In life, we all harbour a dream that we wish to fulfil within a set period of our lifetime. This dream is often related to aspirations, which could be something that we wish to accomplish either personally or professionally, like studying abroad. While it may not always be easy for individuals to arrange for the necessary funds to study abroad, they can always go for Personal Loan finance.
Let’s learn more about Personal Loan finance and how it can help you study abroad.
What is Personal Loan finance?
A Personal Loan is a financial product that can be availed of to fulfil various personal finance requirements of an individual. It can be used for different needs like:
Meeting medical expenses
Travelling overseas
Funding education abroad
If you are planning to pursue education abroad but are unsure if you should go ahead with it, read on to find out why you should go ahead with it.
Benefits of Studying Abroad
Some of the top benefits of studying abroad include:
Access to Quality Education – You can get the best start in building your career by receiving high-quality education abroad from a premier educational institution of your choice.
Exploring a New City & Culture – Going abroad allows you to enhance and develop your perspective on different things. Exploring a new city and its culture while studying abroad can be an excellent way to grow both personally and professionally.
Hone Your Language Skills – You can improve your language skills and even learn a new language when studying abroad. This is an excellent skill set to possess and can be applied in all aspects of life.
Getting Better Career Opportunities – A degree from a foreign institution looks great on your resume! By studying abroad, you can significantly boost your career and receive promising growth opportunities.
If you are still unsure about studying abroad due to a lack of adequate financing, there’s a solution for that – Personal Loan finance!
Getting a Personal Loan to Study Abroad
With the help of Personal Loan finance for studying abroad, you can cover various expenses, such as:
Tuition & Other Costs – Studying abroad comes with its own set of financial challenges, one of which is meeting the cost of tuition and study fees. However, with a Personal Loan, you can easily meet these costs without any hassle.
Travel & Living Expenses – You can use a Personal Loan to fulfil your travel and living expenses when studying abroad. This is especially a great option in countries with a high cost of living.
Miscellaneous Expenses – Getting a Personal Loan can also help you manage other expenses when you study abroad. These could include the cost of study materials and more.
How Do I Qualify for a Personal Loan?
Lending institutions usually look for the following factors when checking your qualification for a Personal Loan:
Credit Score Requirements – Credit score is a three-digit number that determines your creditworthiness, i.e., your ability to repay a loan on time. A score of 750 and above is considered excellent by lenders.
Income Requirements – The income of the loan applicant is an important point of consideration to determine their qualification for a Personal Loan. The minimum income requirement can vary between lenders.
Debt-to-income Ratio (DTI) – The debt-to-income ratio is used to compare how much you earn versus how much you owe. A DTI ratio of 30% or less is usually considered favourable.
Other Considerations When Taking Out a Personal Loan
Interest Rates – Make sure you do your research to find a Personal Loan at the best interest rate that suits your requirements.
Repayment Terms – Look for Personal Loans with a flexible repayment term to make loan repayments easier. Some NBFCs offer a Personal Loan with a repayment tenure of up to 60 months.
Fees & Other Costs – Check the fees and charges, if any, applicable to the Personal Loan.
How to Apply for a Personal Loan?
Simply follow the below-mentioned steps to apply online for a Personal Loan for studying abroad:
Step 1: Visit the website of your chosen lender
Step 2: Click on ‘Apply Now’
Step 3: Enter the basic KYC details
Step 4: Wait for the application assessment
Step 5: Receive loan approval confirmation
Step 6: Authorize the disbursal of your Personal Loan
Conclusion
Personal Loan finance is a great way to pursue higher education overseas. It can be applied easily and quickly from anywhere in India. For example: If you wish to pursue studies abroad and are looking for Personal Loan finance in Chennai, you can simply apply online.
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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak marked 100 days in office last month. The International Monetary Fund and UK economists predicted that the UK economy would continue to shrink, despite the PM’s best efforts to stabilize the country’s markets.
The same report predicted that China and India’s economies would account for more than half of GDP growth and stated that the UK would be the only country with an economy in recession this year. Experts expect that there will be a 0.06% overall reduction in the UK economy this year, and various cabinet members are citing several reasons for the shrinkage.
In February, their independent Office Of Budget Responsibility warned that the recession would last at least through 2023. The UK’s economic situation is deteriorating over many factors, including the increased price of heating, gas, and oil due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the fallout from Brexit, and the fact that the country’s economy never quite recovered after Covid-19 shutdowns.
Additionally, annual inflation hit 11.1% in October and stayed at 10.5% in December, the highest in four decades. It is important to note that the overall GDP increased by 4% in 2022. However, the UK remains the only G-7 country not to recover its output after the pandemic fully.
While Sunak blames outside forces like the Russian invasion, other experts point the finger at Brexit, which has caused much lower trade exports with the rest of Europe. The British PM focuses on expanding trade with other countries, including India. Over the last year, the UK and India have had six rounds of talking over trade and investment agreements that would boost trade by billions of dollars in both countries. While this much-needed trade agreement will help boost the economy overall, the UK has a long way to go before the government can quell its economic woes.
As with any recession, unemployment is up, and so is inflation, further infuriating labourers, who have already organized dozens of strikes – which conservatives in the government blame for some of the economic stagnation. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK recorded the highest number of working days lost in over 30 years in 2022. Transportation, teaching, and healthcare industries have been the most affected. With inflation continuing to rise, workers demand better conditions and higher pay. While some contracts have been negotiated, the strikes will continue as the Prime Minister and this government refuse to budge on pay raises in the public sector. Earlier in February, over half a million teachers, train drivers, and other civil servants organized a walkout, the largest coordinated labour strike in a decade.
As the labour unions persist, members of Sunak’s own party immediately proposed a round of tax cuts, which they promise will stimulate the economy, especially job growth. Sunak has so far refused either party, saying that raising pay for workers will cause inflation to rise and that the “best tax cut right now is a cut in inflation.”
As the workers who have jobs walk out due to economic inequality, employment is falling across the private and public sectors, which economists predict will continue into 2023. This creates its own concerns. As residents fail to believe in the country’s economy, the black market economy always sees a boost. Currently, the UK is already dealing with the black gambling market. Numerous offshore casino sites that aren’t under UK regulations and therefore, not a part of GamStop, and are currently not being taxed. Increasing illegal goods/services and off-the-books jobs is another worry for lawmakers as small businesses try to avoid taxation. According to a report published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), these black market businesses cost the UK over 150 billion euros every day, says a report published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). Of course, this is a problem all over the EU, where over 30 million people work or run businesses without paying taxes.
The rising cost of imports, like food and energy, has particularly alarmed families across the UK. In combination with rising inflation, it caused a curb on spending, leaving the country in a loop where they can’t quite stimulate new growth. With nothing in the works to address those families, Sunak’s government has instead focused on new trade with Ireland and India in recent weeks. A dispute over trade routes in Northern Ireland has added to rising costs and completely shuttered Belfast’s government, which Sunak seeks to alleviate. The PM says some progress has been made, but any concessions will likely anger his own party.
With two years left until reelection season and crushing economic predictions, Rishi Sunak will have a long fight ahead of him if he stands a chance of keeping his position. While Sunak is downplaying the role of Brexit, which he has been a long-time supporter of, many across the country are now finding that the economic fallout deeply affects every corner of the economy. With decreased foreign investment after the event, European and American companies have continued to resist investment opportunities in the UK.
Instability in the economy is the number one reason many companies pulled their investments. Then, last year, Liz Truss produced several (now abandoned) unpopular plans to cut taxes, which angered critics and caused further divestment. As she left her very short-term, most investors pulled out again, causing the economy to plummet. Though this up-and-down has remained chiefly quiet as Sunak’s continued leadership is once again signalling that it may be safe for foreign companies to reinvest, these new economic reports may further deter this.
In current opinion polls, the Conservative party is trailing the Labour Party by about 20 points, and some election experts are already predicting Sunak’s defeat. With local elections looming in May and polls showing a disgruntled populace that wants a change in leadership, the UK’s economy may not recover as quickly as the country’s leadership hopes.
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in an interview a few days ago: “Look they (China) are a bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with bigger economy? It is not a question of being a reactionary; it is a question of common sense.”
Obviously, Jaishankar is advising caution in dealing with China because its bigger economy translates into greater military strength and stronger diplomatic clout. Most political and diplomatic commentators have kept quiet about the far-reaching implications of this statement and those who have spoken, have reacted adversely generally characterizing it as ‘capitulatory mentality’.
Leaving aside the question whether External Affairs Minister should have publicly broached the subject or left it to closed-door conclaves of policymakers, one must frankly accept that the whole issue of Economy and Diplomacy is extremely important and needs to be openly discussed. Informed public opinion is essential for the success of Government policies in a democracy. One hopes that Jaishankar’s frank articulation of the problems of pursuing a viable security policy vis a vis China because of economic asymmetry will start a much-needed debate on the importance of economy for defense and diplomacy.
Public should be made aware of facts
China’s GDP is $18 trillion while that of India is $3.47 trillion or 1/5 that of China. In 1950 the GDP of both countries was about the same.
For perspective it may be noted that US GDP is 25 trillion, that of Japan 4.94 trillion and Germany 4.25 trillion. When US power was at its peak in the 1950s after the Second World War, its GDP was 40% of the world’s total. Today its economic and military preeminence is not the same, because other economies have risen and its share of world GDP has shrunk to about 23%.
China’s diplomatic clout has been increasing in the step with its economic power. Mao had famously said that “power flows from the barrel of a gun,” but it is Deng’s pragmatic economic policies exemplified by his famous declaration “no matter it is white cator black as long as it can catch mice” that has transformed China into a global power. With this one sentence he jettisoned three decades of ideological dogmatism in economy and substituted it with result-oriented pragmatism. Within 40 years China became an economic giant and manufacturing hub of the world.
Diplomatic muscle of Japan and Germany
Other examples of diplomatic muscle because of their economic strength are Japan and Germany the third and the fourth largest economies in the world. With large foreign exchange reserves these countries can pursue economic diplomacy to promote their national interest very effectively. The relationship between economy and diplomacy is the same as between body and fist, the power of the latter depends on the strength of the former.
India’s own international footprint has increased since 1991 when under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the economy was unshackled and the suffocating “license Raj” relaxed. In 1991 India was about to default on its foreign payment obligations. With foreign exchange reserves adequate only for about three weeks of imports it had to pledge gold in international market to borrow hard currency for its foreign exchange requirements. Today, with its foreign exchange reserves position comfortable, India is in a position to stand up to international pressures much better and pursue foreign policy dictated by its national interest. The frequent difficulties faced by the Latin American countries to effectively pursue independent foreign policy due to external debt and inadequate foreign exchange reserves, clearly establishes the relationship between economy and diplomacy.
It is easy to establish the correlation between economic strength and diplomatic clout but impossibly difficult to attain it. Often there is a tendency to attribute China’s economic progress to its authoritarian system. It is a mistake. Soviet Union despite its authoritarian decision-making failed to achieve economic progress and collapsed. China’s economic progress took off when it allowed free enterprise in economy while retaining one-party rule politically. Many in India attribute its slow economic growth to the elaborate consultative decision-making progress inherent in a democracy. This is a mistaken notion.
Democracy can outperform authoritarianism
Democracy can outperform authoritarian system in all respects–economic, political, technological–if it has the honest commitment of the people and the leaders for its success. Democracy and economic success need political leadership which truly adheres to the rule of law, justice, equality, individual freedom, human rights, transparency and accountability. Democracy has a self-correcting mechanism which prevents things from going over the cliff as has happened to so many authoritarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries e.g., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet communism, dictatorships in Middle East.
On the part of captains of business and industry it requires honest commitment to rule of open and free competition, not pursuit of cronyism for quick wealth. Cronyism is feudalism in economics. It prevents inclusive and sustained growth which alone can make a society stable and strong.
Comparative studies of democracies and authoritarian regimes in 20th century clearly show that democracies have achieved much more economically and have shown more sustaining power politically than authoritarian systems.
But democracy requires patience and honesty on the part of the people for its success. Impatience leads to shortcuts to attain political power and cronyism in business and industry.
Democracy is a government of the patient, for the patient and by the patient just as authoritarianism is a government of the impatient, by the impatient and for the impatient.
All authoritarian leaders display impatience while good democratic leaders act with patience and stamina. Impatience is inherently unsustainable and quickly self-destructs. A study of the 20th century dictatorships and democratic regimes establishes the validity of this proposition. Dictators are gone while democracies plod on.
China will have to one day reconcile its one-party political system with the free enterprise economy. It cannot go on with this dichotomy between its political and economic systems without tensions and conflicts. India for its part will have to protect, preserve, and strengthen its democracy.
Ishrat Aziz is an expert on a variety of subjects including democracy and its connectivity with Islam. A former ambassador of India to several Middle Eastern countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he now resides in the US.
Riyadh: The Saudi Arabian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.7 per cent in 2022, the highest among G20 countries, according to a report issued by the General Authority for Statistics.
The growth exceeded the international expectation of 8.3 per cent as the maximum, and it is the kingdom’s highest annual rate in the last decade, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.
It said the Saudi GDP reached, at the current exchange rate, more than $1 trillion in 2022, for the first time in the kingdom’s history.
The contribution to the growth by the crude oil and natural gas sector reached 32.7 per cent, followed by government services, 14.2 per cent, manufacturing activities except oil refining, 8.6 per cent, and wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels, 8.2 per cent.
The report revealed a 5.4-per cent growth in non-oil activities in 2022, with the sector of transportation, storage and communications reaching the highest growth rate of 9.1 pe rcent, followed by manufacturing activities except oil refining, 7.7 per cent.
SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting of Public Sector Banks, Administrative Departments and other Financial Institutions, at Civil Secretariat on Thursday.
The meeting was chaired to review the action taken on the directions passed in the previous meeting on seamless credit to potential entrepreneurs and saturation of other government schemes aimed to facilitate the dreams of aspiring society.
Calling banking sector the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s growing economy, he said, “Collective efforts should be made to facilitate common man, farmers, industries, SHGs and young entrepreneurs. Banks need to cooperate & complement government’s efforts in reaching out to beneficiaries of all flagship schemes,” the Lt Governor said.
He also observed that during the Back to Village-4 and My Town My Pride Programme, JK Bank ensured a major share of 90 percent in extending the financial support to 75,000 youth recently, while other banks had merely 10 percent contribution.
“This situation needs to change. All the Banks must increase the lending to promote entrepreneurship amongst youth, women and people from marginalised sections of society,” the Lt Governor further said.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the progress achieved to extend the benefits of Kisan Credit Cards to all the eligible farmers.
The banks were instructed to follow the delivery channels of RBI and saturate the distribution of Smart Cards to the KCC account holders by June, 2023.
The Lt Governor emphasized on support and guidance to the farmers in preparing project reports required by the banks through nodal agencies. He also emphasized on holding regular meetings at the district level with mission youth and other government departments to understand requirements of diverse sectors.
The Chair was also briefed on the upcoming ‘Citizen’s portal for Government Sponsored Schemes’. The soon to be launched portal, prepared by JK Bank will ensure that all the Banks operating in Jammu Kashmir seamlessly extend all the benefits of government schemes to the eligible beneficiaries.
The portal will enable a citizen to apply for a Government Sponsored Schemes directly online with OTP Authentication and check the status of his/her application online.
It will forward/route the applications from citizens to appropriate departments and teams in an integrated workflow and enable departments and teams to process and forward/route these applications to the concerned financing agencies.
Further the financing agencies can update status for these applications post processing. It will also facilitate generation of MIS/Reporting Dashboards, it was informed.
Directions were passed to explore possibilities to integrate all the schemes and other portals on a single platform and make the portal more interactive, multilingual and having a module of grievances redressal mechanism.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department; Sh Baldev Prakash, MD & CEO JK Bank; Administrative Secretaries, HODs, Heads and representatives of several banks operating in the UT attended the meeting.(GNS)
The World Bank estimated the economic cost of the damage caused in Turkey by the strong earthquakes that affected the southeast of the country at the beginning of the month at more than 34,000 million dollars, while warning that reconstruction could cost twice that amount.
The number could double. The World Bank estimated the economic costs of the February 6 earthquakes in Turkey at $34 billion, mainly affecting the southeast of the country.
“The report acknowledges that the costs of salvage and reconstruction will be much higher (than those caused by the damage), potentially twice as large, and that the associated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses will add to this cost,” the report explained. institution in a statement.
Humberto López, director of the World Bank for Turkey, declared that the earthquakes discounted at least half a percentage point in the expected GDP growth of Turkey, which would be between 3.5% and 4% for this year.
Of the cataloged damages, some 18,000 million dollars, more than half were in damages caused to residential buildings. The World Bank estimates that around 1.25 million people were temporarily left homeless due to damage to their homes.
The institution already announced on February 9 an initial aid package of 1,780 million dollars for the reconstruction and rescue efforts.
On the other hand, the situation in Syria was “really catastrophic,” said Anna Bjerde, World Bank Group vice president for Europe and Central Asia. The Bank will publish a separate estimate of the damage in Syria on Tuesday.
The earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6, caused more than 44,000 deaths in Turkey alone. In Syria, almost 6,000 deaths have been registered. According to the World Bank report, more than 7,500 aftershocks occurred after the movements, which is the largest catastrophe of its kind in Turkey in more than 80 years.
“I don’t blame people for being down, you know,” Biden said, “when you had the year, two years of the pandemic, kids out of school, the mental health problems in the country are seriously increased, especially among young people.”
He added: “Inflation is still higher than it should be, and, you know, everything from gasoline prices to a war going on in Ukraine. I mean, so I can’t think of a time when there’s been greater uncertainty.”
Biden, who continues to indicate that he is likely to run for a second term in 2024, put some of the onus on the news media. His remarks to Muir included an allusion to recent reports about Fox News’ efforts after the 2020 presidential election to bolster conspiracy theories about the integrity of the voting even though its staff knew those theories were nonsense.
“Everything is in the negative,” Biden said of television news. “We’re also finding out now that one of the outlets has decided that they would put things on that they know to be false in order to increase their ratings.”
Host Martha Raddatz subsequently noted to panelist Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, that Biden’s statement about economic unease didn’t seem like something he could run on in 2024.
“That’s not going to be a slogan if he decides to run for re-election,” Brazile acknowledged.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Raipur: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday criticised External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for the latter’s recent remark during an interview that “China is a bigger economy” while defending India’s policy on China amid tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
“It is shocking to hear from the External Affairs Minister that China is too rich to stand up to,” Tharoor said while speaking on the international resolution passed by the Congress during the party’s 85th plenary session being held here.
Tharoor said the future of India is bright as long as the Congress fights the good fight and we have to send a message from here.A
The MP from Thiruvananthapuram said that the party should be absolutely clear about its ideology if it wants to take on the BJP with full might.
Stressing on the idea of inclusive India, Tharoor said that Congress could have been more vocal on the release of Bilkis Bano rape case convicts and cow vigilantes.
Tharoor also targeted the Central government for ‘rampant crony capitalism’ and ‘accumulating wealth in the hands of a few friends of the Prime Minister’.
Meanwhile, the Congress in its political resolution said that it will bring a law to punish and prevent hate crimes to combat hate politics and violence.
The resolution said, “In the last eight-and-a-half years under the BJP government, the politics of hate has assumed alarming proportions and religious polarisation has reached its peak. Hate crimes and atrocities have increased manifold. Vigilante right wing groups incite violence on various trivial issues.
“These groups operate with impunity and have started acting like police, spreading anarchy and fear. This fear in the minds of minorities is the aim of the BJP/RSS regime.”
The resolution said that during the course of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, it was clear that majority of Indians yearn for love, peace and harmony.
The Geographical Survey of India (GSI) revelations that Reasi hills hold vast treasures of rare and expensive lithium have triggered hopes of a better carbon-free future and a lot of prosperity. The inferred deposits have implied flip side too, reports Khalid Bashir Gura
On February 9, an otherwise non-descript village nestled in the high mountains of Reasi suddenly became a national cynosure. The village’s long solitude was disrupted as hoards of people started thronging the belt. Salal Kotli Sarpanch, Preetam Singh’s kept ringing as requests came for guiding the visiting officials to the area.
In 2018, a Geological Survey of India (GSI) team reached Salal, said Singh, to collect samples for research. They were following up the 1995-1997 survey by geologists KK Sharma and SC Uppal who spotted higher values of lithium in the area suggesting further exploration. Then, Lithium was in less demand, a situation that dramatically changed later.
The outcome of the 2018 exercise was made public on February 9, when the Ministry of Mines announced GSI’s success in locating “inferred” resources (G3) of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium in the Salal-Haimana belt.
“We have been about told the economic prosperity the discovery of the lithium will bring,” Singh said. “But simultaneously we find ourselves worrying about our possible displacement.”
New Oil
Officials say the discovery will boost Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and make it self-reliant in a metal that is now fuelling growth. The crucial discovery coincided with the climate-change-impacted world transitioning from fossil fuels to zero-emissions energy sources in which lithium holds the key. Over the years, especially by Industrial Revolutions 3 and 4, the shiny grey-light metal has evolved over the years in the global market as a ‘white gold.’
“Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining and refining directly at scale, unless costs improve,” Twitter owner, Elon Musk, the world’s top capitalist who invests in future technology including Tesla founder tweeted on April 9, 2022.
Apart from being used in batteries to power smartphones, laptops and almost all other gadgets, Lithium is a vital component in the rechargeable batteries that run electric vehicles (EVs). Its low weight and enormous capacity to store energy led markets to exhibit lithium hunger. The discovery is expected to end India’s import dependence and help in achieving its goals of reducing carbon footprints as the country aims at deriving about 50 per cent of cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel energy resources by 2030. In 2022, India sold more than a million EVs and the plan is to reach 10 million units by 2030.
“Lithium batteries are the new oil,” asserted Elon Musk, insisting by 2027 30 million EVs must be created. This, he said, would require 1.8 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. “This would require a 473 per cent increase in output of lithium carbonate equivalent to 1.8 million tonnes from levels in 2019.”
“No doubt now, that India’s future will be ‘electrifying,’” Industrialist Anand Mahindra tweeted, hailing the discovery.
Better Quality
Against the normal grade of 220 ppm (particles per million), the Reasi lithium found is 550 ppm indicating the presence of the best quality in abundant deposits, earth scientist Prof Shakil Romshoo said. “India may become the world’s major producer and the EV industry will get a shot in the arm as India is committed to increasing the number of EVs by 30 per cent by 2030.”
NITI Aayog data suggests the total EV sales by 2030 could go up to 80 million from the current 1.3 million sales reported till July 2022. A Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report claims that by 2029-30, India will have 2.700 MWs of battery storage capacity.
These requirements have triggered massive price escalations for lithium, now dubbed ‘white gold’.
A group of excited resident in Reasi’s Salal area with soil blocks that has Lithoium in it. The GST said in February 2023 that the area has 5.9 million tonnes of Lithium.
Asserting that the discovery will help India to tackle the climate change crisis, Ramshoo said, “now India can deliver on its international promise of becoming carbon neutral by 2070” If climate targets set in the Paris Agreement are to be met, he said green technology especially EV’s have to be promoted on large scale in India, China, US, and Europe.
Import Dependence
While Chile, Australia, Argentina and China are home to the world’s highest lithium reserves, the path-breaking discovery put India on the map of the world’s largest lithium mines, only next to Chile. According to government data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, between April-December of 2022-23, India shelled out Rs. 163 billion for the import of lithium and lithium-ion
The present discovery will reduce the country’s dependence on imports. Reports appearing in the media suggest in 2020-21, India imported Rs 173 crore worth of lithium metal and lithium batteries for Rs 8,811 crore. In 2022, between April and November alone, Rs 164 crore worth of metal and Rs 7,986 crore worth of batteries were imported.
Last year, Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Minister, Pralhad Joshi informed Rajya Sabha, that India imported Lithium-ion worth Rs 8,574 crores in FY 2018-19, Rs 8,819 crores in 2019-20 and Lithium-ion worth Rs 8,811 crores in 2020-21.
India did not manufacture lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells till 2020 and would import from China or Taiwan and assemble them here. “India imported US$1.23 billion worth of Li-ion batteries between 2018 and 2019,” a February 2022 report by the India chapter of the World Resources Institute (WRI) said. “Over 165 crores lithium batteries are estimated to have been imported into India between FY17 and FY20 at an estimated import bill of upwards of US $3.3 billion.”
Reasi could change the situation now.
While the officials said the work will start soon, it remains to be seen how the extraction will start. Lithium can be extracted in different ways, depending on the type of the deposit — generally either through solar evaporation of large brine pools or from hard-rock extraction of the ore.
A Long Way
As the deposit is being described as “inferred resources,” an official in the mining department, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “we should wait for some time till the final stages of assessment before proper identification of the proven reserve.”
Earlier, in 2021, the 1,600 tonnes of lithium ore discovered in Karnataka were also classified as being in the “inferred category”. A lot of steps are involved before India could become a producer of Lithium.
Many assessments and samplings are required. The exploration of mineral deposits is divided into four stages — reconnaissance (G4), preliminary exploration (G3), general exploration (G2) and detailed exploration (G1). In Reasi, GSI is at G3.
“These are initial estimates. The process will take many years before actual mining starts,” said, Professor Pankaj Srivastava, Department of Geology, University of Jammu. “To arrive at a high confidence level, the exploratory companies will undertake the G2 level of assessment after G3, where the indicative resources are calculated, which tells us how much of the deposit could be mined with more facts. Later in the G1 level, the real ‘proved resource assessment’ is done.”
Experts say the “inferred” mineral is a resource for which quantity, grade and mineral content are estimated only with a low level of confidence. It is based on information gathered from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that may be of limited or uncertain quality, and also of lower reliability from geological evidence.
“As our level of confidence is low, it may increase or decrease. It is at a preliminary stage. Lithium is present in both forms. It is in the lattice of the mineral and it does not have its own mineral but the bauxite at the site is lithium-rich,” Srivastava said. “We need technology to extract lithium out of the rocks.
GSI Findings
Geologists have found the solubility of lithium is amenable to dissolution only by hydrofluorination with perchloric acid, which means the metal is present either in silicate or in the lattices of bauxite mineral, the GSI Survey of 1995 to 1997 reveals.
As analytical results have indicated high values of Li (averaging 883.80 ppm), according to study, as the mineralogical studies have failed to identify the mineral phase except in one sample where cockeite was indicated, the higher values of lithium are persistent throughout the belt (where bauxite is exposed) in the bauxite column. “Lithium prospect in the bauxite column in the area investigation appears to be promising. The bauxite column in Salal-Panasa-Sangarmarg (Saroda Bas) and Chakar areas appears to be a promising horizon for lithium and may be taken up for further detailed work,” the study stated. “The higher values of Lithium are persistent throughout the belt (Where bauxite is exposed) in the bauxite column). Lithium prospect in the bauxite column in the area investigation appears to be promising.”
Ecological Concerns
Amidst all these hopes and planning, environmentalists have raised a clarion call to save the flora and fauna of the region.
Romshu suggested that the mining and exploration of the lithium ore would have a significant environmental cost, which needs to be minimised, by employing the latest environmental-friendly exploration technologies.
Happy otherwise, even the residents know the flip side of the discovery. “We are apprehensive about an uncertain future. There will be economic prosperity but what will happen to us, our lands and homes,” Balbir Singh, a local transporter said. Almost 8000 people live in 2500 homes.
“We have learned that mining triggers pollution and people are displaced from demarcated areas,” Preetam Singh, a Sarpanch said. “Worried residents have called for a panchayat meeting. We cannot stop its extraction but the government has to think about us before embarking on the project.”
Beijing: Efforts to revive China’s economy have become “complicated” with growing global competition to attract investment, President Xi Jinping has said, calling for steps to forestall and defuse major economic and financial risks, including those arising from the property sector and the piling local government debt.
In an article published in the official media on the subject “State of the Country’s Economy”, Xi said that more efforts should be made to attract and utilise foreign investment.
In a tacit admission of the disquieting state of the world’s second-largest economy which last year shrank to three per cent registering its second lowest growth rate in 50 years, Xi said that economic work in 2023 is complicated and the efforts to revive it should focus on the major problems and start with improving public expectations and boosting confidence in development.
In the article that is originally in the Chinese language and published in an official magazine, Xi, also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, noted that international competition for attracting investment is becoming more intense.
China, regarded as the factory of the world for decades, faced an increasing shift of international investments to several countries, including India, in the last few years due to three years of zero Covid policy as well as the government crackdown on big tech industries.
Last year the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of China totalled USD 17.94 trillion in 2022, falling below the 5.5 per cent official target.
The slow pace was blamed mainly on the strictly implemented zero-Covid policy leading to periodic lockdowns and the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on big industrial firms besides the lingering real estate crisis.
This is the slowest growth of the Chinese economy since the 2.3 per cent registered in GDP in 1974.
Last year, China’s GDP in terms of dollars declined from USD 18 trillion in 2021 to USD 17.94 trillion last year mainly due to a sharp rise of the dollar against RMB (the Chinese currency) in 2022.
Public unrest due to economic slowdown is resulting in rare protests in the Communist country. Besides protests against the zero Covid policy in December last year, China in the last few weeks witnessed unprecedented protests by thousands of pensioners over health insurance cuts highlighting risks from an ageing population.
Pensioners in the central Chinese city of Wuhan city have taken to the streets twice over the past week to protest against cuts to medical services.
The rare protests underscore the challenge facing Beijing as it comes to terms with an ageing population, a shrinking workforce and the long-term financial health of its social security system, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
China is ageing rapidly, with the number of people aged 60 years and above reaching 267 million by the end of last year accounting for 18.9 per cent of the population, Wang Haidong, director of the National Health Commission’s Department of Aging and Health said.
It is estimated that the elderly population will top 300 million by 2025 and 400 million by 2035, he told official media here in September last year.
In his article, Xi noted that international competition for attracting investment is becoming more intense and urged more efforts to attract and utilise foreign capital.
Efforts should be made to expand market access, comprehensively improve the business environment, and provide targeted services to foreign-funded enterprises, he said.
He called for efforts to effectively forestall and defuse major economic and financial risks, including the systemic risks arising from the property sector, financial risks and local government debt risks.
According to 2019 estimates, China’s local governments’ debt rose to USD 2.58 trillion, which remained a constant worry for the central government. Xi said that there is still a lot of important work to be done in 2023 citing tasks such as advancing rural revitalisation on all fronts and planning a new round of reform across the board.
