Important Picks of the Day :

[ NATIONAL ]

Sino-Indian Standoff: India hits out at China; rejects fresh allegations against it over eastern Ladakh row (↓)

MEA said China continues to deploy a large number of troops and armaments in the border areas and it was in response to Chinese actions that the Indian armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments.

Foreign Secy Shringla on 4-day Sri Lanka trip from Oct 2^nd

Foreign Secy HV Shringla will pay a 4-day visit to Sri Lanka beginning Sat at the invitation of his Lankan counterpart Admiral Jayanath Colombage to take stock of the overall ties and review the progress of certain ongoing bilateral projects, said MEA adding that Sri Lanka occupies a central place in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

India, US to conclude MoU to safeguard satellites from natural, man-made threats (↓)

The issue of expanding bilateral space cooperation was figured during PM Narendra Modi’s meeting with the American leadership in Washington last week.

India, US are on the same page on many issues relating to Afghanistan: Jaishankar (↓)

Jaishankar also noted that any question on according recognition to the Taliban dispensation has to be based on fulfilling the commitments made in the Doha contract.

Road blockade by farmers troubling commuters: SC

The Supreme Court on Thu cited its ruling that barred protesters from blocking public roads and said farmers’ grievances could be addressed either by Parliament or judiciary but they cannot be seen to cause harassment to commuters through sit-in dharnas on highways, hindering traffic to and from Delhi to neighboring states.

India’s external debt at $571.3 billion at June-end, up to $1.6 billion from March: RBI (↓)

India’s external debt stood at $571.3 billion at the end-June, recording an increase of $1.6 billion over its level at the end of March 2021, the RBI said on Thu.

India & Australia vow free trade agreement by 2022, interim deal by Christmas (↓)

Commerce Min Piyush Goyal and his Australian counterpart Dan Tehan announce the FTA target during the latter’s India visit, say the interim deal will cover areas of immediate interest.

A rise in Naxal activities in Jharkhand, loot of mineral reserves cause for concern: Union minister

Development established by the previous BJP govt in the state has been “shattered” by the present dispensation, Union Min for Heavy Industries MN Pandey said.

[AROUND]

India should maintain ‘strategic autonomy’, says Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi (↓)

Weidong said that any attempts to “gang up for containing and suppressing China” would “be doomed to fail”. He did not mention the Quad alliance or any of its members

Aggressiveness, coercive nature of China is a frequent topic of discussion among Quad says Pentagon (↓)

India, the U.S., and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open, and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering in the region.

71,000 cyber-attacks made on FBR portals every month: Tarin

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has informed the National Assembly that on average the Federal Board of Revenue portals were subjected to 71K cyber-attacks every month. The numbers increased sharply as tools and methods available with the hackers are more powerful and sophisticated, on Wed.

Women in Kabul Rally Seek Reopening of Girls’ Schools

A group of women in a rally in Kabul protested the closure of schools and universities for female students, saying it is a violation of their fundamental rights in Afghan society. The women continued their protest despite they were stopped by the security forces.

Indian team to visit Pakistan this week for SCO anti-terror exercise, but only as ‘observers’

India is contemplating whether it will send a team from here or have officials from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad participate in the exercise.India will send a 3-member team to Pakistan for an anti-terror exercise under the SCO framework that begins later this week.

Beijing urges French senators to rethink trip to Taiwan next week

Senator Alain Richard is expected to lead the French Senate Group for Exchange and Studies with Taiwan from Oct 4-11. The analyst points to the impact on China’s relationship with the Czech Republic and Lithuania after those countries engaged with Taiwan.

China tried to get Philippines to drop a review of US defense pact, defense chief says

Delfin Lorenzana says a former Chinese envoy to Manila in 2018 said any attempt to revise the Mutual Defence Treaty would be seen by Beijing as an attempt to contain its riseThe Philippines is keen to amend the MDT to make clear the extent to which the US would protect and defend its ally should it be attacked

Sino-Indian Standoff: India hits out at China; rejects fresh allegations against it over eastern Ladakh row

India hit out at China on Thu for once again holding it responsible for the eastern Ladakh standoff, asserting that the “provocative” behavior and “unilateral” attempts by the Chinese military to alter the status quo resulted in a serious disturbance of peace and tranquillity in the region.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said China continues to deploy a large number of troops and armaments in the border areas and it was in response to Chinese actions that the Indian armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments.

• He said India expects that the Chinese side will work towards an early resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.
• India’s reaction came in response to China’s fresh allegation that the “root cause” of the tensions between the two countries was New Delhi following a “forward policy” and “illegally” encroaching Chinese territory.
• Bagchi said India already made its position clear a few days ago and rejected such statements that have “no basis in facts”.
• It is added, “China continues to deploy a large number of troops and armaments in the border areas. It was in response to Chinese actions that our armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments in these areas to ensure that India’s security interests are fully protected,” Bagchi said.
• He also referred to a meeting between two foreign ministers in Dushanbe earlier this month.

Important: the comment from China regarding the border issue came last week, which was refuted by MEA on the very next day. Meanwhile, a piece of news came in media on Tue (Sept 28^th) which claimed that some 100 Chinese soldiers crossed the border in the Uttrakhand region, stayed there for 3 hours, broken a bridge, and went back, on Aug 30^th.

Long-term solution needed to stop LAC incidents: Army Chief general Naravane

Incidents of transgressions and faceoffs on the border between India and China will continue to take place till the two sides reach a boundary agreement to ensure lasting peace, Army Chief Gen MM Naravane has said.

Asserting that the Army is well prepared to meet any misadventure on the border as it has demonstrated in the past, he said during the annual session meeting of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, added that a long-term solution is needed to prevent such incidents from taking place.

The Army Chief has resonated the stand on the armed forces on recent developments on the border with an aggressive China seeking to test the patience of Indian border forces with continuous provocations from Ladakh to the Northeast.

COAS visited forward areas in Eastern Ladakh, where he was briefed on the prevailing security situation and operational preparedness. COAS also interacted with the troops and complimented them for their resoluteness and high morale.

India should maintain ‘strategic autonomy’, says Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi (↓)

Beijing’s top envoy in New Delhi, Sun Weidong, emphasized that India should maintain “strategic autonomy” instead of joining any exclusive alliances against its neighbor. This comes in a few days after leaders of the Quad gathered in Washington for their first in-person summit.

• He added that any attempts to “gang up for containing and suppressing China” would “be doomed to fail”, without mentioning the Quad alliance or any of its members.
• Meanwhile, the joint statement of Quad countries stressed the need for an open Indo-Pacific region ‘undaunted by coercion’.
• The joint statement was released after the meeting read “Quad joint statement batted for freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific”.
• Their statement made frequent mention of the leaders’ insistence on rules-based behavior in a region where China has been trying to flex its muscles.
• “Together, we recommit to promoting the free, open, rules-based order, rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion, to bolster security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” they said.

Indian Media Published Special Page on the 71^st Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China–(Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website)

On Oct 1^st, 2020, Indian mainstream media The Hindu (used word “advertisement”) and The Business Line (didn’t use word “advertisement”) published the special pages on the 71^st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The special page contained Chinese Ambassador H.E. Sun Weidong’s National Day Message, China’s Achievements 2020, and Fighting COVID-19: China in Action.

CDS General Rawat meets his US counterpart in Washington, both call for continued cooperation

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Thu (local time) met the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A Milley here and both discussed a range of issues, including ways to ensure regional security.

• The top officials agreed to continued cooperation in training exercises and creating more opportunities to increase interoperability between the two militaries, Office of the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs said in a statement.
• Washington and New Delhi “share a strong military-to-military relationship under the US-India Major Defence Partnership, which supports a free and open Indo-Pacific”. General Rawat is on a visit to the US.
• Earlier on Wed, he visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and also discussed issues of bilateral defense cooperation with US Army’s Major General Xavier T Brunson, Commanding General, 1 Corps.

India, US to conclude MoU to safeguard satellites from natural, man-made threats

India and the US have decided to conclude by year-end an MoU on Space Situational Awareness (SSA), creating a framework for sharing data and services to ensure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities in what can protect each other’s satellites from man-made or natural threats.

• The issue of expanding bilateral space cooperation was figured during PM Narendra Modi’s meeting with the American leadership in Washington last week under bilateral space cooperation was discussed when Modi met US vice president Kamala Harris, (Chair of National Space Council of America).
• ET reported that the Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA), a dedicated control center for SSA activities set up by ISRO in Bengaluru last year, is expected to launch a collaboration with the Combined Space Operation Center (CSpOC) at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to protect each other’s satellites from natural and man-made threats.
• The agreement will help NETRA receive from the CSpOC data about space debris and other objects in space and the potential threat they could pose to the safety and security of the new launches as well as the existing satellites and other space assets, sources informed.
• The US Joint Space Operation Command Center (JSpOC) led to the CSpOC—a US-led multinational initiative involving the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and New Zealand.
• It receives inputs from the Space Surveillance Network and shares data with the nations having Space Situational Awareness agreement with the US.

India and the US have reached an In-principle agreement to establish Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group which will meet regularly to align policies for defense industries to collaborate on critical defense technologies.

India, US are on the same page on many issues relating to Afghanistan: Jaishankar

• India was not taken into confidence on various aspects of the Doha deal struck between the US and the Taliban last year, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said on Thu.
• At the same time, Jaishankar said India and the US are on the same page on many issues relating to the recent developments in Afghanistan including apprehensions about the possible use of Afghan soil for terrorism.
• Speaking virtually at the annual leadership summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), he said there are some aspects relating to the Afghan crisis where the positions of the two countries are not the same and we were not taken into confidence on various aspects of that.
• The deal was signed between the US and the Taliban in Doha in Feb last year in which the US promised to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan while the Taliban committed to several conditions including ending violence.
• The external affairs minister also noted that any question on according recognition to the Taliban dispensation has to be based on fulfilling the commitments made by the group in the Doha agreement. He has suggested that New Delhi would take its time and study the situation.
• The developments in Afghanistan figured in talks between Modi and Biden in Washington last week.

“… We have been victims of cross-border terrorism ourselves from that region and that has shaped in many ways our view of some of the neighbors of Afghanistan,” he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

• The EAM said it is for the US to decide whether it shares that view, adding that India has concerns over the developments in Afghanistan.
• Jaishankar said the most pertinent questions relating to Afghanistan are whether it will have an inclusive government and whether the rights of women, children, and minorities are going to be ensured.

“When we look at what happened in Afghanistan and the region, I think these are going to have very very significant consequences for all of us. And we are so close to the region. There are a set of concerns and issues that flow from that,” Jaishankar said.

• On the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition, the minister said it has a broad agenda of cooperation including in the Indo-Pacific region. He said Quad should not be seen as “some kind of ganging up” against China.
• Asked about India’s ties with the US, he said they are at an important juncture and that the discussions in Washington opened up many more new possibilities.

India & Australia vow free trade agreement by 2022, interim deal by Christmas

India and Australia will finalize their free trade agreement — officially called the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and in the pipeline since July 2011 — by the end of 2022.

• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Australian counterpart, Trade Minister Dan Tehan, who is on a 3-day visit, announced at a press conference in Delhi Thu.
• This comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met during the first in-person Quad summit in Washington.

“Once the intention for a full-fledged FTA or a comprehensive economic partnership is declared, announced, and agreed upon formally, then an interim agreement will cover areas of immediate interest,” added Goyal.

• Calling it an “ambitious” project, Tehan said that the agreement will cover goods, services, and investment, and the two sides will begin discussing govt procurement, energy and resources, and logistics and standards.
• The two ministers added that both Canberra and New Delhi will bring offers to the table on areas of specific interest by Oct end.

‘CECA trade potential over $52 billion

• Tehan said the current trade figures, around $26 billion, are likely to double in the following years, in response to the potentiality of CECA.
• Negotiations on CECA were suspended in Sept 2015 as the Modi govt launched an exercise to review all the trade negotiations that began under the previous UPA regime, which revive the last June when both PMs released a joint statement to revive talks on the bilateral trade agreement.
• On Aug 26 this year, the countries agreed to speed up negotiations and pave the way for a comprehensive agreement.
• Asked what sectors could benefit from the trade agreement, Tehan said, “The complementarity between our economies is so great. Australian wool, merino wool, can go into the best textiles in India and those textiles can be exported to the rest of the world.”
• “India has a lot of products which are of particular interest to Australia. Similar to merino wool, you have pashmina shawls from Jammu and Kashmir,” Goyal added.

Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan also met with Tehan “Excellent meeting with Australian Minister Dan. We discussed working together to strengthen the strategic partnership between our two countries, especially making education and skill development key pillars of India-Australia bilateral relations.”

EU-Australia trade talks postponed amid submarine deal fallout: Australia’s Minister for Trade Dan Tehan said that talks with the European Union over a trade deal have been postponed, as a row over Canberra’s decision to cancel a USD 40-billion deal with France escalates, reported The Globe and Mail.

India’s external debt at $571.3 billion at June-end, up to $1.6 billion from March: RBI

Valuation gain due to the appreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Indian rupee was at $1.7 billion. “Excluding the valuation effect, external debt would have increased by $3.3 billion instead of $1.6 billion at end-June 2021 over end-March 2021,” the central bank said.

• As per the data, commercial borrowings remained the largest component of external debt, with a share of 37.4%, followed by non-resident deposits (24.8%) and short-term trade credit (17.4%).
• As of June 30, long-term debt (with an original maturity of above one year) stood at $468.8 billion, recording an increase of $0.2 billion over its level at Mar-end, the central bank said.
• The share of short-term debt in total external debt rose marginally to 17.9% as of June 30 from 17.7% at end-Mar.
• However, the ratio of short-term debt (original maturity) to foreign exchange reserves declined to 16.8% from 17.5% at the end-March 2021.
• The RBI further said the US dollar-denominated debt remained the largest component of India’s external debt, with a share of 52.4% at end-June, followed by the rupee (33.2%), yen (5.8%), SDR (4.4%), and the euro (3.4%).
• The instrument-wise classification shows that loans were the largest component of external debt, with a share of 34.7%, followed by currency and deposits, trade credit and advances, and debt securities.
• Further, the borrower-wise classification shows that the outstanding debt of the govt decreased while the non-govt sector’s debt increased at the end-June 2021.
• The RBI also said debt service (principal repayments+interest payments) almost halved to 4.1% of current receipts at end-June 2021, compared to 8.2% at end-Mar 2021, reflecting lower repayment and higher current receipts.
• In a separate statement, RBI said net claims of non-residents in India declined to $327 billion in June 2021, against $24.3 billion during the April-June quarter of 2021-22.

Forex law violation: ED seizes Rs 131 cr funds of Chinese-owned NBFC

The Enforcement Directorate on Thu said it has seized over Rs 131-crore funds of a Chinese national-owned NBFC for alleged violation of foreign exchange law, which came under the radar during a separate money-laundering probe against many NBFCs and FinTech companies, which are linked to instant personal loans providing mobile apps.

• The non-banking financial company (NBFC) is PC Financial Services Pvt Ltd and it was in the business of providing instant personal microloans through its mobile application ‘Cashbean’ for suspicious foreign outward remittances.
• These loans were being dished out with a “high rate of interest and recovered using personal data of the customer illegally and threatening and abusing them through call centers”.

“PCFS is a wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) of Oplay Digital Services, SA de CV, Mexico, which is, in turn, a WOS of Tenspot Pesa Limited, Hong Kong which is owned by the Cayman Islands-based Opera Limited and Wisdom Connection Holding Inc, which are ultimately beneficially owned by Chinese National Zhou Yahui,” the ED stated.

Aggressiveness, coercive nature of China is a frequent topic of discussion among Quad says Pentagon

China’s aggressiveness and the coercive nature in the resource-rich Indo-Pacific region is a frequent topic of discussion among the Quad nations, the Pentagon has said.

• In Nov 2017, India, Japan, the U.S., and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, amidst China’s growing military presence in the strategic region.
• “…… It’s not that the Quad exists simply to counter China or their influence,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters on September 30 at a news conference here.
• “Now, obviously, what China’s doing in the Indo-Pacific region, the aggressiveness, the coercive nature with which they try to press their claims, ..” he said.
• “….. And there’s a lot that goes into that, (QUAD) and not all of it has to do with China,” Mr. Kirby said.
• Recently, on Sept 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his counterparts from Australia and Japan attended the first in-person meeting of Quad leaders hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.
• India, the U.S., and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open, and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering in the region.
• China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea.