(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) India And The World

December-2014

India signs up for a multi-crore project

•  Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan signed a multilateral agreement admitting India‘s participation in the development of the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii.

•  This project was rapidly cleared by the Union Cabinet and India has agreed to spend Rs. 1299.8 crores over the next decade for this project.

•  Besides learning about the universe, India will gain the technology to manufacture fine aspherical mirror segments from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This technology, say experts, will form the basis of the next generation of spy satellites.

•  TMT will contain 492 hexagonal mirror segments of 82 different kinds. These will behave like a single mirror with an aperture of 30 metre diameter.

•  This large collecting area of 650 square metres is thrice as sensitive as the Hubble Space Telescope. India’s role will primarily be to create the control systems and software that keep the mirrors aligned and collects the data.

•  The control system is an intricate process involving edge sensors—that detect the mutual displacement of mirrors, actuators to correct their alignment, and the segment support assembly.

India and France agreed to fast-track Rafale deal

•  Indian and France to overcome differences and fast-track ongoing negotiations for the purchase of 126 Rafale fighter jets from France, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said.

•  The decision came during discussions between visiting French Defence Minister Yves Le Drian and his Indian counterpart, Manohar Parrikar. Both sides also decided to expand strategic cooperation, the official added.

•  Negotiations have been going on since 2012 when India selected Dassault Rafale from among competing medium multi-role combat aircraft. Differences cropped up between the two sides on delivery guarantees and price.

•  The tender stipulates that the first 18 jets should come in “fly-away” condition from France, while the remaining 108 will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) in India over seven years with Transfer of Technology (ToT).

•  Dassault has refused to give delivery guarantees for HAL-made aircraft, which the Air Force is insisting on. With the ToT, the cost too escalated from the initial estimate of $10 billion to almost $30 billion.

India “very important player” in climate talks says the US

•  Terming India as a “very important player” in the climate change negotiations, the US has said it is not involved in any agreement on climate with India ahead of President Barack Obama’s Republic Day visit to New Delhi.

•  “India’s obviously a very important player. We don’t have anything in the works of the kind that we were involved with China,” U.S. State Department Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern said referring to the recent US-China climate agreement.

•  Expressing hope for a “productive” meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Stern said the U.S. had done a lot of bilateral work on energy with India.

•  Mr. Stern noted that the US-China agreement did not come to fruition overnight. It took several months of bilateral talks to produce it and that there is no such process going on at the moment with India, he said.

•  He also said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be arriving in Lima as part of a larger regional trip and will spend a few hours at the COP.

•  He is not expected to play any role in the negotiations and that Kerry’s visit was slated earlier and not in response to the slow progress of talks, he said.

•  The draft elements text is “mostly done” and will certainly pass on to the next Co-Chairs of the committee, he said.

• Mr. Stern said the U.S. position on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) was to “not make it complicated” and just ask countries for a limited set of information like types of gasses covered, sectors of the economy and any assumptions made

India advocates ‘balanced approach’ to cut global carbon emissions

•  India strongly advocated a “balanced approach” in the draft text of a new binding pact to cut global carbon emissions to make sure that polluting countries pay and not the poorest nations, as crucial U.N. climate talks remained deadlocked.

•  The negotiators from more than 190 countries, who have been in the Peruvian capital for about two weeks, have struggled to prepare the elements of the draft due to the logjam between developing countries and industrialised nations that haggle over the formula of sharing the burden for cutting emissions, and who should pay.

•  Several developing nations rejected a draft decision they said did not make the distinction between what rich and poor countries were expected to do

•  The informal plenary regarding the Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP) again met here after breaking at 4 a.m. Parties reviewed the draft text and reconvened to state their positions on it

•  Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar delivered India’s statement, saying a “balanced approach” in the draft text was required to make sure polluting countries pay and not the poorest countries.

•  He began his statement by saying that what the like-minded developing countries, least developed countries and the Africa group is saying “must be appreciated” because they are all “speaking their heart“.

•  India stuck to the consistent position that all the elements of adaptation, mitigation, finance, technology, and capacity building should be included in the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs).

At U.N. India may end support to Palestine

•  In what could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign policy, the Modi government is looking at altering India’s supporting vote for the Palestinian cause at the United Nations to one of abstention.

•  Two sources within the government confirmed that the change, which will be a fundamental departure from India’s support to the cause of a Palestinian state, was under consideration.

•  “Like other foreign policy issues, the Modi government is looking at India’s voting record at the United Nations on the Palestinian issue,” a government told. The change only needs an administrative nod.

•  Despite the growing defence and diplomatic ties with Israel, the UPA government, which junked traditional ally Iran to vote with the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005, had baulked at making any change in India’s support to the Palestinians.

• Even former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s government, which invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, did not amend India’s voting record at the U.N.

•  India’s stance at the U.N. has been an irritant in Indo-Israeli relations, with Tel Aviv frustrated that close bonds had not resulted in any change in the stance on Palestine.

•  A senior Israeli interlocutor told a visiting Indian External Affairs Minister some time ago that New Delhi treated Tel Aviv like a “mistress” – by keeping the bilateral relationship away from the public gaze.

•  This re-examination of India’s voting stance will come as sweet music to Israeli ears just as it will raise concerns in West Asian capitals about the future course of Indian foreign policy.
   

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