India & World Updates: 20.6.09

June18, 2009: India-China PM hotline in a month
June18, 2009:India will do nothing harmful on river project says Bangladesh
June18, 2009:Indias Exim Bank gets $60 mn to support small businesses
June18, 2009:Number of hungry people to top 1 bn in 2009: UN
June 19, 2009: 11th US-India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group Meeting
June 19, 2009: World Bank to grant $180-mn loan for India’s power plants
June 19, 2009: India to become Financial Action Task Force member
June 19, 2009: India eligible for a pie of ADB’s funds

June18, 2009: India-China PM hotline in a month
In a bid to facilitate better communication between the two countries, India and China have agreed to establish a hotline at the level of the Prime Ministers within the next 30 days. This point was reiterated at the one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the BRIC summit in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

June18, 2009:India will do nothing harmful on river project says Bangladesh
Bangladesh has expressed confidence that India would do “nothing harmful” on a proposed river dam in Manipur state in north-eastern India, a minister of bangladesh Dipu Moni has said.

India started the construction of Tipaimukh Dam on river Barak in 2003 to generate electricity. Since the river Barak-Surma-Kushyara is an international river, Bangladesh as a lower riparian country should have an equitable share of water, this is what Bangladesh argues.

June18, 2009:Indias Exim Bank gets $60 mn to support small businesses
The Export-Import Bank of India is getting a $60 million international trade facility to help support export-focused small and medium enterprises, which have suffered reduced access to finance due to global financial crisis. The transaction follows the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between IFC and G-NEXID, an organisation of emerging-market export credit agencies and development institutions focused on trade between developing countries in May.

June18, 2009:Number of hungry people to top 1 bn in 2009: UN
Some 1.02 billion people are likely to go hungry in 2009, a UN agency said blaming the “historic” high figure on the global economic crisis. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in the developed countries 15 million in total.

June 19, 2009: 11th US-India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group Meeting
India and the US have agreed to coordinate global counter-terrorism efforts and asked the international community to come together to combat the menace in a sustained and comprehensive manner. In a joint statement on Wednesday, after the meeting of the 11th US-India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group, India and the US strongly condemned terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations, recognising it as a major threat to democracy, international peace and security. They also called upon all states to abide by their commitments under the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2006.

June 19, 2009: World Bank to grant $180-mn loan for India’s power plants
The World Bank on June 18, 2009 has approved a $80-million loan for the renovation and modernisation of old, polluting and inefficient coal-fired power plants in India. The project, which is expected to lower carbon emissions and boost power production at these plants, is co-financed with a $45.4-million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This has been done in a move to reduce Carbon Emissions. With the proposal, around 200-220 MW capacity each of the three coal-fired power plants at Bandel in West Bengal, Koradi in Maharashtra, and Panipat, Haryana will be modernised.

June 19, 2009: India to become Financial Action Task Force member
India might be able to secure membership of the Financial Action Task Force only in 2010, as the scheduled mutual-evaluation with the international body, a pre-requisite for the membership, will happen only by 2009-end.

Getting membership of the FATF, an inter-government body formed to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, would enable India to get international cooperation in such cases and would change perception of India abroad. Also, Indian banks would not have to face regulatory hurdles in setting up of overseas branches. Money laundering is a global menace and as India becomes a prominent global business destination, FATF membership gains all the more importance, said Singh and added that it would also open the doors for Indian banks to expand globally.

Enactment of the amended Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which was passed by Parliament recently to make the anti-money laundering regime more effective, was the final step for India to move towards getting the coveted membership of FATF next year.

Since February 2007, India has been participating as an observer at FATF, the first step in getting full membership of the FATF. India is also a member of the APG (the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering), an associate member of FATF.

June 19, 2009: China selling fake ‘Made in India’ drugs
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 30 per cent of medicines sold in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are spurious.Several seizures have found that the fake drugs have a ‘Made in India’ tag.

June 19, 2009: India eligible for a pie of ADB’s funds
The Asian Development Bank has said India can access part of the $3 billion additional funds allocated by the bank to help developing nations in tackling the global economic crisis. The bank has come up with the ‘Countercyclical Support Facility’ (CSF) aimed at helping developing nations in their effort to ramp up their fiscal spending.

The amount for each country from the facility would be capped at $500 million. The programme would provide short-term, fast-disbursing loans. The loans under the new facility would have a lower cost than charged for loans disbursed during the East Asian crisis. The loans could be repaid in eight years.


1 Comment

  1. zafar

    July 6, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    very interesting and informative…..thanks

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