Category: Politics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thanked his counterparts from the US, France and Japan for supporting India’s G20 presidency. The country resumed the G20 presidency on December 1, 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday expressed confidence in India taking over the presidency of the powerful G20, saying that he has trust that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would bring everyone together to build a peaceful and a sustainable world. Sharing a picture of himself and Prime Minister Modi in a tweet, Macron endorsed the theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” that India has chosen to work on during its presidency of the G20.

US President Joe Biden on Friday described India as a strong partner of the US and said that he was looking forward to supporting his “friend” Prime Minister Modi during India’s G20 presidency.

In response to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s congratulatory message, PM Modi wrote: “Your solidarity is vital. Japan has contributed a lot to global well-being and I am confident the world will continue to learn from Japan’s successes on various fronts.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India will work to further promote oneness, and listed terror, climate change, pandemic as the greatest challenges that can be best fought together.

India and Israel are “natural allies” who are united by a fundamental commitment to the democratic ideals upon which they were founded, said Israeli President Isaac Herzog, while making a rare appearance at an exhibition in Jerusalem featuring Indian deities and temple rituals on Thursday.

Herzog attended a cultural event at the Israel Museum to inaugurate the new exhibition, Body of Faith: Sculpture from the National Museum of India. He called the exhibition a by-product of the growing friendship between the two countries.

“India and Israel are natural allies, united by a fundamental commitment to the democratic ideals upon which both our nations were founded. Yet this evening transcends politics, commerce — even diplomacy,” he said.

The exhibition showcases 14 exquisite large-scale Indian sculptures created between the fourth and thirteenth centuries, some on loan from the National Museum in New Delhi and some from the Israel Museum’s collection. The six-month-long exhibition will also host a series of academic talks and special lecture demonstrations by selected artists from India. The exhibition is significant, as it displays the Biblical references to Indian-origin spices and fragrances such as Neradh oil, Ahaal aromatic wood and cinnamon, which among others were considered essential for religious services during the Temple periods in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a “fundamental mindset shift” to shape a new paradigm of human-centric globalization, as India assumed the presidency of the G20 on Thursday.

In a blog, the Prime Minister underscored the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (One World, One Family, One Future), and listed terror, climate change, pandemic as the greatest challenges that can be best fought together. Gone is the time to remain trapped in the same old zero-sum mindset, which has led to both scarcity and conflict, he said, adding that India’s G20 presidency will work to promote a universal sense of oneness.

Narendra Modi said India’s G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also the fellow-travellers in the Global South – Asia, Africa and Latin America – whose voice often goes unheard.

The beginning of India’s G20 presidency was celebrated across the country. Nagaland’s famous Hornbill Festival in Kohima, which also began on Thursday, had a special focus on G20, while 100 monuments across the country, including some UNESCO heritage sites, were illuminated with the G20 logo.

On Thursday, India also assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council for December 2022. The country will host signature events on countering terrorism and reformed multilateralism this month.

Qatar will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany under a 15-year deal signed on Tuesday, as the European country attempts to replace Russian gas supplies disturbed due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

To begin in 2026, the deal will see Qatar sending up to 2 million tonnes of the gas to Germany through an under-construction terminal at Brunsbuettel.

The deal involves state-run Qatar Energy and ConocoPhillips, which has stakes in Qatar’s offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that it shares with Iran.

Germany, which got more than half its gas from Russia before the war, has not received any gas from Russia since the end of August. The European economic powerhouse is now building five LNG terminals as a key part of its plan to replace Russian supplies, and the first are expected to go into service shortly. Much of its current gas supply comes from or via Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany’s effort to prevent a short-term energy crunch includes momentarily reactivating old oil and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of its last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.

Saudi Arabia on Monday announced plans for a new airport in Riyadh intended to spur rapid growth in the capital while advancing the kingdom’s ambitious aviation goals.

The airport will accommodate 120 million travellers by 2030 and 185 million travellers by 2050. The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh into one of the top 10 city economies in the world and support the growth of its population to 15-20 million people by 2030,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a statement.

“With sustainability at its core, the new airport will achieve LEED Platinum certification by incorporating cutting-edge green initiatives into its design and will be powered by renewable energy,” added Prince Mohammed bin Salman, referring to the green building certification programme.

Saudi Arabia’s aviation goals, part of Prince Mohammed’s extensive Vision 2030 reforms, include more than tripling annual traffic to 330 million passengers by the end of the decade. It also aims to attract $100 billion in investments to the sector by 2030, set up a new national flag carrier, and expand to 5 million tonnes of cargo each year.

The airport will boost Riyadh’s position as a global logistics hub, stimulate transport, trade and tourism, and act as a bridge linking the East with the West, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that assuming the G20 presidency was a huge opportunity for India and that the country must utilise it by focusing on global good and welfare. The Prime Minister said this during his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat.

India will officially assume the G20 presidency from the current chair Indonesia on December 1. In his latest monthly radio address, Narendra Modi said that India can provide solutions to the varied challenges being faced globally. “Be it peace or unity, sensitivity towards environment or sustainable development, India has solutions to challenges related to all such things,” he said.

The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about the power of music, and the spread of Indian music. He made a mention of Greek musician Konstantinos Kalaitzis and played out the singer’s version of Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan, “Vaishnava Jana to”. He said that the fame of Indian music had spread far and wide, with India exporting many musical instruments to aficionados abroad, and Indian musical traditions in Guyana and other countries where centuries ago Indians had settled.

Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is seeking bids from solar manufacturers under the second tranche of the Centre’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that has a corpus of ₹19,500 crore.

The PLI scheme is aimed at achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt (GW) scale in high-efficiency solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. The last date for submitting bids is January 11, 2023.

The Union Cabinet on 21 September 2022 cleared the scheme to incentivise manufacturing of domestic solar cell modules to lower the industry’s reliance on China-made panels. This was a follow-up to the ₹4,500-crore tranche that was cleared in November 2020. The MNRE in its statement said that through the PLI scheme, about 65,000 megawatt (MW) per annum manufacturing capacity of fully and partially integrated, solar PV modules would be installed. It will bring direct investment of around ₹94,000 crore, create manufacturing capacity for balance of materials such as EVA, solar glass and backsheet, and generate direct employment for about 1,95,000 and indirect employment of 7,80,000 people. The scheme will also aid in import substitution of around 1.37 lakh crore, and give impetus to research and development to achieve higher efficiencies in solar PV modules.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday unveiled a new plan for the world’s 100 most talented young professionals in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) to help the country attract the brightest and best minds from across the world.

Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference in Birmingham, Sunak made clear that the control over the country’s post-Brexit immigration policy remains crucial for his government. However, he pledged to build one of the world’s most attractive visa regimes for entrepreneurs and highly skilled people and make use of the “Brexit freedoms” to sign trade deals with the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The UK is currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with India.

“We cannot allow the world’s top AI talent to be drawn to America or China,” said the British Prime Minister, adding, “That’s why, building on the AI scholarships and Master’s conversion courses I instigated as chancellor, we are launching a programme to identify and attract the world’s top 100 young talents on AI.”

Sunak told the CBI conference that harnessing innovation to drive economic growth, embedding innovation in public services, and teaching people skills to become “great innovators” can overcome problems.

The Australian Parliament passed the country’s free trade agreement (FTA) with India on Tuesday, announced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a tweet.

India and Australia would now implement the FTA on a mutually agreed date. The agreement was signed between the two countries in April this year.

Once implemented, the FTA will provide duty-free access to the Australian market for over 6,000 broad sectors of India, such as textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery. Under the pact, Australia is offering zero-duty access to India for about 96.4% of exports (by value). This covers several products that at present attract 4-5% customs duty in Australia.

Australia’s Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said that the FTA will help businesses to grow, offer more employment opportunities, and give Australian consumers more choice. He added that Australia will work closely with the Indian government to implement the agreement “as soon as possible”.

India’s goods exports to Australia stood at $8.3 billion and imports from the country aggregated to $16.75 billion in 2021-22. The FTA would help in taking the bilateral trade from $27.5 billion currently to $45-50 billion in the next five years.

United Arab Emirates Minister Omar bin Sultan Al Olama on Wednesday said the future will have Indian fingerprints for “everyone and everywhere”, as he praised the country for its advances in the field of technology and Indians shaping the future of technology in different places across the world.

The UAE Minister of State, who holds the portfolio of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, was speaking at the inaugural session of the 25th Bengaluru Tech Summit. According to him, there are other areas as well that will be India-driven.

“I don’t think that it’s just the future of technology that is going to be driven by India. It’s going to be the future of technology, education, finance and many other sectors (that’s going) to be reshaped by India,” he added.

The UAE minister was hopeful that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that was signed between the UAE and India earlier this year was a great stepping stone to forge together a new era of technologies. He also said that the I2U2, which stands for India, Israel, the UAE, and the US, partnership will be a one-of-a-kind role model that many countries are going to build their collaborations on.