Apple's China Decoupling May Create 5 Lakh Jobs In India; FPIs From Mauritius Under Greater Scrutiny

Monitor Cost Increase Due To Red Sea Trouble: FinMin To RBI, IRDAI

The finance ministry has written to the banking and insurance regulators to help Indian exporters cope with trade disruptions in the Red Sea due to Houthi attacks on cargo ships, the Economic Times reported. The regulators have been asked to monitor export credit availability and insurance premium increases to track difficulties for traders. 

The finance ministry wrote to the RBI and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to do so since they could potentially inflate export costs, officials said. Trade via the Suez Canal trade dropped by 50 per cent in the first two months of 2024. Read more

FPI Route For Investors Via Mauritius Gets Tougher Norms 

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from Mauritius could face greater scrutiny after the amendment in the India-Mauritius tax treaty has introduced a principle purpose test to prevent treaty abuse by taxpayers, the Business Standard reported. 

The Mauritius government had in February decided to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement with India to align with the OECD proposal on base erosion and profit shifting. Although the pact between India and Mauritius was signed on March 7, the protocol of the amendment was made public on April 10. The norms are yet to be notified by the Indian government, after which they will take effect. Read more

EPFO Wage Ceiling For Coverage Could Be Hiked To Rs 21,000

The wage ceiling for coverage under the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may go up to Rs 21,000 per month from the existing Rs 15,000, the Economic Times reported. The report said if the government decides to do so it would widen the social security coverage. The proposal, which has been on the backburner for years now, is being re-looked at.

Millions of workers are expected to benefit with the enhanced wage ceiling as minimum wages in most states are anywhere between Rs 18,000 and Rs 25,000, depriving them of any form of social security. The wage ceiling for EPFO coverage was last raised in 2014 to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500. More here 

Tesla, Reliance May Join Hands To Manufacture EVs In India

Tesla may be scouting for a local partner to set up its operations in India. Highly placed sources say the US electric vehicles major is in talks with Reliance Industries for a possible joint venture to build the manufacturing facility in the country, the Hindu Businessline reported.

“Talks are at initial stages and have been ongoing for over a month,” the report quoted a person aware of the development as saying. The move shouldn’t be construed as RIL’s entry into the automobile space, the person said, adding RIL’s objective in the joint venture is to build capacities for electric vehicles in India. Read more

Apple Ecosystem Could Employ 5 Lakh People In India In 3 Years

The number of people employed by Apple’s cosystem of component makers and suppliers in India directly could be around five lakh directly in the next three years, the Economic Times reported.  This will be an over three-fold increase as the phone maker moves half its supply chain from China to India. 

Apple is looking to increasingly distance itself from China and wants to replicate its China experience on local value addition from its Indian suppliers. Apple has emerged as the country’s largest blue-collar job creator with 1.5 lakh jobs created across the phone maker’s supplier network, since the start of the production-linked incentive scheme for smartphones in August 2021. Read more

Older IITs Find It Difficult To Find Winter Placements For Students

The older IITs at Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Kanpur, Madras (Chennai), Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati and Varanasi (BHU), are finding it difficult to place students, the Economic Times reported. 

At least 30 per cent of students are still unplaced across the older IITs this season, and offers are down 15-25 per cent from the same time last year. Apart from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, the other older schools didn't provide official placement numbers. IIT Bombay data showed 33 per cent students yet to land jobs. At IIT Delhi, about 1,083 of the 1,814 students got placed and some 40 per cent are yet to get jobs. Read more

Centre Clears 11 EV Manufacturers For EMPS Incentives 

Eleven electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, including Ather Energy, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Ola Electric, and Mahindra & Mahindra, have been cleared by the Ministry of Heavy Industries to receive incentives under the recently introduced Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024, Business Standard reported.

The EMPS, with an allocation of Rs 500 crore, replaces the FAME-II scheme. It would run from April 1 to July 31. Earlier, EV companies had raised concerns about missing out on incentives for sales made post-April 1. Companies that have got the approval will be eligible for incentives from their respective approval dates. More here