INDIA & WORLD
India and Germany signed 18 MoUs
India and Germany on 5 October, 2015 ink 18 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) for cooperation in various fields including higher education, civil aviation, railways and food safety. India and Germany also signed a deal to fast track business approvals. The other deals include promotion of German as a foreign language in India and promotion of modern Indian languages in Germany, cooperation on Indo-German solar energy partnership, cooperation in fields of skill development and vocational education and training, cooperation in the field of disaster management, Indo-German partnerships in higher education, cooperation in the field of railways.
Union Cabinet approved MoU with Mozambique for cooperation in renewable energy
The Union Government on 14 October 2015 approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India and Mozambique. The agreement aims at establishing a cooperative institutional relationship to encourage and promote technical bilateral cooperation, investment promotion and partnership on new and renewable energy issues on the basis of mutual benefit, equality and reciprocity. The focus will be on the development of new and renewable energy technologies in the field of conducting on-the-job and specialized training courses on renewable energy field, research & development and of technology transfer in renewable energy.
ADB to provide loan for India-Bangladesh Electricity link upgradation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $120 million loan to upgrade the India-Bangladesh electricity network. Once completed, this will allow Bangladesh to meet its increasing power demand and support power exchanges across South Asia. The loan will be used to double the capacity of the existing inter-grid connectivity which links the power grid of western Bangladesh at Berhamara with the power grid of eastern India at aharampur.The two electricity networks were first connected in December 2013 under a previous ADB project under which India exports 500 MW power to Bangladesh.
India pips China to emerge as world’s largest cotton producer
India has emerged world’s largest cotton producer in the season ending in September 30, 2015 by surpassing China. As per data released by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) India has produced 6.51 million tonnes (mt) of the cotton against 6.48 mt registered by China in the cotton year 2014-15. US Department of Agriculture has predicted that India will retain its top position till next cotton season by producing around 29 million bales or around 27 per cent of the global cotton crop.
India-Sri Lanka joint training exercise “Mitra Shakti-2015” concluded
The third India-Sri Lanka jointt raining exercise “ Mitra Shakti-2015” culminated on 12 October 2015 after a closing ceremony held at Aundh Military Camp, Pune.The 14-day joint training included understanding of transnational terrorism, developing interoperability and conduct of joint tactical operations controlled by a Joint Command Post. Brigadier Tapan Lal Sah of the Indian Army and Brigadier KP Aruna Jayasekera of the Sri Lankan Army jointly reviewed the parade commanded by Major Ashish Kumar, of Indian Army.