Month: September 2024

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-Top News Asia News Bangladesh

Bangladesh Slashes Import Taxes to Tackle Price Hike

The board has waived the 5 per cent regulatory duty on onion imports and reduced customs duty on potato imports from 25 per cent to 15 per cent…reports Asian Lite News

Bangladesh’s tax collection body, the National Board of Revenue, has reduced taxes on imports of onion and potato to rein in soaring prices of essential kitchen items.

The board has waived the 5 per cent regulatory duty on onion imports and reduced customs duty on potato imports from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, the tax authority said in a statement on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Apart from this, the board has reduced tariffs on pesticide imports from 25 per cent to 5 per cent to increase the supply of crop protection chemicals.

The tax authority said the reduction will be active until November 30, 2024.

The decision came amid pleas from relevant stakeholders, taking into account the impact of unprecedented ongoing flooding and supply chain disruptions caused by recent political chaos.

According to official statistics, inflation in Bangladesh accelerated to 11.66 per cent in July, the highest in 13 years, mainly driven by higher food prices.

ALSO READ: UN provides $4 million for flood-hit Bangladesh

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Food Restaurant Reviews UK News

Bardez is on a winning spree, wins two prestigious awards

Manchester-based restaurant Brand Bardez is gathering more feathers in its cap reports Rahul Laud

The dynamic partnership of these entrepreneurs and specialist chefs in Manchester – Markus Dsouza, Zico Dsouza, Surat Singh, Panwar Singh, and Rana Balvir Singh have helped the popular restaurant Bardez located in two locations at Rusholme and Didsbury in the city of Manchester to win two prestigious awards and acclaim in the UK.

Lord Raj Loomba who hosted the Bharat Mahatsov (Festival of One India) in collaboration with Dr. Amitabh Srivastav’s Confluence at the House of Lords in the UK Parliament House of Commons awarded the Bardez team the Bharat Gaurav Sanman – a prestigious title for their stellar contribution in serving in the UK authentic Indian cuisine.   The special award recognized their contribution to culinary art and hospitality.

To add another feather to their cap the Bardez team won the Best Restaurant in Manchester award at the recently held Asian Catering Federation’s 8th Awards function. The award was given to Badez as a special recognition for being the Best Asian Restaurant in Manchester. The Asian Restaurant Awards 2024 gave a special certificate honouring excellence in the catering sector among Asian restaurants. 

On winning these awards, Marcus Dsouza said “It’s sheer hard work, dedication, passion to cook and serve and excellent teamwork and support and encouragement of all customers encouraged us to be the best in the field.” “Bardez is a taluka place in North Goa,” thus as Goans “hospitality and offering the best cuisine comes naturally to us”, he added. Bardez’s popularity has grown in the last two since its inception and it expanded to two outlets quickly.

The judges at the Asian Catering Federation awards recognized the peak performance of outstanding restaurateurs and chefs for their culinary excellence, innovation, creativity, and endeavour throughout the past year.

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-Top News Politics USA

Trump vows to punish colleges for ‘antisemitic propaganda’

Trump made clear his intent to penalize colleges where protests against Israel have been prevalent…reports Asian Lite News

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged on Thursday that, if elected, he would strip U.S. universities of accreditation and federal funding if they do not put an end to what he described as “anti-Semitic propaganda.”

Speaking remotely to over 1,000 donors at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas, Trump made clear his intent to penalize colleges where protests against Israel have been prevalent, according to Reuters report.

“Colleges will and must end the anti-Semitic propaganda, or they will lose their accreditation and federal support,” Trump stated, pointing to the protests on campuses earlier this year that opposed Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

These protests, led by students, demanded universities cut ties with companies backing Israel. Republicans argue that such protests highlight anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party, though protest groups have denied this, claiming their stance is a critique of Israel’s policies, not of Jewish people.

The Association of American Universities, which represents major U.S. higher education institutions, did not immediately respond to Trump’s remarks. While the federal government does not directly accredit universities, it oversees private organizations that do, which gives the government indirect influence.

Trump also proposed policies to crack down on immigration from conflict zones, pledging to ban refugee resettlements from areas like Gaza and to arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” involved in acts of vandalism, referring to the student protests.

However, U.S. State Department data shows that under both Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. accepted a comparable number of Palestinian refugees.

Although Trump’s speech provided limited new Middle East policy details, he warned of what he called a dire future for Israel under a potential Harris presidency, claiming without evidence that Israel would be abandoned if Vice President Kamala Harris were to take office.

Harris, who supports Israel alongside President Joe Biden, has nonetheless advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza, describing the humanitarian situation as devastating.

Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead and 250 hostages, Israel’s military response has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The conflict has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, triggered a hunger crisis, and led to genocide accusations against Israel, which the country denies.

ALSO READ: Blinken in Haiti to show support for fighting gang violence

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-Top News Politics USA

Putin ‘endorses’ Harris, calls her laugh ‘infectious’

Putin said that he admired the “infectious laugh” of Harris

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that he prefers Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the upcoming US presidential polls, and praised her “infectious laugh”.

Participating at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Russian leader, who had earlier this year noted that he would back President Joe Biden, who is “a more experienced, predictable person, a politician of the old school”, said that he respected Biden’s choice to endorse her as his successor, RT reported.

He said that he admired the “infectious laugh” of Harris, whose mother was Indian, and is the first Asian American and African American candidate for the top US post.

Harris “laughs so infectiously” that it suggests “everything is going well for her”, he said at a plenary session of the forum to a query whether he had a favourite candidate in the election now that Biden, who he previously supported, has dropped out. He was also asked whether or not he would call to congratulate the eventual winner in November.

Putin said it had been a long time since he had any direct contact with Western European or US leaders, and noted that it was not up to Russia to choose a “favourite” in the US presidential election, as this is a task for American voters.

Nevertheless, he recalled that he had previously expressed support for Biden, who had since been “removed” from the race. However, the President noted that Biden had told his supporters to support Harris in the race, and so Moscow would do the same and root for the Vice President in November.

He also suggested that Harris’ positive disposition could mean that she would refrain from imposing as many sanctions on Russia as former US President Donald Trump, who Putin said had introduced more restrictions on Moscow than any other President in American history, at the time.

“In the end, the choice is up to the American people and we will treat their eventual decision with respect,” he said.

ALSO READ: Blinken in Haiti to show support for fighting gang violence

Categories
-Top News Politics USA

Trump pushes high tariffs, onshoring; India could face impact

Trump made no mention of India or software or back office jobs, concentrating on China and manufacturing….reports Arul Louis

 Doubling down on the ‘America First’ agenda of his first term, former US President Donald Trump threatened if he is elected again to enforce a policy of high tariffs and bringing back manufacturing that could impact India.

In particular, it would strike at collaborative defence manufacturing that is beginning to take off in India.

“We want an industrial base that can take care of our defence needs 100 per cent” to safeguard national security, he said on Thursday at the Economic Club of New York before an audience of business leaders.

“You can call it what you want. Some might say it’s economic nationalism. I call it common sense. I call it America first,” he said in a speech loaded with hyperbole.

He cited the distributive manufacturing of F-35 stealth fighter jets, the parts for which are made in different countries, calling it a risk to US defence.

If Trump were elected and introduced the policy of 100 per cent defence manufacture in the US, it could affect, for example, the project to co-produce F-414 jet engines that envisages technology transfer of up to 80 per cent, as well as other joint manufacturing plans.

But implementing it would face several hurdles.

His threat of high tariffs would also affect the manufacturing — like Apple phones — that is sprouting in India because of the China factor.

Trump made no mention of India or software or back office jobs, concentrating on China and manufacturing.

At the meeting, Trump outlined his economic policy if he were to return to the White House.

To applause from the audience, he announced he would bring in Elon Musk, the Tesla and Space X boss, to head a government efficiency commission to run a financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and recommend drastic reforms to save “trillions”.

At the same time, he said that he would end the mandates for electric vehicles, an industry Musk, who has endorsed him, is heavily invested in.

Deregulating government to free business activity, as he put it, is a key plank of his economic plan.

He said he would turn the US into a “manufacturing superpower” and make “America the world capital for crypto and Bitcoin”.

Most of his economic policy outline was about undoing the policies of the current administration, which he pointedly said was that of Vice-President Kamal Harris, his Democratic Party rival.

Not a believer in the impact of climate change, Trump said that he would end the green energy mandates and the restrictions on fossil fuels.

“Energy is going to bring us back,” Trump said, and increasing the production of fossil fuels would fight inflation, bringing down the cost of everything from groceries to electricity.

He said that he would enact an energy emergency to achieve the goal.

He made out his tariffs plan — which many economists have said would add to the inflation and set back the economy — to be the panacea for the deficit, the reduced revenues from tax cuts and higher spending for some of his plans.

From the higher tariffs, Trump said he would create a sovereign wealth fund like that of countries like Singapore that would “invest wisely” in infrastructure and in industries with the advice of private sector investors and its “gigantic returns” would rundown the national debt.

While he hit at China at several points, there was a measure of ambiguity.

Trump called President Xi Jinping a “dear, dear friend” and a very “fierce” and “smart” person.

“We had a very good relationship with China until Covid” epidemic undid it, he said.

“I believe we will have a very good relationship with China and with a lot of other countries that we’re not getting along with too well today,” he said, adding that it was “very important that we get along with the rest of the world” because of the nuclear threat.

As he always does at his meetings, he made ad hominem attacks on Harris, calling her a “Communist” and a “Marxist”, who was trying to adopt some of his policies.

Some of his plan like threats to end defence manufacturing abroad and across-the-board tariff hikes are unlikely to work the way he claims because of underlying alliances, the web of geostrategic interests, reciprocal trade, and immediate supply chain issues.

While in office Trump tangled with India over tariffs, making the duties on Harley-Davidson motorcycles a cause celebre.

He hiked duties on steel and aluminum imports and eliminated the Generalised Scheme of Preferences for some Indian exports and New Delhi retaliated by raising tariffs mostly on agricultural exports like apples and almonds.

ALSO READ: Blinken in Haiti to show support for fighting gang violence

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-Top News Arab News USA

Blinken in Haiti to show support for fighting gang violence

Blinken met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and a nine-member transitional presidential council that was created after former Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned….reports Asian Lite News

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Thursday in Haiti to reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to a multinational mission to fight gangs in the Caribbean country and push for long-awaited general elections as he supported consideration of a peacekeeping operation.

Some 400 Kenyan police have been deployed to Haiti to lead a U.N.-backed mission to quell gang violence in the Haitian capital and beyond, but concerns have grown that the mission lacks resources. “At this critical moment, we do need more funding, we do need more personnel to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” Blinken told reporters.

He added that the U.S. is working to renew the mission, “but we also want to make sure that we have something that’s reliable, that’s sustainable. We’ll look at every option to do that. A peacekeeping operation would be one such option.”

On Wednesday, Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, confirmed the U.S. government is considering a U.N. peacekeeping operation as one way to secure money and resources to fight gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital.

Many Haitians have rejected the proposal of another peacekeeping operation, given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred when U.N. troops were last in Haiti. Blinken arrived a day after Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency to the entire country. It had been imposed earlier in the year in the capital and surrounding areas in an attempt to stem the ongoing violence.

Blinken met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and a nine-member transitional presidential council that was created after former Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned. He also met with unspecified political party leaders, the head of the multinational mission and the chief of Haiti’s National Police.

He said the discussions centered in part on how to ensure that security personnel are well-trained, well-equipped and held accountable, adding that there’s a “clear plan” on the mission’s next steps. Talks also focused on the need to hold general elections.

“That is the critical next step,” he said. “We want to make sure Haiti is back on a clear democratic track.” Haiti last held elections in 2016, and officials since then have blamed gang violence and political upheaval for preventing them from holding new ones.

In July 2021, former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and gang violence since then has surged. In February, gangs launched coordinated attacks on police stations and the main international airport, which remained closed for nearly three months. They also stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

The violence subsided somewhat before the first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in late June, with Blinken noting that economic activity has restarted in some areas of Port-au-Prince, and that joint operations have led to successes including regaining control of Haiti’s biggest public hospital.

However, gangs continue to attack communities surrounding Port-au-Prince. “Taking back the streets from gangs is critical,” Blinken said.

After meeting with officials in Haiti, Blinken is scheduled to fly Thursday night to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. On Friday, he is scheduled to meet with Dominican President Luis Abinader and other officials before returning to the U.S. later that day. Nichols said the talks with Abinader will focus on three priorities: strengthening economic ties, advancing values including respect for human and labor rights and promoting increased security in the region, especially in Haiti.

ALSO READ: US charges five Russian military officers over cyberattacks

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-Top News Crime USA

US charges five Russian military officers over cyberattacks

FBI special agent William DelBagno said the WhisperGate malware attack in January 2022 “could be considered the first shot of the war…reports Asian Lite News

The United States charged five Russian military officers on Thursday for allegedly conducting cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine ahead of the Russian invasion.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said the members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency indicted in Maryland waged a cyber campaign against Ukraine known as “WhisperGate.”

“The WhisperGate campaign included the targeting of civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian computer systems wholly unrelated to the military or national defense,” Olsen said at a press conference in Baltimore.

FBI special agent William DelBagno said the WhisperGate malware attack in January 2022 “could be considered the first shot of the war.”It was intended to cripple Ukraine’s government and critical infrastructure by targeting financial systems, agriculture, emergency services, healthcare and schools, DelBagno said.

Olsen said the cyber campaign was not restricted to Ukraine but also included attacks on computer systems in the United States and other NATO countries backing Ukraine. A Russian civilian, Amin Timovich Stigal, 22, was indicted in Maryland in June on charges of conspiracy to hack into and destroy computer systems for his alleged involvement in WhisperGate.

Stigal and the five Russian GRU members remain at large and the State Department offered a combined $60 million reward for information leading to their arrest. Stigal’s indictment accused him and members of the GRU of distributing WhisperGate malware to dozens of Ukrainian government agency computer systems ahead of the Russian invasion.

The Justice Department said WhisperGate was designed to look like ransomware but was really a “cyberweapon designed to completely destroy the target computer and related data.” It said patient health records were exfiltrated from computer systems and websites were defaced to read: “Ukrainians! All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst.” The hacked data was also offered for sale on the internet.

US Attorney Erek Barron said the indicted GRU officers were members of a subset of unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, which he described as “a military intelligence agency responsible for attempted deadly dirty tricks around the world.”

They were named in the indictment as Colonel Yuriy Denisov, commanding officer of cyber operations for Unit 29155, and four lieutenants: Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko, Dmitriy Goloshubov and Nikolay Korchagin. The unsealing of the indictment comes a day after the United States accused Russia’s state-funded news outlet RT of seeking to influence the 2024 US presidential election.

Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced the seizure of 32 internet domains that were part of an alleged campaign “to secure Russia’s preferred outcome,” which US officials have said would be Donald Trump winning the November vote.

ALSO READ: Hamas urges US pressure on Israel

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-Top News Arab News Asia News

Hamas urges US pressure on Israel

Hamas is demanding complete Israeli withdrawal from the area and said Netanyahu’s position “aims to thwart reaching an agreement”…reports Asian Lite News

Hamas called on the United States Thursday to “exert real pressure” on Israel to reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there is no deal in the making.

The two sides have traded blame over stalling talks for a ceasefire and hostage exchange as Netanyahu faces pressure to seal a deal that would free remaining captives, after Israeli authorities announced on Sunday the deaths of six whose bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.

“If the US administration and its President (Joe) Biden really want to reach a ceasefire and complete a prisoner exchange deal, they must abandon their blind bias toward the Zionist occupation,” Hamas’s Qatar-based lead negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya said, calling on the US to “exert real pressure on Netanyahu and his government.”

But Netanyahu told US talk show Fox & Friends: “There is not a deal in the making… Unfortunately, it’s not close but we will do everything we can to get them to the point where they do make a deal and at the same time we prevent Iran from resupplying Gaza as this great terror enclave.”

Netanyahu insists that Israel must retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel started the war.

Hamas is demanding complete Israeli withdrawal from the area and on Thursday said Netanyahu’s position “aims to thwart reaching an agreement.”

The Palestinian militant group says a new deal is unnecessary because they agreed months ago to a truce outlined by Biden.

“We do not need new proposals,” Hamas said in a statement.

“We warn against falling into the trap of Netanyahu… who uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people,” the group said.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby nonetheless said that Washington believes a ceasefire deal is 90 percent agreed.

But he added that “nothing is negotiated until everything is negotiated, and the things that are still in play right now are very, very detailed… issues, and that’s when things get difficult.”

At Israeli protests in several cities this week, Netanyahu’s critics have blamed him for hostages’ deaths, saying he has refused to make necessary concessions for striking a ceasefire deal.

“We’ll do everything so that all hostages will be with us. And if the leaders don’t want to sign a deal, we’ll make them,” said Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.

Dickmann took part in an anti-government rally at Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, where crowds of demonstrators carried symbolic coffins in a procession. Key mediator Qatar has said that Israel’s approach was “based on an attempt to falsify facts and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies.” Such moves “will ultimately lead to the demise of peace efforts,” Qatar’s foreign ministry warned.

The October 7 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians including some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.

Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Scores were released during a one-week truce in November.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,878 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Most of the dead are women and children, according to the UN rights office.

Strikes continued across Gaza on Thursday, with medics and rescuers reporting a total of 12 dead in separate attacks in the north and south of the territory.

While Israel presses its Gaza offensive, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military should use its “full strength” against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.

“These terrorist organizations that have various names, whether in Nur Al-Shams, Tulkarem, Faraa or Jenin, must be wiped out,” he said, referring to cities and refugee camps where an Israeli military operation is underway.

The Israeli military said Thursday its aircraft “conducted three targeted strikes on armed terrorists” in the Tubas area, which includes Faraa refugee camp. A strike on a car killed five men aged 21 to 30 and wounded two others, the territory’s health ministry said.

Eyewitnesses said they saw a large number of Israeli troops storming Faraa camp, where explosions were heard.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli military handed over the dead body of a 17-year-old, after medics were prevented from reaching him when he was wounded.

Israel has killed at least 36 Palestinians across the northern West Bank since its assault there started on August 28, according to figures released by the health ministry, including children and militants. One Israeli soldier was killed in Jenin, where the majority of the Palestinian fatalities have been.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left the territory in ruins, with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure blamed for the spread of disease. The humanitarian crisis has led to Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, prompting a massive vaccination effort launched Sunday with localized “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.

Nearly 200,000 children in central Gaza have received a first dose, the World Health Organization said, and a second stage got underway Thursday in the south, before medics move north. The campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children, with second doses due in about four weeks.

Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned however that the vaccination drive in the south may not reach all children, as some do not reside in the designated humanitarian zones where Israel has agreed not to strike.

ALSO READ: Israel-Hamas Talks Resume in Doha

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Arab News Sport UAE News

UAE defeat Qatar 3-1 at FIFA WC Asian Qualifiers

The match got off to a scrappy start with both sides taking time to settle down at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium….reports Asian Lite News

The United Arab Emirates produced a thrilling comeback to defeat Qatar 3-1 in their AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26 Group A tie at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on Thursday here.

The match got off to a scrappy start with both sides taking time to settle down at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

The first piece of attacking play came from the two-time AFC Asian Cup champions Qatar in the 15th minute that needed a Khalifa Al Hammadi late interception to deny Akram Afif a tap-in.

Afif then served teammate Jassem Gaber a sumptuous cross from the left, only for the latter to power his header over the bar from close range.

Qatar cranked up the pressure and eventually took the lead in the 38th minute when Afif found 18-year-old Ibrahim Al Hassan, who then beat Yahia Nader before slamming an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner.

The opening 15 minutes of the second half saw both sides cancelling each other out with neither goalkeeper, Qatar’s Meshaal Barsham nor Khalid Eisa of UAE called into action.

Just after the hour mark, UAE went close when Abdulla Hamad hit a powerful shot from the edge of the box that hit the side netting as the visitors served up a warning.

Growing in confidence, it was no surprise that UAE found the equaliser in the 68th minute after Harib Abdalla was given space in the box to cut inside before unleashing a powerful shot past Barsham.

The turnaround was completed for UAE in the 80th minute when full-back Khaled Aldhanhani intercepted a pass, burst forward to receive Harib’s return and then unleashed a shot straight into the top corner.

There was drama late in the game when referee Shaun Evans pointed to the spot after he spotted a handball from Nader but following a VAR check, the decision was reversed and with that, so was Qatar’s chance to rescue the game.

UAE went on to add a third in stoppage time through substitute Ali Saleh, benefiting from a defensive mistake to strike his shot into the roof of the net, sealing the win for the Emiratis.

ALSO READ: UAE, Jordan sign investment deal in railway sector

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-Top News Dubai UAE News

CBSE opens first overseas office and Centre of Excellence in Dubai

The session provided a platform to discuss the new office’s goals, scope, and its expected impact on the region….reports Asian Lite News

In a historic move to strengthen Indian education in the UAE, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has launched its first Regional Office (RO) and Centre of Excellence (CoE) outside India, situated in Dubai.

The milestone was marked with a special orientation session on Teachers’ Day between CBSE officials, representatives from the Indian Mission in Dubai, and principals from 78 schools across Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

The session provided a platform to discuss the new office’s goals, scope, and its expected impact on the region.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the opening of the CBSE RO & CoE in Dubai on February 13, 2024, during his visit to the UAE, and operations of this office officially commenced on July 2, 2024, at the Consulate General of India, Dubai, UAE.

During the orientation, Dr. Ram Shankar, Director of CBSE RO & CoE in Dubai, presented a detailed overview of CBSE’s mission in the region. He highlighted the board’s key objectives, particularly its role in promoting learning outcome-based education and fostering new dimensions in teaching.

He emphasised that CBSE would adopt a model focussing on outcome-based learning and offer subjects at multiple levels to meet varying student capabilities.

The board will also promote art-integrated learning and health education as part of a more holistic educational approach, alongside the introduction of new skill subjects aligned with global educational trends.

The CBSE Regional Office is also engaged in a series of assessment reforms designed to make education more competency-based and student-friendly.

This includes the implementation of case-based and competency-focused questions, strengthening internal assessments, and developing Annual Pedagogical Plans. The board also aims to promote experiential learning through innovative methods such as sports, storytelling, and toy-based learning.

The new regional office in Dubai will play a crucial role in overseeing examinations in the region. The Centre of Excellence will focus on in-service teacher training, equipping educators with the skills and knowledge necessary to stay ahead of educational innovations and global teaching methodologies.

In his address, the Consul General of India in Dubai, Satish Kumar Sivan, emphasised the importance of this new development, stating, “The Centre for Excellence will empower teachers with cutting-edge training, enabling them to stay updated on best practices and innovative technologies.

“This will enrich the learning experience for students.” He added, “The office will significantly enhance CBSE’s support and resources for students, educators, and parents in the region. It represents the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of thousands of stakeholders who will benefit from its operations. The CBSE office will serve as a beacon of excellence and a hub for academic support for years to come.” (ANI)

ALSO READ: UAE, Jordan sign investment deal in railway sector