (FSC).

Mauritius has agreed to review on a regular basis the Tax Residency Certificates issued by it to the companies investing in India and talks are on to make DTAA mutually beneficial for both the countries. 

Mansoor said that Mauritius is committed to follow all international standards on such information exchange frameworks. Many countries are exploring bilateral exchange of information treaties as well and Mauritius is in talks on many such pacts including on FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) with the US.

Talks on Limitation on Benefits clause are going on, which might require Mauritius to collect some amount of tax from entities that fail to meet certain investment commitments in India within a certain period of time. 

Tackling the issue of money laundering has become very important for authorities across the world and a proper exchange of information between countries is the key element in addressing them.

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Cyprus received its first bailout installment from the Eurogroup

The debt stricken Cyprus receives $13 billion as its first installment of financial bailout package from the euro group. Yesterday after the start of a two-day meeting in Brussels, the finance ministers of the 17 EU nations using the single currency released $2.6 billion (2 billion euros) for Cyprus from the rescue package agreed in March and offered to provide another $1.3 billion (1 billion euros) before the end of June.

"The euro group was satisfied that Cyprus has implemented all prior actions as agreed in the memorandum of understanding with its international creditors. As there are shortcomings in the island nation's compliance with the measures agreed to combat money laundering, their measures to control it will be closely monitored," said president of the group Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

He also said the euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus to "proceed with the implementation of the agreed adjustment programme in a steadfast manner." 

In return for the bailout package from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Cyprus had agreed to raise $16.9 billion (13 billion euros), mainly to restructure the country's stricken banking sector, by charging a levy up to 60 per cent on all deposits above 1,00,000 euros in the Bank of Cyprus, the country's largest bank. Meanwhile, The Laiki Bank - which is the second largest bank of the country- will be dissolved and its "good" assets will be folded into the Bank of Cyprus.

The IMF will contribute $1.3 billion (1 billion euros) to the bailout package. Meanwhile, the finance ministers also agreed to release the latest tranche of $9.75 billion (7.5 billion euros) from the second rescue package of $169 billion (130 billion euros) for Greece, which was approved by the EU and the IMF in March last year.

As we know, Greece has been rescued from bankruptcy in May 2010 with the support of a $143 billion (110 billion euro) financial lifeline from the EU and the IMF. It is the first euro zone nation to receive a bailout.

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