1. India-Indonesia Investment and Business Forum meeting held in Port Blair
Tags: place in news Summits
A meeting of the Joint Task Force Committee of "India-Indonesia Investment and Business Forum" to identify new areas of cooperation, develop infrastructure, tourism, trade and connectivity to enhance business relations was held in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar on 20 December 2022.
This is the second meeting of the Task Force Committee. The first meeting was held in the Indonesian Capital of Jakarta on November 25, 2019.
Indonesia's Sabang port in Aceh is around 90 nautical miles from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India is keen to expand trade and tourism with Indonesia.
The meeting with Indonesian delegates was attended by Andaman and Nicobar Lieutenant Governor D K Joshi, Director for South and Central Asian Affairs of the Indonesian government, Jatmiko Heru Prasetyo.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Indonesia in 2018, he called for a Joint Task Force Committee from both sides to boost bilateral investments.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs Indonesia is the second largest trading partner of India amongst the ASEAN (Association of SouthEast Asian Nations). Singapore is the largest trading partner of India amongst ASEAN countries.
India is one of the largest buyers of coal and crude palm oil from Indonesia and imports minerals, rubber, pulp & paper and hydrocarbons reserves. India exports refined petroleum products, commercial vehicles, telecommunication equipment, bovine meat, animal feed, agriculture products, steel and plastics to Indonesia.
2. UAE to host the 13th WTO Ministerial Meeting in 2024
Tags: Summits Economics/Business International News
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the 13th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting in February 2024. The African country of Cameroon had also expressed its willingness to host the 13th WTO ministerial meeting.
The WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from June 12 to June 17. It was originally meant to be held in Kazakhstan in 2020, but was postponed due to the covid pandemic.
The World Trade Organisation was set up on 1 January 1995 replacing the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). Its main purpose is to promote rule based trading systems in the world and to settles trade related disputes between the member countries.
The Ministerial Conference is the topmost decision-making body of the WTO and usually meets every two years.
It brings together all members of the WTO and takes decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
The headquarters of WTO is in Geneva, Switzerland. There are 164 member countries .
Director General of WTO : Dr Ngozi -Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria
WTO Ministerial Meeting
Number | Place | Date |
First | Singapore | 9 to 13 December 1996. |
second | Geneva, Switzerland | May 18 and 20, 1998 |
Third | Seattle, United States of America | November 30 and December 3, 1999, |
Fourth | Doha, Qatar | 9-14 November 2001 |
Fifth | Cancun, Mexico | September 10 to 14, 2003 |
Sixth | Hong Kong | December 13 to December 18, 2005, |
Seventh | Geneva, Switzerland | 30th November to 2nd December 2009, |
Eight | Geneva, Switzerland | December 15 to 17, 2011 |
Ninth | Bali, Indonesia | 3rd to 7th December 2013 |
Tenth | Nairobi, Kenya | December 15 to 19, 2015 |
Eleventh | Buenos Aires, Argentina | December 10 to December 13, 2017 |
Twelfth | Geneva, Switzerland | June 12 to June 17, 2022 |
3. Gujarat CM unveils Urban G20 logo, website and social media handle
Tags: place in news Summits Person in news
Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel unveiled the logo, website and social media handles of the Urban-20 conference in Gandhinagar on 19 December 2022. The ceremony was attended virtually by the Union Minister for Urban Development and Urban Housing Hardeep Singh Puri.
Urban 20
The UNESCO heritage city Ahmedabad will host the Urban 20 meetings as part of G 20 meetings between Februarys to July 2023.
In July 2023, the U20 mayor’s summit will be held in Ahmedabad to discuss urban development issues.
The Urban 20 will provide a platform for the G20 cities to facilitate discussions on important issues of urban development including climate change, social inclusion, sustainable mobility, affordable housing, and financing of urban infrastructure to propose collective solutions.
Indian Presidency of G 20
India officially assumed the Presidency of G20 on 1 December 2022 from Indonesia. The summit meeting of the Head of the States and the leaders of the G20 is scheduled to be held in September 2023 in New Delhi.
To prepare for the summit meeting a series of meetings is to be held by India.
The first meeting was the G-20 Sherpa meeting held in Udaipur in the first week of December 2022.
G-20
The G-20 was founded back in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis.
The Group of Twenty (G-20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the European Union.
The G-20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
4. Latvia host Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit at Riga
Tags: place in news Summits International News
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Latvia hosted the 3rd summit meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) on 19 December 2022 in Riga. The summit meeting has been convened on the Initiative of the Prime Minister of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš, with the support of the United Kingdom.
The JEF was founded in 2015 after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit meeting in Wales in 2014. It comprises Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The JEF has been set up to prepare a high readiness force which can respond to crises in the High North and Northern Europe (caused by Russian aggression).
The summit meeting of the JFF was held virtually on 25 February 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The second Summit was hosted by the United Kingdom in London on 15 March 2022.
The third summit was dominated by the aggressive war of Russia in Ukraine and consequent changes in the security climate in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the High North regions. They agreed to provide further assistance to Ukraine in its fight with the Russians.
Latvia
Latvia lies in North Eastern Europe and is one of the three Baltic countries. The other Baltic countries are Lithuania and Estonia.
It is called Baltic country as it lies along the Baltic Sea.
Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union and it became Independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Capital: Riga
Currency: Euro
Prime Minister: Krisjanis Kariņs
5. 7th Petrochemical Conclave held in New Delhi
Tags: place in news Summits
The Government of Indian Maharatna Company Indian Oil Corporation limited organised the 7th Petrochemical Conclave in New Delhi on 17 December 2022.
The conclave was attended by the Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli and various experts from the petrochemical fields.
The Conclave aims to provide a comprehensive platform for varied Petrochemical stakeholders to deliberate on the opportunities and challenges with the sector and brainstorm on the impacts of forces like energy transition, Crude Oil to Chemicals, Industry 4.0, emerging Green pathways, and Circular economy.
Theme of the conclave: India’s Petchem Future -Sustainable and Atmanirbhar
6. PM to attend Golden Jubilee Celebrations of North Eastern Council in Shillong
Tags: Summits State News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Shillong on 18 December 2022.
Important facts
He will address an official meeting of the NEC as well as a public meeting on this occasion.
The official meeting of the Council will be held at the State Convention Centre Auditorium while the public meeting will be organised at the Polo Grounds in Shillong.
Union Home Minister, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region, Governors and Chief Ministers of North Eastern States, Union Ministers dealing with North Eastern Region, local MPs and MLAs and nominated members of NEC will also attend the function.
During this, the Prime Minister will inaugurate various important projects of the North Eastern region including the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, NEC projects and Meghalaya state projects and lay the foundation stone for some other projects.
The “GOLDEN FOOTPRINTS”, a commemorative volume chronicling NEC’s contribution towards the development of the North Eastern Region over the last fifty years, will also be released during the Golden Jubilee event.
About North Eastern Council
It is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region.
It consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
It was constituted under the North Eastern Council Act in 1971.
The Council comprises Governors and Chief Ministers of constituent States and three members nominated by the President.
The Union Cabinet, in June 2018, approved the proposal of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) to nominate the Union Home Minister as the ex-officio Chairman of the North Eastern Council (NEC).
The Cabinet also approved that the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of DoNER will act as the Vice-Chairman of the Council.
It discusses any matter in which some or all the States represented on the Council have a common interest and advises the Central Government and the respective State Governments as to the action to be taken on any such matter.
The headquarters - Shillong
7. Amit Shah chairs the Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Kolkata
Tags: Summits State News
Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council in Kolkata on 17th December.
Important facts
In the meeting issues like security along the inter-state borders, smuggling along the India-Bangladesh border, and connectivity were discussed.
It was attended by chief ministers, ministers, chief secretaries, principal secretaries, and senior officers of the member states and senior officers of central government.
The Eastern Zonal Council comprises West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
The Central government has been regularly holding meetings of the zonal councils as a part of its strategy to strengthen and promote cooperative and competitive federalism in the country.
Zonal councils provide a forum for discussion on issues affecting one or more states or issues between the Center and the states.
8. Narendra Singh Tomar chairs 32nd meeting of Board of Directors of NHB
Tags: Summits National News
The 32nd meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Horticulture Board (NHB) was held in New Delhi on 14th December under the chairmanship of the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Chairman of the Board, Narendra Singh Tomar.
Important facts
It was decided in the meeting that the process of approval of horticulture projects would be simplified for the farmers.
Instead of two stages, now the process of approval of these projects will be completed in one go and it will be completely digital, as well as minimum documents will be required, due to which the farmers will not face any kind of trouble.
It is noteworthy that many projects which used to be approved in a time period of about 6 to 8 months, will now be approved in just 45 days.
The scheme framework, application filing system, documentation and approval process have been further simplified.
The new simple design will come into effect from January 1, 2023.
This process will make the system more transparent and efficient, promote ease of doing business for the benefit of the farming community and generate more hi-tech commercial projects for NHB funding.
Under NHB, a new vertical has been created to promote organic and natural farming, which will oversee planning, monitoring, area expansion-market promotion for production, value chain development and infrastructure development.
Swachh Plant Programme
The meeting also discussed in detail the new initiative of NHB- Swachh Plant Programme.
Under the programme the problem of availability of planting material to the farmers will be solved by spending Rs 2100 crore with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
This will largely solve the problem of planting material, especially for many commercially important fruits.
This programme will go a long way in providing a major contribution to the much needed quality planting material for horticulture crops in the country.
National Horticulture Board (NHB)
It was set up by the Government of India in 1984 as an Autonomous organisation under the administrative control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
It is registered as a society under Societies Registration Act with its headquarters at Gurugram.
Its main objective is to improve the integrated development of the horticulture industry and help in maintaining and coordinating the production and processing of fruits and vegetables.
9. Union Minister For Jal Shakti To Inaugurate India Water Impact Summit 2022
Tags: Summits National News
The Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will inaugurate the 7th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS 2022) on 15th December, 2022 in New Delhi.
Important facts
The summit is being organized from 15th to 17th December, 2022 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and Center for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga).
Its aims to impart impetus towards developing water and environmental infrastructure to protect rivers and water bodies in India.
The theme of the Summit (IWIS 2022) is ‘Restoration and Conservation of Small Rivers in a Large Basin’ with emphasis on the ‘Mapping and Convergence of 5Ps’ - People, Policy, Plan, Programme and Project.
Experts from the country and abroad will discuss ways in which small rivers facing near-extinction in large river basins can be protected.
Summit aims to give insight into potential causes for divergence and formulate strategy to achieve convergence.The 5 broad themes of the summit are Science and Policy, Finance and Economics, Technology and Innovation, International and Implementation Challenges.
In the 5th edition of the India Water Impact Summit, understanding the concept and nuances of Arth Ganga was the key focus.
10. Rajeev Chandrasekhar attends the India Global Forum at Dubai
Tags: Economy/Finance Summits International News
Union Minister of state for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar attended the India Global Forum at Dubai on 13-15 December, 2022.
Important facts
He attended the ministerial roundtable – globalization of Indian tech and innovation talent.
He put forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision on creating reliable corridors of technologies and innovation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is to build credible corridors for technologies and innovation with various countries in collaboration with young Indian innovators.
The objective of these discussions is to assess avenues of collaborations with entrepreneurs who are aspirational of expanding their footprint in India.
About India Global Forum
It is the agenda-setting forum for international business and global leaders.
It selects platforms that international corporate and policy makers can leverage to interact with stakeholders in their sectors and geographies of strategic importance.
