Asheville, Sep 1: India is preparing further customs and banking reforms, including risk-based import screening and a high-level review of the banking sector’s role towards building a developed India, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman said.

In an exclusive interview with media on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting here, FM Sitharaman said the next phase would build on changes already made in direct and indirect taxation.

“We’ve done quite a few things about the direct and indirect taxes. Customs, we’ve done some, we’ll have to do more. We’ll be taking those up,” she said.

The government is working to make the movement of imported goods through Indian ports more seamless, the Finance Minister said.

A key proposal involves deploying scanners and concentrating checks on high-risk importers. Other consignments could then be cleared automatically, reducing delays for businesses and easing congestion at ports.

“We are trying to bring in scanners and have high-risk importers alone go through them, and the rest of them can be cleared automatically,” FM Sitharaman said.

“A lot of reforms in the customs area,” she added.

The approach would allow customs authorities to focus their scrutiny on higher-risk imports while facilitating faster clearances in other cases.

However, FM Sitharaman did not provide a timetable for introducing the scanners or implementing the proposed automatic clearance system.

The government has also appointed a high-level committee to examine the banking sector and its future role in achieving India’s development goals.

“The banks, of course, we’ve appointed a high-level committee to look into banking for Viksit Bharat,” she told media.

“That committee will also give its report,” she added, without indicating when its recommendations would be submitted.

Asked about the next stage of the government’s wider reform programme, FM Sitharaman said changes would be taken up as requirements emerged.

“Well, we take it as we go along,” according to her.

The Finance Minister said the Centre had worked with state governments to improve the business environment and reduce the compliance burden on citizens and companies.

“I think together with the states, I will also credit the states, many of them who have come forward to make doing business a bit easier,” she said.

“We, as you know, have reduced a lot of compliance burden on the citizens, whether it is by reforming the Acts, by simplifying the regulations, and also by removing archaic laws,” she added.

More than 1,000 laws had been removed and about 40,000 regulations simplified, according to the Finance Minister.

The government was also maintaining regular consultations with industry, businesses and trade while pursuing bilateral trade and investor protection agreements.

“Constantly, we are engaging with the industry, with businesses, with trade,” FM Sitharaman said.

“Also, the way in which bilateral trade agreements are being signed, we are now pushing ahead with investor protection agreements as well,” she added.

FM Sitharaman said confidence in the Indian banking system was reflected in foreign deposits and investments made by Indians living overseas. The indicators showed a positive story about trust in Indian banks and the country’s macroeconomic position, she said.

The proposed reforms come as India reported 7.8 per cent growth in the first quarter of the 2026-27 financial year. Manufacturing grew by 9.2 per cent, while the financial and professional services sector expanded by 12.1 per cent.

FM Sitharaman also cited the expansion of UPI, NPCI systems and QR-code payments as factors helping small and medium-sized businesses gain access to global markets. She said reforms across government departments and the financial sector had brought out the robustness of the Indian economy.

Tehran, Aug 31: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Monday it had launched a combined missile and drone strike on US air bases in Jordan in retaliation for the US-Israeli aerial attacks on Iran’s Larak Island Sunday night.

The Iranian military targeted “technical and maintenance infrastructure,” as well as areas where “enemy fighter jets” were stationed at the King Hussein and Al-Azraq US bases in Jordan, inflicting heavy damage, Iran’s Fars news agency reported, citing an IRGC statement.

“Aggression and crimes will not solve the enemy’s desperation in attempting to weaken the Islamic Republic’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, and every attack will be met with even more devastating responses,” the statement said.

The reported attack followed a US strike on two IRGC rocket launchers on Larak Island, an Iranian island positioned near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

US forces on Sunday struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island, US Central Command spokesperson Tim Hawkins said, marking the first known US strike against Iran since late July.

“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz,” Hawkins said in a statement, adding that the US military was “monitoring the area closely and remains prepared to protect the free flow of commerce” through the strategic waterway.

Larak Island is a small Iranian island located off the coast of Bandar Abbas, east of Qeshm Island and south of Hormuz Island.

IRGC said multiple military personnel and civilians were killed or wounded Sunday night in a “US-Israeli” attack on Iran’s southern Larak Island in Hormozgan province, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a statement published by its official news outlet, Sepah News, the IRGC vowed that the attack would be met with “punishment for the aggressor.”

Citing unofficial reports, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said that at least two people were killed and two others injured in what it described as a US “drone attack” on the island.

Kathmandu, Aug 31: An Indian tunnel rescue team is continuing its search and rescue operations to save the lives of people trapped inside tunnels of different hydropower projects following the devastating floods in the Bhote Koshi River last week, the Indian Embassy said on Monday.

“The tunnel rescue team from India worked with the Nepali Army’s team to conduct search and rescue operations at hydropower tunnel sites in the Chilime and Langtang areas today,” the embassy said, adding that the team would continue search and rescue operations in close coordination with the Nepali Army.

According to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), a representative association of private-sector power developers, a total of 897 people employed at 11 hydropower projects in the flood-affected districts of Rasuwa and Nuwakot have been out of contact.

According to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), seven Indian and 15 Chinese nationals who were trapped in hydropower projects were rescued on Sunday.

At the request of the Nepali government, Indian and Chinese tunnel technicians arrived in Nepal and have been engaged in rescue efforts to evacuate people trapped inside hydropower tunnels.

On Sunday, the Indian team was involved in rescue efforts at different hydropower projects, according to statements from Nepali government authorities and IPPAN.

The Secretariat of the Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation said that the Indian team that arrived to assist with the rescue operation conducted an initial aerial reconnaissance of the Chilime and Langtang areas by helicopter and plans to undertake further rescue operations as required.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah said in a Facebook post late Sunday evening that an Indian team conducted reconnaissance at the Chilime Hydropower Project (22MW) in Rasuwa in coordination with the Nepal Army and carried out rescue efforts after taking pumps and excavators to the site.

However, the rescue operation at the Chilime project on Sunday was halted after another flood swept away structures that had survived the previous flood in the dam area, according to IPPAN.

“At the Langtang Khola Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, the Nepal Army conducted search-and-rescue patrols,” the Prime Minister said. “An Indian team has also conducted reconnaissance in coordination with the Nepal Army and has begun additional work after bringing pumps and excavators to the site.”