India has been a land of diversity for millennia. People wonder how to know a country like India in one lifetime. That’s true. But if you are a Person of Indian Origin (PIO), Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or even a Foreigner, and your age is between 18 to 35 years, here is a chance for you to be invited for Bharat Darshan (India Tour) by the government of India. How?

Government of India has launched the third round of ‘Bharat Ko Janiye Quiz 2020-21’ i.e. ‘Know India Quiz Contest 2020-21’ which offers participants to win a chance to visit India. Overseas Indian Affairs-II Division of the Ministry of External Affairs has requested participants to visit www.bharatkojaniye.in and register for the quiz context. Registration began on 30 September and will close on 30 November. The Quiz will start on 1st November. It is a global quiz contest and there is no entry fee. For the first Round 5 topics will be covered: Arts, Economy, Geography, Indian Mythology and Science & Technology. For the second, semi-final and final round, all topics given on website will be covered. Some reading material is also provided on each topic on www.bharatkojaniye.in.

There will be four rounds of quiz in online mode.

The first round will be held from 1 to 30 November and will be open to all registrants in the above-mentioned category and age groups. Winners from each country will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. It is a welcome round.

The second round will include participants from 1st round and will run from 7 to 13 December. This is the qualifying round.

The third round will last from 14 to 20 December for the top ten contenders of the second round participants, from each category i.e. PIO, NRI and Foreigner, totalling 30 contenders. This is the semi-final.

The fourth and final round will be held from 21 to 27 December 2020 for top 7 contenders of the third round, totalling 21 participants.

Final winners will include 5 in each category and three of them will be awarded medals and 2 consolation prizes. In addition, all 15 winners will be invited for Bharat Darshan i.e. India Tour.

Mock quiz has already started. You may register and start playing.

All the best to all participants. India is waiting for you.

India and the UK held the 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting on 24 July 2020. Established in 2004, fifteen years ago, JETCO is the main bilateral institutional mechanism between the two countries to discuss trade and economic issues at the level of Commerce and Industry Minister of India and Secretary of State for International Trade of the UK. An annual meeting, chaired by these two Ministers is held alternatively in New Delhi and London. The 13th JETCO meeting was held in July 2019 in London.

The 14th JETCO meeting, co-chaired by Mr Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister of India and Ms Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State, Department of International Trade was held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Minister of State Mr Hardeep Singh Puri from India and Minister of State Mr Ranil Jayawardena from the UK had had a pre-JETCO meeting one week earlier to discuss market access issues between the two countries. They also briefed the two Ministers about progress made in their meeting. 

As the UK moves towards independent trade policy in the post-Brexit era, both sides are committed to making progress on a trade deal. They decided to make steady progress towards signing a Free Trade Agreement for which the two sides will work in a staged manner, calling it an ‘Early Harvest’ deal or ‘Enhanced Trade Partnership.’ To expedite the progress, it was decided that Ministers of State from both sides will hold monthly meetings. Later, a meeting between the two countries, led by Minister Goyal and SoS Truss will be held in Autumn 2020. 

Business-led Joint Working Groups submitted their recommendations to the Ministers in the JETCO meeting on three sectors, namely, Food and Drink, ICT and Life Sciences. These are three of the five priority sectors identified during the last JETCO meeting to remove trade barriers. Other two sectors are Chemicals and Services. Joint Trade Review is a mechanism that reports on the progress made in identified priority sectors to the Joint Working Group on Trade, which in turn feeds into the JETCO. 

India and the UK are the fifth and sixth largest economies, respectively. Both are service sector dominant and complement each other in terms of capital and skilled manpower availability. Minister Goyal had last year given an idea to explore possibility of ‘Design in the UK, Manufacture in India and Export to the World’ to utilise the strength of both countries. Given that India and the UK had bilateral trade amounting to £ 24 billion in 2019 is an encouraging fact for businesses and governments. This also puts a responsibility on policymakers and businesses to not miss the opportunity of expanding it further to harness the full potential of both economies. It is expected that the recently held JETCO meeting will be a game-changer in this direction.