businessfortnight

Mumbai, March , 2019:  For the fifth consecutive year, a global collaboration across 80 stock exchanges around the world plan to ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’, to celebrate International Women’s Day 2019 (Friday, 8 March 2019). The events are a partnership between IFC, Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Global Compact, UN Women, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs, to raise awareness about the business case for women’s economic empowerment and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development. NSE joins Global Exchanges in Ringing the Bell for Gender Equality As part of the events, participants are encouraged to make commitments to improve gender equality in their market, encourage implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a joint initiative between UN Women and the UN Global Compact that provides holistic guidance to business on empowering women. NSE invited the women leaders from NSE

The member nations of RCEP bloc must empower their negotiators to adopt flexibility for resolving pending issues coming in the way of concluding the negotiations for the proposed mega trade agreement, Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on March 2. The proposed mega trade deal, Regional Cooperation for Economic Partner (RCEP) agreement, is being negotiated by 16 countries — 10-member Asean group and India, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. “We should empower our negotiators with mandate to show flexibilities and accommodation on outstanding and pending issues,” Prabhu said at the RCEP ministerial meeting at Siem Reap In Cambodia. He said that a lot of ground still needs to be covered this year “We should be mindful of the limitations ahead, given that there are only three more rounds this year at the technical level,” he said. So far 25 rounds of talks have been concluded but the members have yet to finalise the number of goods on which customs duty will be

China said on March 2 that it welcomed the release of language from the United State Trade Representative’s office (USTR) delaying a scheduled hike in US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. In a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Commerce, citing an unidentified official at China’s State Council Tariff Commission, China said that it was aware of the USTR’s announcement to maintain tariffs at 10 percent until further notice, and welcomed the step. China says it welcomes delay on US tariff increase The USTR released language to delay a scheduled hike in tariffs on Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent on Friday, ahead of the publication of a notice next Tuesday. President Donald Trump had announced the delay on Sunday as trade talks between the two sides had made progress. source: moneycontrol

The fourth edition of India Pharmaceutical Forum, held this week in Mumbai, that brings together industry leaders, regulators, and quality heads of various companies on a single platform was conspicuous with the absence of one person, who was ubiquitous and the driving force behind the industry’s most important calendar event. Weekly wrap: Indian pharma loses its powerful voice with demise of DG Shah That person is Dilip G Shah, the Secretary General of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), who passed away last week. Shah who was fondly called as ‘DG’, left the industry colleagues and journalists who interacted closely with him in a state of shock. The 77-year old Shah, who graduated from IIM – Ahmedabad, had a long stint at Warner-Lambert, which was later acquired by US drug giant Pfizer. In 1997, after 31 years of service, he took early retirement to start Vision Consulting Group to assist companies in evolving investor-friendly public policies and facilitate market share expansion.