Akashvani , National news, All India Radio News

NAMASKAR! A warm welcome to 'World News: an Indian perspective on All India Radio. This is R S RAGHU bringing glimpses of the major developments of the day from across the globe. Over the next half an hour, we shall bring to you the latest from the world of politics, economy, sports, entertainment and more.

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HEADLINES:

⦁ Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates National Youth Festival in southern Indian state of Karnataka; says youth hold the key to future of economy.

⦁ World's longest River Cruise-MV Ganga Vilas to be flagged off on Friday.

⦁ Sri Lanka's Central Bank urges India and China to reduce its debt as the country defaults on debt repayments.

⦁ Peru families mourn death of protestors after worst violence in decades.

⦁ Australia pulls out of Afghanistan Cricket series over women's rights.

⦁ And, in Cricket, India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets and clinch series 2 - nill.

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KARNATAKA- PM NATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVAL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon Yuva shakthi to be the driving force of India’s journey during the Amrith kaal to transform India into a developed country in the next 25 years. He was speaking after inaugurating the 26th National Youth Festival at Hubballi in North Karnataka on Thursday. Saying that the present generation of youngsters are special, the Prime Minister said that they have a special mission of making an impact for India on the global scene. He reminded the youngsters of the inspiring message of Swamy Vivekananda who gave a call to be awake and arise for the good of the country. He pointed out that a strong foundation is laid for the younger generation when optimism and opportunity are coming together. In the last eight years, the Economy and Education with the help of National Education Policy are gaining strong foundation, there is encouragement to talent and skill development, there is innovation and technological growth. The start ups are doing well, global investors are keen on investing in our youth. From toys to tourism, defence to digital, India is making headlines across the world. Hence he called upon the yuva shakthi to make positive disruption to overtake even the most advanced country in the world. He emphasised that the youngsters of today must have futuristic thoughts and approach. The Prime Minister also mentioned about the nari shakti as women are playing the combative role and serving as fighter jet pilots. In every part of India, there are an unbelievable number of examples of talent and capabilities of our youth. From Maths to science, when competitions take place on global platforms, the talent of Indian youth amazes the world.

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VARANASI-GANGA SUR

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  will flag off World’s Longest River Cruise-MV Ganga Vilas and will inaugurate Tent City at Varanasi on Friday at 10.30 AM via video conferencing. He will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for several other inland waterways projects worth more than Rs. 1000 crores during the event. MV Ganga Vilas will begin its journey from Varanasi on 13 January and travel around 3,200 km in 51 days to reach Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, sailing across 27 river systems in India and Bangladesh. Our correspondent reports that on the eve of the launch function a grand curtain raiser cultural program 'Sur Sarita - Symphony of Ganga' was organised at Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi.

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Indore GLOBAL INVESTORS SUMMIT CONCLUDES

Chief Minister of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan informed that a total of Rs 15 lakh 42 thousand 514 crore intentions of investment have come in the Global Investors Summit, which concluded in Indore on Thursday. He informed that about 29 lakh people will get employment through proposals as industrialists have shown most interest in the energy, agriculture and mining sectors. Ambassadors and Consulate Generals of 35 countries and delegates of 84 countries were present in this summit.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Shri Chouhan announced the launch of Invest MP Portal for the convenience of the investors. He said that this portal will start functioning from January 26. The Chief Minister said that now for three years from the establishment of the industry, no competent officer will inspect those industries which have got deem approvals. Similarly, industrialists who have got land in the identified areas will not have to take any permission to set up industries.

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JAISHANKAR - GLOBAL SOUTH

External Affairs Minister of India Dr S Jaishankar on Thursday said that search for solutions to crises like COVID, food and energy security do not give due weight to needs and aspirations of the Global South. Addressing the Foreign Ministers’ Session of the Voice of Global South Summit, Dr Jaishankar said those who were promised an interconnected world now see a world with higher walls, insensitive to social needs and discriminatory in its health practices. He stated that India stands for three sensitive shifts in its case for a ‘Global South sensitive’ model. He elaborated that these shifts include moving from self-centered globalization to human-centered globalization and from debt creating projects to a demand-driven and sustainable development cooperation. He said going from being on receiving end of tech patronage, to deploying Global South-led innovations for societal transformation is one of these shifts.

Dr Jaishankar said India would work towards de-centralizing and de-risking globalization. This would offer greater opportunities to more nations, a stronger desire to foster localization, improve connectivity, and reconfigure supply chains to ensure economic security. He asserted that India stands ready to share its experiences and expertise, including game changing digital public goods in universal identification, financial payments, direct benefit transfer, digital health, commerce, industry and logistics.

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GUYANA PRESIDENT

Guyana President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali invited Indian business community to invest in his country as the opportunites are enormous. Addressing India-Guyana Business Meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, the visiting dignitary said Guyana is ready to simplify process to enable private sector to invest. He added that Guyana has been blessed with natural resources. He said his government is making all efforts to make Guyana the number One eco tourism facility in the world. He invited Indian private sector to invest in the opportunities arising out of this.

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BANGLADESH-G20

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that Bangladesh  welcomes India’s vision as the President of G 20 to ensure inclusive development under the theme ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. Virtually addressing the The Inaugural Leaders’ Session of the ‘Voice of the Global South Summit 2023’ organised by India on Thursday , Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina thanked the Indian government for inviting Bangladesh as a guest country to G20 which would give them a unique opportunity to engage with their counterparts across the globe. She also congratulated Prime Minister Modi for assuming the Presidency of G20.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is committed to contributing in Prime Minister Modi’s robust initiatives to quicken human centric development in association with the global leaders, reports the official news agency BSS.

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HOTSPOT

In today's Hotspot Section, we bring you a News Commentary: Power and Potential of Indian Diaspora would be a force Multiplier.

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GOYAL-TRADE

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal said the India-US Trade Policy Forum has resulted into a smoother, friendly and trusted business environment for both sides to expand their trade and investment.

Speaking to media after the conclusion of 13th Ministerial Trade Policy Forum (TPF) dialogue at Washington DC, on Thursday, Mr Goyal said TPF, which was relaunched in a new form in November 2021, has become very robust.

Goyal said both countries had a robust discussion on finding bilateral solutions to outstanding WTO disputes between them.

He hoped for a satisfactory outcome in the next few months over these issues.

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PIYUSH - BUSINESS VISA

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India has requested the United States to speed up the issuance of business visas so that people can undertake short trips to pursue their business and trade interests. Addressing a press conference after participating in the 13th India-US Trade Policy Forum in Washington, he said that issuance of business visas which is taking a long time back home in India is an area which needs to be expedited, so that investment does not suffer. Mr Goyal underlined that the movement of professionals, students, skilled workers, investors, and business travelers is expanding between the two countries. Mr Goyal was on an official visit to New York and Washington DC to participate in India-US Trade Policy Forum. His visit included delegation-level talks and a one-to-one meeting with US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai.

This request to expiate business visas comes a week after State Department said that the US embassy and consulates in India have broken their record as nearly one lakh 25 thousand student visas were issued in the fiscal year 2022.

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FSSAI - BASMATI RICE

Food and Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI has notified comprehensive regulatory standards for Basmati Rice for the first time. These standards will be enforced from 1st of August this year. Union Health Ministry said, the standards are aimed at establishing fair practices in the trade of Basmati rice and protect consumer interest, both domestically and globally. As per these standards, Basmati rice shall possess natural fragrance characteristic of basmati rice and be free from artificial colouring, polishing agents and artificial fragrances.

Basmati rice is a premium variety of rice cultivated in the Himalayan foothills of the Indian sub-continent. Basmati is a widely consumed variety of rice both domestically and globally and India accounts for two thirds of its global supply.

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SRI LANKA- LOANS FROM CHINA AND INDIA

Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka Nandalal Weerasinghe has urged China and India to agree to a write-down of their loans to the crisis-hit island nation. Mr. Weerasinghe said that quick action would be in the interest of all parties and will help Sri Lanka to start repaying the dues. A formal dialogue on reduction of debt with the creditor nations has not been initiated so far.

Sri Lanka is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a 2.9 billion US dollar bailout package which will not materialise until the creditors have agreed to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt. Colombo owes China over 7 billion US dollars which accounts for over 19 percent of its overall external debt.

The governor said that once agreement from bilateral creditors has been agreed the IMF funds could be distributed to Sri Lanka within four to six weeks.

China has been under criticism for not showing interest contrary to its claims of being Sri Lanka’s true friend. At the same time Chinese projects have been under fire from several quarters for landing the Indian Ocean country into a debt trap. Beijing is reportedly reluctant to write down Sri Lanka’s debt because of possible implications to loans it has extended to other developing countries. However, Paris club nations had last month called for a solution with debt moratorium of 10 years and another 15 years of restructuring.

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SRI LANKA-COMPENSATION

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ordered the government to pay 10 lakh rupees as compensation per person to those who were killed in the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. Those injured in the attacks will be given 5 lakh rupees. The Supreme Court ruled that the respondents had violated the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners by failing to prevent the attack despite having credible intelligence information.

The Supreme Court said the funds will be used to compensate the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.

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SRI LANKA - HINDI DIWAS

Closely after the International Hindi Diwas, the Indian High Commission signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Hindi Chair at Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and Vice Chancellor of Sabaragamuwa University Prof. Udaya Rathnayake signed the MoU to establish the Hindi Chair as part of India’s cultural connect through Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The Hindi chair will help in familiarizing students about India, its history and culture as well as pave way for popularising Hindi by deputing Indian faculties. Mr. Baglay also gave away prizes to the winners of Hindi Kavita competition held at the university.

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SRI LANKA BUDGET

In an attempt to keep expenditure in check, the Sri Lankan government has decided to cut the allocated budget of each ministry by five percent.

Cabinet spokesman and Minister for Mass Media Bandula Gunawardena said that Treasury is facing a serious financial crisis beyond what was expected. He added that the government is not resorting to money printing or taking fresh loans as was done over the last two years. Lending agencies and the IMF have prohibited the island nation from further printing money. The budgetary cut has also been necessitated due to the delay in finalising a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund. The crisis hit country had sharply raised personal and corporate income taxes from 1st of January in addition to a slew of measures to increase government revenue.

Sri Lanka has been mired in one of its worst economic crises due to depletion of forex reserves which triggered massive protests last year.

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PERU-PROTESTS

At least 17 people have died in clashes between supporters of the former president and security forces in south-eastern Peru, officials say. Dozens more were injured on Monday in the city of Juliaca in some of the worst.

According to reports, the protests erupted a month ago when Castillo was forced out of office following corruption cases and was arrested on charges of rebellion after attempting to dissolve parliament by decree. His supporters have been protesting and blockading roads for weeks.They say new President Dina Boluarte must go, and want snap elections.

The violence, a severe test for Peru's democracy, is the worst conflict since the late 1990s when the country was gripped by violence between rebel group Shining Path and the state, which left 69,000 people dead or missing over two decades.

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE COMMANDER

Russia has replaced its military commander in Ukraine, putting army chief Valery Gerasimov in-charge of its forces in the conflict. Russian defense ministry said that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov will now lead special military operation in the Ukraine. Gen Gerasimov replaces Sergei Surovikin who has overseen recent attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Defence ministry said, the decision to replace Gen Surovikin was aimed at organising closer contact between different branches of the armed forces and improving the quality and effectiveness of the management of Russian forces. Meanwhile, the reshuffle comes as Russians claim they are making progress in eastern Ukraine after suffering of military setback in recent months. Gen Gerasimov, who has been in post since 2012, is the longest-serving Russian chief of general staff of the post-Soviet era.

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AFGHANISTAN-ATTACK

In Afghanistan, atleast five people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack outside the Afghan foreign ministry in Kabul. The attack took place on Wednesday when the bomber failed to enter the ministry building itself. Several countries, including Turkey and China, have embassies in the area. The local offshoot of the Islamic State group, known as Islamic State - Khorasan Province (Isis-K) claimed the responsibility of the attack. Kabul police described the attack as cowardly, adding in a statement that the perpetrators would be held accountable. Afghanistan has been rocked by dozens of blasts since the Taliban seized power last year, mostly claimed by Isis-K.

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US-JAPAN DEFENCE

The United States and Japan plan to boost military and security cooperation as their top national security officials held talks on Wednesday. According to media reports, weeks after unveiling plans to ramp up defense spending, Japan sent its defense and foreign ministers to Washington for talks on updating the decades old alliance. The officials unveiled plans to strengthen the alliance to help counter threats from North Korea and China, which they called the greatest challenge in the region. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the United States and Japan together have a vision of a modernized alliance to acquire the posture to win in the new era of strategic competition. Meanwhile, US secratary of state Antony Blinken said that the two nations tried to deepen cooperation across all realms including space, Cybersecurity and emerging technologies. The top officials also agreed to adjust the American troop presence on the island of Okinawa.

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RUSSIA- SPACE MISSION

Russia will launch a rescue vessel to the International Space Station next month to bring home three crew members who are in effect stuck in orbit after their original capsule was hit by a meteoroid. The docked Soyuz MS-22 sprang a major leak last month, spraying radiator coolant into space and prompting a pair of cosmonauts to abort a planned spacewalk. Russian space agency, Roscosmos said that the strike caused no immediate threat to the crew of the space station. The Roscosmos said, it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth. Space has remained a rare area in which Moscow and Washington have continued cooperation despite the Russian special military oprations in Ukraine and consequent Western sanctions on Russia.

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WHO-CHINA

World Health Organization, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the organization's data on the number of deaths from COVID-19 worldwide is lowered due to the under-reporting of cases by China. During a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, the WHO chief urged all countries to share true statistics so as to contribute to a more effective fight against the spread of the disease. Last week also, Mr Tedros asked China for reliable data on Covid hospitalizations and deaths in the country.  This comment came after WHO held a high-level meeting with counterparts in China to discuss the surge in cases and hospitalisation.

Back in December, the Chinese government dropped its zero COVID-19 policy toward the pandemic after almost three years, leading to a mammoth rise in cases in a matter of few weeks. Later in January, obligatory PCR testing and centralized isolation for people arriving in China were canceled.

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AUSTRALIA-CRICKET

Australia's men's cricket team has withdrawn from a series of upcoming matches against Afghanistan in protest over the ruling Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls’ education and employment, Cricket Australia (CA) said in a statement on  Thursday.

The teams were scheduled to play three One Day International (ODI) games in the United Arab Emirates in March, but CA decided to cancel the series after extensive consultation with several stakeholders including the Australian government, the statement said.

In December, the Taliban announced the suspension of university education for all female students. The move followed a decision in March to bar girls from returning to secondary schools, following months-long closures that had been in place since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

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IND-SL CRICKET ODI

In Cricket, chasing the target of 216 runs, India registered a comfortable win by 4 wickets in the second ODI against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. With this win, India has sealed the 3-match series by winning the first two matches. Earlier, in the first ODI, India defeated the visitors by 67 runs.

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WORLD NEWS CAPSULE

The Sensex and the Nifty on Thursday logged losses. Index of top 30 companies at Bombay Stock Exchange ended below the 60,000 mark. The index of top 50 companies at National Stock Exchange, closed below 17,900 level. The rupee appreciated marginally by two paisa against the US currency. A report from the business desk-  

"The Sensex fell 147 points to settle at 59,958. The Nifty also slipped 38 points to finish at 17,858.

Among global stock markets, World stocks witnessed modest gains on cautious optimism that U.S. data will confirm inflation is softening. Asian share markets traded in a narrow range and the yen rose amid report that Japan will review the side-effects of its ultra-easy policy this month. Asain shares gained except Singapore’s Straits Times which slipped 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.4 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.2 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite index which added 0.1 percent. While Japan's NIKKEI-225 ended flat. European shares were up in intra-day trade.

Oil rose more than one percent supported by optimism over China's demand outlook and hopes that upcoming inflation data from the United States will point to a slower increase in interest rates. In intra-day trade, Brent crude was trading at 83 dollars and 80 cents per barrel.

Back Home, At the Multi Commodity Exchange, Gold futures for February was trading at 55,845 rupees per ten grams. Silver futures for March was trading at 68,660 rupees per kilogram when reports last came in.

At forex market, the rupee strengthened marginally by two paisa to closed at 81 rupees and 55 paise against the US dollar.   Rajesh Lekh for World News, All India Radio."

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REPEAT HEADLINES

⦁ Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates National Youth Festival in southern Indian state of Karnataka; says youth hold the key to future of economy.

⦁ World's longest River Cruise-MV Ganga Vilas to be flagged off on Friday.

⦁ Sri Lanka's Central Bank urges India and China to reduce its debt as the country defaults on debt repayments.

⦁ Peru families mourn death of protestors after worst violence in decades.

⦁ Australia pulls out of Afghanistan Cricket series over women's rights.

⦁ And, in Cricket, India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets and clinch series 2 - nill.

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And now, before we end, let us listen to Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajanVaishnav Jan, by artists from  MOROCCO.

AND WITH THAT, WE END THIS BULLETIN. WE'LL BE BACK AT THE SAME TIME TOMORROW WITH THE NEXT EDITION OF WORLD NEWS.

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