‘Meet in India': Centre to promote Raj events industry
Jaipur: Like the 'Wed in India' push last year, Union tourism ministry will kick off the three-day '
Great Indian Travel Bazaar
' (GITB) with a "
Meet in India
" prelude to promote the events industry. GITB is jointly organised by the state and the Union govt to attract foreign tourists.
In the 14th year of the event, 280
international tour operators
from 55 countries, 25 foreign MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) operators, and 50 domestic players confirmed participation, as per a release by the state tourism department.
Surendra Singh Shahpura, vice-chairman of event organiser FICCI Rajasthan, said, "Over 11,000 structured business-to-business meetings are scheduled during the two days of the exhibition. The focus will be on both weddings and MICE, as the govt of India is very aggressive in promoting these segments in the country."
Shahpura said the presence of a large number of hotels with infrastructure meeting the full range of event requirements and rates suiting all pockets has given Jaipur a vantage point to lead both segments.
GITB will be held from May 4 to 6 at JECC, Sitapura.
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Hindustan Times
35 minutes ago
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India Gazette
an hour ago
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The Hindu
an hour ago
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MHI calculated that an imported vehicle valued at $35,000 (₹29.75 lakh) would now be liable to pay basic customs duty of ₹4.6 lakh at the reduced 15% rate compared to ₹20.8 lakhs at the erstwhile 70% rate. Therefore, combining with IGST levied at 5% on the resulting value, the total foregone duty amount to ₹17.2 lakh with the final landing cost coming to about ₹36 lakh. Now, in line with an initial investment of ₹4,150 crore and a foregone duty of ₹17.2 lakh for each vehicle, the maker would be allowed to import 24,155 units in total. EDITORIAL | Falling short: On India's EV journey But does this help our overall ecosystem? Shouvik Chakraborty, Assistant Research Professor at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (U.S.) argues that a domestic industrial policy aligned with a vision for future could be a step in the right direction. Although he holds the current policy would bode well for India only if there is sharing of technology with domestic automakers. Further, he observes, 'Countries these days are extremely cautious about transferring technology outside (to maintain their competitive advantage). In that light, India must not become a domestic hub for producing components of a vehicle.' Dinesh Abrol, adjunct faculty at the Transdisciplinary Research Cluster on Sustainable Studies at JNU in Delhi, observes that no foreign firm has ever helped build some other country's ecosystem. He attributed China and South Korea's ability to build manufacturing setups to their focus on skilling, research and development alongside undertaking innovation projects. 'This enabled conditions for a technology transfer and prompting companies to come and invest into the ecosystem,' he states. Essential to note, China as the leading manufacturer of EVs accounted for 70% of the global manufacturing in 2024. The other set of concerns relate to the potentially increased focus on four-wheeler EVs, and their probable impact on India's ambitions to achieve Net Zero by 2070. According to data compiled by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), EVs accounted for 7.8% of all vehicles sold in FY 2025. This was predominantly led by electric three-wheelers (at 57% in its category), followed by two-wheelers (6.1%), passenger vehicles (2.6%) and commercial vehicles (0.9%). Significantly, the International Energy Association (IEA) identified India as the world's largest market for electric three-wheelers in 2024. Sales grew about 20% YoY, it observed. Mr. Chakraborty emphasises that most Indians travel by public transport, and policies must also focus on building the same. 'Means of last mile connectivity, as bikes and shuttles, is also very important. It is not of much help if one has to walk few kilometres to avail public transport. This is not how we can fight climate change' he states. The final set of concerns relate to input costs. S&P Global Mobility observed in an analysis published March this year that high initial costs, typically 20-30% higher than ICE counterparts, coupled with India's reliance on imported components and batteries 'hinder' the growth of the EV sector. It held notwithstanding government efforts to promote localisation through varied policies, the rate was 'not increasing as expected'. DATA | Union Budget 2025: Allocation for electric mobility schemes rise by 20% What about our industrial ambitions in the EV space? Other than the impact on the ecosystem, concerns in the realm extend to costs and competitiveness. Reuters had reported in December 2023 about Tata Motors opposing Tesla's proposal to lower import duties. It had argued, according to the report, lowering duties would 'vitiate' the investment climate which was premised around expectations of the tax regime favouring locals remaining unchanged. The automaker had further held that India's EV players required more government support in the early growth stage of the industry. According to IEA's EV Outlook, domestic OEMs accounted for more than 80% of the electric cars produced domestically in 2024. Additionally, it attributed a less than 15% share of Chinese imports in the country's EV sales in 2024 to high import duties on EVs and the availability of locally made, affordable electric models. Thus, the lowering of duties prompt concerns about the potential impact (though not potentially from China) on domestic industries. According to Mr. Abrol, the policy is premised around foreign-capital and is export-focussed. He suggested the policy should instead be oriented toward building local ecosystem and spurring research and development alongside innovation. Mr. Abrol holds the lack of availability of skilled persons is due to the missing contribution of the public sector. Mr. Chakraborty further states, by nature western technologies in general are more capital-intensive than those in labour-intensive economies. 'Even if it is export-oriented, it will create jobs in an area,' he states, adding, 'However, the overall context needs to be considered in terms of how many jobs it is displacing, this is also considering that EVs have less conventional parts than a gasoline-powered vehicle.'
