Aug. 4 – A recent Supreme Court decision has ruled that payment made in kind will also be subject to taxes in India.
This was based on an appeal made in court by local company Kanchanganga Sea Foods regarding its payment in kind to Hong Kong-based company Eastwide Shipping for lending the use of vessels and personnel. The Indian company gave Eastwide 85 percent of fish catch as payment. It was able to get its foreign partner official permission to fish in an Indian economic zone. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun. 25 – India will exempt tax on services that deal with low-cost housing construction, power distribution, services within ports and airports, selected tournaments and championships, foreign travelers in transit and those flying to and from the northeast starting July 1.
“Repair of ships or boats or vessels belonging to the Government of India, including the Navy or the Coast Guard or the Customs, but does not include government owned public sector undertakings,” the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said as to the services exempted from tax. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun. 23 - India is considering lifting its foreign direct investment cap on the insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent according to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
“We have committed to allow 49 percent and the necessary legislation is pending before the House, as the leg process will be completed it will be done…in a year or so.” Pranab Mukherjee told NDTV during an Indo-U.S. CEO forum in Washington. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun. 22 – The country’s bio-tech industry grew by 17 percent to US$3 billion during the 2009-10 financial year compared to the previous period, with the bio-pharma market contributing to the majority of growth.
According to a survey conducted by the Association of Biotechnology-led Enterprises and the BioSpectrum journal, the bio-pharma made up 60 percent of the industry’s growth followed by bio-services and bio-agri. Biotechnology companies located in western India were the industry’s top performers with revenues comprising 46 percent of total bio-tech market value. The survey projects that the industry will continue to grow with future annual growth forecasted to reach 20 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 10 - India has successfully decoded the human genome locally making it part of the only six countries in the world to do so.
Other countries who have been able to accomplish the feat are the United States, United Kingdom, China, Canada and South Korea. India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says the breakthrough will allow pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs more attuned with Indian physiology. Read the rest of this entry »
Sept. 30 - India’s pharmaceutical and fine chemicals exports rose by 29 percent Rs 39,538 compared to the previous year, said Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, said Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma during the inauguration of the Indo-Africa Pharma Business last week.
The sector reported a compounded annual growth rate of 17.8 percent during the five-year period 2003-04 to 2007-08 reports The Hindu. “The growing exports of India in African countries are causing concern in multinational companies who have started a false campaign that the Indian generic medicines are counterfeit and substandard. This has to be countered effectively,” Sharma said. Read the rest of this entry »
Aug. 11 - India is expected to become a pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) hub in the next decade with the Department of Pharmaceuticals planning a road map for India to be a global player in the industry by 2020.
The plan is called Vision 2020. The department also plans to create a job of about five lakh in this industry in coming years and to contribute to the growth of India’s GDP.
For this, the government aims to make an annual expenditure of up to US$20 billion every year until 2020. Apart from this several R&D hubs are also being built in cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. There are plans to build a high-tech pharma city in Hyderabad on 800 to 900 acres of land.
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Aug. 7 - India is planning to file a World Trade Organization complaint that accuses the European Union of allowing multinational pharmaceutical companies to use the bloc’s strict patent laws to detain Indian generic drugs in transit to developing countries, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Since last year, customs officials in the Netherlands and Germany have seized Indian medicines on grounds that the broke EU patent laws. Indian pharmaceutical companies have been forced to pay more to move shipments to transit hubs outside the EU as well as hire legal help to allow the drugs shipped to their destination.
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By Vikas Srivastava
Jun. 18 - The government of India is implementing more initiatives to attract more foreign direct investment in its petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical sectors by establishing specific investment regions for this.
The Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs) will be established in the state of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The government plans to set up investment regions which will offer foreign and domestic players networking and a common infrastructure of services to provide cost benefit opportunities suitable for new ventures and leading to growth in production, exports and job creation.
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Jun. 9 - New Delhi has lodged a protest to the Chinese mission in Nigeria and China’s foreign trade ministry because of a large seizure of fake anti-malarial generic pharmaceuticals labeled “Made in India” were actually found to have been produced in China
The findings were reported by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria in a press release.
India’s Commerce Ministry sources told The Times of India: “We have had many complaints about such fake drugs from China being offloaded as Indian drugs in countries like Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast and West Africa — in general, where India has a substantial market share. But so far there has been no formal complaint. This is the first time that such a large international consignment has been seized and this will be taken up strongly with the Chinese side.”
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