Researchers at CSIR-NCL have developed a technology for producing dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), potentially reducing India's reliance on imports and enhancing energy security.
India may adopt a "calibrated" and a "step-by-step" approach to easing norms on investments originating from China, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday. He was in a conversation with A K Bhattacharya on Day 1 of Business Standard's two-day annual event, Manthan 2026. The minister said foreign direct investment (FDI) from China was certainly not "banned", but it goes through an approval process. "The government's approach at the moment is to accelerate the approval process."
Customs regimes can lead to labyrinthine legal disputes. Budget 2026 must recognise that an excessively defensive Customs posture can itself become a trade barrier, point out Mukesh Butani and Shankey Agrawal.
The matter has now been escalated and the ministry has written to Customs, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to investigate it thoroughly.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will engage stakeholders in the e-commerce space to establish standards with the objective of self-regulation, said its deputy director Parul Gupta at the Internet Commerce Summit 2022 in Bengaluru. "Standardisation will allow parties to transact qualified commodities and services at any location and time," said Gupta. BIS recently released standards for e-commerce players, travel portals, and food delivery platforms that publish consumer reviews online, as part of the government's efforts to crack down on fake reviews, said Gupta.
Various industry bodies have sought immediate government intervention through the imposition of anti-dumping duties, claiming India has seen a surge in imports of Chinese goods over the past two weeks.
The US wants India to recognise internationally accredited labs, harmonise labelling requirements and the validity period of test reports and certification with global practices, and eliminate retesting requirements.
Since India relies heavily on specialised imported fasteners for critical applications in industries, such as automobiles, aerospace, electronics, and defence, their sudden unavailability will jeopardise production.
The USTR report, released just ahead of the US' April 2 deadline for implementing reciprocal tariffs, has also cited high tariffs and price caps, which have not increased in line with inflation, as key obstacles for US businesses.
Consumer rights regulator CCPA has ordered a detailed probe into complaints related to alleged "deficiencies" in services and electric two-wheelers manufactured by Ola Electric. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) headed by Nidhi Khare has directed the Director General (Investigation), who is also head of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), to investigate this matter.
Footwear companies were among the weakest performers in the consumer discretionary sector during the October-December quarter (Q3) of 2024-25. The combined revenue growth of the top four listed firms was just 2.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) - the lowest among major discretionary categories.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates India's largest airport, dismissed the expert committee report as "inaccurate", claiming it relied on "probabilities, hypothesis, and conjectures" rather than empirical data or complete documentation.
High nitrate levels have been found in groundwater of 440 districts across India, with 20 per cent of the samples collected exceeding the permissible nitrate concentration, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has said in a report.
Proliferation of home chargers of around 7 KWh and above, which take six to seven hours to fully charge a car depending on the model, bring running costs down by a third or so. That, coupled with the increasing range of modern electric cars, can lead to a massive increase in sales.
The state is in the process of grooming a supplier ecosystem, for which India is almost entirely dependent on imports.
Corroded nuts and bolts likely contributed to the collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue by causing a failure in steel members forming the frame inside the statue, according to a structural engineer.
From toys, footwear and furniture to insulated flasks, smart meters, and air coolers - the Central government over the last decade has mandated higher standards for production and imports of such items. Sample this: Till 2014, there were 14 Quality Control Orders (QCOs) covering 106 products. By the latest count, there are 156 QCOs on 672 products.
Jewellers in India, the world's second largest gold consuming country after China, have started receiving more inquiries for purchase of gold or silver immediately after the Reserve Bank's announcement to withdraw Rs 2,000 notes from circulation. However, there is no panic buying of the precious metal unlike the situation witnessed in 2016 during demonetisation, jewellers body GJC said on Sunday. In fact in the last two days, the actual gold purchase has been less in exchange of Rs 2,000 notes due to strict Know your Customer (KYC) norms although sources said some jewellers have started charging a 5-10 per cent premium, taking the gold prices to Rs 66,000 per 10 grams level.
Pant, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently secretary in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.
The government on Thursday said 18,600 toys have been seized in the last one month from major retail stores, including those of Hamleys and Archies, at airports and malls across India for lack of BIS quality mark and use of fake licences. Meanwhile, consumer protection regulator CCPA has also issued notices to three major e-commerce players -- Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal -- for alleged violation of toys quality control order, it said. Since January 1, 2021, the government has made it mandatory for toys to conform with safety norms specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a national standard setting body.
Greenwashing is making misleading or false environment-friendly claims about a product. Consumers in India currently do not have any way of telling whether a claim is authentic or greenwashing. And one never hears of action against any company for making false claims of being environment-friendly.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed a lightweight bullet-proof jacket that weighs nine kilogram and meets the qualitative requirements of the Indian Army, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
The Chinese dependence is far from over, industry players are also citing a shortage of electronic toys in the country.
Parle Agro, which sells beverages such as Frooti in small tetra packs, has already started importing paper straws. Dabur India, which sells its fruit juices in tetra packs under the brand Real, is also considering importing paper straws.
The government on Tuesday said it is fully prepared to implement mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts from June 1, 2021. Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature at present. The Centre, in November 2019, had announced that hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts would be made mandatory across the country from January 15, 2021.
According to industry sources, domestic toy manufacturers are seeing a sharp rise in sales during the current financial year. On January 1, 2021, India had banned the sale of toys that are not certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). This meant that all factories churning out toys to be sold in India had to be certified by the bureau along with mandatory product testing, including for units abroad.
Dhanteras has cheered up jewellers as it has turned out to be the best in three years, thanks to the lower price of the yellow metal and pent-up demand. In Mumbai's Zaveri bazaar, buyers came in out force and jewellers did not have to depend on freebies to induce sales, even though all of them had announced some offers. In fact, more discounts were announced for diamond and studded jewellery.
'If you want to change everything all of a sudden to polyester, then the production of khadi flags will come under trouble.'
Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature at present.
Ola Electric became the latest among electric scooter (e-scooter) makers to have started the exercise of recalling a specific batch of its model after a rap on the knuckles by the government. Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday advised electric vehicle (EV) companies to act responsibly by identifying and recalling defective batches without waiting for orders or guidelines from the ministry. The Bengaluru-based start-up is conducting pre-emptive diagnostics and health check on 1,441 scooters, it said in a statement on Sunday.
In a first for India, bullion derivatives contracts will be settled on a blockchain platform. This will help in global acceptance of gold refined by Indian bullion refineries, giving a fillip to the local industry, exports, as well as investments. From November 1, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will accept gold delivery only on the blockchain platform.
The luxury car market leader will be producing the new-generation cars, sedans, SUVs, and AMG performance cars at one facility.
Cars priced above Rs 25 lakh account for 1 per cent in India's 3 million-car market and the share has remained unchanged over the last five years.
The move will help to curb the grey market for sub-standard electronics products.
The hallmarking of gold, which is voluntary in nature at present, is a purity certification of the precious metal.
Hallmarking will guarantee the purity or fineness of the precious metal.
As imports reduced, Eveready clocked significant volume growth in batteries.
Streamlining its delivery network and shifting focus back to the mass segment - at a time when competitors were struggling to restore normalcy in operations due to the pandemi - aided the firm's revival.
According to figures available with the Central Ground Water Board, while 1,940 licences have been issued in the country for packaged drinking water, only 12 of them have been issued for bottling of mineral water. Andhra Pradesh -- with 471 licences to manufacture packaged drinking water -- leads the tally, according to the Bureau of Indian Standards.
A study carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment has revealed the alarming fact that most of the popular brands of paints available in India contain high quantities of lead, a toxin especially dangerous for children.The CSE's Pollution Monitoring Laboratory tested these brands for their lead content over 2008 and 2009. It found that 72 per cent of the samples had lead much higher than the voluntary limit specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
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