Mumbai Port observes Vigilance Awareness Week- 2019 November 07 , 2019

MUMBAI: Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) observed Vigilance Awareness Week - 2019 from 28th October to 2nd November 2019 with the theme “Integrity – A Way of Life”. The week started by taking Integrity Pledge by the employees. As a part of Vigilance Awareness Week, MbPT conducted various activities such as Walkathon, Street Plays, workshops, meetings with customers / vendors/contractors, Elocution, Drawing/ caricature/ poster/ rangoli competitions for the employees and their family members for spreading awareness on the vigilance theme. 

MbPT had also organized elocution competition /Poster competition amongst the students of three schools and three colleges to sensitize the youth on corruption and its ill effects and to promote and inculcate integrity as a way of their life. 

 

MbPT organized a talk by Shri Banibrata Bhattacharya, Principal Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-I, which was presided over by 

Shri Sanjay Bhatia, IAS, Chairman and attended by Shri Shishir Srivastava, IRS, Chief Vigilance Officer, Shri Yashodhan Wanage, IRS, Dy. Chairman and Senior Officers of MbPT. The main attraction of this year’s Vigilance Awareness week was lighting up the Gateway of India on 31.10.2019 by MbPT displaying the messages based on the theme of Vigilance Awareness Week 2019. 

Gopal Krishna flags off 1st Containerised cargo from HALDIA (NW-1) to PANDU (NW-2) through INDO-BANGLADESH Protocol Route November 07 , 2019

KOLKATA: In line with Government's focus on improving connectivity to the North Eastern Region (NER), a landmark Container Cargo consignment to sail on inland waterways from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) to Pandu, Guwahati, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) terminal, on 4th November, 2019.

 

Shri Gopal Krishna, Secretary (Shipping) flagged off the sailing-vessel, M Y Maheshwari via a video conference from Deep Bhawan at Taratolla. This vessel will carry 53 TEUs (containers) of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage. The 12-15 days voyage will be an integrated IWT movement via National Waterway- l (river Ganga), NW-97 (Sunderbans), Indo-Bangladesh Protocol(IBP) route and NW-2(river Brahmaputra). He said, this is the first ever containerised cargo movement on this Inland Water Transport (IWT) route. The 1425km long movement is expected to establish the technical and commercial viability of IWT mode using these multiple waterways even as a series of pilot movements are planned on the stretch. Shri Krishna also said that the latest IWT movement is aimed at providing a fillip to North East Region's industrial development by opening up an alternate route for transportation of raw material and finished goods.

 

The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Tracie (PIWTT) between India and Bangladesh allows mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways for movement of goods between the two countries by vessels of both countries. The IBP route extends from Kolkata (India) on NW-1 to Silghat (Assam) on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) and Karimganj (Assam) on NW-16 (River Barak). Two stretches of Bangladesh inland waterways viz, Sirajganj-Daikhawa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj on the IBP route are being developed at a total cost of Rs 305.84 Cr. on 80:20 cost sharing basis (80% being borne by India & 20% by Bangladesh). The development of these two stretches is expected to provide seamless navigation to and from North East India through waterways via the IBP route. The contracts for dredging on the two stretches have been awarded for achieving and maintaining requisite depth.

India gains $755 mn in additional exports to US due to trade war: UNCTAD

GENEVA: India gained about $755 million in additional exports, mainly of chemicals, metals and ore, to the US in the first half of 2019 due to the trade diversion effects of Washington's tariff war with China, a study by the UN trade and investment body has said.

The study, Trade and trade diversion effects of United States tariffs on China, shows that the ongoing US-China trade war has resulted in a sharp decline in bilateral trade, higher prices for consumers and trade diversion effects - increased imports from countries not directly involved in the trade war.

 

The study puts the trade diversion effects of the US-China tariff war for the first half of 2019 at about $21 billion, implying that the amount of net trade losses corresponds to about $14 billion. The US tariffs on China have made other players more competitive in the US market and led to a trade diversion effect. These trade diversion effects have brought substantial benefits for Taiwan (province of China), Mexico and the European Union.

 

"Trade diversion benefits to Korea, Canada and India were smaller but still substantial, ranging from $0.9 billion to $1.5 billion," it said. The remainder of the benefits were largely to the advantage of other South East Asian countries.

 

The US tariffs on China resulted in India gaining $755 million in additional exports to the US in the first half of 2019 by selling more chemicals ($243 million), metals and ore ($181 million), electrical machinery ($83 million) and various machinery ($68 million) as well as increased exports in areas such as agri-food, furniture, office machinery, precision instruments, textiles and apparel and transport equipment, UNCTAD said.

 

The analysis shows that US tariffs caused a 25 per cent export loss, inflicting a $35 billion blow to Chinese exports in the US market for tariffed goods in the first half of 2019. This figure also shows the competitiveness of Chinese firms which, despite the substantial tariffs, maintained 75 per cent of their exports to the US.

NMPT adds heli-tourism as cruise season begins November 06 , 2019

MANGALORE: With the beginning of this year’s cruise season on 4th November, the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) also began Country’s first port-based heli-tourism initiative.

 

Aida Vita, a Panama Flag vessel called on NMP with 1,154 guests recently marking the beginning of the cruise season in Mangaluru. 

Around 400 of them disembarked for sight-seeing, said Port Chairman A.V. Ramana.

 

While the port had been facilitating transport services — autorickshaw, taxi and buses — for guests, this year NMP facilitated heli-tourism too. Chipsan Aviation Pvt. Ltd. deployed a six-seater helicopter to ferry tourists to Bekal Fort near Kasaragod in Kerala, Sringeri, Chikkamagaluru, Dharmasthala, Belur, Halebid, etc. “Given the present road conditions and the distance to these places, heli-tourism was the best option for international tourists to catch a glimpse of Karnataka. 

 

Any aviation company with DGCA certification can provide the service and NMPT will facilitate their operation. 

 

For the next cruise vessel calling on November 12, there are 16 confirmed bookings,” Mr. Ramana told.

India’s coal imports rise 9 % to 127 MT in Apr-September

NEW DELHI: India’s coal imports increased by 9.3 per cent to 

126.91 million tonnes (MT) in the first six months of the ongoing fiscal, industry data showed. The Country had imported 116.04 MT of coal in 

April-September period of FY 2018-19, according to a provisional compilation by mjunction services, based on monitoring of vessels’ positions and data received from shipping companies.

 

mjunction — a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL — 

is a B2B e-commerce company which also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.

“On a progressive basis (April-September ’19) (provisional), total coal and coke imports were recorded at 126.91 MT, which is 9.36 percent higher than 116.04 MT imported for the same period (April-September ’18) last year,” it said.

Commenting on the coal import trend, mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma said, “Although domestic coal production has seen a negative growth in recent months, the late monsoon has affected demand from the power and other consuming sectors, leading to slackness in import demand for thermal coal.”

 

India’s coal and coke imports in September 2019 through the Major and Non-Major Ports are estimated to have decreased by 2.71 per cent over August 2019. Imports in September 2019 stood at 18.62 MT (provisional) as compared to 19.14 MT (revised) imported in August 2019.

FICCI fully supports PM Narendra Modi's decision against joining RCEP November 06 , 2019

NEW DELHI : FICCI President Mr Sandip Somany in his recent comment on India not joining RCEP said, "We at FICCI fully support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision against joining RCEP, as India's several concerns remain unaddressed and various issues are unresolved so far in the proposed deal under negotiation. In recent months serious apprehensions and reservations on RCEP have been expressed by a large number of sectors including steel, plastics, copper, aluminium, machine tools, paper, automobiles, chemicals, petro-chemicals and others. 

Further, there were not enough positive developments in the area of trade in services including easier mobility for our professionals and service-providers. I compliment Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking a very pragmatic decision towards safeguarding the interest of Indian industry and the Country as a whole."

India not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership November 06 , 2019

BANGKOK: India won’t join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) because concerns about getting swamped by imports under the agreement — putting its domestic industry and agriculture at risk — haven’t been assuaged. The RCEP, which includes China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), aims to cover about a third of the world economy and half its population.

 The present form of the RCEP Agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of RCEP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address at the RCEP summit in Bangkok, according to a tweet by official broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It also does not address satisfactorily India's outstanding issues and concerns. In such a situation, it is not possible for India to join RCEP Agreement. 

 Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the decision not to join RCEP will boost ‘Make in India’ as he lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his bold and courageous decision to not join RCEP, since it was against our economic interests and national priorities.

 India runs a large trade deficit with RCEP countries and was looking for specific protection for its industry and farmers from a surge in imports, especially from China.