India and World Current Affairs August 2015 Part 3

Indta-Tajikistan Inked Key Pacts

• India and Tajikistan have signed two pacts to strengthen bilateral relations. They were signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit to Tajikistan on July 12, 2015.
• The Programme of Cooperation (POC) envisages cooperation in the field of culture through exchange of expertise in protection, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage in both countries.
• India will set-up computer labs in 37 schools of Tajikistan for supporting government of Tajikistan’s human resource & skill development efforts.

India and Kyrgyzstan Signed 4 Pacts

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi made two-day official visit, to Kyrgyzstan on July 11, 2015 as part of his eight-day six-nation tour of Central Asia. Voicing grave concern over the rising trend of extremism and terrorism the world over, India and Kyrgyzstan signed four agreements on July 12, 2015.
• The agreements are Agreements signed on Defence Cooperation, Electoral Cooperation and Cultural Cooperation between both countries.
• An another MoU was signed between Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on cooperation in the sphere of Standards which seeks to strengthen and enhance technical cooperation in the fields of conformity assessment, standardisation and sharing of expertise on mutual trade.

India-Pakistan became Full SCO Members

• India and Pakistan were accepted as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional grouping on July 10, 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered earlier to work with SCO in combating terror and boosting trade by easing barriers.
• India has had an observer status for the past 10 years i.e., since 2005 and had applied for full membership in 2014. It will technically become a member of SCO by 2016 after completion of certain procedures.
• The SCO is established in 2001 at Sanghai. Its headquarter is based at Beijing, China. It has China. Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members. It is an outcome of The Shanghai Five grouping established in 1996 by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Read Also – India & World Current Affairs October 2015 (Part 3).

India-USA Inked Pact on Sharing Account Info

• India and the USA signed an inter-govemmental agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) on July 9, 2015 to curb overseas tax evasion and black money. With this India joined 59 countries in the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the • Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information.
• The agreement makes it obligatory on the part of the two nations to exchange information on offshore accounts of each other’s citizens in their respective territories. This automatic exchange of information is scheduled to begin on September 30.
• Under FATCA, foreign financial institutions in the USA will have to provide information about Indian account holders to the USA government’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which will forward the information to the Indian government. The Indian government will provide similar information to the IRS.
  India, Kazakhstan Signed Five Key Agreements
• India and hydrocarbon-rich Kazakhstan inked five key agreements on July 8, 2015 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev held comprehensive talks.
• A contract between NC’KazAtomProm’JSC and NPCIL signed for a renewed long term supply of natural uranium to India to meet its energy requirements. Thus, Kazaksthan was one of the first countries with which India launched civil nuclear cooperation through a uranium purchase contract.
• A joint statement ‘Tej Kadam’ was also signed regarding the rising challenge posed by terrorism in many parts of the world and in their immediate region. Both coutries agreed to continue their active engagement in the fight against terrorism and extremism including exchange of information.
• An MoU on Cooperation on Physical Cultural and Sports was signed between India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Sports.
• An agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons was I signed which will facilitate swapping to prisoners from both countries to serve their remaining sentence in home country.
• An MoU on Technical Cooperation in the field of Railways was also signed between India’s Ministry of Railways and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.

India, Uzbekistan Signed Pacts to Boost Cooperation

• Prime Minister Modi reached in the Tashkent, Uzbekistan capital on July 6, 2015, the first leg of his eight-day visit to Central Asia and Russia. He held talks with Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov on key bilateral and regional issues including the situation in Afghanistan.
• The two countries inked three pacts to boost cooperation between their foreign offices and in the field of culture and tourism. During the delegation-level talks, the two countries also agreed to explore various options to enhance surface connectivity between them.
• The two sides agreed to implement practical measures under the framework of the bilateral agreement on cooperation in tourism signed.
• They discussed the situation in Afghanistan and noted that establishment of oeace in that country is of great significance to the security and stability of the entire region. Enhancement of cooperation in the fields of defence and cer-security also discussed.
• The two countries called for comprehensive reforms of the UN structures, first of all, its Security Council, including expansion in both categories of membership.
• The two countries decided to Implement the Uranium contract which was signed in 2014 for supply of 2000 metric tonnes of the Uranium from minerafrich Uzbekistan to India.
• India asked Uzbekistan to be part of International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which is a ship, rail and road route for moving freight between India, Russia, Iran, Europe and Central Asia.

We hope you like India and World Current Affairs August 2015 Part 3 2015, give your feedback in comments and keep visiting Current Affairs.