Special Current Affair for IBPS Exam

• India and Germany
• India and Bangladesh
• India and China
• India and Singapore

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh visited Germany from 10 April 2013 to 12 April 2013 for participating in second round of Inter Governmental Consultations with Germany. He was accompanied by delegation including Ministers and senior officials.

During his visit, certain documents were signed. These documents are as follows:

Joint Declaration of Intent regarding promotion of German as a foreign language in India

• The Joint Declaration of Intent regarding promotion of German as a foreign language in India was signed between M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Minister for Human Resource Development from India and Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State in the German Foreign Office.

• Under the Joint Declaration, India would cooperate in introducing B.Ed programmes for German language.

• Also scholarships would be awarded for Masters degree programs and for short stays in Germany with the goal of improving mutual trust and intercultural relations.Intergovernmental MoU between India & Germany on Cooperation in the field of Higher Education

• This MoU was signed between M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Minister for Human Resource Development from India and Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research from Germany.

• This MoU intends to facilitate people-to-people exchanges. This includes students, academics, and project collaborators. Joint Declaration of Intent on Indo-German cooperation in the area of Civil Security Research

• This Joint Declaration was signed between Minister for Science & Technology, Jaipal Reddy from India and Federal Minister of Education and Research, Johanna Wanka from Germany.

• The Indo-German research cooperation in this new area intends to fund 5 pilot projects in 2013 with the identified priorities being natural disaster management, biological risk situations, urban security, protection & rescue of people and social aspects of civil security research.

• Joint Declaration for the bilateral “Kooperations Program” of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection and the National Seeds Association of India and the German Association of Plant Breeders.This was signed between Ambassador of India and Gerd Muller, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Germany.

This joint declaration aims at strengthening cooperation in:

• Plant variety protection

• Conservation of plant genetic resources

• Cooperation between Indian and German agricultural research institutions and seed companies Joint Declaration of Intent on the Establishment of an Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure for Cooperation in Standardisation, Conformity Assessment and Product Safety

• This was signed between Foreign Secretary of India and Anne Ruth Herkes, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany.

• This aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in standardization, conformity assessment and product safety through advancing bilateral economic and technical cooperation, intensifying dialogue and promoting coordinated activities in international organizations.

• It also provides for establishing and Indo-German Working Group Quality Infrastructure. Joint Declaration of Intent on Indo-German Development Cooperation regarding the Establishment of Green Energy Corridors

• This was signed between Farooq Abdullah, Minister for New and Renewable Energy, India and Gudrun Kopp, Parliamentary State Secretary, Germany.

• This joint declaration aims at fostering increased use of renewable energy in India through technical and fanatical cooperation by way of integrating additional renewable energy generation capacity with the national grid.

• The Technical cooperation would be implemented through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and KfW intends to provide concessional loans of up to Euro one billion over the next six years.

List of documents signed on the sidelines of 2nd round of India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations

• MoU between Solar Energy Centre and Fraunhofer Institute for cooperation and exchanges in various areas including solar photovoltaic; solar thermals systems; hydrogen and fuel cells.

• Programme of Cooperation between Dept. of Biotechnology of India and Helmholtz Association in the area of development of future natural drugs.

• Supplementary MoU on Research Framework of the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability at IIT, Madras under the National Climate Action Plan.

• MoU between Deutsche Bahn and Indian Railways for cooperation in the field of freight, passenger operations, infrastructure building and management; development of modern competitive railway organization.

• MoU between DB Systel and Centre for Railway Information Systems for cooperation in the field of information systems related to railways.

• MOU between Hof University of Applied Sciences & Integrated Association of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of India (SPV formed by Faridabad Small Industries Association) to develop specialized vocational training course.

• MOU between Manipal University, Manipal, India & Bavarian Universities Consortium represented by Hof University of Applied Sciences of Germany to establish the Indo-Bavarian Integrated Bachelors and Masters Programme in August 2013.

• MoU between Infosys Ltd and Bertelsmann Stiftung to support Vocational Education and Training in India.

• MOU between PSG Institute of Advanced Studies & Professional Training Centres of the Bavarian Employers Association (BFZ).

• Contract agreement between Cairn India and TUV Rheinland to set up a state-of-the-art vocational education training facility in Rajasthan.

National Thermal Power Corporation of India and Power Development Bangladesh signed three agreements on 20 April 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The agreements were a part of setting up of the biggest ever joint venture project of 1320 Megawatt Coal based power plant. This project is to be developed at an expense of 1.6 billion US dollars.

The pacts three pacts inked for the 1320MW coal-based Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL) include:

• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

• Implementation Agreement (IA)

• Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement (SJVA)

P. Umashankar, Union Power Secretary of India led the Indian delegation at the signing ceremony of the mega project. The MoU for India’s cooperation in Power Sector were identified as exchange of power, grid connectivity, energy efficiency and electricity generation with Bangladesh, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2011. In January 2013, NTPC and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board (PDB) signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with equal equity participation (50:50) for development of power projects in Bangladesh. This project is proposed to be developed over an area of 1834 acres of land near Mongla Seaport in Rampal Upazila. It is the largest ever foreign investment in the power Sector in Bangladesh as well as the first power plant that is being developed by NTPC outside India. The power plant will be developed with a super critical technology. As per the environmentalists, the joint-power project will be disastrous to the environment and vegetation of the Sunderbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest. The country has also seen many projects for the cancellation of the project by the Government.

India and Bangladesh discussed for a Joint Collaboration on Mega-Film on Liberation War

Manish Tewari, Minister of Information and Broadcasting of India on 11 April 2013 met Hasanul Haq Inu, Bangladesh Minister for Information & Broadcasting and discussed on different issues including issues related to Information and Broadcasting sector of the two countries. Both the countries agreed on the issue of exploring setting up of a Joint Working Group in the Information and Broadcasting Sector.

Issues Discussed and Conclusions Reached

• Ministers from both the nations discussed upon joint collaboration for production of a mega film that depicts the War of Liberation. The two ministers agreed to work on finalization of a road map in context of the film proposal. The Bangladesh minister asked for the names of the soldiers, who laid down their lives during the war to recognize them.

• Ministers also agreed to explore the possibility of setting up of a Joint Working Group on the critical sectors of the Information and Broadcasting domain. The Working Group would provide a roadmap for future collaborations between the two countries.

• A formal request to downlink the TV channels of Bangladesh through the Private distribution network was made by the Bangladesh Information Minister.

• Agreement was reached between the two ministers to collaborate between the Prasar Bharti and Bangladesh State Television in view of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the two entities in 2011. The MoU had focused on mutual cooperation in the broadcast of television programmes between the two broadcasters. It was also mentioned that both countries could consider exchange of programmes and also explore the possibility of executive TV co-production.

• Discussions on identifying the ways for strengthening collaboration as far as training and capacity building was concerned between institutions of mutual interests.

• Agreement on exchange of archival material between the two countries was reached between the two ministers, like major policy initiatives undertaken by the Government for exponential growth of the sector.

The two-day India-China counter-terrorism dialogue ended on 12 April 2013 in Beijing China. The two nations discussed upon the ways to step up cooperation to counter terror in Afghanistan as a follow up plan after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2014.

Issues Discussed and Agreed

• The two sides exchanged views and opinions on regional and international counter terrorism situation and bilateral cooperation in the field

• Discussions were made on the fragile condition of Afghanistan and increased attacks from Taliban that would emerge after withdrawal of US forces from the country, they also discussed upon the initiatives planned to be taken by India, China and Russia to deal with the situation.

India and China held their First Dialogue on Afghanistan in Beijing

India and China on 18 April 2013 held their first dialogue on Afghanistan in Beijing in a bid to evolve a joint strategy to deal with much feared possible return of Taliban and al-Qaeda after the departure of US troops in 2014. India and China agreed that Afghan issue concerns regional security and stability. China and India are two important countries in the region and consultations on Afghanistan help them to coordinate positions, deepen cooperation and contribute to early settlement of the issue. This is the first time that China held such a dialogue with India on Afghanistan, expanding consultations with its close ally Pakistan and Russia.

India and Singapore on 2 April 2013 signed an enhanced air services agreement to build on the existing 216 weekly flights and meet the growing demand for air connectivity between both the countries. It is evident that the demand for air services between both countries is growing continuously so the the bilateral air services agreement in this context is basically enhanced to include more capacity entitlements. It is also entitled as per the enhancement agreement that both countries would meet regularly to review air services matters. It is important here to note that Singapore is linked by air services to 12 Indian cities, having the most frequent flights to India out of Southeast Asia. The agreement was signed by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Singapore Transport Minister Liu Tuck Yew. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh was present in Singapore from 2 April 2013 to 4 April 2013. He had also discussed the importance of air connectivity in enhancing bilateral trade ties between India and Singapore, with S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister, Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Trade & Industry and Home Affairs.

India and Singapore Signed Memorandum of Understanding on Air Services

India and Singapore on 2 April 2013 signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral air services arrangement during the visit of Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh to Singapore. It rationalizes the capacity entitlements of both countries in terms of seats per week in each direction with a route specific cap for Singapore on each route. The MoU also enhances, by 10%, the capacity entitlement with India now entitled to operate 29,400 weekly passenger seats from India to Singapore and the designated airlines of Singapore entitled to operate 28,700 weekly passenger seats from Singapore to India. No additional point of call has been given to Singapore. India also did not agree to the demand of Singapore for additional point of calls from Pune and Madurai. The common pool rights to the extent of 5160 seats earlier available to Singapore, which provided greater operational flexibility to Singapore carriers at major metro centres viz Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, have now been withdrawn. The designated airlines of Singapore can operate with any aircraft type except A-380. The delegation level talks were held between Prabhat Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Yap Ong Heng, Director-General, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Both the sides have agreed to review and update the air services agreement and meet every two years to discuss various air services matters.

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