National
3rd Export Preparedness Index (EPI) for States/UTs of India for the year 2022
⇒ NITI Aayog released the third edition of the report titled ‘Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2022’ for States/UTs of India on July 17, 2023. The report was released by Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Shri Suman Bery.
Key Points:
- The Export Preparedness Index by NITI Aayog in association with the Institute for Competitiveness, delves deeper beyond states and examines exports at the district level.
- The EPI 2022 recognizes that by unlocking regional competitiveness and leveraging our innate diversity, India can enhance its export potential.
- The EPI 2022 report seeks to empower State governments with region-specific insights to assist decision-making, identify strengths, address weaknesses, and foster comprehensive growth across States and UTs of India.
- The report presents a comprehensive analysis of India’s export performance in FY2022, along with its sector-specific and district-level merchandise export trends.
The EPI 2022 Report evaluates the performance of the states across four pillars – Policy, Business Ecosystem, Export Ecosystem, and Export Performance.
- The index uses 56 indicators which holistically capture the export preparedness of States and UTs in terms of exports at both the state and district-level.
The overview of the four pillars in the index is –
- Policy Pillar evaluates states and UTs’ performance based on its adoption of export-related policy ecosystem at a state and district level as well as the institutional framework surrounding the ecosystem.
- Business Ecosystem assesses the prevailing business environment in a state/UT, along with the extent of business-supportive infrastructure, and a state/UTs’ transport connectivity.
- Export Ecosystem focuses on the export-related infrastructure in a state along with the trade support provided to the exporters, and the prevalence of Research and Development in the state to foster innovation.
- Export Performance is an output-based indicator which gauges the growth of a state’s export over the previous year and analyses its export concentration and footprint on the global markets.
These pillars are further based on ten sub-pillars – Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework; Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Export Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth Orientation.
Highlights of Report:
- The EPI 2022 Report observed that most ‘Coastal States’ have performed well, with the states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat being the top-performers in the Export Preparedness Index across the country, in all categories of states.
- In the landlocked category, Bihar is at 22nd position with a score of 41.06.
- It is noted in the report, there is a scope for improvement in business and export ecosystem in many states which is necessary to improve their export performance.
- The report encourages state governments to create solutions to their context-specific challenges to exports.
- The report aims to facilitate competitive federalism in the country which creates a spirit of healthy competition among the states and encourage peer-learning among the states.
- Using this index, states can improve on their weak areas and positively impact their export performance.
Top 5 States in EPI 2022:
Tamil Nadu (Rank 1, Coastal category, 80.89); Maharashtra (Rank 2, Coastal category, 78.20); Karnataka (Rank 3, Coastal category, 76.36); Gujarat (Rank 4, Coastal category, 73.22); Haryana (Rank 5, Landlocked category, 63.65)
Bottom 5 Sates in EPI 2022:
Meghalaya (Rank 32, Himalayan category, 24.24); Arunachal Pradesh (Rank 33, Himalayan category, 19.92); Dadra Nagar and Haveli & Daman and Diu (Rank 34, UT/Small States category, 18.74); Mizoram (Rank 35, Himalayan category, 16.96); Lakshadweep (Rank 36, UT/Small States category, 11.30)
EPI 2022 Overall Rankings (Official Link)
About EPI:
» EPI is a comprehensive tool which measures the export preparedness of the States and UTs in India.
- Exports are vital for simulating economic growth and development in a country, which necessitates understanding the factors which influence export performance.
- The index undertakes a comprehensive analysis of States and UTs across export-related parameters in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Developing the methodology for the index is an evolving process which constantly incorporates stakeholder feedback.
- Thus, the results and rankings published in this edition are not directly comparable to the previous editions, however EPI, with its insights, continues to seek to assist the States and UTs in driving policy changes which are relevant to address their specific challenges.
New Integrated Terminal Building of Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair
⇒ The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the New Integrated Terminal Building of Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair via video conferencing on 18 July 2023.
About Airport:
- The inauguration of the New Integrated Terminal Building, built at a cost of around Rs 710 crores, will play a key role in boosting connectivity of the island UT.
- With a total built-up area of around 40,800 sqm., the new terminal building will be capable of handling about 50 lakh passengers annually.
- An Apron suitable for two Boeing-767-400 and two Airbus-321 types of aircraft has also been constructed at Port Blair Airport at a cost of Rs 80 Crores, making the airport now suitable for parking ten aircraft at a time.
- Inspired by nature, the architectural design of the airport terminal resembles a shell-shaped structure depicting the sea and islands.
- The new airport terminal building has a number of sustainability features like Double Insulated Roofing System to reduce heat gain, skylights to provide maximum inlet of abundant natural sunlight during day time to reduce artificial light usage inside the building, LED lighting, and low heat gain glazing.
- Rainwater catchment in an underground water tank, an on-site sewage treatment plant with 100% of treated wastewater reused for landscaping and a 500 KW solar power plant are some other features of the terminal building to ensure a minimal negative impact on the islands’ environment.
International
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visited to UAE
⇒ President of the United Arab Emirates His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi met in Abu Dhabi on 15 July 2023.
» Both sides noted that this was the fifth visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to the UAE in the last eight years. In 2015, Prime Minister Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to visit the UAE in 34 years.
- The leaders expressed satisfaction that UAE-India relations have witnessed tremendous progress on all fronts. India-UAE trade rose to USD 85 billion in 2022, making the UAE India’s third-largest trading partner for the year 2022-23 and India’s second-largest export destination. India is the UAE’s second largest trading partner.
- In February 2022, India became the first country with which the UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Bilateral trade has increased by approximately 15% since the entry into force of the CEPA on 1 May 2022.
In Abu Dhabi, the President of the UAE HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi witnessed the following:
- The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a framework to promote the use of local currencies (INR-AED) for cross-border transactions by Governors of the respective Central Banks. For this, an MoU was signed between RBI and UAE Central Bank.
- The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the bilateral cooperation on interlinking payment and messaging systems by Governors of the respective Central Banks. For this, an MoU was signed between RBI and UAE Central Bank.
- The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for planning to establish Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi in Abu Dhabi. A tripartite MoU was signed between the Ministry of Education of India, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Delhi) and Abu Dhabi Department of Education & Knowledge (ADEK) for the establishment of IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi
Discussion:
The two leaders held wide ranging discussions covering various dimensions of the bilateral partnership, including trade & investment, fintech, energy, renewables, climate action, higher education and people to people ties. The discussions also covered regional and global issues.
Important Day
World Youth Skills Day 2023
⇒ World Youth Skills Day is celebrated every year on 15 July.
The day celebrates the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
Theme:
The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2023 was ‘Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future’.
- It highlighted the essential role that teachers, trainers and other educators play in providing skills for youth to transition to the labour market and to actively engage in their communities and societies.
History:
- On 18 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus, resolution, A/RES/69/145, titled ‘World Youth Skills Day’ spearheaded by Sri Lanka, declaring 15th July as the World Youth Skills Day. Since then, this has been an annual event celebrated at the UN.
- Sri Lanka initiated this resolution, with the assistance of the G77 & China, to highlight at a global level, the importance of youth skills development. The goal is to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth, including as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and under employment.
- World Youth Skills Day was first celebrated on July 15, 2015.
Celebration in India:
Union Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched AI for India 2.0, a free online training programme on Artificial Intelligence, on World Youth Skills’ Day.
- A joint initiative of Skill India and GUVI, this NCVET and IIT Madras accredited online programme will equip youth with frontier skills.
- GUVI, an IIT Madras incubated startup is a tech platform that enables tech learning in vernacular languages. This program has been curated in 9 Indian languages.