A Parliamentary Standing Committee submitted its recommendations in April. After studying the panel's report, the consumer affairs ministry has accepted some key recommendations such as provisions for fixing liability on celebrities and stringent punishment for adulteration, among others.

British Business Secretary Sajid Javid also said Britain would have as many as 300 trade specialists in place before the end of the year, up from about 100 now, as the country tries to increase its firepower to operate as a solo trading nation.

On June 20, around 3 pm, a tweet from the Twitter handle of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) made a big claim - India has become the most open economy in the world for foreign direct investment (FDI).

\"We were working on these (FDI reforms) for couple of months. We have made the announcements after the work has been finished. Can it be done in one day,\" Commerce and Industry Minister Sitharaman told reporters.

The long-pending GST bill will be taken up in the coming Monsoon session of Parliament, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, expressing confidence that it will be passed.

The government is in a fix after Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy trained his guns on the Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian. Swamy's attack comes in the wake of reports of Arvind Subramanian being among the probable successors of Rajan as the country's central bank chief.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that although decline in exports is bottoming out, \"we will have to watch the two obvious developments globally as a result of which your international trade related matters are going to have a bearing such as the Brexit\".

With government under attack, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan sought to shift the blame on states saying they are equally responsible for keeping the prices of essential commodities under control.

India launched an anti-dumping investigation in April into hot-rolled steel coils imported from China, making for the fourth such probe against China this year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing a Chinese commerce ministry statement.

Chinese handset maker LeEco has requested the government to relax mandatory sourcing norms for the company as it looks to ramp up its retail presence in the country.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said she will take up with the Finance Ministry the issue of relaxing mandatory sourcing norms for iPhone maker Apple, which wants to set up retail stores in the country.

With Modi's patronage, it is more likely the government will reappoint Rajan, whose three-year term expires in September, should he wish to stay on, the sources said.

The government said on Monday it was discussing US tech giant Apple Inc's foreign direct investment (FDI) application that seeks exemption from the norm on compulsory local sourcing.

Finance Ministry should consider raising tax holiday for startups to 7 years from the current 3 years to encourage budding entrepreneurs, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

As the BJP-led NDA government completes two years in office, an industry chamber described it as \"work in progress\" but said that \"a lot more is required\" to be done on the issue of tax disputes, while concerns remain on the huge bad loans incurred by the banking system.

Government announced a new intellectual property policy on Friday, speeding up the online registration of patents and trademarks, but resisted pressure from the United States and other Western countries to amend its patent laws.

As Raghuram Rajan's three-year term as RBI Governor draws to a close in September, analysts speculate that odds of him getting a second term have come down after his 'one-eyed king' remark.

In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, an anti-FTA committee of trade unions, including CITU and BMS, said that it was \"alarmed to know that India is seriously engaging with RCEP like trade agreements, instead of first assessing its impact on our economy\".

Under attack from certain quarters over his 'one-eyed is king' remark for the Indian economy, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday called for raising the level of 'public dialogue', saying people should not look for \"insults\" everywhere.

Seeking to explain his 'one-eyed king' comments, Rajan said his comments were \"hung out to dry out of context\" and even offered an apology to the visually-impaired for hurting them by the use of the proverb.