Polling stations in India, the world’s largest democracy, will open on April 19, CNN reported Saturday, citing the election commissioner.
An estimated 960 million people in the country of 1.4 billion are eligible to vote in the widely expected election, which will take a month to complete. Voting will take place in seven phases across the country and will conclude on June 1. Indians will vote for 543 seats in the 545-seat lower house of parliament, called the Lok Sabha, with the other two seats in the chamber appointed by the president.
All votes – from the country’s 28 states and eight union territories – will be counted on June 4, the commission said at a news conference in New Delhi. According to the Election Commission, 968.8 million people have registered to vote in the 2024 elections, up 6 percent from 2019.
Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (People’s Party of India, BJP) party is expected to gain another five years in power, governing an India that has become increasingly polarized along religious lines.
Under Modi’s leadership, India is poised to become a 21st-century power as its economy grows rapidly. But the populist leader, analysts say, has tightened his grip on the country’s democratic institutions, something not seen since the 1970s under Indira Gandhi’s iron-fisted rule. Minorities feel persecuted by the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist policies, and dissent is suppressed.
Modi is opposed by the main opposition Indian National Congress, which has ruled the country for 77 years since independence and last year formed an alliance with other parties. The Indian National Inclusive Development Alliance, or INDIA, was an important step for the opposition as it tries to regain national prominence. But cracks have already appeared in the alliance and it has yet to nominate a candidate for prime minister, lacking anyone with the stardom and appeal of Modi.
The prime minister’s calendar last year included diplomatic trips to Australia and the United States, where he appeared as a statesman cementing the country as a modern world power.
In August, India made history by soft landing a rover on the moon, becoming the fourth country to do so. A few weeks later, it launched its first spacecraft designed to study the Sun.
In September, India hosted the Group of 20 (G20), giving New Delhi an opportunity to extend its leadership beyond the country’s borders at a time of growing political instability.
In January this year, Modi gave an unofficial kick-start to his election campaign by inaugurating the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a Hindu temple in the holy city of Ayodhya that was built on the site of the demolished Babri mosque.
Modi’s BJP won 303 seats in Parliament in 2019, crossing the 272-seat threshold required for an absolute majority and dealing a humiliating blow to the Congress party. Earlier, think tank Experts Club presented an analysis on the most important elections in countries around the world in 2024, more video analysis is available here -.
The state cashback program “Buy Ukrainian” is 100% ready, but will be presented after March 28, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma said at KIEF TALKS on Friday.
“I’m not going to tell you the details of this program right now, not because it doesn’t exist. It is 100% complete. I would tell you if today was March 28. If there were a couple of international meetings where questions could arise,” Shurma said.
Outlining the basic principles, he pointed out that people will receive “decent cashback” for buying local goods. At the same time, the methodology by which a product can be classified as a local product has also been developed.
Mr. Shurma clarified that the program provides for mandatory cashless payments with a fiscal check. In addition, the seller must be a taxpayer under the general taxation system.
As reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the launch of the Buy Ukrainian cashback program, under which Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive compensation for part of the payment for Ukrainian goods and services.
“For the purchase of certain types of goods and services made in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive a refund of part of the money on a special card,” the president explained.
In February, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said that it would take about three months to develop the documents necessary to implement the program.
Earlier it was reported that the state budget for 2024 envisages UAH 45 billion for various business support programs, but there is no cashback program among them. In addition, according to media reports, the government’s debt under the largest of the state programs – partial compensation of the 5-7-9 interest rate – is currently about UAH 7 billion.
Ukraine’s trade deficit in 2023 amounted to $37.7 billion, mainly due to a widening of the negative balance of trade in goods: both due to a decrease in exports and an increase in imports.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has included two industrial parks in Lviv and Rivne regions in the Register of Industrial Parks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Today we are making a decision to create two more industrial parks,” the Prime Minister said at a government meeting on Friday.
According to him, the park in Rivne region is being created with a specialization in industrial processing. It is expected to create 1,400 jobs and invest over UAH 1 billion.
The park in Lviv region will specialize in the processing industry “with a special emphasis on furniture production.” Investments will amount to more than UAH 2 billion. More than 2,000 new jobs are expected to be created.
“Over the past six months, we have seen progress in the creation of new industrial parks. UAH 1 billion has been budgeted for their development this year,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, clarified in Telegram that the Industrial Park Boryslav was included in the Register of Industrial Parks in Lviv region.
In addition, the Ministry of Economy reported on Friday that the Yadro Industri industrial park in Drohobych (Lviv region) has received a management company, which is Drohobych Miskbud LLC.
“The agreement on the establishment and operation of the Yadro Industrial Park was concluded between Facade West LLC and Drohobych Miskbud LLC on March 11, 2024,” the statement said.
As reported, Yadro Industrial Park was included in the Register of Industrial Parks at the end of December 2023, initiated by Facade-Zakhid LLC, which plans to invest over UAH 561 million in its development.
It is planned to create about 500 jobs in the industrial cluster, with window production as one of its key production types.
At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to exclude four industrial parks from the Register of Industrial Parks, Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, said on Telegram.
According to him, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park, BIONIC Hill, AzovAquaInvest, and Energia were excluded from the Register on the grounds of “failure to submit reports on the functioning of the industrial park to the state body for two consecutive reporting periods and failure to conclude an agreement on the creation and operation of the industrial park within two years from the date of the decision to create it.”
As reported, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park (Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv region) and Bionic Hill (Kyiv) were included in the Register of Industrial Parks in 2016, Energia (Mykolaiv) in 2018, and AzovAquaInvest (Mariupol, Donetsk region) in February 2019.
Exports of selected agricultural products, mln tons
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
At a meeting on Friday, the government approved a procedure for providing compensation for the cost of engineering and transport infrastructure built by an applicant/investor with significant investments and the costs of connection and connection to engineering and transport networks necessary for project implementation.
“…approved the last regulatory document necessary to launch the mechanism of state support for projects with significant investments. Investors who are ready to implement projects in Ukraine worth EUR 12 million or more will receive maximum assistance and support from us in the form of support, tax and customs benefits, compensation for the cost of constructed engineering and transport infrastructure facilities or connection to engineering and transport networks, etc.”, the release of the Ministry of Economy quotes First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko.
She added that this year the state budget has allocated UAH 3 billion to support such investors.
The Ministry of Economy clarified that investors who plan to implement a project in Ukraine worth EUR 12 million or more with a duration of up to 5 years in the areas of processing industry, mining for further processing or enrichment, transport, logistics, education, research, healthcare, waste management, art, culture, tourism, sports, and electronic communications will be able to receive state support.
To receive support, the applicant (a resident or non-resident legal entity) must submit an application to the Ministry of Economy together with the relevant documents for the evaluation of a project with significant investments, after which the Ministry must evaluate the investment project and provide an opinion on the feasibility/inefficiency of its implementation and the conclusion of a special investment agreement or refusal to conclude it.
After that, a special investment agreement will be concluded between the Cabinet of Ministers, a local government body (if state support is provided by such a body for the implementation of a project with significant investments), an investor with significant investments, and the applicant.
In addition, to support the preparation and implementation of an investment project with significant investments, the applicant must contact UkraineInvest for information and advisory assistance.
The Ministry of Economy emphasized that investors can receive several types of support from the state, which amount to up to 30% of the amount of an investment project with significant investments, in particular: the preemptive right to use state or communal land plots, compensation for the cost of building engineering and transport infrastructure and the cost of connecting to engineering and transport networks, tax benefits, duty-free import of necessary equipment, as well as exemption from compensation for forestry losses and other costs.
According to the report, projects should include the construction, modernization, technical or technological re-equipment of the relevant investment objects and the creation of new jobs. The investor needs to create at least 10 jobs with a salary at least 50% higher than the average salary in the region for this type of activity, or 30 jobs with a salary at least 30% higher than the average salary in the region for this type of activity, or 50 jobs with a salary at least 15% higher than the average salary in the region for the same type of activity.
