Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has visited the manufacturing facility of US-based electric vehicle major Tesla at Fremont, California and said that the company would be doubling its auto components imports from India.

The minister is in the US on a four-day visit. The world’s largest electric car producer Tesla Inc’s chief Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York and after the meeting Musk had said that he planned to visit India in 2024.

“Visited @Tesla’s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California. Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers and finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility.

Visited @Tesla‘s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California.

Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers & finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility.

Also proud to see… pic.twitter.com/FQx1dKiDlf

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) November 14, 2023

“Also proud to see the growing importance of auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India. Missed Mr @ElonMusk’s magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery,” Mr Goyal said on social networking platform X.

The platform is also owned by Elon Musk.

The visit assumes significance as there are reports that India is looking at giving customs duty concessions to Tesla for setting up a plant in the country. In September, Mr Goyal said the company is looking to source components worth around USD 1.9 billion from India this year against USD 1 billion in 2022.

Going forward, demand for electric vehicles will increase and it will help in pushing the growth of the sector. Earlier, the government had stated that it is not looking to frame a separate policy for providing incentives to Tesla, and the company can apply to avail support measures under existing schemes like PLI for auto and advanced chemistry cells.

The government has rolled out the production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes (PLI) for advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery storage with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore and Rs 26,058 crore PLI scheme for auto, auto-components and drone industries.

When asked whether the government is considering duty concessions on completely built-up units to attract certain sections of electric cars into India, Mr Goyal in September had said that “everything we have done has been done equally without any differentiation, without any preferences. This is the government which provides equal opportunity to everybody. So we will come out with a policy”.

In August 2021, Elon Musk had said Tesla might set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeded with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India “but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!”.

Currently, India imposes 100 per cent import duty on fully imported cars with CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) value more than USD 40,000 and 70 per cent on those costing less than the amount. 

Firefighters rescued 26 people, including a one-year-old child, while a woman died after a fire broke out at a residential building in eastern Delhi’s Shakarpur area, officials said. Officials further said there were 60 people in the building when the fire broke out late Monday night.

“There were more than 60 people in the building… Many people saved their lives by jumping out of the building,” officials said.

“One woman died after a fire broke out at a residential building in the Shakarpur area of East Delhi last night. Fire brigade reached the spot, rescued 26 people and doused the fire,’ as per Delhi Fire Service officials.

Upon receiving the information, fire tenders reached the spot and started the rescue operations.

The fire was doused after a few hours of firefighting, they said.

The fire personnel rescued people one by one by placing a ladder next to the window of the building.

More details are awaited.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi paid floral tribute to former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his birth anniversary at Shantivan in the national capital on Tuesday.

“Paying tribute to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ji on his birth anniversary, who took India from zero to the pinnacle, the creator of modern India, the fearless guardian of democracy and our source of inspiration. His progressive ideas advanced India’s social, political and economic development despite all the challenges and encouraged the people of the country to live together at every moment, without any discrimination and always keeping the country first,” Congress President Kharge posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime architect of modern India.

In his understanding, only a Democratic structure which gave space to various cultural, political, and socio-economic trends to express themselves could hold India together.

Today, as we gather in Shanti Van, to… pic.twitter.com/SMGpvEWx7a

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) November 14, 2023

कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री @kharge और CPP चेयरपर्सन श्रीमती सोनिया गांधी ने शांतिवन पहुंचकर प्रथम प्रधानमंत्री पंडित जवाहरलाल नेहरू जी की जयंती पर उन्हें श्रद्धांजलि दी।

आधुनिक भारत के निर्माता नेहरू जी को आज पूरा देश याद कर रहा है। pic.twitter.com/NvSh8dQkdb

— Congress (@INCIndia) November 14, 2023

Children’s Day is celebrated on November 14 every year as a mark of respect to the first Prime Minister of independent India.

Jawaharlal Nehru was fondly called ‘Chacha Nehru’ and was known for emphasising the importance of giving love and affection to children. After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, it was unanimously decided to celebrate his birthday as ‘Bal Diwas’ or Children’s Day in India.

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. He breathed his last on May 27, 1964.

He became the Prime Minister on August 15, 1947, following an active role in the freedom struggle of the country.

On this day, a number of activities are organised for students in schools nationwide, such as games, competitions, and so on, while government bodies pay tribute to the late prime minister and organise commemorative events.

In 1954, the United Nations declared November 20 as Universal Children’s Day and India used to celebrate Children’s Day on that day before 1956 but after the death of Prime Minister Nehru in 1964, a resolution was passed in the Parliament unanimously declaring the day of Pt. Nehru’s birth anniversary as National Children’s Day.