January 2012 - 2
Bilateral trade between India & Japan to be $25 billion by 2014
India and Japan on December 28
set a target to increase bilateral
trade to $25 billion by 2014 and
increase investments and economic
cooperation.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Noda said India and Japan enjoyed warm
diplomatic relations and the two countries
should further step up business and
economic cooperation. “We should capitalise
on our complementarities,” Noda
said while addressing a business meeting.
He said India and Japan were stepping
up cooperation in various areas including
economic partnership.
Accompanied by senior officials and
heads of leading Japanese companies,
Noda was on a two-day official visit to
India.
Addressing the meeting, Commerce
and Industry Minister Anand Sharma
said: “The year 2011 is a watershed year
in our relations as we signed the
Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA), which has begun a
whole new chapter in our economic
partnership, unlocking the true
potential of trade between our two
countries.”
“ I am hopeful that CEPA will further
deepen economic engagement in terms
of trade in goods, services, and investment;
contributing immensely to mutual
prosperity”. Japan is an invaluable and
strategic partner in the process of India’s
development. India-Japan has to play
major role in the globally changing
economic landscape, he added.
Sharma stated that, as a result
of coming in to force of CEPA, the bilateral
trade was likely to increase substantially
and expressed hope that the target
of $25 billion by 2014 would be
achieved during the specified period.
The bilateral trade between India and
Japan during the year 2009-10 was of the
volume of $10.36 billion. The bilateral
trade during the year 2010-11 reached
to $13.823.
Lauding Japan’s help for the proposed
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, the
Minister said, “The corridor envisages
investment of $100 billion and we have
now decisively moved from the stage of
planning and design to the stage of
implementation.”
On October 24, 2011, the National
Manufacturing Policy was unveiled and
seven industrial townships have been
identified as the first National Investment
and Manufacturing Zones based on
models of sustainable development and
smart communities, which has been perfected
in Japan. The Japanese
Government is committing $4.5 billion
for implementation of this project.
Asking for Japanese Government to
invest in infrastructure sector, Sharma
said: “Over the next couple of decades,
we will see massive expansion in Indian
infrastructure. In the coming five years
itself, we have targeted to invest over a
trillion dollars in creating capacities of
infrastructure which will further catalyse
India’s economic growth. India has a
structured energy dialogue with Japan,
which seeks to promote a structured
cooperation in this sector. India has
made rapid strides in the renewable
energy sector.”
“In the field of agro-processing, we aim
to double our food processing capabilities
in the next five years and the establishment
of 64 Agro Processing Zones
and Food Parks provides an area of
immense opportunities. This is a segment
where Japan can be an able partner
to develop cross-sectoral linkages in
the entire value addition chain,” the
Minister said.
The Minister said: “India’s pharmaceutical
sector is acquiring a global leadership
position and Indian generics today
constitute nearly a fifth of global supplies.
Our pharmaceutical companies can be of
immense value in providing affordable
healthcare, which is much needed in a
country of Japan’s demographic profile.”
India’s national anthem completes a century
India’s lilting National Anthem
‘Jana Gana Mana...’, completed
100 years on December 27.
First sung by a choir on this date in
1911 at the 26th session of the Indian
National Congress in Kolkata, ‘Jana
Gana Mana’ was composed and set to
tune by Rabindranath Tagore — the
first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1913 — days after the
British government annulled its plans
for the partition of Bengal.
Independent India’s Constituent
Assembly adopted the first stanza of
the Brahmo hymn as the National
Anthem on January 24, 1950, after an
intense debate that saw Bankim
Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ‘Vande
Mataram’ lose out narrowly.
“It’s a proud moment for us.
‘Jana Gana Mana’ is not only the most
beautiful song, but also a comprehensive
description of our unity in
diversity. It is the symbol of Indian
unity,” said classical vocalist Ustad
Rashid Khan.
In 1919, Tagore sang it at the Besant
Theosophical College in Andhra
Pradesh’s Madanapalle town. The college
subsequently adopted it as their
prayer song.
Within days, Tagore translated the
song into English and along with Irish
poet James Cousins’s wife Margaret
Elizabeth Cousins set down the notation.
The song came to be known as
“The Morning Song of India”, which
became India’s National Anthem.
Since then, the anthem has moved
Indians both at home and abroad.
They have sung it with passion, standing
in unison, often shedding tears
during intense emotional moments,
be it on the sports field or even in a
cinema theatre.
“It is truly the symbol of unity as it is
the only song which people from east
to west, north to south know
and sing,” says Sahitya Akademi
president and eminent writer Sunil
Gangopadhyay.
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