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

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

April -2014

India- China Strategic Dialogue

India has assured China of its commitment to consolidate strategic bilateral ties based on mutual trust as well as sensitiveness to each other's concerns and aspirations, as their top diplomats held the annual strategic dialogue here amid the Indian general elections.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh co-chaired the sixth round of the Strategic Dialogue with her Chinese counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin at the picturesque Diaoyutai guest house.
The talks were held as the long-running LokSabha elections, hailed as the world's biggest democratic exercise, got underway in India that will form a new government at the Centre.
Stating that the annual Strategic Dialogue is being held in less than a year, she told Liu that "it is symbolic of the fact that our relations are growing and our interactions are increasing".
China said it was "confident" that India will stay committed to strong bilateral ties irrespective of whichever party comes to power after the polls.
Temporary Indian workers in US
More than one-third of the temporary workers in the US in 2012 were from India, which also accounted for the largest number of non-immigrants residing in the US that year, according to an official report.
Out of the 1.87 million resident non-immigrants in the US in 2012, India accounted for the maximum number of 430,000 residents, followed by China with 210,000 residents and South Korea with 140,000, the Department of Homeland Security said in its latest report.
Out of the 1.9 million non-immigrants residing in US in 2012, the largest categories were temporary workers (45 per cent, or 840,000) and students (38 per cent, or 720,000), the report said.
Slightly more than 50 per cent of the students were ages 18-24, the report said.
Among the top 10 leading countries of citizenship, Germany and France led the exchange visitor category, making up more than 60 per cent of the total, the report said.
California was the leading destination state, with 270,000 (15 per cent) of the total 1.9 million non-immigrants choosing to reside in that state.
The next leading destination states were New York (210,000), Texas (140,000), Florida (100,000) and Massachusetts (90,000).
The top 5 destination states accounted for 44 per cent of the total and the top 10 accounted for more than 60 per cent.
Compared to the nation as a whole, disproportionately large percentages of the temporary worker population resided in Texas, New Jersey and Washington. This was substantially larger than average percentages of the student population resided in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Border Defence Cooperation Agreement

India and China recently held their first-ever Director General of Military Operations-level meeting, which discussed ways to implement the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement(BDCA)signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing in October.
And it was an eight-member delegation led by People’s Liberation Army(PLA)Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Qi Jiangua, which represented the Communist nation at the DGMO-level dialogue.
The two sides exchanged views on various issues of mutual interest such as maintenance of peace and tranquility along the LAC and enhancing mutual cooperation and understanding between the Armies of India and China. Measures for implementation of existing bilateral agreements were also discussed.
The take-away from the new BDCA, which has drawn heavily from the earlier bilateral agreements of 1993, 1996, 2005 and 2012 on border Confidence Building Mechanisms, were proposals for opening a hotline between their military headquarters, non-tailing eachother’s patrols along the LAC, holding meetings of border personnel in all the sectors, apart from organising small-scale tactical exercises involving the two armed forces along the LAC.

Indo-US bilateral trade

Bilateral trade between India and US in goods and services increased from almost $29 billion in 2004 to more than $95 billion in 2013 -- an average growth rate of nearly 15 per cent per year. Trade during 2013, however, grew at a slow pace of 2.5 per cent.
Over the 10-year period from 2004-2013, U.S. exports to India grew about 15 per cent annually and are currently at about $35 billion. This created an estimated 120,000 new U.S. jobs.
The top U.S. exports to India were: manufactured goods, transportation equipment, and chemicals, along with education services, which totalled nearly $15 billion during 2013.
India’s crucial reforms of security institutions
India, which has contributed 1.7 lakh peacekeepers to U.N. missions, has told the U.N. Security Council that it wants crucial reforms of security institutions to facilitate peace-building in the conflict-hit nations.
India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Asoke Mukerji said in a U.N. Security Council debate on ’Security Sector Reform (SSR): Challenges and Opportunities’ that security sector reform is an “important element of post-conflict peace-building” and should be part of the internal political process of a nation emerging from conflict.
India has experience relevant to reform of a country’s security sector, having played an active role in 43 U.N. peacekeeping missions in which almost 170,000 Indian peacekeepers have participated so far.
Six peacekeeping operations and eight Special Political Missions have been mandated to do SSR.
Outlining a few principles that must guide security sector reform, he said the most sustainable way for effective reforms is by ensuring national ownership of the process.
The focus has to be on what is do-able and not on an agenda driven by priorities of donor countries.

Claim on stolen idol

The National Gallery of Australia has surrendered to the Indian claim that a Chola-era Nataraja that it acquired for (A) $5.6 million had indeed been stolen from a village temple in Tamil Nadu, paving the way for an early return of the idol to India.
The NGA, Australia’s foremost art institution located in the national capital of Canberra, had 30 days to claim its ownership of the imposing bronze Nataraja after receiving a notice from the Australian Attorney General’s Department under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986. That deadline expired on April 26.
The 1,000-year-old Dancing Shiva is central to the investigations against antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor who was arrested in 2012 and is being tried in Tamil Nadu for conspiring to smuggle the idol and several others out of India. The return of the idol is expected to strengthen the case against him.
The NGA initially defended its purchase of the idol from Kapoor, but with its reputation scorched by the international controversy that erupted over the provenance of the Nataraja, the Gallery seems to have decided not to pursue any claim over the idol. Similarly, Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales has not contested the notice it received at the same time as the NGA on an Ardhanareeshwara it bought from Kapoor, who was operating principally out of the United States.
This idol too is a subject of Tamil Nadu police investigations against the dealer, and the Indian government had demanded its return along with the Nataraja.
The Idol Wing unravelled the role of an international network in the theft of 18 ancient bronze sculptures from two temples in Suthamali and Sripuranthan.
Indian developmental assistance in Afghanistan
The US Pentagon, in a report to the Congress has praised the Indian contribution in the peaceful development of Afghanistan.
India continues to support Kabul believing a secure and stable Afghanistan will benefit the region and facilitate economic corridors into Central Asia.
India and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership declaration in 2011, which formalised cooperation on governance, economics, commerce, education, public administration, and security/law enforcement.
In its report, the Pentagon also praised the Afghan national security forces for their conduct in the recent presidential elections.
According to the Pentagon, the Taliban-led insurgency failed to achieve its stated operational objectives over the reporting period.