India Business Card for SAARC trade

Taking forward its bonhomie with Pakistan, India is all set to launch an “India Business Card” for the business community in SAARC countries. The stumbling block so far for issuance of this card had been Pakistan, but the decks have now been cleared with renewed ties with Pakistan, a senior government official said.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi all set to visit Pakistan to attend the SAARC summit in late 2016, the government wants to deliver on the announcements he made during the summit in Nepal.

In the past two weeks, India and Pakistan have had two meetings at the level of National Security Adviser (NSA) and foreign ministers. Earlier in July, India relaxed business visa norms for Pakistan, which is valid for three years now, up from one year earlier, and businessmen would be able to visit up to 15 places. Intelligence agencies had expressed apprehension over easing visa restrictions on businessmen from Pakistan, but the government prevailed over their concerns saying it was required to bring in normality in the region.

“The India Business Card will have a special logo and will be only given to businessmen of high repute. It is being done with an aim of ease of business and gels with the ‘Make in India’ policy of the government,” said a senior Home Ministry official.

It was not clear whether Pakistan businessmen would be allowed in the manufacturing sector and given a green signal to open factories here.

“We are still working on the modalities and the business card is being issued to facilitate trade and commerce,” said the official.

ISRO looking to extend services to Saarc countries

An ISRO official said on Thursday that they are looking to extend the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) applications to Saarc countries. 

"Already we are having within the country the provision for providing the services, we are looking at how we can extend this (navigation services) to Saarc countries in the near future and gradually extending for the entire globe," said A.S. Kiran Kumar, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at the second Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) User Meet - 2015. 

IRNSS applications include terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, precise timing, disaster management, mapping and geodetic data capture, automated logistics in factories, construction sites and mines, vehicles tracking and fleet management, terrestrial navigation for hikers and travellers and integration with mobile phones. 

Surveying emergency response, business solutions, geographical data collection, natural resources, land management, scientific research and geodynamics are some of GAGAN's applications. 

"Both GAGAN and IRNSS are certified for operation and this makes India only the fourth country in the world to provide satellite navigation system," said Kumar. 

Of the seven satellites of IRNSS constellation, four are already in orbit while the remaining three will be in place by March 2016, Kumar said. 

"We have made the signals available from space, what these signals can be used for is only our creative imagination," added Kumar. 

As many as 200 receiver systems will be set up incorporating ISRO and industry design for increasing the IRNSS signals, added Kumar. 

Lauding ISRO's ability to meet its needs within India, Kumar said that 28 different products were produced within India.