Month: January 2023

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-Top News Europe USA

Biden ‘not sure’ about his Europe trip on war anniversary

It is highly unlikely that Biden would travel to Ukraine as part of this trip, however, one of the officials said, citing the ongoing security concerns….reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden on Monday said that he was “not sure” about his trip to Europe around the one-year anniversary of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine next month.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said, “I’m not sure”. However, in a separate question regarding Poland tour, the US president said that he would visit a crucial ally, but that date was not yet determined.

Earlier, two senior administration officials in the US said President Biden was considering making a trip to Europe around the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine next month.

A trip is not yet confirmed, and details have yet to be finalized. But one of the officials said that one stop under consideration is Poland, a key NATO ally currently housing thousands of American troops that also serves as a hub for Western weapons transfers to Ukraine. US service members are also training Ukrainian troops there.

It is highly unlikely that Biden would travel to Ukraine as part of this trip, however, one of the officials said, citing the ongoing security concerns.

Biden’s aides have been planning for several weeks how they will mark the anniversary of the invasion, including potentially a major address. They hope to emphasise the resilience of the Ukrainian people, noting that when the war began, many assumed Kyiv would fall within days.

Responding to queries in South Lawn, Biden also expressed his wish that the George Floyd Act be passed.

Earlier, he also said America will not send the F16 fighter jets to Ukraine, CNN reported. While responding to a reporter on whether he would send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Biden said “no”.

Interestingly, the US had ramped up military assistance to Ukraine in the form of artillery and tanks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.

Last week, Biden announced that he would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite top US officials saying previously the heavy-duty vehicles were a poor fit for the country’s military.

Speaking on the White House South Lawn, Biden also said he wasn’t sure whether he would visit Europe next month for the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, reported CNN.

In response to a separate question, Biden said he was planning to visit Poland, but wasn’t sure when.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that they have not received any requests from Ukraine for fighter jets, according to CNN.

“We do not have such a request formulated [from Ukraine],” Macron said at a joint press conference at The Hague where the two leaders were meeting to prepare the next EU council of February.

Macron said while no requests had been received by France, “nothing is off-limits in principle.” He insisted that the usefulness of each request must be considered carefully.

Macron said the weapons requested should not escalate the conflict, reported CNN. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Biden says ‘no’ to sending F-16 jets to Ukraine

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-Top News COVID-19 USA

US govt announces plan to end Covid-19 emergency declarations

It comes as lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic….reports Asian Lite News

President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.

The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities.

It comes as lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic. Combined with the drawdown of most federal COVID-19 relief money, it would also shift the development of vaccines and treatments away from the direct management of the federal government.

Biden’s announcement comes in a statement opposing resolutions being brought to the floor this week by House Republicans to bring the emergency to an immediate end. House Republicans are also gearing up to launch investigations on the federal government’s response to COVID-19.

Then-President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, and Trump later declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergenc y that March. The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and are set to expire in the coming months. The White House said Biden plans to extend them both briefly to end on May 11.

“An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,” the Office of Management and Budget wrote in a Statement of Administration Policy.

More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 3,700 last week.

Congress has already blunted the reach of the public health emergency that had the most direct impact on Americans, as political calls to end the declaration intensified. Lawmakers have refused for months to fulfill the Biden administration’s request for billions more dollars to extend free COVID vaccines and testing. And the $1.7 trillion spending package passed last year and signed into law by Biden put an end to a rule that barred states from kicking people off Medicaid, a move that is expected to see millions of people lose their coverage after April 1.

“In some respects, the Biden administration is catching up to what a lot of people in the country have been experiencing,” said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation. “That said, hundreds of people a day are still dying from COVID.”

Still, some things will change for Americans once the emergency expires, Levitt pointed out.

The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose. Only 15% of Americans have received the recommended, updated booster that has been offered since last fall.

People with private insurance could have some out-of-pocket costs for vaccines, especially if they go to an out-of-network provider, Levitt said. Free at-home COVID tests will also come to an end. And hospitals will not get extra payments for treating COVID patients.

Legislators did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, leading health care systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer.

The Biden administration had previously considered ending the emergency last year, but held off amid concerns about a potential “winter surge” in cases and to provide adequate time for providers, insurers and patients to prepare for its end.

Officials said the administration would use the next three months to transition the response to conventional methods, warning that an immediate end to the emergency authorities “would sow confusion and chaos into this critical wind-down.”

ALSO READ: US’ bid to win back influence in Africa

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-Top News India News USA

US, India NSAs in Track 1.5 Strategic Dialogue

Washington, Jan 31 (ANI): NSA Ajit Doval attending the first iCET meeting in Washington on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)

In the discussions that will be held at the White House, there would be a laser focus on aligning Washington and New Delhi’s strategic, commercial and scientific approaches specifically in the field of technology..writes Reena Bhardwaj

India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday participated in a Track 1.5 event hosted by the the US-India Business Council at the US Chamber of Commerce, with his American counterpart Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

The round table discussion was held on the sidelines of the official high-level dialogue of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) on Tuesday. Participating in the event on Monday were top industry representatives from both India and the US.

Doval, who arrived in Washington on Monday morning and was welcomed by Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu. The Indian envoy is also hosting a reception for Doval at India House and Sullivan is also likely to attend.

The official dialogue between Doval and Sullivan will take place on Tuesday afternoon. In the discussions that will be held at the White House, there would be a laser focus on aligning Washington and New Delhi’s strategic, commercial and scientific approaches specifically in the field of technology.

“iCET is the next big milestone in India-US Strategic Partnership with a simple objective to take bilateral cooperation to the next level but specifically in areas of interest to India,” an official familiar with the India-US deliberations told ANI.

The NSA is accompanied by a high-powered delegation. India’s Principal Scientific Adviser, ISRO chairman, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, and DG of DRDO, are five high-profile members of the delegation. From the US side besides Sullivan, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NSC Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell, Senior director for national security and technology Tarun Chhabra and State Department’s deputy envoy for the office of critical and emerging technologies Seth Center will be a part of the dialogue.

iCET was first mentioned in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Tokyo in 2022 on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders Summit.

“Through iCET, India would send a message out to the broader industry that India can be a ‘trusted partner’ and that the two democracies could discuss how to build a trusted partner ecosystem between US and India where there’s a free flow of R&D and other information pertaining to technology specifically,” the official said.

Experts say that there is a hope that both India and the United States will be able to specify priority areas of cooperation.

iCET has no explicit reference to China but the Biden administration sees technology development vis-a-vis China as a zero-sum game that the US cannot lose. iCET initiative could be one way forward.

“As China makes extremely fast progress when it comes to technology and one sees an aggressive penetration from the Chinese side across the world, if not stemmed and matched by something aggressive, the world will find it as a fait accompli… So if one has to roll that progress back, then everybody else has to work together,” another official told ANI. (ANI)

ALSO READ: US’ bid to win back influence in Africa

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-Top News Economy USA

IMF upgrades global economic outlook  

A big factor in the upgrade to global growth was China’s decision late last year to lift anti-virus controls that had kept millions of people at home…reports Asian Lite News

The outlook for the global economy is growing slightly brighter as China eases its zero-COVID policies and the world shows surprising resilience in the face of high inflation, elevated interest rates and Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

That’s the view of the International Monetary Fund, which now expects the world economy to grow 2.9 per cent this year. That forecast is better than the 2.7 per cent expansion for 2023 that the IMF predicted in October, though down from the estimated 3.4 per cent growth in 2022.

The IMF, a 190-country lending organisation, foresees inflation easing this year, a result of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks. Those rate hikes are expected to slow the consumer demand that has driven prices higher. Globally, the IMF expects consumer inflation to decelerate from 8.8 per cent last year to 6.6 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent in 2024.

A big factor in the upgrade to global growth was China’s decision late last year to lift anti-virus controls that had kept millions of people at home. The IMF said China’s “recent reopening has paved the way for a faster-than-expected recovery.”

The IMF now expects China’s economy — the world’s second-biggest, after the United States — to grow 5.2 per cent this year, up from its October forecast of 4.4 per cent.

Beijing’s economy eked out growth of just 3 per cent in 2022 — the first year in more than 40, the IMF noted, that China has expanded more slowly than the world as a whole. But the end of virus restrictions is expected to revive economic activity in 2023.

The IMF’s 2023 growth outlook improved for the United States (forecast to grow 1.4 per cent) as well as for the 19 countries that share the euro currency (0.7 per cent). Europe, though suffering from energy shortages and higher prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, proved “more resilient than expected,” the IMF said. The European economy benefited from a warmer-than-expected winter, which held down demand for natural gas.

Russia’s economy, hit by sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, has proved sturdier than expected, too: The IMF’s forecast foresees Russia registering 0.3 per cent growth this year. That would mark an improvement from a contraction of 2.2 per cent in 2022. And it’s well above the 2.3 per cent contraction for 2023 that the IMF had forecast for Russia in October.

The IMF noted that the world economy still faces serious risks. They include the possibility that Russia’s war against Ukraine war will escalate, that China will suffer a sharp increase in COVID cases and that high interest rates will cause a financial crisis in debt-laden countries.

The global outlook has been shrouded in uncertainty since the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020. Forecasters have been repeatedly confounded by events: A severe if brief recession in early 2020; an expectedly strong recovery triggered by vast government stimulus aid; then a surge in inflation, worsened when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago disrupted world trade in energy and food.

Three weeks ago, the IMF’s sister agency, the World Bank, issued a more downbeat outlook for the global economy. The World Bank slashed its forecast for international growth this year by nearly half — to 1.7 per cent — and warned that the global economy would come “perilously close” to recession.

Despite the more hopeful outlook, global growth remains weak by historical standards and the war in Ukraine continues to weigh on activity and sow uncertainty. The report also cautions that the global economy still faces considerable risks, warning that “severe health outcomes in China could hold back the recovery, Russia’s war in Ukraine could escalate and tighter global financing costs could worsen debt distress.”

Growth in rich countries is expected to be particularly sluggish this year, with nine out of 10 advanced economies likely to have slower growth than they had in 2022.

The IMF projects growth in the United States to slow to 1.4 percent this year from 2 percent in 2022. It expects the jobless rate to rise from 3.5 percent to 5.2 percent next year, but that it is still possible that a recession can be avoided in the world’s largest economy.

“There is a narrow path that allows the U.S. economy to escape a recession altogether, or if it has a recession, the recession would be relatively shallow,” said Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist.

The slowdown in Europe will be more pronounced, the IMF said, as the boost from the reopening of its economies fades this year and consumer confidence frays in the face of double-digit inflation. In the euro area, growth is projected to slow to 0.7 percent from 3.5 percent.

China is projected to pick up the slack with output accelerating to 5.2 percent in 2023 from 3 percent in 2022.

ALSO READ: US’ bid to win back influence in Africa

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Business Economy India News

Economic Survey: India’s growth inclusive with focus on job creation

Citing a UNDP report of July 2022, the survey stated that the recent inflationary episode in India would have a low poverty impact due to well-targeted support…reports Asian Lite News

The Economic Survey for 2022-23, which was laid in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, has underlined that India’s growth has been inclusive as it has focussed on job creation.

India is the third-largest economy in the world in public-private partnership (PPP) terms and the fifth-largest in market exchange rates. “As expected of a nation of this size, the Indian economy in FY23 has nearly recouped what was lost, renewed what had paused, and re-energised what had slowed during the pandemic and since the conflict in Europe,” the survey noted.

“Both official and unofficial sources confirm that employment levels have risen in the current financial year, as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) shows that the urban unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above declined from 9.8 per cent in the quarter ending September 2021 to 7.2 per cent a year later (quarter ending September 2022). This is accompanied by an improvement in the labour force participation rate (LFPR) as well, confirming the emergence of the economy out of the pandemic-induced slowdown early in 2022-23,” the survey noted in its chapter on India’s inclusive growth.

In 2020-21, the Government had announced the emergency credit line guarantee scheme (ECLGS), which succeeded in shielding micro, small and medium enterprises from financial distress, the document said.

Citing a recent CIBIL report, the economic survey said that ECLGS has supported MSMEs in facing the Covid shock, with 83 per cent of the borrowers that availed of the ECLGS being micro-enterprises. Among these micro units, more than half had an overall exposure of less than Rs 10 lakh.

Furthermore, the CIBIL data also shows that ECLGS borrowers had lower non-performing asset rates than enterprises that were eligible for ECLGS but did not avail of it. Further, the GST paid by MSMEs after declining in 2020-21 has been rising since and now has crossed the pre-pandemic level of FY20, reflecting the financial resilience of small businesses and the effectiveness of the pre-emptive government intervention targeted towards MSMEs, the survey noted.

Moreover, MGNREGA has been rapidly creating more assets in respect of “Works on individual’s land” than in any other category. In addition, schemes like PM-KISAN, which benefits households covering half the rural population, and PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana have significantly contributed to lessening impoverishment in the country, it outlined.

Citing a UNDP report of July 2022, the survey stated that the recent inflationary episode in India would have a low poverty impact due to well-targeted support. In addition, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in India shows improved rural welfare indicators from 2015-16 to 2019-20, covering aspects like gender, fertility rate, household amenities, and women empowerment.

“So far, India has reinforced the country’s belief in its economic resilience as it has withstood the challenge of mitigating external imbalances caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict without losing growth momentum in the process. India’s stock markets had a positive return in CY22, unfazed by withdrawals by foreign portfolio investors. India’s inflation rate did not creep too far above its tolerance range compared to several advanced nations and regions,” the survey said.

ALSO READ: Eco Survey warns of financial contagion from advanced economies

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-Top News UK News USA

Biden says ‘no’ to sending F-16 jets to Ukraine

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for unwavering leadership from the US side…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden on Monday said America will not send the F16 fighter jets to Ukraine. While responding to a reporter on whether he would send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Biden said “no”. Interestingly, the US had ramped up military assistance to Ukraine in the form of artillery and tanks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.

Last week, Biden announced that he would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite top US officials saying previously the heavy-duty vehicles were a poor fit for the country’s military.

Speaking on the White House South Lawn, Biden also said he wasn’t sure whether he would visit Europe next month for the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.

In response to a separate question, Biden said he was planning to visit Poland, but wasn’t sure when.

Earlier, Biden provided Ukraine with a defense package of $2.5 billion in new weaponry and munitions for Ukraine, as the country prepares for a new stage in the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for unwavering leadership from the US side.

Taking to Twitter, Zelenskyy wrote, “Thank you @POTUS for providing with another powerful defense support package worth $2.5 billion. Stryker IFVs, additional Bradley APCs, and Avenger air defense systems are an important help in our fight against the aggressor. Thank you people for unwavering leadership support!”

Significantly, however, the defense package does not feature battle tanks requested by Kyiv but includes 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, an additional 59 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Avenger air defence systems, and large and small munitions, according to a Pentagon statement.

“The 59 Bradley IFVs included in this package, together with the 50 Bradleys previously committed on January 6, and the 90 Stryker APCs will provide Ukraine with two brigades of armored capability,” it said.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that they have not received any requests from Ukraine for fighter jets.

“We do not have such a request formulated [from Ukraine],” Macron said at a joint press conference at The Hague where the two leaders were meeting to prepare the next EU council of February.

Macron said while no requests had been received by France, “nothing is off-limits in principle.” He insisted that the usefulness of each request must be considered carefully. Macron said the weapons requested should not escalate the conflict. (ANI)

Russia warns new US envoy

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met with new US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy, who presented copies of her credentials.

During the conversation with Tracy on the sharply worsened Russia-US relations, Ryabkov pointed out the counter productiveness of Washington’s confrontational policy, which is “fraught with serious negative consequences,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The Russian side hopes that the US envoy will strictly abide by Russian laws, observe norms and customs, adhere to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the host country.

Sworn in on January 9, Tracy is the first woman to occupy the post of US Ambassador to Russia.

“Ambassador Tracy begins her tenure in Moscow focused on maintaining dialogue between our capitals at a time of unprecedented tension,” the US embassy said in a statement on Monday.

ALSO READ-Biden’s claims ‘false and misleading’, say fact-checkers

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-Top News UK News

Sunak marks 100 days as UK PM

Ambulance drivers have also been striking, joining nurses on their first-ever walkout. But Rishi Sunak is adamant that unions’ pay demands will only fuel the decades-high inflation…reports Asian Lite News

On reaching 100 days in 10 Downing Street this week, Rishi Sunak will double the duration of Liz Truss’s brutally short term as British prime minister.

But having stabilised panicky financial markets after the calamitous Liz Truss tenure, the Conservative leader has little to celebrate.

Double-digit inflation is fuelling a winter of misery for many in Rishi Sunak’s Britain.

On Wednesday, the day before his mini-anniversary, up to half a million workers will escalate a rolling series of strikes to shut down schools, railways and other public sectors.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer has been portraying the wealthy premier as “weak” and out of touch, as both parties gear up for an election likely next year.

“Is he starting to wonder if this job is just too big for him?” he told Sunak in parliament last Wednesday.

The Labour leader was merciless as he ran the rule over Britain’s state of permacrisis since Brexit and the Covid pandemic, and “sleaze” among the Conservatives.

Ambulance drivers have also been striking, joining nurses on their first-ever walkout. But Rishi Sunak is adamant that unions’ pay demands will only fuel the decades-high inflation.

“Being an effective manager of public money and public services is not a sin,” senior minister Michael Gove said, rejecting criticism that Sunak is an uninspiring leader after Boris Johnson, who preceded Truss.

“It is the case that first of all we have to bring the stability — and we have — and now we have set out areas where we are performing,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

Prime Minister Sunak faces a mountainous challenge as he bids to emulate Conservative leader John Major’s surprise win over Labour in 1992.

Outside Number 10 in October, he promised “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” — in pointed contrast to his two predecessors.

But Rishi Sunak has been forced on the defensive by the tax affairs of the Conservative chairman Nadhim Zahawi, who until this weekend sat in the cabinet.

Starmer on Saturday accused Sunak’s Tories of “moral bankruptcy”, as less well-off voters are forced this winter to choose between eating and heating.

Prime Minister Sunak had sought to buy time by launching an internal inquiry into Zahawi, who admitted to being “careless” with his own taxes and had to pay a seven-figure sum to the UK’s tax agency — when he was finance minister in charge of the same agency.

The inquiry’s report was issued Sunday, making uncomfortable reading for both Zahawi and Sunak, who bowed to the inevitable and fired the Iraqi-born politician.

Prime Minister Sunak, a practising Hindu who at 42 is Britain’s youngest leader since 1812, has brought a smooth-talking, technocratic approach to the premiership borne of his lucrative years in private finance.

Opinion polls show he has restored some of the Conservatives’ reputation for economic competence after the short-lived “Trussonomics” experiment.

But Labour retains an average lead of 20 points overall.

Tory right-wingers such as former Brexit minister David Frost accuse Sunak of lacking vision. “Give us something to fight for,” Frost wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper. “And bring Conservatives back to the party.”

Sunak hopes to settle one running sore by reforming post-Brexit rules governing trade in Northern Ireland. A row over the protocol has paralysed self-government in Belfast.

But any deal with Brussels risks provoking Brexiteer hardliners among Tory MPs, many of whom accuse Prime Minister Sunak of betraying Johnson and are likely to stir trouble if local elections in May turn out badly for the party.

Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London and author of a forthcoming book on the Conservatives since Brexit, said Sunak had missed opportunities to carve out a fresh start from Johnson.

“Sunak may have inherited something of a poisoned chalice but he nevertheless had a real opportunity to signal a big change at the top,” Bale said.

“Yet even a cursory glance at the polls after his first 100 days suggests he’s flunked it. In short, he’s lived down to expectations. If I were to award him a C plus, I’d probably be erring on the side of generosity. Most voters wouldn’t go any higher than a D.”

ALSO READ-Sunak apologizes for not wearing seatbelt in campaign clip

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Business Economy India News

Eco Survey warns of financial contagion from advanced economies

economy.

With inflation persisting in the advanced economies and the central banks hinting at further rate hikes, downside risks to the global economic outlook appear elevated…reports Asian Lite News

At least three shocks have hit the global economy since 2020, Economic Survey for 2022-23 has noted.

In general, global economic shocks in the past were severe but spaced out in time. This changed in the third decade of this millennium.

It all started with the pandemic-induced contraction of the global output, followed by the Russian-Ukraine conflict leading to a worldwide surge in inflation. Then, the central banks across economies led by the Federal Reserve responded with synchronised policy rate hikes to curb inflation.

The rate hike by the US Fed drove capital into the US markets causing the US Dollar to appreciate against most currencies. This led to the widening of the Current Account Deficits (CAD) and increased inflationary pressures in net importing economies.

The rate hike and persistent inflation also led to a lowering of the global growth forecasts for 2022 and 2023 by the IMF in its October 2022 update of the World Economic Outlook.

The frailties of the Chinese economy further contributed to weakening the growth forecasts.

Slowing global growth apart from monetary tightening may also lead to a financial contagion emanating from the advanced economies where the debt of the non-financial sector has risen the most since the global financial crisis, the Survey said.

With inflation persisting in the advanced economies and the central banks hinting at further rate hikes, downside risks to the global economic outlook appear elevated.

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-Top News Asia News India News

Lavrov to attend G20 FMs meet in New Delhi

India assumed office from December 1, 2022 for a one-year period for the G20 chairmanship…reports Asian Lite News

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be taking part in the G2O Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi from March 1-2, Russian news agency TASS reported citing Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko on Monday.

The G20 presidency of India, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be inclusive, ambitious, definite, and action-oriented. “Our foreign minister will take part in the meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi on March 1-2,” Russian Deputy FM Rudenko told reporters, according to TASS.

This year, the G20 presidency is being held by India. The annual G20 summit is slated to take place in the Indian capital on September 9-10 and New Delhi plans to showcase its cultural history in more than 200 meetings in 55 different sites across the nation as part of the group’s activities.

“The sense of ownership over natural resources is giving rise to conflict today and has become the main cause of the plight of the environment. For the safe future of the planet, the sense of trusteeship is the solution. LiFE i.e. ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ campaign can make a big contribution to this. Its purpose is to make sustainable lifestyles a mass movement,” Modi said, during his address at the G20 Summit that took place in Indonesia in 2022.

India assumed office from December 1, 2022 for a one-year period for the G20 chairmanship.

Talking further about India’s presidency of the G20 summit, PM Modi said that the country is taking charge of the G20 at a time when the world is simultaneously grappling with geopolitical tensions, economic slowdown, rising food and energy prices, and the long-term ill effects of the pandemic. And at this time “the world is looking at the G20 with hope,” he added.

The cooperation between India and Russia in the military-technical sector remains huge. The production of T-90 tanks, Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter jets, AK-203 assault rifles, and other weapons in India is in full compliance with the requirements of the government program “Make in India,” the Russian Embassy in India, stated earlier in an official statement.

Space, scientific and technological cooperation continue to remain a priority of India and Russia. The two nations continue to hold cooperation in the fields of quantum and biotechnology, artificial intelligence, fundamental and applied physics and medical science as well. (ANI)

ALSO READ-Lavrov not happy about US-Moscow ties

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-Top News India News

G20 Education Working Group meet to focus on tech-enabled learning

As India takes over the Presidency, the working group aims to work together with G20 countries to bridge gaps in quality education and skilling…reports Asian Lite News

In the run-up to the G20 summit in September, a series of meetings are lined up to be held across various Indian towns and cities. One of them is the G20 Education Working Group (EdWG), which will commence on Tuesday in Chennai.

Under the G20 Education Working Group (EdWG), as many as nine separate meetings are scheduled to be held in various cities, with the last meeting on June 22, 2023, in Pune. India assumed the G20 Presidency from Indonesia on December 1, 2022, and will convene the G20 Leaders’ Summit for the first time in the country this year.

As India takes over the Presidency, the working group aims to work together with G20 countries to bridge gaps in quality education and skilling.

“We will uphold the G20 India Presidency theme of ‘One Earth One Family One Future’, which resonates India’s ancient belief that the world is one family: in order to find solutions to the common challenges that the planet is facing, we must envision and act together, including in education,” a factsheet said ahead of the meeting.

G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) will focus on four priorities and those are ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy, especially in the context of blended learning; making tech-enabled learning more inclusive, qualitative, and collaborative at every level; building capacities, promoting life-long learning in the context of future of work; strengthening research, promoting innovation through richer collaboration and partnerships.

On Tuesday, there will be a seminar on the ‘Role of Digital Technology in Education’ at IIT Madras.

Subsequently, the two-day first meeting of the G20 EdWG will commence on Wednesday in the same city Chennai.

Over 60 delegates from the G20 member, guest countries and invited organizations (OECD, UNESCO & UNICEF) will participate in the seminar and exhibition, including academic experts, faculty and students, MoE, MSDE, NSDC,NCERT, UGC, AICTE.

“This is for the first time that India is providing a unique platform to all the G20 member & guest countries to showcase their innovative inputs and their achievements with respect to using digital technology in education,” the factsheet stated.

Post the meetings, the visiting delegates would be taken on an excursion trip to Shore Temple and Five Chariots, Mahabalipuram. Various entertainment programs showcasing the culture of Tamil Nadu, including dance performances and musical nights, are also planned. (ANI)

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