Nov 21st 2015-Current Affairs

>> China and India vowed to deepen cooperation in combating terrorism and fighting transnational crime .

Singh, who arrived to China ,held talks with Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on a wide range of issues.

China and India should also coordinate to improve border entry and exit administration to facilitate peoples travel and promote stability in the region and willing to deepen cooperation with Chinese law enforcers to strengthen bilateral relations.

Singh is the first Indian Home Minister to visit China in a decade. Shivraj Patil was the last Home Minister who had visited China in 2005.

His visit comes in the backdrop of steady improvement of relations between the two countries while streamlining mechanisms to address the vexed border dispute.

>>ADB pledges $120 million loan to finance India, Bangladesh electricity link under SASEC Programme.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to provide 120 million dollar loan in order to finance cross-border electricity link between Bangladesh and India under SASEC Programme. 

In this regard, loan agreement was signed by ADB Country Director Kazuhiko Higuchi and Mohammad Mejbahuddin, Senior Secretary of Bangladesh Finance Ministry.

The loan fund would be used for Second Bangladesh-India Grid Inter connectivity project under the ambitious South Asia Sub-regional Economic Co-operation (SASEC) Programme.

The projects under SASEC Programme aim to promote regional prosperity through improved cross-border links in trade, power, road and rail links between India and Bangladesh.

The second project under will double the existing capacity from 500 MW to 1000 MW of the inter-connectivity link connecting power grid at Bheramara in western Bangladesh and the grid of eastern India at Bahrampur (Odisha).

It should be noted that the networks under the first project were connected in 2013 and was financed by ADB under the SASEC Programme.

About South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Program

Set up in 2001 to bring together Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka in a project-based partnership.This sub-regional partnership aims to

• Strengthening regional economic cooperation Boosting trade among member countries. Promote regional prosperity by improving cross-border connectivity.

• Build a better quality of life for the people of the subregion. Since its establishment, SASEC member countries have implemented over 37 regional projects worth more than 6.75 billion dollars in the energy, trade facilitation, transport and ICT sectors.

• Manila (Philippines) based Asian Development Bank (ADB) serves SASEC Secretariat for the member countries.

>>State-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) has tied up with infrastructure giant IL&FS subsidiary IL&FS Global Financial Services to help it spread its wings overseas.

The two sides --AAI and IL & FS Global Financial Services (ME) Ltd --have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard.

AAIs vision is to go global from local, considering its expertise and capabilities in airport development and operation and management, the release said quoting AAI chairman R K Srivastava, in whose presence the MoU was inked.

AAI over a period of time has developed more than 60 airports, in metro and non-metro cities in India and it now intends to leverage to expertise to other international markets at a bigger scale.

By signing MoU with IL&FS, AAI would be getting an opportunity in identification of airport development opportunities, transaction structure and financing facilities in Middle East, Africa regions as well as in CIS countries.

>>Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman of Ambuja Neotia group, has been elected president of industry body Ficci for 2016.

Neotia, a 'Padma Shri' awardee, is also a member of the Rajasthan Chief Minister's Advisory Council and West Bengal Chief Minister's Core Committee on Industry. 

Currently, he is the senior VP of the industry body. 

Neotia will take over from the current Ficci President Jyotsna Suri during the chamber's AGM next month.

>>South Australia  signed a historic 'sister-state agreement' with Rajasthan that would pave new ways to boost export and investment opportunities between the two states.

The sister-state relationship between South Australia and Rajasthan is based on a two-way exchange of research, policy and technical capabilities.

The agreement provides partnership and collaborative opportunities across key sectors where South Australian business can offer services and product support.

>>Rajasthan Government on 20 November 2015 signed 295 MoUs attracting about 3.3 lakh crore rupees investment during the Resurgent Partnership Summit 2015.

With this, a task force will be formed to get the projects implemented in a time-bound manner.It aims to provide around 239694 lakh jobs in the state.

The Energy sector got MoUs worth 190000 crore rupees followed by Petroleum with 77657 crore rupees worth MoUs. Infrastructure got MoUs worth 17038 crore rupees while Manufacturing sector of the state fetched MoUs worth 11760 crore rupees.

>>A Syrian journalist who lives and works in the war-scarred city of Aleppo has been awarded the Reporters without Borders Prize in France for her defence of press freedom.

The Paris-based media rights group singled out Zaina Erhaim for her "determination and courage" in covering the conflict in Syria, which is deemed the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.

Over the past two years Erhaim has trained around a hundred print and television journalists, a third of them women. Her efforts have led to the emergence of a number of independent newspapers and magazines.

>>India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services has launched a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in collaboration with Intel at the TCS Hyderabad Campus.

The centre will focus on developing new use cases for various industries and create solution accelerators around Intel technologies for global customers in manufacturing, retail, hi-tech, semiconductors, healthcare and telecom industries, the company said. The primary focus of the centre is to integrate IoT solutions developed by TCS on Intel IoT platforms and to fast-track creation of end-to-end solutions.

>>The Global Gender Gap Index 2015 ranks 145 economies according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool, based on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators.

With a decade of data, this edition of the Global Gender Gap Report – first published in 2006 – shows that while the world has made progress overall, stubborn inequalities remain.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2015, Iceland ranked at No.1 position followed by Norway and Finland while India ranked at 108th position among 145 countries.

In several countries, more women are now going to university than men but - crucially - this is not necessarily translating into more women occupying skilled roles or leadership positions.

The WEF report looks at whether men and women have the same rights and opportunities in each country in four areas: health, education, economic participation and political empowerment.

Out of 145 countries,there are only four where more women than men are in work.

All are in Africa: Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Burundi. Only in Colombia, Fiji and Philoppines do more women than men occupy leadership roles.