News articles and essays on the Indian diplomacy at work around the world.
IndusInd Bank said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that it has collaborated with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to deliver real-time cross-border remittances to India using UPI IDs for its Money Transfer Operator (MTO) partners.
India and Singapore further consolidated their strategic relations in 2021 despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, with high-level bilateral visits and meetings leading to increased collaboration in defence, information technology and cybersecurity that are likely to shape the future of both the countries.
Both countries had stated that they hoped to complete a full trade agreement by the end of 2022 and sign an early harvest agreement by December 25. The goal of the early harvest agreement is to cover regions of urgent importance to both countries.
India is halfway through an ambitious plan to deliver safe drinking water to all 192 million homes in 600,000 villages by 2024. Hundreds of thousands of contractors and labourers are installing more than 2.5 million miles of the pipe as part of the US$ 50 billion projects, which about 18,000 government engineers are overseeing.
According to separate notifications of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the duties have been imposed on certain flat rolled products of aluminium; sodium hydrosulphite (used on dye industry); silicone sealant (used in manufacturing of solar photovoltaic modules, and thermal power applications); hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) component R-32; and hydrofluorocarbon blends (both have uses in refrigeration industry).
India and Russia have exchanged “non-paper” on how to increase engagement in central Asia, which has five countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The Prime Minister announced that from 3rd January 2022, Monday, vaccination will start for the children in the age group of 15-18 years. The move is likely to aid in education normalization in schools and will reduce the worry of the parents with school going children. He also announced precaution dose for healthcare and frontline workers from 10th January 2022, Monday.
The annual India, US 2+2 meet at foreign and defense ministers’ level will take place in the third week of January in Washington. India’s external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Washington for the meeting.
India and the UAE have completed negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, with an announcement to be made during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the West Asian country in the first week of 2022, in a move that is expected to boost trade with countries in the Gulf as well as Africa.
Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is likely to visit India in the second week of January, according to government sources. This will be his first visit to India since assuming office earlier this year.
