Newspaper Must Read Articles of The Day– 31 October 2015

The Hindu

‘We were forced to secure energy deal with China’: Tatopani is a village of central Nepal. Historically and today, it is a huge trading post between Nepal and China.Nepal and China have gone ahead to reach a landmark energy deal which will transform the Himalayan country’s future energy scenario.(International Relations – GS Paper II, Internal Security GS Paper III )

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Overcoming the stasis in Nepal:Nepal has experimented with four Constitutions and two interim Constitutions since 1948; nevertheless, the 2015 Constitution is unique as it establishes Nepal as a ‘federal republic’ for the first time. The Indian policy of overtly backing the demands of the Madhesis led to an upsurge of Nepali nationalism, coupled with anti-Indianism.(Economic development- GS Paper III)
Reaching out to Africa: India-Africa trade was worth almost $70 billion in 2014-15, and Indian companies invested some $30-35 billion in the continent over the past decade. While trade has improved in these ten years, it is still much less than Africa’s trade with China, which was $200 billion in 2014-15.(Economic development- GS Paper III)

Bridges across the Indian Ocean:India’s DFTP (duty-free tariff preference) scheme, is a unilateral duty-free market access scheme, which India has provided to all least developed countries, including 34 in Africa. Contrary to similar schemes provided by other developing countries, the DFTP programme offers much deeper market access into India. After the amendment of the DFTP scheme in April 2014, its coverage has gone beyond 98 per cent of India’s total tariff lines. (International Relations – GS Paper II, Internal Security GS Paper III )

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