News articles and essays on the Indian diplomacy at work around the world.
A ‘Joint Guidance for the Australia – India Navy to Navy Relationship’ document was signed between the Indian Navy and Royal Australian Navy today, 18 August 2021. The signing ceremony was held virtually between Adm Karambir Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff, Indian Navy and Vice Admiral Michael J Noonan, Chief of Navy, Australian Navy.
India is likely to have new national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in 2022, factoring in more pollutants, including ultra-fine particulate matter of less than PM2.5. The existing national standard was formulated 12 years ago.
Reviewing the visa provisions in light of the current situation in Afghanistan, the home ministry on Tuesday has created a new e-visa category – the e-Emergency X-Miscellaneous visa — that will allow Afghan nationals wanting to evacuate to India, to apply online.
India has already retired 16369 MW of inefficient thermal units till March, 2021. This was stated by the Union Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, Shri RK Singh, in a meeting with the Rt Hon Alok Sharma, COP 26 President, here today. The COP26 President had raised the topic of phasing out of coal fired power plants, in the meeting. Secretary (Power), Secretary (MNRE) and High Commissioner of UK in India were also present.
The Ministry of Power has circulated the “Draft Electricity (promoting renewable energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2021”. They have placed them on the Ministry of Power website – https://powermin.gov.in/ and sought comments within 30 days.
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa, New Delhi. On this occasion, Shri Tomar said that the farmers of India are fully capable of accepting the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and conquering them. He said that our farmers are skilled human resources even without any major educational degree. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is constantly concerned about the welfare of the farmers and concrete steps have been taken by the government through several schemes to increase their income.
Four more wetlands from India get recognition from the Ramsar Secretariat as Ramsar sites. These sites are Thol and Wadhwana from Gujarat and Sultanpur and Bhindawas from Haryana. Informing this in a tweet message, Union Environment Minister, Shri Bhupender Yadav expressed happiness and stated that it is Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s special concern for the environment which has led to overall improvement in how India cares for its wetlands.
The Ministers of Agriculture of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa deliberated virtually on the theme “BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Security”.
Nations like Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam took part in SEACAT.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 13th launched vehicle scrappage policy and said that the policy is a significant milestone in India’s development journey. He urged youth and startups to join the programme.
