General Awareness :India & the world September, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams)

India & the world

September - 2014

India, Japan should jointly work on heritage cities: Modi

Prime Minister NarendraModi said India and Japan faced a common challenge in preserving and building smart heritage cities.
After meeting Kyoto’s Mayor DaisakuKadokawa, the Prime Minister said that he had learnt how the city was dealing with civic issues.

India-Japan ties will only bring psychological comfort: China daily

“The increasing intimacy between Tokyo and New Delhi will bring at most psychological comfort to the two countries,” China’s State-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial .
On the “blossoming personal friendship” between NarendraModi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, the paper said China-India relations denoted much more than that.
“Abe’s harangue on the Indo-Pacific concept makes Indians comfortable. It is South Asia where India has to make its presence felt… Sino-Indian ties can in no way be counterbalanced by Japan-Indian friendship,” the editorial said.
While mentioning that Mr. Modi had not named China in his remarks in Japan, the paper referred to Japanese and Western public opinion that the comments were directed at China.

India, Vietnam to sign key oil search pact

President Pranab Mukherjee arrived for a four-day state visit during which India and Vietnam are expected to sign agreements on oil exploration and air connectivity. The President will also visit the historic city of Ho Chi Minh. The visit marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations. Mr. Mukherjee was received at the NoiBai International Airport by the Vietnamese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Chairman of President’s Office Dao Viet Trung and was given a guard of honour. Key agreements between ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Petro Vietnam for joint oil explorations in the South China Sea blocks are expected to be signed during the visit. Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan is part of the delegation accompanying the President. Developed nations back India’s stand at WTO India said it has won the support of major developed countries, including the U.K. and Germany, as also the European Commission, for its stand at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) demanding that the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) be kept pending unless its apprehensions on the issue of food security are addressed. Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram was leading the Indian delegation as Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley is indisposed.

“Many countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and the European Commission emphasised on the need for expressing deep concern on non-implementation of TFA without mentioning India’s concern on the issue of food security,” the release said. He also garnered the support of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia for India’s standpoint, it added. India is not opposed to the TFA as it increases the ease of doing business but wants its adoption postponed till there is “satisfactory” progress on finding a permanent protection for its minimum support prices to farmers against the WTO’s agriculture subsidy caps that are benchmarked to food prices of the 1980s. At the WTO’s General Council meeting in Geneva on July 31, India stalled the ratification of the TFA owing to these concerns. India got a reference to BRICS and disappointment with poor progress on the IMF quota reforms also included in the ASEM communiqué. The communiqué talks about enhanced cooperation between countries of Asia and Europe to create sustainable and profitable growth.

20 agreements, MoUs to be signed during Xi’s India visit Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India next week, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao told journalists in Beijing that President Xi’s visit will mark the beginning of “another era in Sino-Indian ties’, embedded with strong “strategic” resonance. India and China are expected to sign as many as 20 agreements and MoUs in Delhi, on issues related to infrastructure development, cultural ties among others.

Chief amongst the agreements will be the setting up of two ‘industrial cities’ near Gandhinagar and Pune on the lines of the Chinese manufacturing hub Shenzen. The two leaders, who are meeting for the second time since MrModi took office, are expected to discuss the road ahead in the Sino-Indian border negotiations. However, the two countries are still to appoint their Special Representatives for the border talks. In Delhi on September 18, President Xi will receive the official welcome at RashtrapatiBhavan and will outline his vision for India-China ties at a speech which will be broadcast live in China. Before he leaves India on September 19, he will present Friendship awards to the family of the Dr. Kotnis, revered for his service in China during the Sino-Japanese war. President Xi will also meet Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.

Negotiated resolution of the border issue

China has called for a negotiated resolution of the border issue with India, shifting the focus on the root cause of the problem, following the latest incidents in Chumar and Demchok, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
In dealing with a complex relationship, with areas of agreement and differences, the Chinese appear to have pitched for a wide-ranging dialogue with India in the hope of building consensus.
In response to a question on the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) — an initiative, which many of its critics say has an element of Beijing’s alleged India-containment strategy — the spokesman said China and India should build consensus on this subject, based on dialogue.
Chinese officials say the latest initiatives of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century MSR will carry forward the earlier spirit of the peaceful exchanges between China and its neighbours along the ancient super-highway, linking Asia with Europe.

Mars mission success “pride of Asia”, says China

China has hailed India’s success in positioning a satellite in the Martian orbit, calling the interplanetary triumph of the Mangalyaan as “the pride of Asia”.
With the success of Mangalyaan, India has boosted its credentials as a potential launch pad for its resource-strapped neighbors.
Among India’s neighbours, it is becoming a symbol of national pride to launch satellites independently rather than hire transponders from other nations. The previous government had highlighted the ISRO’s relative lack of initiative.

Bamiyan (Afghanistan) will be SAARC cultural capital for 2015

Bamiyan, the Afghan town which shot into prominence when the Taliban blew up two ancient statues of the Buddha in 2001, has been selected to be the SAARC cultural capital for a year beginning April 2015. Dhaka will be the SAARC cultural capital in 2016-17.
This was decided at the SAARC Culture Ministers Conference. Finalising the cultural capitals for the next two years was part of the Delhi Resolution which was adopted at the conference while preparing a road map on cultural ties till 2017. The year 2016-17 will also be declared the SAARC Year of Cultural Heritage.
The SAARC countries also agreed to formulate proposals for transnational nominations for the World Heritage List and a regional list of heritage sites. India’s Project Mausam got a fillip as the Delhi Resolution agrees to recognise the impact and contribution of maritime routes and the monsoon as also other inland relations through centuries of trade, migration and colonialism.
In a measure aimed at promoting literature produced in local languages of the region, the Ministers decided to make them accessible to readers across the world through translations in not just English but SAARC languages.