Boris Johnson hails India-U.K. FTA as ‘biggest of them all’
The Hindu
U.K. PM reiterates Diwali deadline for draft free trade agreement with India
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday reiterated the Diwali timeline for a draft India-United Kingdom free trade agreement (FTA), declaring that the proposed trade deal with New Delhi would be the biggest yet in the post-Brexit context.
In a statement to mark the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Monday, Mr. Johnson plugged for the “Commonwealth advantage” which added immense value to all 54-member countries of the organisation.
Explained | The FTA talks between India and the United Kingdom
He pointed out how India, as the largest member of the grouping, will be at the same table as the smallest for CHOGM, indicating the diverse strengths of the Commonwealth.
“The Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu (population of 11,000) will be at the same table as India (population 1.3 billion). Yet for all the differences between us, we are joined by an invisible thread of shared values, history and institutions and of course the English language,” Mr. Johnson writes in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“All of this creates a unique opportunity for Britain whereby the Commonwealth – and only the Commonwealth – combines vast and rapidly growing markets with a real and quantified trading advantage. That is why we are mobilising the U.K.’s regained sovereignty to sign free trade or economic partnership agreements with as many Commonwealth countries as possible. So far we’ve done 33, including Australia and New Zealand, and we’re aiming for India, the biggest of them all, by Diwali in October,” he said.
It was during his visit to India in April that Mr. Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the negotiating teams on both sides must work towards a Diwali timeline for the completion of a draft free trade agreement.
India imposes anti-dumping duties on Chinese steel and refrigerant gas to protect domestic industries from unfair pricing.
Sensex declines for the third day, losing 367 points due to foreign fund outflows and thin trading conditions.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest crypto events of the year.
Silver futures soar to ₹2.32 lakh/kg as global prices exceed $75, marking a record high in commodities trading.
Stock markets decline as Sensex and Nifty fall amid foreign fund outflows and low trading volumes on December 26, 2025.
Rupee drops 23 paise to 89.94 against the dollar amid negative equity trends and rising crude prices.
The commencement of commercial flight from the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) is expected to speed up infrastructure and real estate development across Navi Mumbai and surrounding regions, analysts & industry executives said.
GCCs keep India’s tech job market alive, even as IT services industry embarks on a hiring moratorium
Global Capability Centres, offshore subsidiaries set up by multinational corporations, mostly known by an acronym GCCs, are now the primary engine sustaining India’s tech job market, contrasting sharply with the hiring slowdown witnessed by large firms in the country.
India’s manufacturing sector underperforms compared to China and South Korea, partly due to public sector wages that raise costs and reduce competitiveness.
Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, once prominent investors in the Indian equity market are seen shying away due to rupee depreciation and have moved to global funds, said a top financial services executive.
Mobile phones are increasingly migrating to smaller chips that are more energy efficient and powerful supported by specialised Neural Processing Units (NPUs) to accelerate AI workloads directly on devices, said Anku Jain, India Managing Director for MediaTek, a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor firm that claims a 47% market share India’s smartphone chipset market.
In one more instance of a wholly owned subsidiary of a Chinese multinational company in India getting ‘Indianised’, Bharti Enterprises, a diversified business conglomerate with interests in telecom, real estate, financial services and food processing among others, and the local arm of private equity major Warburg Pincus have announced to collectively own a 49% stake in Haier India, a subsidiary of the Haier Group which is headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong, China.
Indian stock markets closed lower amid volatility, with key firms lagging as global trends influenced trading activity.