October 2020 India and the World

Sakshi Education

India becomes chair of ILO governing body
India has assumed the chairmanship of the governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) after a gap of 35 years.

Labour secretary Apurva Chandra has been elected as the chairperson of the governing body of the organisation for the period October 2020- June 2021.

Chandra belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Maharashtra Cadre.

The governing body is the executive body of the ILO. It meets thrice a year, in March, June and November. It takes decisions on ILO policy, decides the agenda of the International Labour Conference, adopts the draft programme and budget of the organisation for submission to the conference, and elects the Director-General.
India- USA 2+2 Meeting in New Delhi
Third 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between India and US is likely to finalise and sign the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) on geo-spatial cooperation.

According to BECA, the agreement will give India access to classified geo-spatial data as well as critical information having significant military applications.

This is an important precursor to acquire the armed unmanned aerial vehicles from the US. One such UAV is Predator-B.

Meeting is expected to focus on regional and global security, defence information sharing, strengthening and working in the Indo-Pacific, and cooperation on public health to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Both nations expressed satisfaction at the close engagements between the respective Armed Forces.

The two ministers also called for continuation of existing defence dialogue mechanisms during the pandemic, at all levels, particularly the Military Cooperation Group (MCG).

India has already signed the following agreements with the United States

GSOMIA in 2002

LEMOA in 2016

COMCASA in 2018
India Post and USPS signs Agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs
Department of Posts, Government of India (India Post) and United States Postal Service (USPS) have entered into an agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs data related to postal shipments exchanged between the two countries.

The agreement will make it possible to transmit and receive electronic data of international postal items prior to their physical arrival at the destination and would enable customs clearance of postal items in advance in line with the evolving global postal framework. This will also improve the performance of postal services in terms of reliability, visibility and security.

USA is the top export destination for India (~17%) which is also reflected in exchange of goods through postal channel. In 2019, around 20% of outbound EMS and 30% of Letters & Small Packets transmitted by India Post were destined to USA whereas 60% of the Parcels received by India Post were originated from USA.

Exchange of Electronic Advance Data (EAD) as per the Agreement will be a key driver towards promoting mutual trade with emphasis on the exports from different parts of India to USA through postal channel considering that USA is a major destination of MSME products, Gems &Jewelry, Pharmaceuticals and other local products from India. This will fulfill a major demand of export industry to expedite customs clearances of export items.

The primary objective that will be served by this agreement is to facilitate ‘ease of exports’ for small and large exporters through postal channels from different parts of the country and will contribute towards making India an Export Hub for the world.

India’s outreach to Myanmar
Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Manoj Naravane visited Myanmar. The visit is because of the upcoming general elections in Myanmar, would be viewed as India’s support for Myanmar’s efforts in strengthening democratisation.

The support of India seems to be a continuation of India’s Myanmar policy since the 1990s which has been to support democratisation driven from within the country.

India took a balanced stand by its engagement with all the political players in the country, including the military that played a key role in Myanmar’s political transition and is still an important political actor.

India has followed a non-interference policy in the internal politics of Myanmar.

India–Myanmar border makes a challenge to India’s security. Myanmar shares a land border with northeastern India, stretching some 1,624 kilometres and also a 725-km maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal given the link between the porous border and organized crime and extremism in the region.

India – Myanmar border is highly porous, poorly guarded and located along a remote, underdeveloped, insurgency-prone region and proximate to an opium-producing area. The border is also vulnerable to the activities of insurgents and drugs and arms trafficker.

Myanmar is critical for the overall development of North-Eastern Indian states. Myanmar is strategically important to India as it is the only ASEAN country that shares a border with India. Myanmar is key in linking South Asia to Southeast Asia and helping enhance its regional outreach.

Myanmar is also an important member of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
India-U.S. 2+2 dialogue | U.S. to support India’s defence of territory
A ‘two plus two dialogue’ is a term used for installation of a dialogue mechanism between two countries defence and external affairs ministries to discuss strategic and security interests.

India has also established a 2+2 dialogue mechanism with other Quad countries Japan and Australia.

Advancing the Defense and Security Partnership: Signing of Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) which allows India to use US geospatial intelligence and enhance accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.

The cooperation also includes sharing of high-end satellite images, telephone intercepts, and data exchange on Chinese troops and weapons deployment along the 3,488-km India-China LAC.

U.S.-India Cooperation:

Some key Agreement signed for Technical Cooperation on Earth Sciences.

Extending the arrangement on nuclear cooperation.

Agreement on postal services.

Cooperation in Ayurveda and cancer research.
Feni bridge connecting India & Bangladesh to be completed by December
The 1.8 kilometre long Feni bridge connecting Sabrum in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh will be completed by December this year.

The Feni bridge will ease the transportation of goods from Chattogram and Kolkata ports.

An integrated check post is also proposed to be built near Sabrum.

The construction of the RCC bridge over Feni will improve connectivity to the international border with Bangladesh.

Very soon a train to Bangladesh from Tripura will start.

The Feni river forms part of the India-Bangladesh border. It originates in the South Tripura district, passes through Sabroom town on the Indian side, and meets the Bay of Bengal after it flows into Bangladesh.

Dispute
There has been no water-sharing agreement between the countries on the Feni previously. The dispute over the sharing of the river water has been long-standing.

In August 2019, India and Bangladesh held a water secretary-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) in Dhaka, where it was agreed to collect data and prepare water-sharing agreements for seven rivers — Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, and Feni.
India, Central Asian republics call for destruction of terror safe havens
The 2nd meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue was hosted virtually by foreign minister and saw the participation of his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz Republic.

The first meeting of the dialogue was held in Samarkand, the Republic of Uzbekistan in January 2019.

Announcement of an additional $ 1 billion line of credit by India for Central Aisan countries. Line of Credit is a credit facility extended by a bank or any other financial institution to a government, business or an individual customer, that enables the customer to draw the maximum loan amount.

All ministers called for settlement of the Afghan conflict on the basis of Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process.

All the nations strongly condemned terrorism and reaffirmed their determination to combat it by destroying terrorist safe-havens, networks, infrastructure and funding channels.

They also underlined the need for every country to ensure that their territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks against other countries.

They appreciated India’s efforts to modernise the infrastructure of the Chabahar port in Iran, which could become an important link in trade and transport communications between the markets of Central and South Asia.

There was an announcement of grant financing by India for high impact community development projects in Central Asian countries.

Establishment of working groups by India Central Asia Business Council comprising the key chambers of all participating countries.

The council was launched by the Government of India along with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in February 2020.

It aims to promote business in the region and to collaborate and provide an industry view to the governments of the six countries.
UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman leads the Indian delegation in the 10th Round of Ministerial UK – India Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD).

It reached several agreements to deepen the economic relationship – focusing on financial services, infrastructure and sustainable finance.

The Dialogue, among other things, covered sharing of experiences on coronavirus response, to enable both countries to be enriched by experiences of the other.

Other issues discussed include collaboration in the G20 on finance track matters, international tax list (including the development of inclusive consensus-based solution on the taxation of the digital economy), furthering of Financial Services Collaboration with special emphasis on Fin-Tech and GIFT City, the establishment of an annual India-UK Financial Market Dialogue, infrastructure development, sustainable finance with a focus on green finance.

It was also decided to establish India – UK Sustainable Finance Forum. India – UK economic ties are significant as together they are two of the world’s top seven economies with a combined GDP of over $5 trillion.

India – UK trade has more than doubled since the first Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in 2007, with bilateral investment supporting over half a million jobs across both countries.
U.K. to partner for developing GIFT City, funding infra pipeline
The United Kingdom (UK) has entered into a strategic partnership to develop India’s GIFT City. GIFT - Gujarat International Finance Tec-City is India’s first international financial services centre. It is located in Gandhinagar of Gujarat.

India and the U.K. also signed off on a new infrastructure finance and policy partnership to support India execute its National Infrastructure Pipeline that envisages investments worth $1.4 trillion.

The UK has agreed to set up a new Fund of Funds to be managed by the State Bank of India (SBI) group to route the U.K.'s future capital investments into India. It provides an opportunity to drive international capital flow from London to India.

India is now the second-largest project investment source for the U.K. Bilateral trade between India, and the U.K. stood at £24 billion in 2019.

The U.K. and India announced a joint investment of £8 million for research to understand and address the factors leading to the severity of the novel coronavirus in South Asian populations in the U.K. and India.

To achieve the GDP of $5 trillion by 2024-25, India needs to spend about $1.4 trillion over these years on infrastructure. To implement an infrastructure program of this scale, the government has envisaged the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).

In April 2020, the Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline submitted its Final Report on NIP for the Financial year 2019-25.
Webinar between India Kazakhstan Defence Cooperation Hosted
Ambassadors of both countries and senior Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials from both sides participated in the webinar. A webinar between India and Kazakhstan was held on October 15 2020.

Highlights:
The Theme of the webinar was "Make In India For The World, India – Kazakhstan Defence Cooperation: Webinar and Expo".

Webinar was organized under the aegis of Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence through FICCI.

This webinar is the part of the series of webinars which are being managed with friendly foreign countries to boost defence exports and achieve defence export target of $5 billion in the next five years

Webinar observed the need to leverage opportunities not only for co-development and co-production but also to meet each other's requirements

Various Indian companies such as L&T Defence, Ashok Leyland Limited, Bharat Forge, Zen Technologies, Elcom Innovations, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Alpha Design Technologies and Bharat Electronics Limited made company and product presentations on major platforms/equipment like Artillery Systems, Radars, Protected Vehicles, Missiles and Air Defence Equipments, Training Solutions etc. in the webinar.

BEL announced its plans to open a representative office in Kazakhstan.

More than 350 participants attended the webinar, and 39 virtual exhibition stalls, which include seven stalls from Kazakh companies, have been set up in the Expo.
Fifth Joint Working Group (JWG) on Coal between India & Indonesia on November 5, 2020
India will host 5th Joint Working Group (JWG) on Coal between India and Indonesia

Highlights:
The 5th JWG on Coal between India & Indonesia scheduled on November 5, 2020

The 1-day meeting will be held through Video conference from New Delhi due to travel restrictions on the pandemic.

This will be co-chaired by Shri Vinod Kumar Tiwari from the Indian side, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Government of India and by Dr Ir. Ridwan Djamaluddin, Director General of Mineral and Coal Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia, from the Indonesian side.

Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting will deliberate on the Indian Coal Policy Reforms – recent updates; Coking Coal Exploration and Commercial Coal Mining in India; Research and Development of CCT in India and Potential of Indonesia – India Business Cooperation on Coal Post Covid-19

A back-2-back session will bring together the industries from both the sides to discuss the issues impacting business opportunities in the backdrop of a regulatory framework.

This will also explore more areas of business opportunities in the Coal sector.

The deliberations will guide the Coal business between the two countries.
India took the place of world No. 2 in Migrations to OECD nations; 44th International Migration Outlook 2020
Secretary-General of OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development announced the 44th International Migration Outlook 2020 on October 19, 2020.

OECD is an international organisation where the governments of 37 member states work with each other to foster sustainable development.

Highlights:
India emerged as the 2nd largest source country both in terms of the total inflow of new migrants to OECD countries and also as regards the number of Indians acquiring citizenship of these countries. China took the 1st position while Romania backed the 3rd place.

India succeeded Romania to emerge as the second-largest source country. Migration from India to OECD countries increased sharply by 10% and now it reached 3.3 lakhs. It represents 5% of the overall migration to OECD countries.

Due to ongoing pandemic issuances of new visas in OECD countries saw the largest drop by 46% in the first half of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. In the second quarter, it declined to 72%.

The top 4 countries where Indians choose to become citizens are the United States (US), Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom (UK).
Fifth Meeting of India-Mexico Bilateral High-Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation Held
The fifth meeting of India and Mexico Bilateral High-Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation was held through video conferencing on 9th October 2020. In this meeting both the countries reviewed their bilateral trade, investment and commercial relations.

Meeting Highlights
The official discussed several topics including the Bilateral investment treaty, Cooperation Framework on phytosanitary and sanitary products, Audiovisual co-production, Technical barriers to trade, Market access for Agricultural Products, Cooperation in intellectual property rights and Promotion of tourism and the improvisation of people to people contact.

They also reaffirmed to diversify their bilateral relationship in the trade of Pharmaceuticals, Medical equipment, Healthcare, Agro products, Fisheries, Food processing industries and Aerospace.

Both the Countries signed the following MOUs between Mexican Chamber of Electronics telecommunication & information Technologies (CANITEI), Electronics & Computer software export Promotion Council of India (ESC), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & industry (FICCI), Mexican Business Council of foreign trade investment & Technology (COMCE), Export of products from India to Mexico in sectores like jewellery, gems, Textiles, leather and software and Import of products to India from Mexico like machinery, fertilizers, petroleum and Chemicals.
India, France re-elected as President, Co-President of ISA
At the Third Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA), India and France were re-elected as the President and Co-President of the alliance for a term of two years.

The 3rd ISA Assembly was held through video conferencing on October 14, 2020.

Highlights:
The assembly was attended by 34 ISA Members ministers. A total of 53 member countries and 5 signatory and prospective member countries have participated.

Four new Vice-Presidents were also selected to represent the four regions of ISA.

The representatives of Fiji & Nauru for Asia Pacific Region; Mauritius & Niger for Africa Region; UK & Netherlands for Europe and others Region, and Cuba and Guyana for Latin America and Caribbean Region assumed the vice presidency.

The Assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalizing ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (CSCA).

Ten public sector organisations in India presented a cheque for 1 million USD each at the assembly.
MoU between India and Australia for collaboration in making impact for sustainable groundwater management
Union Cabinet approved the MoU signed with Australia for the various purposes and it mainly focuses on our sustainable growth.

The MoU between India and Australia focuses on various fields like research and development, capacity building and sustainable growth.

Highlights
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi apprised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga rejuvenation, India and Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater use through village-level intervention (MARVI) PARTNERS, Australia in October, 2019.

The MoU has been signed for promoting cooperation in surface and groundwater training, education and research to achieve water security for agricultural, urban, industrial and environmental purposes.
India joined the UK-led campaign against encrypted social media messages
India is among seven countries to back a UK-led campaign against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook.

It has been claimed that this feature hinders the law enforcement against illegal activities by blocking all access to them. Further, the system also prevents law enforcement investigating and prosecuting against online child sexual abuse, and terrorist content.

Highlights
The UK and India will be joined by the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

A joint international statement addressed to all tech companies to ensure that they do not blind themselves for illegal activity on their platforms such as child abuse images.

It marks an expansion of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations, a global alliance on intelligence issues, by including India and Japan

Facebook said that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect people’s most private information, in return.

Facebook backed itself by stating that people prefer end-to-end encrypted messaging on various apps because it keeps their messages safe from hackers, criminals, and foreign interference.

Five Eyes group of nations
The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance.

The origin of the FVEY date back to the post–World War II period.

During that time, the FVET developed the ECHELON surveillance system in order to monitor the communications of the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

Now this system is used to monitor private communications worldwide.

FVEY comprises of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It is a surveillance program operated by the United States with the help of four signatory states of the UKUSA Security Agreement namely, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

It was created in 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
India contributes USD 1 million dollars to UNRWA for Palestine Refugees
India has contributed 1 million dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in Near East.

India has contributed 1 million dollars to UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as support of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Highlights:
The contribution was accepted by the UN body is for the Palestinian refugees who have been facing extreme challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This aid will support the Agency's programmes and services, including education, health care, relief and social services.

India's support for the Palestinian cause is an integral part of the nation's foreign policy.

India has also sent medicines and other supplies to the Palestinian National Authority to help in dealing with the COVID-19 situation. It shall continue supporting the UNRWA’s activities in providing vital services and necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees

UNRWA and Objective:
It is a United Nations (UN) agency which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949.

The agency is mandated to provide protection and assistance to some 5.6 million Palestine refugees who are registered with UNRWA across its 5 fields of operation.

The mission of UNRWA is to help the Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, West Bank, including Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

The services of UNRWA encompass health care, education, camp infrastructure, relief and social services, and protection, improvement, and microfinance among the Palestinian refugees.

India-Palestine Partnership:
Under this partnership, India has been currently funding 8 ongoing developmental projects that are worth USD 59 million dollars. It includes building an Information Technology Park, 215 Bed Super Specialty Hospital in Bethlehem, Information Technology Park, National Printing Press, Turathi-Women empowerment project, Diplomatic Training Institute and three schools in various governorates in the Palestinian Territories.
India, Bangladesh hold joint naval exercise Bongosagar

The second edition of the bilateral naval exercise "Bongosagar", between India and Bangladesh was held on 3 October 2020 in Northern Bay of Bengal.

Both navies participated in seamanship evolutions, surface warfare drills, and helicopter operations.

Bongosagar aims to develop interoperability and joint operational skills through the conduct of maritime exercises and operations.

Highlights:
Bangladesh Navy ships Abu Bakr, Prottoy, helo& MPA and Indian Navy ships Kiltan, Khukriparticipaated in the exercise.

They undertook manoeuvres, surface drills, helo operations & seamanship evolutions.

Also, Maritime Patrol Aircraft from both navies and integral helicopters participated in the exercise.

The first edition of the 'Exercise Bongosagar' was held in 2019.

The third edition of India Bangladesh Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) on 4-5 October.

During the CORPAT exercise, both navies will undertake joint patrolling along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

Exercise Bongosagar and IN-BN CORPAT reflects the priority Indian Navy accords to Bangladesh Navy as part of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region).
India, US to work together for stability & prosperity in Indo- Pacific region
External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar met Secretary of State of the United States Mike Pompeo ahead of his joint meeting with the Foreign Ministers of QUAD countries slated to be held later in the day.

Dr. Jaishankar said, both the countries will work together for stability and prosperity in the Indo- Pacific. The Foreign Ministers of India, United States, Australia and Japan are likely to discuss the post-COVID-19 international order and the need for a coordinated response to the various challenges emerging from the pandemic.

They will also discuss regional issues and collectively affirm the importance of maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

Dr. Jaishankar will be also meeting his Japanese and Australian counterpart for a bilateral consultation. The Ministers are expected to discuss bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

The meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, United States, Australia and Japan holds high significance amid the global pandemic.

This is the second time the four foreign ministers will be meeting after their first such meeting last year on the sidelines of the United Nations meet.
India, Myanmar agree to operationalise Sittwe port in first quarter of 2021
India and Myanmar have agreed to work towards the operationalisation of the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state in the first quarter of 2021.

The announcement came by the Ministry of External Affairs after the conclusion of the two-day long visit of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General M MNaravane and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to Myanmar on 4-5 October.

During the visit COAS and Foreign Secretary called on the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Commander in Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing among several other senior civilian and army officers.

Both sides agreed to further strengthen their partnership in connectivity projects, capacity building, power and energy.
12th BRICS Summit to be held on November 17
The 12th BRICS Summit will be held on 17th November 2020 via video conference. The theme of the Meeting of the Leaders of BRICS countries which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”.

The Summit this year is being held under the Chairmanship of Russia and aims at a multifaceted cooperation between the member countries.

The five member countries have continued close strategic partnership on all the three major pillars of peace and security, economy and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Union Cabinet approves signing of Memorandum of cooperation in field of cyber-security between India & Japan
The Union cabinet gave its approval for signing a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of cyber-security between India and Japan.

The MoC will enhance cooperation in areas of mutual interest, which in-cludes capacity building in the area of cyberspace, protection of critical infrastructure, cooperation in emerging technologies, sharing information on cyber security threats and malicious cyber activities. Another MoU was signed between Zoological Survey of India and its Canadian Counterpart on bar coding of faunal Genomes.

The Cabinet also approved the ratification of seven chemicals listed under Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and environment from POPs, which are identified chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate in living organisms, adversely affect human health and have the property of long-range environmental transport.
India and Japan have finalised a landmark cyber-security agreement
India and Japan have finalised a landmark cyber-security agreement.

The announcement on the agreement followed the 13th India-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue between India’s External Affairs Minister and his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo.

India and Japan vowed to further broad-base their joint efforts in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific

The agreement promotes cooperation in capacity building, research and development, security and resilience in the areas of Critical Information Infrastructure, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), among others.

The announcement is expected to draw the attention of the stakeholders in the Indian 5G sector as it gets ready to open up for international operators.

The firming up of the deal comes in the midst of growing concerns in India over cyberattacks from China.

India banned over 100 mobile apps with Chinese links in the backdrop of the border dispute in eastern Ladakh.

There is also a lack of clarity on the possible participation of Chinese technology majors.
India-Denmark Bilateral Summit; Partners to Work Towards Supply-chain Diversification
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen held a virtual summit on 28 September. The aim is to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Highlights:
The leaders signed an MoU in the field of intellectual property cooperation between the two countries.

The virtual bilateral summit provided an opportunity for the two leaders to comprehensively review the broad framework of the bilateral relationship between the two countries

The summit gave broad political direction for a strengthened and deepened collaborative partnership on key issues of mutual interest.

A major outcome of teh summit is joining of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) by Denmark.
India, Netherlands sign SoI on Decarbonization and Energy Transition Agenda
The policy think tank of the Government of India, NITI Aayog and Embassy of the Netherlands, New Delhi, signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on 28 September 2020.

The aim is to support the decarbonization and energy transition agenda for accommodating cleaner and more energy.

Highlights:
The agreement aims for a strategic partnership to create a platform which will enable a comprehensive collaboration among stakeholders and influencers, including industry bodies, policymakers, Original equipment manufacturer (OEMs), private enterprises, and sector experts.

The partnership focuses on co-creating innovative technological solutions by leveraging the expertise of the two entities.

It will be achieved through an exchange of knowledge and collaborative activities.

Key elements include:
lowering the net carbon footprint in industrial and transport sectors

realise the target potential of natural gas and promote bio-energy technologies

adopt clean air technologies from monitoring to reducing actual particulates

adopt next-generation technologies, such as hydrogen, carbon capture utilization, and storage for sectoral energy efficiency

financial frameworks to deliver and adopt climate change finance

The SoI will enhance Indo-Dutch collaboration, and it will successfully work towards achieving the decarbonization and energy transition agenda.
Suspension of Amnesty International Operations in India
Amnesty International (AI) India has decided to shut its operations in India.

The decision came after the recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts.

Details
An FIR was filed by CBI in 2019, on charges of an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

The ED has now converted the preliminary inquiry into an ECIR (the equivalent of an FIR) alleging money laundering charges and froze all of AI India’s bank accounts.

The ED has invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Amnesty International
Amnesty International (AI) is a non-governmental organization with its headquarters in the United Kingdom focused on human rights.

The mission of the organization is to campaign for a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.

Amnesty draws attention to human rights abuses and campaigns for compliance with international laws and standards.

Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961.

The organization was awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its "defence of human dignity against torture," and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1978.
India, Australia conducted meeting to strengthen partnership on Skilling Agenda
The Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the High Commission of Australia conducted meeting for Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training.

The aim is to support Vocational Education and Training (VET) in India and Australia. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr MahendraNath Pandey and Mr Barry O’Farrell, Australian High Commissioner, participated in the virtual meeting.

Highlights:
The meeting aimed to operationalize and implement Cooperation in VET to promote the development of occupational standards in priority industry sectors.

The officials discussed the importance of joint planning and implementation of collaborative programmes was emphasized with a focus on salient points such as industry sectors.

The meeting aimed to enhance the capacity and quality of trainers and assessors; internships and apprenticeship exchanges; and facilitation of linkages between VET providers and industry in both the countries.

The joint working group (JWG) meeting will further assist in formulating focussed interventions to deliver on the skills agenda across both the nations. Through this partnership, we will ensure a collaborative and clear plan of action to address the priority areas in skill development.

The move is in line with the joint participation of the PM of India and the PM of Australia in the India-Australia Leaders' Virtual Summit held on 4th June 2020.