NEW DELHI, March 2 -- Lawmakers across party lines pressed the government for an early conclusion to the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and to address critical bottlenecks in trade, technology cooperation, and student mobility during a high-level parliamentary consultative committee meeting on Saturday, people aware of the developments said on Sunday.

During the meeting, chaired by external affairs minister S Jaishankar, members of Parliamentwere informed that negotiations for the India-EU FTA -- described as the "mother of all deals" -- are reportedly at an advanced stage. While the government aims to finalise the agreement within the year,senior officials of the ministry of external affairsnoted that EU ratification is...