Manipur News

Mumbai: In the light of increasing interest from Indian corporates in Africa and the enhancement in Indo-African trade & investment opportunities, ICICI Bank has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Africa). The MoU will involve ICICI Bank and Ecobank collaborating to extend banking services across their combined footprint in India and Africa. Ecobank is present in 35 countries in Africa.
The MoU was signed in Tokyo by Mr Vijay Chandok, President – International Banking Group, ICICI Bank Ltd and Mr Arnold Ekpe, Group CEO, Ecobank.
India’s trade with Africa has doubled in the past four years. Stronger investment ties are complementing this steady growth in trade with Indian investments in Africa across a range of sectors including oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, fertilizers, IT and infrastructure. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Vijay Chandok said, “In recent years, trade and investment from India to Africa has grown multi-fold and is poised to grow even higher.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/icici-bank-signs-mou-with-ecobank-of-africa/

New Delhi, Oct 17: The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that different aspects of modern Central Asia are being studied in different research institutions in the country and the need of the hour is to enhance coordination and cooperation amongst them to avoid overlapping, ensure better utilization of available resources and, eventually, more meaningful inputs for our foreign policy objectives. Delivering inaugural address at the National Seminar on “India and Central Asia: Perspectives on Bilateral and Regional Cooperation” organized by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) at Chandigarh today he has said that greater attention also needs to be devoted to language skills and the study of social impulses in individual societies. Diligent field work is essential for both and must be undertaken.
He said that foreign policy formulation rarely begins with a clean slate. Its building blocks, instead, consist of ground realities. Aspirations and objectives help give it shape; the baggage of the past is sought to be avoided but is rarely achieved comprehensively. Success thus lies, as Henry Kissinger put it, in ‘patient accumulation of partial successes.’
Shri Ansari opined that over the past two decades and despite being land locked, Central Asia emerged as one of the fastest growing regions in the world, and has displayed considerable development potential. It is resource rich in terms of oil, gas, gold, cotton, rare-earths, has relatively advanced infrastructure and human capital, and enjoys the benefit of a strategic location between Asia and Europe. Many of the Central Asian Republics have embarked on market-oriented economic reforms to boost private sector competitiveness and economic performance. As a result, leading and aspiring powers are active in the region in quest of natural resources, energy pipelines and transit routes leading to wide ranging geopolitical considerations pertaining to security, prevention of drug and arms smuggling, and countering terrorism and fundamentalism.
The Vice President said that no discussion on Central Asia and its immediate neighbourhood would be complete without taking on board the challenges arising out of the situation in Afghanistan. The lesson of history is that hegemonic prescriptions do not sustain themselves and result in greater chaos. The entire region would therefore benefits if realistic alternatives are thought of and Afghanistan drawn into a cooperative regional economic and security framework so that nation-building there could proceed based on economic development, social harmony, rule of law and participatory democracy in consonance with the wishes of the Afghan people. Such an approach should be underwritten by the United Nations and all interested powers.
He said that the world of tomorrow cannot and must not be visualized on the patterns of a past that resulted in misery and bloodshed. India wishes to eschew archaic concepts of Great Game and Grand Chessboard and, instead, be a partner for peace, stability and economic development in the region. India also hopes that the people of Central Asia do not give quarter to fundamentalism and religious extremism in their respective societies since these trends are disruptive and hamper progress.
He complemented CRRID for undertaking this initiative of seeking perspectives on the potential for cooperation between Central and South Asia for peace, security and development.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/national-seminar-on-india-central-asia-at-crrid-chandigarh/

New Delhi, Oct 17: In a bilateral meeting with the European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud Mr. Algirdas Semeta, here today, the Union Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles Shri Anand Sharma, highlighted the need for an early conclusion of ambitious and balanced Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) between India and EU. Shri Sharma stressed the agreement needs to be balanced and should address areas of core interest to India such as services through Mode 1 and Mode 4, agricultural market access and disciplining of Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) for translating concessions into effective market access. He said that this is important both in terms of optics as well as for obtaining the requisite balance in the India-EU BTIA.
Shri Sharma emphasised that in mode-1, India would need to be declared as data secure in order to provide access. The European Union is in the process of undertaking a study to assess whether India’s laws meet the EU directive. “It is our clear analysis that our existing law does meet the required EU standards. We would urge that this issue is sorted out quickly and necessary comfort in declaring India data secure in overall sense needs to be given as almost all the major Fortune -500 companies have trusted India with their critical data”, said Shri Sharma.
With a number of recent reform measures in India, which includes, opening of multi-brand retail trading sector to foreign investors; introducing flexibility in conditions for FDI in single brand product retail trading; allowing FDI in power exchanges; increasing the limit of FDI in Broadcasting sector; allowing FDI through foreign airlines in Civil Aviation sector, Shri Sharma emphasised India’s attractiveness as investment destination in a whole range of sectors from infrastructure to food processing, renewable energy, clean technology, bio-technology, health care, among others. He also highlighted that EU being a union of over 20 countries has strengths in almost all areas in which India needs investment. “Many countries of the EU are particularly strong in state-of-art technology development including green and clean technology for manufacturing industry. Although, the EU accounts for close to 50% of the technical collaborations approved but there is scope for enhancing technology transfer in a range of manufacturing activities,” said Shri Sharma. The cumulative FDI inflows from EU to India are around USD 44.31 billion (April 2000 to July 2012).

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/anand-sharma-asks-eu-to-declare-india-data-secure/

Hyderabad, October 17: As the world gathered in Hyderabad in yet another global negotiation exercise to discuss contentious issues surrounding biodiversity and its protection, a group of young students and environmental enthusiasts came together to debate what role the youth would have in all such parleys in future. In a side event organised here at the ongoing Convention on Biodiversity on October 16 by New Delhi-based research and advocacy body, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), these young minds participated in a panel discussion on ‘Future role of the youth in global environmental negotiations: Passive observers or active partners?’.
Fashioned as an event “for the young, by the young”, the panel discussion was anchored and moderated by CSE director general Sunita Narain. The panelists included a group of young men and women who have been selected by the government as ‘Prakrithi Mitras’ (Friends of Nature). These young people have also been covering the CBD for the summit special of Gobar Times, a magazine for the young on science and environment that CSE helps publish.
The side event began with the release of the special edition of Gobar Times by Sunit Narain, followed by an address by W G Prasanna Kumar, director of the National Green Core and the brain behind the Prakrithi Mitra group.
The panel discussion focussed on a wide range of issues, all of which are being discussed in the Convention. The young panellists, who have been attending these discussions and reporting on them, gave vent to their opinions on concerns such as sand mining; state of urban lakes and how they can be preserved; neem and its diverse applications and uses; and benefit sharing and access to resources for local communities.
Said Sumita Dasgupta, programme director-Environment Education Unit, CSE: “Clearly, the nub of most of the major official dialogues, meetings and side events at CBD has been access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation. Since these young men and women have been already reporting on this issue extensively, we felt it would be worthwhile to listen to their views and understand their perspective.”
Addressing the young panelists and the audience, Narain pointed out: “The best education you could ever get, you got it here at CBD. Looking at this young group, I am going back with a sense of hope. These men and women should all become a part of the change that we are fighting for and that — I am sure – will come about.”

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cse-organises-side-event-at-cbd-hyderabad-on-role-of-youth-in-environmental-negotiations/