Ø The Union government reconstituted the Prime
Minister’s Council
on Climate Change to coordinate the National Action Plan for
Assessment, Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change. The 18-member
council retains R.K. Pachauri, Chairperson of the Inter-governmental Panel on
Climate Change; Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow, TERI; and Nitin
Desai, economist. Raj Chengappa and R. Ramachandran, journalists; Sunita
Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment; Ratan Tata,
industrialist; and the former Environment Secretary Prodipto Ghosh have been
dropped. It has re-nominated Ajay Mathur, head of the Bureau of Energy
Efficiency, and included the Union Ministers for Coal and Power and Urban
Development. The UPA constituted the council first in 2007, but it had not met
for over three years. Official sources said the attempt was to revive and
streamline the council and set the agenda to deal with climate change.
 |
| R K Pachauri |
Ø BOOK: Playing
it my way – Autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar
Ø External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has
assured the families of 42 Indians detained by Islamic State militants in Iraq
that they are alive.
Ø For the first time India and Russia have agreed
on negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between
India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russia. The
agreement marks the first FTA negotiations initiated by the NDA government, and
discussed by visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Indian
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during the 20th session of India-Russia
Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC)
in New Delhi. Other major decisions include proposals for establishment
of a ‘Smart City’ in India by the Russian company “Sistema,” joint cooperation
for development of potassium and magnesium deposits in Russia, project for
launching telecommunication satellites “NextStar” in the geostationary orbit of
the Earth on low cost platforms and projects in high end computing. As
expected, the focus was largely on boosting economic cooperation. Mr.
Rogozin also co-chaired the eighth India-Russia Forum for Trade and
Investments, an active business forum between the two countries, along with the
Minister of State for Commerce & Industries Nirmala Sitharaman. During his
visit he called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other major deals in
oil, energy and defence are likely to be signed during Mr. Putin’s visit.
Ø The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black
money has said the root cause of the steep rise in illegal financial outflows
over the past decade is greater openness in a liberalised environment devoid of
effective regulatory agencies. Taking cognisance of the Global Financial
Integrity report released in December 2013, which pegged the estimated illegal
financial outflow from India at $343,922 million from 2002 to 2011, the SIT has
noted that the report ranked India 5th among the 142 countries with regard to “illicit financial
flows.” The maximum outflow was detected for 2011, estimated at
$84,933 million. Recommending an integrated system of investigations
into black money, the SIT asked for an investigation unit for itself to monitor
and investigate specific cases having larger implications. It is closely
monitoring the Central Bureau of Investigation’s probe into nine cases,
including the NAFED, STC export-import, fake Chinese suppliers, over-invoicing
of imported machinery and the Ketan Parekh scam cases, in which Rs. 4,100 crore
was remitted to many Mauritius-based companies and diverted further to
Switzerland and the United Kingdom and Rs. 877 crore routed back to India.
Ø Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman demanded greater market access in Russia for Indian pharmaceutical,
automotive, textile and value-added farm products and invited Russian
businessmen to explore with an open mind investment opportunities in India.
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