Centre wakes up to threat posed by IS: India’s Union Govt is formulating a ‘coherent national strategy’ on the IS. This will be important to know and remember when it is announced.
Investment protection pact in the offing: The govt is going to offer a model investment protection agreement that will enable India to safeguard against offshore arbitration and international litigation. The model agreement will guide all bilateral investment negotiations between India and any other country.
Navy aligns indigenisation plan with ‘Make in India’: The Navy has unveiled a 15-year plan to achieve full indigenisation in all phases of warship construction, from ship-building to systems to weapons, and aligned it with the “Make in India” programme. It wants to involve private industry in a big way in this initiative.
Opinion/Editorial
Japan’s security dilemma: A look into why the Japanese Govt is moving away from its pacifist outlook to a more aggressive one. Must read.
An agreement that was called a deal: On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Indo-US nuclear deal, a narrative into why it was necessary then (for both sides) and what has happened subsequently.
DoT fails to fill all the dashes: Although the recent DoT report subscribes to net neutrality, it also accepts the claims of operators that if Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are allowed to compete, there might be significant revenue loss to them. So, it advocates some kind of regulation for VoIP applications. DoT’s treatment of VoIP itself is also inconsistent: it proposes that domestic VoIP calls be licensed, but not international calls. (An example of VoIP is the recent upgradation of WhatsApp to offer voice calls also in addition to messaging to consumers. Now, people can call and talk to each other over the internet, and this is a loss of income for the operators, like Airtel or Vodafone).
UN endorses Iran nuclear agreement: The United Nations Security Council has endorsed the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, although it will be able to re-impose penalties during the next decade if Tehran breaches the historic agreement.
International/World Affairs
US, Cuba restore ties after 54 years: A look at the years of hostility between the US and Cuba during the Cold War, and the repairing of ties, why this repair came through, and what other gulfs must be filled for ties to become completely normalised.
Economy/Business
Hike in import duty on steel upsets EEPC: To protect domestic steel industry from cheaper steel produce coming in from abroad, the government has hiked the import duty on steel imports. But the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India is maintaining that if imports are curtailed through duties, the user industries (of steel) would be completely at the mercy of the domestic steel industry.
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