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INDIA & WORLD COVERAGE
India Japan and China entered into
a Pact called SHADE
India, Japan and China entered into a pact to share data
to achieve the most efficient use of Naval Forces present
in the Indian Ocean Region. The initiative is known as
the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE). The
initiative began functioning from 1 January 2012. China,
India, and Japan also agreed to carry out more effective
coordination by establishing a convoy coordination
working group as part of the Shared Awareness and De
confliction Mechanism.
China, India, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, South Africa and Yemen deployed ships and
aircraft to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean region.
They were working as independent forces in absence of
shared information. Other issues included a lack of
convoy coordination by countries outside the SHADE
mechanism that led to inefficient use of ships and
aircrafts deployed for the purpose. This was improved
with expanded interaction through the SHADE
mechanism and improved information sharing.
India & Bangladesh to Set up
Thermal Power Plant
India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), on
29 January 2012 signed an agreement with Bangladesh
Power Development Board (BPDP) for setting up a joint
venture 1320 MW thermal power plant. The joint venture
coal-based power plant will comprise of two units of 660
MW each and will be set up at Rampal in Khulna
Division of Bangladesh. The project is the first joint
venture power plant in Bangladesh. The project will be
completed by 2016. The joint venture thermal power
plant is one of the projects, which is part of Bangladesh’s
efforts to diversify its energy production process.
India signed Five Agreements with
Trinidad and Tobago
Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago Kamla Persad
Bissessar visited India from 5 January 2012 to 14 January
2012. India and Trinidad & Tobago on 6 January 2012
signed five agreements during her visit. The agreements
are as following:
1. Memorandum of Understanding between India
and Trinidad & Tobago on co-operation in the
field of traditional Systems medicine.
2. Air Services agreement between India and
Trinidad & Tobago.
3. Technical Cooperation Agreement (In the field
of Education) between India and Trinidad &
Tobago.
4. Programme of Cultural Exchanges between
India and Trinidad & Tobago for the years 2012-
14.
5. Memorandum of Understanding between
Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic
Sciences( CCRAS) Department of Ayush,
Ministry of Health& Family Welfare, the
government of India and the University of West
Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.
India and Trinidad & Tobago issued a joint statement on
this occasion. Highlights of this joint statement are as
following:
• Both nations agreed to diversify trade and
investments to prospective areas such as
conventional and renewable energy, SMEs,
ICT, Pharmaceuticals & Medical equipments
and consumables, Health, Wellness Tourism,
Ayurveda, Entertainment, Shipping among
others.
• The Indian side agreed to encourage the Indian
IT sector, both public and private, to collaborate
with Trinidad and Tobago in its endeavour to
develop an efficient IT industry.
• The Indian side appreciated the decision of the
Government of Trinidad & Tobago for
according visa waiver facility to Indian citizens
for a period of 90 days.
• The Trinidad and Tobago side reiterated its
support for India’s permanent membership in
an expanded UNSC.
• Both sides recognised that the historical and
cultural linkages between the two countries are
being further strengthened through the
Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Cultural
Cooperation in Port of Spain set up in 1996.
• Both sides strongly condemned terrorism in all
its forms and manifestations and agreed to
cooperate in the international communities’
joint endeavour in eliminating the menace of
international terrorism.
• The two sides recognised that Climate Change
is a global challenge with strong economic,
India and Mali signed Three
Agreements and issued a Joint
Statement
The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure visited
India on 11-12 January 2012. India and Mali signed three
agreements during this visit. The agreements are as
following;
1. MoU on Co-operation in the field of Geology
and Mineral Resources between the Ministry
of Mines of the Government of India and
Ministry of Mines of the Government of the
Republic of Mali.
2. Joint statement by India and Mali on the
occasion of the visit of the President of Mali.
3. India also extended Line of Credit of 100 million
US dollars for a power transmission project.
Highlights of the Joint statement issued by India and
Mali are as following:
• Both sides called for an early convening of the
first meeting of the Joint Ministerial
Commission following the signing of the
Agreement on Political, Economic, Scientific,
Technical and Cultural Cooperation between
India and Mali in October 2009.
• The Indian side thanked Mali for its support to
India’s candidature for permanent membership
in an expanded United Nations Security
Council.
• On the situation in the Middle East, the two
sides condemned any forms of violence and
urged the protagonists to resume dialogue and
reiterated their support for the “Road Map” of
the Quartet.
• The two sides strongly condemned terrorism
in all its forms and manifestations and resolved
to increase cooperation in the common efforts
of the international community in preventing
this scourge in a comprehensive manner. Both
sides agreed to closely cooperate for an early
finalisation of a Comprehensive Convention on
International Terrorism, for which India had
presented a draft at the United Nations in 1996.
India and Pakistan agreed to
Transit Fee Formula for Tapi Gas
Pipeline Project
In New Delhi, India and Pakistan on 25 January 2012
agreed in New Delhi to transit fee formula for
Tapi(Tajikistan, Pakistan and India) gas pipeline project.
On the Transit Fee, India and Pakistan agreed that the
negotiations would be conducted in a transparent
manner keeping in mind the overall economics of the
Project, keeping in mind the landed cost of gas, and in
accordance with the relevant international practices.
Since there is a need to expedite the signing of the Gas
Sale Purchase Agreement (GSPA), both sides agreed to
settle the Transit Fee issue at the earliest. Pakistan agreed
in-principle that whatever fee formula is eventually
settled between India and Afghanistan would also be
acceptable to Pakistan subject to approval of their
competent authority. The two Ministers also discussed
other issues of bilateral interest such as trade in
petroleum products. Jaipal Reddy offered export of
Petrol, Diesel, Aviation Turbine Fuel and Fuel Oil besides
Sulphur, Polyethylene and Polypropylene since Pakistan
is importing these products currently. It was pointed
out that the main advantage for Pakistan will be the
savings in freight cost since several refineries in India
are located close to the India-Pak border.
The Indian side offered to export refined petroleum and
petrochemical products by road, rail and by sea. It was
also mentioned that Indian refineries would be willing
to look at the feasibility of constructing product pipelines
to Pakistan provided long-term guarantees for product
offtake can be given by Pakistan. Both sides noted that
India-Pakistan Joint Working Group (JWG) on Petroleum
& Petrochemical Products has been constituted recently
to go into the specific details of facilitating trade in this
sector, including infrastructure up gradation and
augmentation in respect of railways, customs facilitation,
setting up of banking channels, etc. Both Ministers
agreed to advise their respective officials to hold the 1st
meeting of the JWG at the earliest.
India and WB signed an Agreement
to Improve Livelihoods in NE
The Government of India and the World Bank on 20
January 2012 signed an IDA credit of 130 million US
dollars to finance the project called NERLP (North East
Rural Livelihoods Project), to empower rural communities
in the growth-deficient North East (NE) region to
improve their livelihood opportunities. The North East
Rural Livelihoods Project (NERLP) will enhance the
livelihoods of the rural poor, especially women,
unemployed youth and the severely disadvantaged in
eight districts of the four participating states- Aizawl
and Lunglei in Mizoram; Peren and Tuensang in
Nagaland; South, West and 15 Panchayat wards of East
District in Sikkim; and West and North Districts in
Tripura.
The Project seeks to develop an institutional platform
for the communities, which will help them link up with
the private sector, public sector, and civil society and to
acquire the institutional, technical, and financial capacity
needed for improving their livelihoods. Global
development experience shows that absolute poverty
can be overcome by equipping a member of the
household (especially a youth) with employable skills.
A separate activity for skills development and job
placement has thus been included in the project to
ensure that such opportunities are available to the rural
poor. Some livelihood opportunities envisaged under
the Project include natural resource management
activities such as forest management, non-timber forest
produce storage and processing, horticulture,
preservation of riverine fishes, water harvesting and
recharging of ground/surface water in the villages;
community-based infrastructure activities like upgrading
of small agricultural link roads, micro hydro-power
schemes, wind-cum-solar mills, to name a few.
The Project comprises four main components (i) Social
Empowerment; (ii) Economic Empowerment; (iii)
Partnership Development and (iv) Project Management.
The first component seeks to help rural communities to
create sustainable institutions so that they can manage
common activities around microfinance, livelihoods and
natural resource management. The second component
will provide funds to the community institutions to
undertake various livelihood activities, as well as provide
self-entrepreneurship opportunities to unemployed
youth. To enable this, the Project with help develop
partnerships with various formal financial intermediaries
- such as microfinance institutions, commercial banks,
development financial institutions such as National Bank
for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI),
and specialized funding agencies such as North East
Development Finance Institution (NEDFI) – and with
the private sector and civil society to allow rural
communities to access technical and marketing support.
The project management component facilitates the
implementation, coordination, monitoring and
evaluation, learning and quality enhancement efforts of
the project.
India Signed MoU on Tourism
with ASEAN
India signed MoU with ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) at Manado, Indonesia on 12
January 2012. The main objectives of the MoU are to:
• Cooperate in facilitating travel and tourist
visits.
• Further strengthen the tourism partnership.
• Enhance mutual assistance and human
resource development for tourism sector
• Take necessary steps for exploring avenues of
cooperation and sharing of information.
• Exchange information pertaining to statistics
and development strategies, investment
opportunities and economic data in tourism,
travel and hospitality sectors relevant to each
other.
• Jointly organize seminars, workshops and faceto-face
meetings wherever possible, with a view
to exploring and discussing new opportunities
and avenues for the development and
promotion of tourism and
• Any other area of activity aiming at tourism
cooperation.
Prime Minister of India had announced during the 9th
ASEAN Summit held at Bali on 19 November, 2011 that a
Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening
tourism cooperation between India and ASEAN would
be signed preferably at the Meeting of ASEAN-India
Tourism Minister in early 2012. Consequent to the
announcement made by the Prime Minister the MoU
has been signed between India and ASEAN on
strengthening tourism cooperation.
Apart from G2G efforts, both sides agreed on the need
to activate industry and business associations in the
petroleum sector for confidence building. Jaipal Reddy
informed Hussain that India’s oil companies would be
participating in the India Show at Lahore on 11-13
February, 2012 being organized by the Govt of India and
FICCI to showcase the strength of India’s petroleum
refining sector and what India’s oil companies can offer
environmental and social dimensions. to Pakistan.
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