21 October 2015

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Nuclear deal not on Sharif’s agenda  –   (International Relation)

  • Ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three-day tour of the United States, both countries ruled out a nuclear deal between them, but Pakistan went a step further to emphasise that they were not even discussing any such deal. Mr. Sharif arrives in the U.S. on Tuesday.
  • “No ‘deal’ is being discussed between the two countries. Nor has the U.S. made any demand on Pakistan,” the spokesman of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Islamabad on Monday. The comments appeared to be not in accord with the White House’s view.

 

Nuclear deal not on Sharif’s agenda   –   (International Relation)

  • Ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three-day tour of the United States, both countries ruled out a nuclear deal between them, but Pakistan went a step further to emphasise that they were not even discussing any such deal. Mr. Sharif arrives in the U.S. on Tuesday.
  • “No ‘deal’ is being discussed between the two countries. Nor has the U.S. made any demand on Pakistan,” the spokesman of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Islamabad on Monday. The comments appeared to be not in accord with the White House’s view.

 

Nuclear deal not on Sharif’s agenda  –   (International Relation)

  • Ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three-day tour of the United States, both countries ruled out a nuclear deal between them, but Pakistan went a step further to emphasise that they were not even discussing any such deal. Mr. Sharif arrives in the U.S. on Tuesday.
  • “No ‘deal’ is being discussed between the two countries. Nor has the U.S. made any demand on Pakistan,” the spokesman of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Islamabad on Monday. The comments appeared to be not in accord with the White House’s view.

 

Open to new norms for collegium, says CJI  –   (Indian Polity)

  • Faced with the historic admission from his own court that the collegium system of judicial appointments was flawed, Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu on Tuesday broke his silence on the issue and told The Hindu that the judiciary was open to “consider” guidelines that may be framed by a Constitution Bench to improve the system.
  • “All of us, the government and the judiciary, work for the common man. We will wait for November 3 to see what the Constitution Bench decides. We will see what kind of suggestions comes from different quarters and how the Constitution Bench will frame its guidelines for the collegium. If the Bench gives us some suggestions, we will consider them,” Chief Justice Dattu said in a phone interview. The Justice J. S. Khehar-led Constitution Bench, which struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission as “unconstitutional,” pushed for reforms to the collegium system followed in the past 21 years. .

 

 

Charges against IPRS to be probed: Ministry  –    (Indian Polity)

  • The Copyright Division under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has appointed an official to probe allegations of irregularities in the administration of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS).
  • According to the Ministry, it has received “many complaints” from authors and composers, who are members of the IPRS.

 

 

India asks Russia to share information on Netaji  –   (International Relation)

  • India on Tuesday asked Russia to share any information it has on the seven-decade-old mystery surrounding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
  • The development came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that India would declassify files on Bose beginning January 23 next year.

 

 

‘Give attention to agriculture’  –   (Economics)

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements on poverty eradication and agriculture sector indicate good intentions but they have not been translated into action on the ground yet, said M.S. Swaminathan, agriculture scientist and chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. “A lot has been said and the Prime Minister himself is the biggest spokesman of the government.
  • His focus on irrigation is good. But we don’t see action on the ground that matches these statements,” Mr. Swaminathan said, speaking on “Synergy between science and public policy for achieving the zero hunger challenge” at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

 

 

Folk dances, fusion music to mark start of India-Africa summit  –    (International Relation)

  • The third edition of the four-day India-Africa Forum Summit, which is expected to be all about diplomacy and trade, will begin here with a spectacular cultural show on October 26.
  • The show, featuring 300 artistes and technicians, is expected to begin with contemporary and folk dances of India. Celebrity dance master Shiamak Davar will choreograph major parts of this segment.

 

Resume the engagement   –    (International Relation)

  • The latest escalation of violence in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank has led to the question whether a third intifada is on the way. Over the past month, more than 30 Palestinians and at least eight Israelis have been killed.
  • While the eruption of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is in itself not new, its pattern, and the increasing support among Palestinians for armed resistance against Israeli occupation, build into a familiar cycle.

 

Time to refresh Afghan relationship  –    (International Relation)

  • The geopolitics of Afghanistan, Central and West Asia has witnessed several important changes over the last six months, which makes the time right for a fresh Indian initiative that reaches out to old friends in northern Afghanistan along with anti-Taliban elements in the southern parts.
  • Two changes have given rise to this opportunity. The first is the changing equations of balance of power in Afghanistan; the second deals with the current status of Taliban’s capacities in southern Afghanistan.

 

Liberals script stunning win in Canada  –    (International Relation)

  • The nine-year reign of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party came to a sudden and stunning end on Monday night at the hands of Justin Trudeau, the young leader of the Liberal Party.
  • Starting with a sweep of the Atlantic Provinces, the Liberals capitalised on what many Canadians saw as Mr. Harper’s heavy-handed style, and the party went on to capture 184 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons. The unexpected rout occurred 47 years after Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, first swept to power.

 

Gap widening between rural and urban India  –   (Economics)

  • While inflation has been slowing both in rural and urban areas of the country, there is a widening difference between the two as rural inflation is decelerating at a much slower pace. The resultant gap between rural and urban inflation has more than doubled over the last one year, data analysed by HSBC Global Research show.
  • “Inflation has fallen strikingly over the last several months, but the gains are not equally distributed…Rural inflation is running higher than urban inflation and its underlying trend is higher than the RBI’s target,” analysts at HSBC Global Research wrote in a note.

 

 

Road developers may shy away from capital infusion  –    (Economics)

  • The Cabinet last week approved a one-time capital infusion by the National Highways Authority of India to get stalled road projects moving.
  • However, according to credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), lenders and developers may not be keen on taking advantage of this infusion estimated at Rs.45,000 crore.

 

Major ports handle 300 million tonnes in first half  –   (Economics)

  • Major ports in the country handled close to 300 million tonnes of cargo in the first six months of the current financial year against 288 million tonnes for the corresponding period in 2014.
  • The 299.58 million tonnes handled in the period is against the Shipping Ministry’s annual target of 695 million tonnes for 2015-16. In 2014-15, the ports handled 581 million tonnes.

 

ONGC targets $10-12 billion investments outside India  –   (Economics)

  • ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), foreign investment arm of India’s top oil explorer ONGC, is targeting $10-$12 billion of oil and gas asset purchases over the next three years, including more corporate acquisitions, its Managing Director said.
  • It hopes to capitalise on cheaper assets after a slump in oil prices and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic efforts to boost the global presence of Indian firms.