8MAY 2024NAYARA ENERGY TO INVEST IN TWO ETHANOL MANUFACTURING FACILITIESUSA LOSES TOP SPOT TO CHINA AS INDIA'S LARGEST TRADING PARTNERNayara Energy, backed by Russian energy giant Rosneft, is gearing up to invest 600 crore in setting up two ethanol manufacturing plants in India. These plants, with a daily production capaci-ty of 200 kilo liters of ethanol each, will be established in Andhra Pradesh's Naidupeta and Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat and are expected to be operational by 2026. The company plans to utilize broken rice and maize as feedstock for ethanol production. In the long term, Nayara Energy aims to establish five ethanol manufac-turing plants.Prasad Panicker, Executive Chairman at Nayara Energy, emphasized the company's significant plans for ethanol production, driven by the goal to achieve a 20percent ethanol blending ratio by 2025. The initial phase will involve setting up two ethanol plants, with aspirations for further expansion in the future.Additionally, Nayara Energy is diversifying its op-erations beyond ethanol production. It is set to inau-gurate a polypropylene unit within its Vadinar facility in Gujarat, with an investment of 6,000 crore. Fur-thermore, the company is allocating 4,000 crore to-wards refinery modernization to enhance its lifespan and reliability, with investments expected to continue until 2026. China has once again become India's top trading part-ner, surpassing the United States for the first time in two years, according to the latest data from the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI). Bilateral trade between India and China in the fiscal year 2024 reached $118.4 billion, with imports increasing by 3.24percent to $101.7 billion and exports growing by 8.7percent to $16.67 billion.On the other hand, the trade relationship between In-dia and the US experienced a slight downturn. Bilateral trade in the fiscal year 2024 totaled $118.3 billion, with Indian exports declining slightly by 1.32percent to $77.5 billion and imports dropping by 20percent to $40.8 bil-lion.The economic interaction between India and China has attracted significant attention, especially due to In-dia's reliance on Chinese imports in crucial sectors such as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and advanced technology.The GTRI report highlighted this dependence, noting that India imported $4.2 billion worth of telecom and smartphone parts, representing 44percent of total im-ports in this category, and $3.8 billion worth of laptops and PCs, constituting 77.7percent of India's imports in this sector. TOPSTORIES
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