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India has been able to develop cutting-edge technology in the treatment of eye cancer. This will be a big boon to the common people. Also, the technique is cost-effective. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai has developed an Eye Cancer therapy in the form of the first indigenous Ruthenium 106 Plaque for treatment of Ocular Tumours. Eye tumours, also known as ocular tumours, are tumours associated with the eye. A tumour is a collection of cells that grows abnormally, and it can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (non-cancerous). The most common type of eye tumour is metastatic—this is a secondary tumour caused by cancer that has spread from one part of the body to another, often coming from the lung, breast, bowel, or prostate. Although rare, ocular melanoma is the most common primary adult tumour that forms in the eye. It is sometimes called "uveal" melanoma or "choroidal" melanoma. It forms from pigmented cells in the eye and occurs in three main areas...

Qatar is an important country in the Gulf with which India has traditionally had strong bilateral ties. Energy security, trade, investments and the Indian expatriate community form the foundations of the bilateral relations. Qatar plays a significant role in India’s energy security and is the largest LNG supplier to India. In 2004, India had signed a 25-year agreement for annual import of 7.5 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar. In 2015, when the international petroleum prices tumbled, Doha agreed to India’s request for a reduction in price for LNG based on market compulsions. This gesture further strengthened Qatari position as a pillar in India’s energy security. At the same time, India is the second largest importer of Qatari LNG in the world contributing to the economy of the tiny peninsular nation. Qatar is among India’s top 25 trading partners in the world with bilateral trade at US$ 10.95 billion in 2019-20 and it is the third largest trading partner among Gulf Cooperation Council ...

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to 15 years imprisonment in a terror financing case. Saeed has already been convicted in multiple terror financing cases. The latest sentence handed to the dreaded terrorist will be simultaneously carried out with the previous ones over a total period of about 36 years. The 70-year-old Saeed has been the key architect in executing Pakistan’s strategy of perpetrating terrorism against India. His outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been instrumental in unleashing terror in Jammu and Kashmir for years.  Saeed’s conviction must essentially be seen purely through the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) lens. Pakistan is struggling to be put off the “grey list” but has failed so far. In view of the upcoming FATF plenary in February 2021, Pakistan is hastily taking steps in a bid to be seen as taking credible action against terror financing networks. On this pretext, Pakistan has banned ...

Prime Minister addressed the citizens on the 19th Episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat 2.O over the All India Radio network. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, May our country touch newer heights in 2021. May India’s image in the world strengthen further. What could be a greater wish than this! Prime Minister recalled the time when the citizens enthusiastically participated in the novel experiment such as Janta curfew, in March this year. It became an inspiration for the whole world. When the country felicitated our corona warriors unitedly with Taali-thali, the applause and the reverberating chime of plates showed that people’s participation in the fight against Covid-19 was tremendous. Mr. Modi said, the most common folk of the country have felt this transformation. Prime Minister said, he has witnessed an extraordinary ripple of hope in the country. There came multiple challenges and many a crisis. On account of Corona, the world faced numerous hurdles in terms of supply chain. But, we learn a...

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s surprise move to recommend dissolution of Parliament, about two years ahead of completion of its five year-term has plunged the Himalayan nation into political instability. The dissident group led by party’s Executive Chairman and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in the faction ridden ruling Nepal Communist Party was demanding Prime Minister’s resignation on charges of autocratic functioning, mis-governance, not being able to deal effectively with serious Covid-19 situation and shielding corruption. After an emergency meeting of his Cabinet, Mr. Oli recommended dissolution of the House of Representatives (Pratinidhi Sabha) to President Bidya Devi Bhandari and called for fresh elections to Parliament on 30th April and 10th May 2021, which the President promptly approved. Protesting against the Cabinet decision, seven Ministers belonging to dissident Dahal and Madhav Nepal factions resigned. Three petitions were filed in the country’s Supre...

India wound up the year in space with the successful placement of the communication satellite CMS-01 into orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the PSLV recently from the second launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The satellite was placed into a precise Geo-Synchronous Transfer Orbit roughly 20 minutes after lift-off. It will replace the old GSAT-12 satellite launched in 2011. CMS-01 is India’s 42nd communications satellite. It is the first in a new series of communication satellites after the INSAT and the GSAT series. For ISRO, this was the third launch this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the missions, including the first unmanned flight of the ‘Gaganyaan’, were delayed. Before the pandemic, India was able to complete only one satellite mission—GSAT-30. It was launched in January this year by the international launcher Arianespace from Kourou, French Guiana. Despite the pandemic, in November, ...

Prime Minister Modi’s innovative, substantive and creative initiatives in the world of diplomacy has earned him yet another laurel in the form of a “Legion of Merit” conferred upon him by US President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Modi has earlier been honoured by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, Russia, the Maldives and the Palestinian Authority. All these awards symbolize international recognition of the role the Indian Prime Minister has played in world affairs and his constant efforts to promote peace and stability in the midst of widespread conflicts, wars, terrorist activities and several other challenges. The United States awarded the “Legion of Merit” due to Prime Minister Modi’s role in elevating Indo-US strategic partnership to new heights. While the bilateral Strategic Partnership between India and the United States has been in an upward trajectory since the March 2000 visit to India by then US President Bill Clinton, and the signing of a Vision Statement by him and th...

Giving a further impetus to the bilateral relationship between India and Vietnam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc participated in a virtual Summit. Although India and Vietnam have their own imperatives in the narrative of their robust bilateral relations, developments in the Indo-Pacific particularly in the South China Sea and also in the Line of Actual Control at the India-China border have added strategic dimension to their bilateral relations Prime Minister Modi described Vietnam as an important pillar of India’s ‘Act East’ Policy and an important ally of New Delhi’s ‘Indo-Pacific vision’. He further said that India looks at its relationship with Vietnam from a long term and strategic perspective. Prime Minister emphasized that “peace, stability and prosperity are our common objectives in the Indo-Pacific region” and “our participation can contribute significantly to maintain stability and peace in the region.” Prime Minister Modi’s words...

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)’s approval for procuring Defence equipment worth Rs. 27,000 crore from domestic industry will definitely give a boost to the “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiatives of the Government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call for Atma Nirbhar Bharat on May 12. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced subsequent defence-specific reforms on May 16. Prime Minister Modi in February had set a target of 5 billion US Dollar for India's defence exports in the next five years at the inauguration of the 11th Defence Expo in Lucknow. He had invited private players to invest in the country, which would realise the twin objectives of handsome returns on investment and making Asia’s third largest economy self-reliant in defence manufacturing. It has left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the seriousness with which the government is pursuing defence reforms. These reforms aim to reduce India’s massive defence import bill. India is aimin...

India’s goal of AtmaNirbhar (self-reliance) can be achieved when industry leaders fully utilize the business environment created by the government. Today, together with structural reforms in agriculture and labour sectors, the offer of special economic and comprehensive packages by the government has facilitated a positive environment and business community needs to capitalize on it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphatically said this in his keynote address at ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce) Foundation Week 2020 last weekend. Addressing the virtual meeting, of one of India’s apex trade associations, Prime Minister Modi said the country today is with entrepreneurs and wealth creators and they have complete freedom to touch the sky. However, wealth creation is possible when industry brings in reforms by including women and young talent and when it adopts best practices of the world by bringing corporate governance and profit sharing mechanisms into its work culture. The Prime ...

As Britain negotiates its tough exit from the European Union (EU) by end of 2020, it has sought to strengthen some of its bilateral relations beyond the West. The shift from the digital format to a physical visit of UK’s Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab to India especially during the COVID-19 pandemic further strengthens the idea that London wants to upgrade its relations with New Delhi. Mr. Raab also confirmed that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day parade in 2021. India and UK have a strategic partnership since 2004; it is noteworthy that Prime Minister Johnson’s first visit abroad after the EU exit is to New Delhi. External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar and Mr. Raab met within the framework of the India-UK Ministerial Dialogue that sought to strengthen and augment cooperation in five specific issues; connecting people, trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate, and health. Both sides adopted an ambitious 10-year India-UK r...

The virtual Summit between India and Bangladesh was another successful attempt which amplified the deep and shared bond between the two neighbours. The meeting came just a day after the Victory Day celebrations on 16 December; the day Bangladesh won the 1971 Liberation War over Pakistan. The commemoration of the Liberation War, was one of the highlights of the 50-year old India-Bangladesh friendly ties. Incidentally, it was also the first bilateral meeting between the two Prime Ministers after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Dhaka in March 2020 was postponed in light of the outbreak of COVID-19. Prior to this meeting, Bangladesh and India signed seven memorandums of understanding (MOU) in the areas of hydrocarbon, agriculture, collaboration between New Delhi museum and ‘Bangabandhu’ museum, trans-boundary elephant-conservation, a high-impact community development project, terms of reference of India-Bangladesh CEO forum, and a trilateral deal to procure waste manageme...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an interaction with key industries, Start-ups and academia from the Space sector via video conferencing to encourage their participation in space activities. The Union Cabinet led by the Prime Minister took the historic decision in June 2020 to open up the Space sector and enable the participation of Indian private sector in the entire gamut of space activities. With the creation of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), the reforms will provide a level playing field for private companies and start-ups. Subsequently, several ventures have submitted proposals with IN-SPACe under the Department of Space. The proposals pertain to a vast range of activities including satellite constellation, small satellite launch vehicles, ground station, geospatial services, propulsion systems and application products. Prime Minister thanked the participants to the conference for providing feedback about their experience so far. He said that...

The India-Africa Health Summit was organised by the governments of India, Ethiopia, the African Union and other stakeholders. It was attended by Dr. Harsh Vardhan Indian Minister for Health and family Welfare and Chairman, Executive Board, World Health organization, Mr. V Muraleedharan, India’s Minister of State for External affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. Lia Tadesse, the Minister of Health, Government of Ethiopia, Amira Elfadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs, African Union Commission, Alem Tsehaye Wolemariam, the Dean of African Missions in India-Africa and senior officials of India, Ethiopia and the African Union. India enjoys a special relationship with the countries of Africa because of shared civilizational values, anti-colonial struggle, and age old people to people ties. After independence of India, India’s relationship with African countries have grown many fold and matured in to an enduring partnership both in the regional and global context. Both India and the fell...

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev co-chaired a Virtual Summit between India and Uzbekistan. This was the first such summit with any central Asian country. Both leaders held an in-depth exchange of views on the bilateral relations, the COVID-19 pandemic and regional and global issues of mutual interest. They expressed their continued commitment to take India-Uzbekistan strategic partnership to a new and higher level. Both leaders appreciated their meetings before the latest Summit and believe that those meetings have further strengthened cooperation between New Delhi and Tashkent in diverse sectors such as political, trade and investment, defence, security, counter-terrorism, science and technology, nuclear energy, space, Information Technology and have promoted cultural and academic linkages. The National Coordination Committee meeting at the ministerial level held in August has helped in monitoring the implementation of various bilater...

 Robust foreign fund inflow into India is fast becoming a mark of the country's economic resilience. At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic brought world powers to their knees, India embarked on the path of reforms, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi making clear that rural India will drive the 21 st  century economy. In a clear message to India’s business community, Prime Minister Modi has articulated that the next leg of economic growth will come from the rural areas. Half of the Start-up ecosystem in India is buzzing with entrepreneurs coming from semi-urban areas and smaller cities. The government has unveiled a major scheme to expand the scope of public Wi-Fi across the country. With the internet driving the economy by helping the supply chain integration, rural parts of the country truly hold the promise to gain the centre-stage in the 21 st  century. The PM-WANI (wi-fi network) scheme to foster broadband expansion rightly has the potential to nurture India’s next gene...

As the eleven-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) gathers momentum and sets its eyes on a mega rally in Islamabad in January next year, the Imran Khan government looks rather fidgety and restless. It shows up in its reactions to the rallies being held since October. As the opposition is planning to resign enmasse from the national and provincial assemblies, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government has become more nervous. The latest instance of its nervousness is the wild allegation by a senior minister that PDM has been receiving foreign funds to organise its rallies. Other ministers in television talk-shows also betray a sense of edginess, when they accuse the opposition leaders with their all-too-familiar worn-out allegations of being a corrupt and self-serving lot seeking, amnesty through such show of strength. Imran Khan could not better his flock in a recent interview, where he reiterated that he would not offer amnesty to the corrupt opposition leaders and warned that...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the New Parliament Building of India on Thursday. The new building is an intrinsic part of the vision of ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ and will be a landmark opportunity to build a peoples’ Parliament for the first time after independence; one which will match the needs and aspirations of a ‘New India’ in the 75th anniversary of her independence in 2022. The function was attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Raj Nath Singh, other senior Ministers, MPs, and invited guests. An all religion prayer ceremony was held on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said, it is a milestone in India's democratic history, filled with the idea of ‘Indianness’. He added that the start of the construction of new Parliament House of India is one of the most important stages of our democratic traditions. He gave a call to the people of India, to build this new building of the Parliame...

Invest India is the National Investment Promotion Agency of India. The United Nations (UNCTAD) has declared Invest India as a winner of the 2020 United Nations Investment Promotion Award. This award recognizes and celebrate the best practices of Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) across globe. The UNCTAD has evaluated 180 IPAs and declared Invest India as the winner. This week, the award ceremony took place at the UNCTAD Headquarters in Geneva. The UN Investment Promotion Award is the most coveted award for Investment Promotion Agencies. The past winners of the award – prior to India- have been Korea, Singapore and Germany. The UNCTAD is a central agency that monitors performance of IPAs and identifies global best practices. Against the backdrop of covid19 pandemic, there is a transition in the focus of Investment Promotion Agencies from “business as usual” investment facilitation towards crisis management and articulating government’s Economic Emergency Pandemic measures. These prom...

India has one of the largest mobile telephony network in the world. Mobile subscription penetration in India is set to cross 100% mark in 2023 from 88.3% in 2020, driven by growing smartphone adoption and increasing coverage of 4G- long-term evolution (LTE) services across remote areas, according to leading data and analytics companies. A recent report reveals that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mobile sector has been relatively mild and mobile service revenues will grow at a 9.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over 2020-2025, primarily driven by growth in the mobile data services segment. Mobile data service revenues are set to grow at a robust CAGR of 18.3% during 2020-2025, with rising adoption of 4G data-centric plans to support growing consumption of online video content over smartphones. Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered inaugural address at the “India Mobile Congress” (IMC) 2020 through video conference. The theme for IMC 2020 is "Inclusive Innovation -...

After months of intense parleys, the much-anticipated peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban is believed to be taking a definite turn. The two sides have reached some kind of consensus on the framework of negotiations that would guide or streamline the discussions and proceedings on the agenda in the foreseeable future. An agreement was finalised which roadmaps discussions on more concrete “substantive” issues including that of a ceasefire in the violence-afflicted nation. According the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad, the agreement- a three-page document delineated the rules and procedures that will be instrumental while preparing the blueprint for future political governance of Afghanistan, and, more importantly, the long pending comprehensive ceasefire. The US-backed peace talks that started in Doha in September this year have been shrouded in speculation given the myriad irreconcilable differences between the negotiating sides. The Taliban have emph...

The 6th India-Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar & Vietnam (CLMV) Business Conclave was held through the virtual platform India and CLMV countries are bound together not only by geographical contiguity but also by historical linkages and shared cultural heritage. Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis, which has upended our way of life. Even after several months of fighting the pandemic, we are uncertain about the true extent of damage this has caused in terms of loss of lives, livelihoods and to economies in the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced contribution of US$ 1 million to ASEAN Covid-19 Response Fund and called for greater cooperation in area of traditional medicine, during 17th India-ASEAN Summit on Nov 12, 2020. India has played a key role in keeping open the global supply chains for essential medicines and deploying Medical Assistance Teams comprising doctors, nurses and paramedics during this crisis. It is not an exaggeration that India has earned the tit...