Finance and Economy

With just five years left to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new United Nations report has warned that the world is “alarmingly off-track” on gender equality, placing millions of women and girls at risk of being left behind.

Japan’s grant for dairy development is designed to empower smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of the country’s dairy production. The funding will go towards modernising farming practices, improving milk quality and safety, and introducing sustainable methods to make dairy farming more profitable and resilient.

The state government will provide an incentive of ₹800 per bag of urea saved to cultivators who adopt alternative practices and minimise its use.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $126.42 million loan along with $1 million in technical assistance to promote sustainable and climate-resilient tourism in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Lake area, one of the state’s most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged regions.

Recent tariff negotiations have also strengthened Pakistan’s position. Islamabad successfully reduced US reciprocal tariffs from 29 per cent to 19 per cent, a move projected to enhance access to US markets.

In a move signalling a profound shift in Pakistan’s infrastructure financing and geopolitical posture, China has withdrawn from financing the pivotal Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, a cornerstone of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Indian agriculture is at a turning point, under the double pressure of having to feed a rising population while being internationally competitive.

This tiered approach underscores APEDA’s commitment to baseline outreach – casting a wide net to capture diverse innovation – and then funnelling support to ventures with the greatest capacity for export success.