[NEWS OF THE DAY]

India seeks to deploy younger, fitter troops with a new recruitment process

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Tue, announced a ‘historic’ and ‘transformative’ Agnipath recruitment scheme for the youth of the country. Addressing the scheme along with 3 service chiefs, Singh said that the scheme will grant Indian youth an opportunity to get inducted into the armed forces. Elaborating upon the scheme, Additional Secy, Department of Military Affairs said that the Agnipath model is based on all-India merit-based selection process. “We are looking at the best to serve the armed forces between the ages of 17.5 to 21 years. Once selected, the Agniveers will serve for 4 years with us,” Puri added. Singh said that under the scheme, efforts are on to create a youthful profile of the Armed forces. It would help to train them for new technologies and also improve their health levels. This scheme will increase employment opportunities with new skills in different sectors. The compensation package will be paid ₹4.76 lakhs pa in the 1^st year which will be hiked to ₹6.92 lakhs in the 4^th year.  “CDS announcement soon. All things are in the process”, says Singh (here, here) Singh on Mon said India needs to remain prepared for a full-scale war in the future and called for better synergy between the armed forces and the civil administration for this, in an address at Mussoorie’s National Academy of Administration, adding that security challenges have become more complex now with cyber and proxy wars.

India should properly handle the situation: China on Prophet row

China on Mon weighed into the diplomatic furor over controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed by (now) suspended BJP spokesperson, saying it was important to “discard pride and prejudice” between civilizations and that it hoped the situation will be handled properly. Dialogue and exchanges should be promoted between civilizations, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said in a first remark on the ongoing row. Wang commented at Mon’s daily press briefing by a Chinese TV, which asked Wang to comment on “recent remarks about Prophet Mohammed”, which had “sparked outrage among Muslim communities in India and Islamic countries”.

Indian stakes high in resolution of repatriation of displaced persons from Myanmar

As the only country that shares a long border with both Bangladesh and Myanmar, India has “high stakes in the resolution of the issue of repatriation of the displaced persons from the Rakhine state of Myanmar“. Counselor at Permanent Mission of India to the UN, speaking at the informal briefing on Myanmar reiterated that India has been consistently advocating practical, pragmatic, and enduring solutions to the issue. Sharing his views on Bangladesh’s efforts in the repatriation of the displaced persons from the Rakhine state of Myanmar, he said, “We commend Bangladesh for hosting million displaced persons in its territory. He urged the international community to enhance its support financially and otherwise towards the efforts of Dhaka and also assist in ensuring that issues related to radicalization in the camps and other security challenges are addressed expeditiously. Talking about the influx of thousands of people from Myanmar across Indian borders, he said, “Any instability in Myanmar impacts India directly. The worsening humanitarian situation and incidence of violence have led to the influx of thousands of people from Myanmar across our borders. Madhu Sudan further stressed that India has been a long-standing friend of the people of Myanmar. (here)

India concerned over references in TRIPS document, says super-profits of pharma companies prevailing over global good

India has expressed disappointment and concerns about some reference in the TRIPS document draft presented at the 12^th ministerial meet that does not include effective measures to combat challenges posed by pandemics, especially for the developing countries and least developed countries, and profits of pharma companies prevailing over global good. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said if it’s only vaccines that were being looked at, it’s too late in the day for the pandemic has run its initial course. In the course of my discussions, it has been indicated that favor was being done to the developing countries. “And if you’re not even able to look at the near term future and the requirements of that period, then I think it’s pretty much clear that rather than concern for humanity, it is sad that the super-profits of a few pharmaceutical companies prevail over global good,” he said. India said its response document is inextricably linked to the TRIPS document. (here)

Parliament’s Monsoon Session likely to commence from July 18: Sources

ANI-The Monsoon Session of Parliament is likely to be held from Jul 18 to Aug 12, sources said. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has recommended that the Monsoon Session can be held between July 18 and Aug 12, 2022, as per top sources. The upcoming session is likely to have 17 working days. During the session, elections for the President and the Vice President are likely to be held. While the Election Commission of India has announced the Presidential elections, no official schedule for the election of the Vice President has been announced yet. The presidential elections will take place on Jul 18 and the results will be declared on July 21. The term of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will end on Aug 10. Several bills including at least 4 bills, which had been referred for parliamentary scrutiny in the last budget session will be brought up for passage in the Monsoon Session.

[NATIONAL]

Visit of Foreign Minister of Spain to India on Wed

José Manuel Albares Bueno, Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, Spain, will pay an official visit to India on Jun 15^th, 2022. During his stay in New Delhi, Mr. Albares will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, on bilateral, regional, and international issues of mutual interest. The bilateral ties got a fresh impetus after PM Modi visited Spain in 2017. Albares’s visit will be an opportunity to review the entire gamut of our bilateral relations and further deepen the partnership across various areas including trade, defense, science & technology, innovation, climate, and culture sectors, the MEA press release says.

Adani partners with TotalEnergies to create the largest green hydrogen ecosystem

Adani Enterprises (AEL) and energy supermajor TotalEnergies of France have entered into a new partnership to jointly create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem in which TotalEnergies will acquire a 25% minority interest in AEL. The partnership, centered on green hydrogen, is expected to transform the energy landscape both in India and globally. Both are pioneers in energy transition and clean energy adoption, and this joint energy platform further strengthens the public ESG commitments made by both companies. ANIL’s ambition is to invest over USD 50 billion over the next 10 years in green hydrogen and associated ecosystems. In the initial phase, ANIL will develop a green hydrogen production capacity of 1 million tons/ annum before 2030.

DGCA orders probe in the forced landing of FTO trainee aircraft in UP

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Mon ordered a probe into the incident of forced landing by a trainee aircraft from the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli. “The student pilot was released after the third solo check. Student pilot has 26:50 dual and one hour of solo experience,” DGCA said. Meanwhile, on Tue (Jun 7), a Red Bird flight training organization (FTO) Tecnam P2008 aircraft had a hard landing on at Baramati runway in Maharashtra, in which there has been a heavy impact on the aircraft’s nose landing gear. However, on Jun 6, Cessna 152 aircraft VT-EUW of Gati– a pilot training organization– crashed near Birasal airstrip in Odisha. In the accident, the propeller and nosewheel of the aircraft got damaged while the student pilot received minor injuries. The incident took place after the said aircraft went out of the runway during the take-off roll when it was engaged in a solo circuit and landing at the Birasal airstrip. (here)

3 lawmakers join BJP in Madhya Pradesh

A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a Samajwadi Party (SP), and an Independent lawmaker joined the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh on Tue. 31 lawmakers have joined the BJP since 2020 when it returned to power in Madhya Pradesh after 22 Congress lawmakers resigned and brought down chief minister Kamal Nath’s government

Now, Bengal education minister to replace Governor as Visitor of private universities, Assembly passes bill

The West Bengal Assembly on Tue cleared a bill to replace the Governor with the state education minister as a Visitor of private universities. The West Bengal University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022, seeks to replace Governor as the Visitor of private universities in the state. This has come a day after the Bengal Assembly passed a bill to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of all state-run universities. Yesterday’s bill was passed in the 294-member House after 182 voted in favor of the legislation and 40 against it. (here) [This is the 1^st case of its kind, against existing norms, according to which Governor is by the Chair, Chancellor of state’s run Universities].

India’s May palm oil imports drop 10% as Indonesia curbs exports: Trade body

India’s palm oil imports in May fell 10% from a month ago as top producer Indonesia curbed exports of the edible oil, a trade body said on Tuesday. The south Asian country is the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils and lower purchases could weigh on Malaysian palm oil futures. India imported 514,022 tonnes of palm oil in May, down from 572,508 tonnes in Apr, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) of India. (here)

BJP-backed influencers using YouTube to target Muslims & women [?] says NYU Stern Centre report

Influencers backing India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party have used YouTube videos to spread conspiracy theories and hateful content targeting Muslims and women in the biggest market for the platform by user base, according to a report by the New York University, Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. The NYU Stern Center report highlighted the case of India to press Alphabet Inc.’s Google-owned video platform to look at its recommendations to boost content moderation and disclose information on how algorithms recommend and remove content. India has more than 450 million YouTube users, nearly double the size of the platform’s US base. The videos have helped fuel a conspiracy theory that Muslims spread Covid as a form of “jihad’, or holy war, according to the report titled “A Platform ‘Weaponized’: How YouTube Spreads Harmful Content – And What Can Be Done About It.” (here) [The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business envisions a better world through better business.]

India Chairs are being set up at prominent Canadian varsities

A series of India Chairs are being established in Canada as part of an outreach effort to prominent Canadian universities. These Chairs, to be occupied by academics from India, are being created under the auspices of partnership agreements between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Canadian institutions. The first of the memoranda of understanding in this regard was signed on Mon with Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Surrey, British Columbia. India’s consul-general in Vancouver represented ICCR with SFU’s president and vice-chancellor Dr Joy Johnson signing on behalf of the university. Another such agreement is scheduled to be signed with the University of Calgary in the province of Alberta later this month, while similar initiatives are being finalized with other universities. (here)

[NEIGHBORHOOD]

Biden adviser Sullivan raised concerns with China over North Korea

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan has raised concerns with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi over Beijing’s veto at the UN of a U.S.-led push to impose more sanctions on North Korea, a senior U.S. official said. A senior U.S. official told reporters during a briefing on 270 mins meeting between Sullivan and Yang in Luxembourg on Mon that the US believed Beijing and Washington could cooperate on the North Korea issue. Washington has warned that North Korea’s first nuclear test since 2017 could happen at “any time.” China says it does not want to see that happen, which is partly why in May it vetoed a bid to impose new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang over renewed ballistic missile launches. U.S. top diplomate said on Mon that Washington will maintain pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang changes course, following a meeting with his South Korean counterpart who urged China to persuade the North not to resume nuclear testing. China’s Xinhua, on the meeting, said that the two sides had exchanged views on international and regional issues such as the “Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.” (here)

‘Absurd’: Taipei rejects Beijing’s sovereign claims over Taiwan Strait

Taiwan has firmly rejected Beijing’s claims that it has sovereign rights over the Taiwan Strait, saying it stands by US freedom of navigation activities in international waters. It also stressed it was fully briefed by Washington on talks in Luxembourg on Mon between US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi. In Taipei on Tue, Taiwanese foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said it was absurd for Beijing to claim that the waterway separating the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was not international waters but the exclusive economic zone of the Chinese mainland. (here)

China rapidly modernizing nuclear launch capabilities: Sipri report

China maintains at least 350 nuclear warheads, more than double India’s 160, many fewer than the US and Russia, and has rapidly expanded its launch capabilities in recent years, a new report by a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) has said on Mon. Until less than a decade ago, China was armed with mainly liquid-fuelled land-based ballistic missiles and a few sea-based ballistic missiles, with a small stockpile of gravity bombs available for bombers, the report said, which increased in the past five years. The report said the ratio of stockpiled and stored warheads has changed because additional and new launchers became operational in 2021. The report was released a day after Chinese defense minister, Wei Fenghe, praised his country’s progress in “nuclear deterrence” in a speech at Shangri La Dialogue. “China has developed its capabilities for over 5 decades. It’s fair to say there has been impressive progress,” he said. The “hard work” on China’s nuclear arsenal is showing, the Sipri report indicated. In 2021 satellite imagery revealed that China had started construction of what appeared to be more than 300 new missile silos across at least 3 distinct fields in northern China, the report said. The report concluded that eventually, China will have 450 warheads. India has a growing stockpile of about 160 nuclear weapons – a small increase from the previous year. The report added that the global stockpile of nuclear weapons is expected to rise in the coming years for the 1^st time since the Cold War due to global tensions. (here)

China’s massive hydro energy storage goals may be getting bigger

China’s biggest dam builder says the country is launching an even larger-than-expected campaign to build hydro energy storage to complement renewable power. The nation will start construction on more than 200 pumped hydro stations with a combined capacity of 270GW by 2025, Ding Yanzhang, chairman of Power Construction Corp of China, the country’s largest builder of such projects, said on Monday commentary in the Communist Party-run People’s Daily. That’s more than the capacity of all the power plants in Japan, and would be enough to meet about 23% of China’s peak demand. It would also be a massive increase from what China proposed just three months ago in its 14^th 5-year plan for energy development when officials said the country wanted to have 62GW of pumped hydro in operation and another 60GW under construction by 2025. (here) [Tensions over water are rising in Asia – and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention, the strategic ramifications of competition over transnationally shared freshwater resources are just as ominous.- Brahma Chellaney, 2016]

US lawmakers reach compromise on screening investments in China

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has struck a compromise on a long-debated plan to screen outbound investments into China, members of the Senate and House of Representatives said on Mon. It comes as Congress continues to negotiate a final version of sweeping legislation meant to strengthen US competitiveness with Beijing, and the lawmakers’ announcement raises the odds that the new outbound investment rules could be included in that final bill. If it is included, the new rules on investments could theoretically become law as soon as this summer, although an exact timeline is still unclear. The measure could be included in a final version of sweeping legislation meant to strengthen US competitiveness with Beijing. (here)

Pakistan in catch-22 situation on IMF, CPEC: Report

Amid the political instability and debt payments for power plants coming up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), IMF’s threat to delay the release of the USD 3 billion bailouts from 6 bn has pushed the Islamabad into an economic crisis. Earlier, on Jun 12, Finance Minister, who introduced the budget 2022-2023 to meet the IMF’s demand, admitted that IMF is still unhappy with the govt over the budget because he did not implement Personal Income Tax (PIT) measures suggested by it. This tax is yet another issue as few among the rich taxpayers in the economy have piloted it to their advantage, leaving the tax burden on the poor, which compelled successive govt to borrow from outside. And that’s why Pakistan has asked for a loan from IMF for the 22^nd time in the last six decades. As for the CPEC’s power projects, the IMF is seeking the proverbial “pound of flesh” from Pakistan, demanding that it will not allow it to use loan money for Islamabad to clear its over Pakistani rupees (PKR) 300 billion dues to China. IMF’s suspicion has been grounded in China’s refusal to renegotiate the power projects under the CPEC for which Pakistan has also defaulted in payments. 11 Chinese companies have invested USD 10.2 billion to generate 5,320 MW, but nearly 2,000MW power plants were shut last month due to the shortage of coal. (here)

FM Bilawal reaches Iran on maiden visit

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reached his visit to Iran on a two-day visit on Tuesday, where he will hold talks with Iranian dignitaries on a range of issues, including bilateral ties, trade, regional security, and Islamophobia. He is visiting the country at the invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, who welcomed him upon his arrival in the neighboring country. State-run APP shared a video of Bilawal sitting with Abdollahian and other dignitaries soon after his arrival. According to the FO, Bilawal’s visit to Iran is part of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries. “The last meeting between the two foreign ministers was held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos on 26 May 2022.” Bilawal looks to enhance economic cooperation- Bilawal had shared similar views with the official Iranian news outlet IRNA a day before leaving for Iran, during an informal talk with journalists. (here)

Blinken assures Sri Lanka of support to promote American investments

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured crisis-hit Sri Lanka of support to promote American investments in the country after the completion of IMF negotiations, as he spoke with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss the island nation’s current economic and political challenges. The two leaders spoke over the phone on Mon. He further said that Sri Lanka is willing to have closer cooperation with the US. ‘Open to Russian oil,’ says Sri Lankan PM amid fuel crisis. Sri Lanka has decided to seek the assistance of the Washington-based global lender to combat the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948. The talks between Sri Lanka and the IMF commenced on Apr 18. The nearly bankrupt country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 bn foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 bn due through 2026. Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt stands at USD 51 bn. (here)