Mandatory GeM procurement strengthens public procurement transparency while allowing cooperatives to participate as buyers.
Mandatory procurement through the Government e Marketplace (GeM) has been reinforced by an amendment to the General Financial Rules, 2017, making procurement of goods and services via GeM compulsory. GeM centralizes procurement online to reduce manual intervention, improve efficiency, and provide transparent access to seller and product information. The platform prioritizes inclusiveness by onboarding marginalized sellers, and the Union Cabinet has expanded GeM's mandate to allow cooperatives to act as buyers.

Index of Eight Core Industries growth signals broad production gains across key sectors, with provisional quarterly uptick year on year.
The Index of Eight Core Industries rose 12.7 per cent year on year in June 2022, driven by notable increases in Coal, Refinery Products, Cement and Electricity, while Crude Oil declined and Natural Gas recorded modest growth. The ICI, comprising eight sectoral indices that together account for 40.27 per cent of the IIP basket, showed provisional April-June 2022 23 quarter growth of 13.7 per cent; March 2022 growth was revised to 4.8 per cent. Data for April-June are provisional and index series include methodological updates for renewable electricity and a new steel product.

Diversifying the trade basket: multisectoral engagement and joint production to broaden bilateral commerce and investments.
Diversifying the trade basket and promoting multisectoral trade is the central objective, emphasising expansion in pharmaceuticals, information technology, infrastructure, hospitality and tourism, agriculture, food processing, fintech and cybersecurity through joint production, investment, capacity building and targeted public private engagement to broaden bilateral commerce.

India Uzbekistan relations pivot to trade, connectivity and digital cooperation to deepen bilateral economic ties.
The 13th session of the India-Uzbekistan Intergovernmental Commission focused on strengthening people-to-people ties and diversifying economic engagement into technology, digital payments, start-ups, space cooperation, agri and dairy, pharma, gems and jewellery, and MSME collaboration, while promoting regional connectivity and follow-up through joint working groups to drive trade growth.

Bilateral trade growth between India and GCC surged, indicating renewed export recovery and market concentration shifts.
Bilateral trade between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council rose from US$ 87.35 billion in FY 2020 21 to US$ 154.66 billion in FY 2021 22 (a 77.06% year on year increase), with a compounded annual growth rate of 10.57% since FY 2017 18. Export data for the last five financial years show the UAE and Saudi Arabia as principal markets, with increases also recorded for Oman and Qatar and smaller growth for Bahrain and Kuwait; figures are sourced to DGCIS and reported in a written parliamentary reply.

Mandatory public procurement through GeM: targets set for phased adoption and strict analytics-based monitoring to curb deviations.
The Government directed phased mandatory adoption of the national electronic procurement platform with high near-term and full-year procurement targets, requiring Advanced Analytics and AI/ML monitoring to detect deviant procurement behaviour and enable prompt corrective action, while promoting demand aggregation to reduce costs and enhancing supplier inclusivity.

Fisheries subsidies ban on IUU fishing and high-seas fishing permits rebuilding subsidies under sustainability conditions and S&DT.
The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies bans subsidies to vessels engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and prohibits subsidies for high-seas fishing, while allowing subsidies for non-IUU vessels and conditional subsidies to rebuild overfished stocks to biologically sustainable levels. It provides Special and Differential Treatment for Developing and Least Developed Countries through a transition period and reflects principles that larger historic subsidizers should assume greater obligations under polluter-pays and common but differentiated responsibility frameworks.

Production-Linked Incentive scheme for white goods spurs domestic component manufacturing and supply chain resilience, boosting global competitiveness.
Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for White Goods incentivises establishment of domestic component manufacturing for air conditioners and LED lights to raise domestic value addition, strengthen supply chain resilience, and attract distributed investment. DPIIT and government agencies facilitate clearances and convene industry roundtables to resolve issues and gather feedback. Industry reports capacity additions for compressors, control assemblies, aluminium stock, copper tubing, LED drivers, mechanical housings and PCBs, with multiple projects commissioned, aiming to scale manufacturing and position the sector for global competitiveness.

Mutual recognition of academic qualifications enables smoother student mobility and strengthens higher education collaboration internationally.
A memorandum establishes Mutual Recognition of Academic Qualifications between the two governments to create a formal mechanism for recognizing each other's higher education credentials, facilitate smoother cross-border student mobility, and expand joint academic and research collaboration among participating institutions.

Anticompetitive agreements found: trailer owner associations coordinated tariff fixing and restricted rivals, prompting regulatory action.
The Competition Commission of India found ten Trailer Owner Associations participated in collective tariff-fixing and imposed restrictions on NACFS members' use of their own trailers, establishing an arrangement that limited competition and fell within the presumption of appreciable adverse effect on competition; several TOAs failed to rebut participation and, on the evidence, the Commission directed the TOAs to cease and desist from such practices.

FDI in R&D sees surge, reflecting policy allowing full automatic route and encouraging technology investment.
India saw a marked rise in FDI equity inflows into the R&D sector in 2021, with major investor countries and concentrated corporate recipients; several states led by Karnataka showed strong year-on-year growth. FDI in R&D is permitted under the full automatic route, subject to applicable laws, regulations, security and other conditionalities, and policy aims to attract R&D-intensive FDI to supplement domestic capital, enable technology transfer, and promote innovation and economic growth.

Digital credit facilitation portal enables automated eligibility checks and digital loan approval with real-time tracking.
The Government launched a digital credit facilitation portal integrating beneficiaries, financial institutions and government agencies to provide eligibility guidance, subsidy checks, auto-recommendation of suitable schemes, digital verification and automated loan approval via an inbuilt rule engine, with real-time application tracking to streamline applications and disbursements for education, agriculture, business and livelihood loans.

Competition approval for acquisition of additional shareholding in a life insurer enables consolidation of joint control and regulatory clearance.
The Competition Commission granted competition approval for Ageas Insurance International NV to acquire additional shareholding in Ageas Federal Life Insurance Company Limited. Ageas, as ultimate holding company, currently holds a substantial minority stake and jointly controls the insurer with other shareholders. The transaction concerns expansion of shareholding in a life insurer offering term, child, ULIP, saving, retirement, health, group and online plans. A detailed regulatory order will follow outlining the assessment under the competition framework.

Merger control: Approval granted for indirect subscription in a healthcare technology company; detailed order to follow.
Approval was granted for the proposed combination involving the indirect subscription of over thirty percent of issued shares of CitiusTech by investment vehicles managed by Bain Capital and Bain Credit, representing approximately half the economic interest; a detailed regulatory order will follow. The investors are described as a diversified private equity firm and a global credit specialist, while CitiusTech is a holding entity controlling a healthcare technology services provider (CT India) that offers software engineering, professional services, QA automation, consulting, BI/analytics and business process outsourcing in healthcare.

Increase in voting rights: regulator approves proportional rise in investor's voting stake following company share buyback.
The Competition Commission of India approved an increase in the proportion of voting rights held by CPPIB in ReNew Energy Global plc resulting from ReNew's repurchase of Class A Ordinary Shares; the buyback reduces the aggregate number of voting shares and thereby proportionally increases CPPIB's voting stake without acquisition of additional shares.

Competition approval permits Shell's acquisition of Solenergi, transferring sole control of the renewable energy investor.
Approval granted under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 for the acquisition of 100% shareholding and sole control of Solenergi Power Private Limited by Shell Overseas Investments B.V. from Actis Solenergi Limited, clearing the proposed transfer of sole control of the Target in the merger control process.

Merger control approval: joint acquisition of Citrix and TIBCO by Vista- and Elliott-managed funds enabled via merger agreement.
CCI approved the acquisition by funds managed by Vista and funds and vehicles managed by Elliott, effectuated through an Agreement and Plan of Merger among Citrix, Picard Parent, Picard Merger Sub and TIBCO, whereby TIBCO will combine with Citrix and the Acquirers will obtain joint control of the combined Citrix/TIBCO business; notified parties include Elliott Alto Aggregator GP LLC, Picard Parent, Picard HoldCo LLC and Citrix Systems, Inc.

Startup ecosystem ranking identifies top jurisdictions and leaders across reform areas, and launches mentorship and digital market initiatives.
The Results of the States' Start up Ranking Exercise 2021 classify States and Union Territories into five categories, naming Gujarat and Karnataka as Best Performers among States and Meghalaya as Best Performer among UTs/NE States, and recognise leaders across seven reform areas (Institutional Support, Innovation, Procurement, Incubation, Funding, Mentorship, Capacity Building). The release outlines methodological features-multi stakeholder documentary evaluation across 26 action points and beneficiary surveys-and announces the National and State Specific Reports on the Startup India Portal to disseminate best practices and priority areas for ecosystem development.

Strategic disinvestment completed: majority stake transferred to strategic buyer with SPA-led settlement of creditor and employee dues.
Strategic disinvestment executed by sale of a controlling stake under a Share Purchase Agreement: the highest-price bidder was issued a Letter of Award and executed the SPA, after which the parties satisfied SPA conditions including certification and settlement of employees', operational creditors', sellers' and secured financial creditors' dues. The purchase consideration was applied per the SPA to discharge those liabilities and to provide equity to the selling shareholders, enabling transfer of the selling shareholders' majority shareholding to the strategic buyer.

Open eCommerce network to democratise agricultural trade by onboarding the whole farm value chain onto interoperable platforms.
ONDC and NABARD launched a Grand Hackathon comprising an Agri Grant Challenge and Agri Innovation Hackathon to onboard the entire agricultural value chain-including FPOs, mandis, processors, exporters, MSMEs and small retailers-onto an interoperable open e commerce network. The initiative seeks scalable technical solutions to democratise e commerce participation, expand consumer choice, mitigate algorithmic supplier bias, enable cross platform serviceability, and promote local language accessibility to broaden digital inclusion for small sellers and farmers.