16 APRIL 2015: India to be the founder member of AIIB

Ø  Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh — at whose residence the leaders met — will head the party and the parliamentary board, but the name, flag, symbol, policy and party programme will be finalised by a six-member committee later. While the SP leader will head the committee, its members will be H.D. Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-S), Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal-United), Om Prakash Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal) , Kamal Morarka (Samajwadi Janata Party) and Ram Gopal Yadav (SP). Initially, an understanding had been reached on naming the outfit the Samajwadi Janata Dal, and accepting the SP symbol, the bicycle. But with Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former Bihar CM, who broke away from the JD(U) last month to form his own outfit, saying he would claim the JD(U) flag and symbol, the Sharad Yadav-Nitish Kumar-led party is having second thoughts about giving up its emblems.

Ø  A high-level committee formed by the Centre to look into the provisions of the Official Secrets Act in the light of the Right to Information Act will meet for the first time in North Block on Thursday, Home Ministry sources said on Wednesday. The committee, comprising Home Secretary L.C. Goyal, Law Secretary P.K. Malhotra and Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Sanjay Kothari, was constituted in February, but notified only recently. The meeting will start the process to do away with excessive secrecy through amendments in the Official Secrets Act, a law enacted by the British in 1923, official sources said.

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signed a deal to buy more than 3,000 tons of Canadian uranium over the next five years to fuel India’ power reactors. The five-year contract comes as Mr. Modi opens the first full day of his visit to Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday said it showed the commitment of the two countries to expand trade. The uranium deal with Canada’s Cameco Corp is one of a number of agreements signed on Wednesday, including pledges to co-operate in the areas of civil aviation, rail transport and education and skills development.

Ø  The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the CBI to inform it on the status of a probe into alleged irregularities in the purchase or hiring of 111 aircraft for Air India for about Rs. 70,000 crore during the tenure of Praful Patel as Civil Aviation Minister. A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices R.K. Agrawal and Arun Mishra gave two weeks’ time to the CBI for filing a fresh status report.

Ø  China is thinking big ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, opening out the possibility of a partnership with New Delhi in reclusive areas such as nuclear technology and aviation, along with joint forays in West Asia and Africa. Speaking to a section of the Indian media on Wednesday, Liu Jinsong, Deputy Director General in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in his agenda-setting briefing that the two countries should now look beyond their successful interaction in Information Technology, where India’s software advantages have complemented Chinese strengths in the hardware arena. “For many years we have talked about our economic cooperation in terms of hardware and software. However, we now need to further talk about bringing in industry,”  The Chinese are now looking at three advanced areas for collaboration — an aspiration that is partly driven by Beijing’s “Belt and Road” policy doctrine, of reviving the land and maritime dimensions of the ancient Silk Road. “China is good at three areas such as high speed railway, nuclear power stations and electricity facilities,” Mr. Liu stressed. He added that India could also partner Beijing’s rapidly developing aerospace industry. The Chinese seemed to have factored long term stability along the disputed Sino-Indian border, while defining their aspirational goals for a deeply enmeshed geo-economic relationship with India. After its globally acclaimed success in making bullet trains, which have led to discussions with India on the development of a New Delhi-Chennai high speed link, China has now sharpened its focus on civil nuclear technology exports. The Chinese are currently engaged in talks with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is heading TerraPower — a start-up for developing the travelling wave reactor —which can run on depleted uranium to produce significantly lower nuclear waste.

Ø  India and many influential western nations are among the 57 founder members of the $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), while the U.S. and Japan stayed away from the China-backed multilateral lender, according to the final list of members released.

Ø  Though Gujarat and Rajasthan are at the forefront of solar power development in the country, other states are also making rapid progress in harnessing energy from sun. Presently, Gujarat and Rajasthan account for over 50 per cent of India’s grid-connected solar energy capacity additions. However, states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are also catching up fast, supported by their solar programmes. Gujarat contributed 949 MW and Rajasthan’s installed capacity was 902 MW. Madhya Pradesh has added 500 MW, while Maharashtra’s commissioned solar power capacity was 334 MW. Other states, that have added more than 100 MW in solar, include Andhra Pradesh (237 MW), Punjab (120) and Tamil Nadu (112 MW).