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NEWS FEATURE'India will be second largest e-commerce market by 2034'Surge in internet penetration, swelling millennial population and rising uptake of mobile phones wouldmake India the second largest e-commerce market after China, overtaking the US by 2034, said a report byglobal payments leader Worldpay.

PSLV-C36 successfully launches RESOURCESAT-2AIn its thirty eighth flight (PSLV-C36), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 1,235 kgRESOURCESAT-2A Satellite today morning (December 07, 2016) from the Satish Dhawan Space CentreSHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty seventh consecutively successful mission of PSLV.

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CPPIB to invest in India's largest realty dealIn the largest deal brewing up in the commercial real estate space in India, Canada Pension Plan InvestmentBoard ( CPPIB) is leading the negotiation to acquire private equity firm Everstone Group’s industrial and lo-gistics real estate development platform, IndoSpace, as part of private real estate investment (REIT), said

OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS

Two-day conference in Kolkata to boost economy, investmentA two-day 'Indo-Asia Connectivity' conference would be held in Kolkata on December 14-15 to boost regionaleconomic connectivity between India and the countries of South and Southeast Asia and to explore investmentopportunities.


Economic DiplomacyDivision

Ministry of External Affairs

Government of India

Issue No 705 I December 06-12, 2016

p. 02/03

TRADE NEWSIndia and Israel to step-up Science and Technology CooperationA high level Israeli delegation led by Minister for Science, Technology and Space Mr.Ofir Akunis, includingthree members of Israeli parliament met Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science, Technology andEarth Sciences.


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SECTORAL NEWSIndia considering long-term gas contracts for power plants: GoyalIndia is looking at signing long-term gas contracts with other countries to run its under-utilised powerplants, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.


NEWS ROUND-UPIndia can accelerate to 5G, says Intel prezHyderabad-born Venkata Murthy Renduchintala is seen as the No. 2 at Intel. Brought in late last year from Qual-comm with a whopping $25-million compensation, Murthy is designated president — the only person in thechip maker's executive management team to carry that title.


WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN

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Issue no 705 I December 06-12, 2016

>> NEWS FEATURE

'India will be second largest e-commercemarket by 2034'Surge in internet penetration, swelling millennial population and rising uptake of mobile phones would make India the secondlargest e-commerce market after China, overtaking the US by 2034, said a report by global payments leader Worldpay.

"The Indian e-commerce market is set to overtakethe US and become the second largest in the world inless than two decades, going head-to-head with Chinafor the top position," said the 'Global Payments Report2016'.

Leading the charge in the emerging markets, e-com-merce in India is predicted to mature 28 per cent peryear from 2016-2000.

"The Indian e-commerce market is predicted toreach $63.7 billion (Rs.4,34,200 crore) by 2020 andovertake the US by 2034, opening up huge opportuni-ties for companies selling online," said Worldpay Vice-Chairman Ron Kalifa in a statement.

The annual report was compiled using Worldpaydata and insights, external findings from Euromonitor,Datamonitor and ystats.com.

"It is imperative for merchants to stake claim to win over the commerce-hungry population and capitalise on future e-com-merce growth," he said, adding leading e-tail players like Amazon and Alibaba are making moves, indicating incentive formerchants to gain foothold within India's e-commerce market.

"Much of India's e-commerce growth will come from rising internet penetration, which will take about 600 million citizensto online by 2020 from 350 million in 2016," said the report.

"As India invests in infrastructure such as the National Optical Network, which is undergoing trial roll-outs, millions of con-sumers will get access to fast internet.

"As the country's middle class switches over to 4G from 3G networks, both offered at affordable prices, India is expectedto see more mobile shopping, especially amongst millennials," said the report.

Young people shopping via smartphones are responsible for increase in India's online spend, it said, adding that with 70per cent of the population below the age of 35, millennials are expected to continue driving rapid digitisation.

But the report said that to position their business for success, merchants must recognise India's potential for e-commercegrowth and its payment preferences.

Transfers and cash dominate the online payment landscape, with 27 per cent of the market preferring bank transfers, fol-lowed by cash on delivery at 22 per cent.

"As the country's payment infrastructure develops, new methods are expected to rise in popularity. Though only 8 per centof online shoppers use e-wallet currently, mobile wallet market is projected to reach $5.1 billion in 2020," said the report.

"Our research shows 75 per cent of India's population does not have a way to pay online. But as more Indians get access tothe internet and bank accounts, they develop confidence in buying online," added Kalifa.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN >> NEWS FEATURE3


PSLV-C36 successfully launches RESOURCESAT-2AIn its thirty eighth flight (PSLV-C36), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 1,235 kg RE-SOURCESAT-2A Satellite today morning (December07, 2016) from the Satish Dhawan Space CentreSHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty seventh con-secutively successful mission of PSLV.

After PSLV-C36 lift-off at 10:25 am IST from theFirst Launch Pad with the ignition of the first stage,the subsequent important flight events, namely,strap-on ignitions and separations, first stage sepa-ration, second stage ignition, payload fairing separa-tion, second stage separation, third stage ignitionand separation, fourth stage ignition and cut-off,took place as planned. After a flight of 17 minutes05 seconds, the vehicle achieved a polar Sun Syn-chronous Orbit of 824 km height inclined at anangle of 98.725 degree to the equator (very close tothe intended orbit) and 47 seconds later, RESOURCESAT-2A was separated from the PSLV fourth stage.

After separation, the two solar arrays of RESOURCESAT-2A deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Trackingand Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite willbe brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide imagery from its three cameras.The data sent by RESOURCESAT-2A will be useful for agricultural applications like crop area and crop production esti-mation, drought monitoring, soil mapping, cropping system analysis and farm advisories generation.

Like its predecessors RESOURCESAT-1 and 2, RESOURCESAT-2A has a unique 3-Tier imaging system with AdvancedWide Field Sensor (AWiFS), Linear Imaging Self Scanner-3 (LISS-3) and Linear Imaging Self Scanner-4 (LISS-4) cameras.The AWiFS provides images with a sampling of 56 metres, a swath of 740 km and a revisit of 5 days whereas the LISS-3provides 23.5 metre sampled images with 141 km swath and a repitivity of 24 days. LISS-4 provides 5.8 metre sampledimages with 70 km swath and a revisit of 5 days.

With today’s launch, the PSLV has yet again demonstrated its reliability. The total number of satellites launched byIndia’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV including today’s RESOURCESAT-2A has now reached 122, of which 43 are Indianand the remaining 79 are from abroad.

Source: Press Information Bureau

In the largest deal brewing up in the commercial real estate space in India, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ( CPPIB)is leading the negotiation to acquire private equity firm Everstone Group’s industrial and logistics real estate developmentplatform, IndoSpace, as part of private real estate investment (REIT), said two people familiar with the development.

The entire deal is pegged at Rs 15,000 crore mak-ing it the largest commercial real estate transaction inthe country, they added.

“The deal h0as been structured in two parts, in thefirst phase, CPPIB will acquire the ready developmentspace of nearly 10 million sft for nearly Rs 4000crore,” said the first person mentioned above.

“Indospace is developing another 30 million sftacross the country which will be developed and addedto this portfolio and the payouts will be linked to that.Everstone will continue to manage these assets evenafter the full sale process,” the second person added.

IndoSpace is a joint venture between EverstoneGroup and US-based Realterm. Everstone is a private equity and real estate firm that focuses on India and South-East Asia,with over $3.3 billion of assets under management. Realterm is an industrial real estate firm that manages approximately$2.5 billion of assets across 300 operating and development properties in North America, Europe and India.

Sources add that Everstone has hired Citi bank to run the sale process. Reits are entities that own rent-generating real estate assets and offer investors regular income streams and long-term

capital appreciation.With this sale, this would be the first successful Reit offering from the Indian subcontinent. “The talks were on with three serious contender but final negotiations are underway with CPPIB and it would be the

largest investment by Canadian pension fund in India to date,” the first person added. CPPIB and Everstone both declined to comment for the story. The deal is expected to be signed by January end with CPPIB head expected to visit India two weeks late and discuss the

transaction, said another person involved in the matter. Source: The Economic Times

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CPPIB to invest in India's largest realty deal

A two-day 'Indo-Asia Connectivity' conference would be held in Kolkata on December 14-15 to boost regional economicconnectivity between India and the countries of South and Southeast Asia and to explore investment opportunities.

The US Consulate General here, in association with Washington-based East West Center, the Indian Chamber of Com-merce and CUTS (Consumer Unity and Trust Society)International, is organising the "Indo-Asia Connectivityfor Shared Prosperity" conference.

US Ambassador to India Richard R. Verma, hisBangladeshi counterpart Marcia Bernicat and US Am-bassador to Nepal Alaina Teplitz would also speak inthe conference.

Verma last week visited five of the eight northeast-ern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagalandand Tripura, and met Chief Ministers and other stake-holders discussed various economic and bilateral is-sues.

"During my visit to the northeastern states, I havediscussed with the governments of the region aboutconnectivities, trade, economy and commerce, energyrelated issues," Verma said in Agartala.

"The conference would focus on three key policy areas. These include maritime and waterways connectivity in the Bay ofBengal region, energy cooperation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal and cross-border trade and investment,"Bipul Chatterjee, Executive Director of Jaipur-based NGO CUTS International, said.

He said that the key policy makers, business leaders, government officials, media representatives, academics and civilsociety experts from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan and the US would attend the conference.


WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN >> OVERSEAS INVESTMENT

Two-day conference in Kolkata to boosteconomy, investment

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India is looking at signing long-term gas contracts with other countries to run its under-utilised power plants, Power Min-ister Piyush Goyal said.

"We are hoping to tie up long-term gas con-tracts so that we can start powering our gas-basedpower plants once again many of which are run-ning at a very low level of capacity utilisation,"Goyal said addressing a ministerial session atPetrotech 2016 hydrocarbons conference here.

"We do hope to see in the days to come someengagement where we can bring down our cost ofgas and start powering our gas-based powerplants.

"This will not only provide us clean fuel but alsolead to spinning reserve so that our electricity gridremains stable. This will help us providing 24X7 af-fordable power to all by 2022," he said.

"We are 81 per cent import dependent in oil and 37 per cent in gas. We are not consuming gas to the extent we can.True demand of gas is not being exploited," the minister added.

Three phases of auction for re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) have been completed so far and the fourth phaseis presently under operation.

In September, nine stranded gas-fired power plants emerged as successful bidders for Rs 187.14 crore subsidy to getnatural gas supplies of 9.93 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd).

"The auction process successfully concluded on September 3, 2016 wherein the nine plants emerged as preferredbidders and were allocated mscmd e-bid RLNG, the Power Ministry had said.

The plants include that of the Ratnagiri power project at Dabhol in Maharashtra, and of the firms GMR, GVK andLanco, for running a total 5,070 MW capacity.

"These plants would generate 8.81 billion units of electricity which will be supplied at or below Rs 4.70 per unit to thepurchaser discoms (distribution companies) during the period from 1st October 2016 to 31st March 2017," the statementsaid.

"This will involve government support of Rs 187.14 crore from the Power System Development Fund," it added.According to the ministry, 29 plants comprising 14,305 MW capacity had no supply of domestic gas and were eligible

to participate in the latest auction process."Fourteen plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 7,575 MW participated in the auction process for Phase IV," it

said.Source: Indo-Asian News Service

India considering long-term gas contracts for power plants: Goyal

The Union Cabinet approved a set of reforms, including simplified labour laws and technology upgradation for the made-ups sector. “The interventions are expected to boost employment in the textiles sector and create jobs for up to 11 lakhpersons, lead to increase in exports and enhance benefits to the workers in the textiles and apparel sector,” said an offi-cial release.

Made-ups, which includes products like towelsand bedsheets, is the second largest employer inthe textiles sector after apparel. The governmentwill provide production incentive through en-hanced Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme(TUFS) subsidy of additional 10% for made-upssimilar to what is provided to garments based onadditional production and employment after threeyears.

On labour laws front, the government increasedthe permissible overtime up to 100 hours perquarter in made-ups manufacturing sector besidesmaking employees’ contribution to EPF optionalfor employees earning less than Rs 15,000 permonth.

These incentives are part of the Rs 6,006-crore package announced for the apparel sector in June . “The textiles in-dustry welcomes the government’s initiative to support the made-ups sector. This will help India in...creating huge em-ployment, earning foreign exchange and creating traction for the fabrics and yarn sectors.

Since the maximum sourcing for made-up sector is from the domestic industry, it will also help in Make in India plan,”said Binoy Job, secretary general, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry(CITI).

The government will give additional 3.67 per cent share of employer’s contribution in addition to 8.33 per cent cov-ered under Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana for all new employees enrolling in EPFO for the first three years ofemployment as a special incentive to made-ups sector.

Source: The Economic Times

Cabinet clears easier labour laws, techupgradation for textiles sector



Under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission(NAM), the Central Government is providing financial as-sistance to State/UT Governments for co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), CommunityHealth Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs), setting up of 50 bedded integrated AYUSH hospitals and upgrada-tion of AYUSH hospitals/dispensaries. In addition,Central Government is also providing assistancefor supply of AYUSH medicines for the treatmentof common diseases.

The All India Institute of Ayurveda establishedat New Delhi is to be operational during the cur-rent year 2016-17. The Institute has been con-ceived as an Apex Institute of Ayurveda with 200bedded referral hospital for imparting education inthe field of Ayurveda at M.D. and Ph.D level.

The construction work of the following two newInstitutes is complete and these Institutes are tobe operational during the current year 2016-17:

(i) North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Ho-moeopathy (NEIAH), Shillong: A state of the art In-stitute, consisting of Ayurveda College and Homoeopathy College, alongwith attached hospital, of Ayurveda andHomoeopathy of 100 beds and 50 beds respectively. The objective of the institute is to provide better medical/clinical fa-cilities to the people of North East region and Sikkim.

(ii) North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine (NEIFM), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh: It is a Centre of Excellence andApex Research Centre for all aspects of Folk Medicine knowledge. The objective of the Institute is to provide better med-ical/clinical facilities in the region.

The Govt. has also planned to establish an All India Institute of Homoeopathy at Narela, Delhi and All India Institute ofUnani Medicine at Ghaziabad.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri ShripadYesso Naik in writ-ten reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.


Three new Institutes of AYUSH to becomeoperational soon: Shri Shripad Naik



The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,053.40 million at the end of August 2016 to 1,074.24 mil-lion at the end of September 2016, showing a monthly growth rate of 1.98 per cent, official data showed.

The urban subscription increased from 606.46 million at the end of August to 624.38 million at the end of Septemberwhile rural subscription also increased from446.94 million to 449.86 million during the sameperiod, according to data released by the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The monthly growth rates of urban and ruralsubscription were 2.95 per cent and 0.65 per centrespectively during September 2016, while overalltele-density in India increased from 82.54 at theend of August 2016 to 84.09 at the end of Septem-ber 2016.

The total wireless subscriber base increasedfrom 1,028.88 million at the end of August to1,049.74 million at the end of September, therebyregistering a monthly growth rate of 2.03 per cent.

Wireline subscriber base declined from 24.51million at the end of August 2016 to 24.49 million at the end of September 2016.

In the month of September 2016, a total of 5 million requests were received for mobile number portability.Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Telecom subscribers grew by 1.98% inSeptember: TRAI



WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN >> TRADE NEWS

A high level Israeli delegation led by Minister for Science, Technology and Space Mr.Ofir Akunis, including three mem-bers of Israeli parliament met Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences. The visit ofthe Israeli S&T and Space Minister to India fol-lows the visit of the President of Israel to Indialast month. In the meeting between the two Min-ister’s both sides agreed to give boost to the bilat-eral cooperation in science and technologyunderthe aegis of the S&T Agreement concluded be-tween India and Israel in 1993. Next year willmark 25 years of diplomatic relationship betweenthe two countries.

Welcoming the delegation, Dr. Harsh Vardhanremarked that India values its science and tech-nology cooperation with Israel which is a leadinginnovative nation of the world. He further addedthat we would like to identify new opportunitiesand mechanisms to expand and upscale our coop-eration agenda by creating a value based relation-ship which can contribute to the 21st centuryknowledge economy.

India and Israel together have implemented alarge number of cutting edge research projects in applied areas covering Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology;Human Genomics; Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology; Imaging Sensor & Robotics; Solar Energy; Communication &Information Technology; and Lasers & Electro-optics. This has led to new knowledge creation through high impact pub-lications in peer reviewed international journals.

As a follow-up to the India-Israel Joint S&T Committee meeting which was held in Jerusalem earlier this year, thetwo Ministers agreed to step up the collaboration in the next two years by providing U.S. dollar 1 million from each sideto support new R&D projects in the cutting edge areas of ‘Big Data Analytics in Health Care’ and ‘Security in CyberSpace’. The joint projects will be awarded to the partnering academic and R&D laboratories from the two countries dur-ing the next year. As a part of these projects, student exchanges will be encouraged in order to connect the next genera-tion and sustain the pipeline of future collaboration.

In recognition of the importance of promoting women in science it was agreed to consider special initiatives to supportwomen in science and technology through new joint programs in this area. Further, in order to engage best and bright re-searchers from India and Israel who can provide the future excitement in the science and technology relationship, it wassuggested to hold ‘Frontiers of Science and Engineering Symposium’ targeted to the next generation future leaders, cut-ting across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

The potential avenues and mechanism for collaboration particularly leading to establishment of ‘Networked ResearchCenters’ between the academic and R&D institutions from the two countries was also mooted. The virtual networked

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India and Israel to step-up Science andTechnology Cooperation


centre mechanism will help to leverage collaborative advantage by connecting the best performing research groups. Tothis effect, a joint declaration of intent was signed by the two Ministers for further follow-up.

The science and technology relationship between India and Israel has been unique in also promoting industrial R&Dcooperation through academia-industry participation which has the potential to create new intellectual property, proto-types and products. This collaborative program is particularly significant in context to the Make in India and other na-tional missions of the Indian government. The international industrial R&D cooperation of Department of Science &Technology (DST) with MATIMOP, the Israeli Industry Center for R&D, is administered through the Global Innovation andTechnology Alliance (GITA) - platform of Confederation of Indian Industry(CII).

Dr. Harsh Vardhan remarked that by connecting the academic institutions and industries from both countries we willnot only stimulate new knowledge creation but also foster innovation and techno-entrepreneurship. Both countriesshould continue their commitment to further strengthen this strand of our bilateral S&T cooperation which is of mutualrelevance and in line with our national priority.


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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the MoU be-tween India and United Kingdom (UK) to support Ease of Doing Business in India. The MoU was signed earlier this month.

The MoU shall enable exchange of officials from both the Governments to facilitate sharing of best practises, offeringtechnical assistance and enhanced implementation of reforms. The collaboration shall also cover State Governments in itsambit. The UK government has shown interest tooffer expertise in the following areas:

a) Support to small businesses and start upsb) Starting business and registrationc) Paying taxes and tax administrationd) Insolvencye) Construction permitsf) Getting electricityg) Risk based framework for inspection and

regulatory regimesh) Trading across the bordersi) Competition economicsj] Getting creditk) Drafting of laws and regulationsI) Reducing stock and flow of regulationm) Impact assessment of regulationsCurrently, India is ranked 130th out of 190 economies (as per Doing Business Report, 2017). The UK Government has

achieved phenomenal improvement in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings in recent years. The beneficiaries include theofficials from Central Government Ministries / Departments and State Governments through sharing of best practises, ca-pacity building etc. Each side shall bear the cost of travel and logistics for its officials as well as for co-hosting trainings/seminar/conferences.

The MoU shall facilitate various agencies of the UK government to offer professional courses on better regulation draftingfor officials, capacity-building of frontline inspectors, sharing of best practises, etc. The collaboration is expected to expediteadoption of innovative practises by the Government of India, State Governments and their agencies leading to easing of regu-latory environment in the country and fostering of conducive business climate in India.


Cabinet approves MoU between India andUnited Kingdom (UK)

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India and Indonesia signed three agreements following delegation-level talks here headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modiand visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

"Agreements that advance a strategic partnership. PM @narendramodi & Prez @jokowi witness exchange of agreementsin three different fields," External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) wassigned on cooperation in the area of youth andsports.

Another MoU was signed on cooperation in thearea of standardisation.

A joint communique was also signed on volun-tary international cooperation to combat illegal, un-regulated and unreported fishing and to promotesustainable fisheries governance.

Earlier in the day, Widodo, who assumed thepresidency of Indonesia in October 2014, was ac-corded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bha-van here.

He is being accompanied by his wife Iriana JokoWidodo, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Trade, Industry, Investment, and Health and and a very high-level business delega-tion which includes the President of Kadin, the premier business chamber of Indonesia.

This is the first presidential visit from Indonesia to India in nearly six years since the visit of then President Susilo Bam-bang Yudhoyono in January 2011.


India, Indonesia sign three agreements

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India can accelerate to 5G, says Intel prezHyderabad-born Venkata Murthy Renduchintala is seen as the No. 2 at Intel. Brought in late last year from Qualcommwith a whopping $25-million compensation, Murthy is designated president — the only person in the chip maker's execu-tive management team to carry that title. All others, barring CEO Brian Krzanich, are sundry VPs. Murthy's responsibili-ties include the PC chip business, Intel's biggest, as also internet-of-things, a space that many expect is set to explode. Inhis first interaction with Indian media, Murthy spoke ex-clusively with TOI on his mandate to transform Intel.Excerpts:

Very little is known about your background, espe-cially your years in India. Tell us a little about it...

I was born in Hyderabad and all of my family is fromHyderabad. I moved to England when I was three,where I completed my education all the way from uni-versity to post-graduation. But up to the age of 16, Ispent my summers in Hyderabad or in Eluru (inAndhra). My background is in electrical engineering andI did a PhD in digital communications. I spent my form-ative years with Philips Electronics and then moved tothe US with Philips in 1997. From there, I moved toQualcomm, and spent 12 years there, moving to being co-president of their semiconductor division. Then I joined Intel atthe end of last year to help Brian (CEO) take Intel's transformation to the next stage. So I would describe myself assomebody who is fundamentally Indian by upbringing and values, but has had the privilege to work at a global stage.Through my employment, I've been able to visit India 3-4 times a year over the last decade. I know India very well.

You spoke about the transformation strategy you have been mandated with. Could you elaborate?We are very strong in the PC and the data centre spaces. But as we look at the future opportunities for Intel, they re-

quire a much greater assimilation of the total skill set of Intel. For example, if you look at internet-of-things, at its grand-est scale, while a lot of emphasis is placed on the client environment (end devices), we always talk about everythingbecoming interconnected and being able to share information. That communication needs to be supported by an under-lying network and data centre infrastructure. So, Intel, I think, is uniquely positioned in being able to play not only in theclient space — providing compute capability, connectivity and application diversity be it in connected sensors, robotics,drones, connected cars, vehicle telematics — but also in providing the network infrastructure and data analytics in thedata centre, thereby providing end-to-end capabilities in IoT.

So what would be the newer spaces you move into?We're taking our data centre technology — high-performance CPU, data distribution, storage, network within the data

centre — into the fabric of the network. The new cases we are seeing are generating such vast amounts of data that thetechnology that used to live within the data centre needs to be integrated into the fabric of the network because of theever increasing demands for data bandwidth and lower latencies.

A classic scenario is autonomous vehicles. Unlike a smartphone device, which could take 2-3 seconds to establish acall, there's no way you can tolerate a latency of 2-3 seconds if you see a pedestrian or car in front of you in a networkthat supports autonomous driving, and when all the decisions are made in the cloud. You have to start pushing a lotmore data from the remote data centre much closer to the proximity of the client device, which means you now need thesame data centre capability pushed to the edge of the cloud. This is playing to the same core skill set that Intel providedin the data centre.

WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN >> NEWS ROUND UP

How close are you to building such networks?They are already in place and it's a case of continuing to grow and push the technical ambition of what those net-

works can go forward with. As we move towards the era of 5G, the networks will require to be more flexible and extensi-ble in the services they can perform. Let me give you some perspective on that — when you upgrade the software onyour smartphone, it gives you new capabilities and greater utility of the handset. Now there's a similar drive to see thatsame is done in infrastructure. Up till today, network infrastructure has been developed on very specific pieces of silicon,hardware and software to have very specific functions, and when the network has needed to evolve to support new serv-ices, it's had to require a fairly major capital intensive hardware upgrade programme. Going forward, there will be amove much more towards a software-defined network. That way, when the network needs to evolve, you have a simpleway of moving it forward.

And India is strategically and advantageously positioned in that perspective because it doesn't have the extensive in-vestment in legacy infrastructure that people are still trying to get the return on investment in. India can quickly acceler-ate to 5G, and the capabilities of 5G is so eloquently aligned with the Prime Minister's Digital India vision in that it's goingto be the fabric that drives concepts such as Smart Cities, autonomous navigation, and the ability to distribute data in amanner which allows new use cases and applications to be performed.

To what extent is the India R&D centre part of all these new initiatives?Intel's been in India for over 20 years, we have probably spent somewhere in the region of $3 billion on R&D in India.

This is about an environment that offers us access to highly educated talent in very large numbers. The fact that we areable to conduct all of our discussions in English gives us great geographical timeline diversity and there's a track recordof excellent delivery from the organization and I think India will continue to be a very important part of our R&D organi-zation and it will only grow from where it is today. India plays a role in almost all of Intel's portfolios, going from the PCplatforms to data centre to IoT to connectivity.

Source: The Times of India

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WEEKLYECONOMIC BULLETIN >> NEWS ROUND UP16


New civil n-pact to boost India-Vietnam ties: ModiPrime Minister Narendra Modi said that a new civil nuclear agreement between India and Vietnam will boost ties with theSoutheast Asian nation seen as a crucial partner of New Delhi in that region.

"The Prime Minister said that the bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, being signedtoday (Friday), will further strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam," ExternalAffairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media after visiting President of Vietnam's National Assembly,Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, called on Modi here.

The agreement between the Indian Global Centre for Nuclear Partnership and Vietnam Atomic Institute was decidedduring Modi's visit to Hanoi in September this year, while India raised its relationship with Vietnam from "Strategic Part-nership" to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership".

It was the first prime ministerial visit from India to Vietnam after Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit in 2001.In a joint statement issued following that visit, both Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc "ex-

pressed satisfaction at three decades of bilateral cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes pursuantto the agreements signed by the two countries in 1986".

Friday's agreement is important given that Vietnam is India's country coordinator for the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (Asean), a region which is the focus of India's Act East Policy.

In November, India signed a civil nuclear deal with Japan during Modi's visit to Tokyo.Apart from Vietnam and Japan, other countries with which India now has civil nuclear agreements include the US,

Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Britain, South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Argentina.In his meeting with Ngan on Friday, Modi also called for increased interactions between the parliaments of India and

Vietnam and the institution of an exchange programme for young parliamentarians between the two countries."The Prime Minister recalled their earlier meeting in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September 2016," Swarup

said."He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women

across the world."Source: Indo-Asian News Service

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Ministry of SteelGovernment of India :::�-1(-%67))/);32�-1

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