India and Pakistan exchanged the list of their nuclear installations and facilities

India and Pakistan have exchanged the list of their nuclear installations and facilities under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear installations. This exchange is done on 1st of January every year between the two neighbouring countries that bars them from attacking each other’s atomic facilities. This is the 25th consecutive exchange of such list between the two countries, the first one having taken place on 1 January 1992. Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear installations It bilateral agreement signed between India and Pakistan that bars them from carrying out any surprise attack (or to assist foreign power to attack) on each other’s nuclear installations and facilities. It was signed on 31st December 1988 and entered into force on 27 January 1991. It was signed by then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Pakistani counterpart Benazir Bhutto. Under it both countries inform each other about their nuclear installations and facilities that need to be covered under the Agreement on 1 January every year.

Sangita Kalanidhi award 2015

Foremost south Indian classical vocalists Sanjay Subrahmanyam has conferred with prestigious 2015 Sangita Kalanidhi award. The prestigious award was bestowed upon him by renowned mathematician Manjul Bhargava at 89th annual conference of the Madras Music Academy in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. With this, he became seventh artistes to be conferred with this award before completing 50 years of age. Others are Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Semmangudi R. Srinivasa Iyer, G.N. Balasubramaniam, M.L. Vasanthakumari and M. Balamuralikrishna About Sanjay Subrahmanyam By profession he is Charted Accountant but in 2000 became full-time musician. He had started performing Carnatic music from 1987. Awards: Gaana Padhmam (2013), Vani Kala Sudhakara (2010) and the title Kalaimamani by Tamil Nadu Government (2006) etc. About Sangita Kalanidhi award/title It is a prestigious award bestowed annually upon an expert of Carnatic Music by the Madras Music Academy. The award’s name has been derived from Sanskrit which means treasure of Music and art in English. This honour is considered one of the highest awards in Carnatic music.

Russia with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

The Narendra Modi government’s grand plans to bring in the private sector into the defence sector has received its first reality check with Russia refusing to sign up with a private sector partner for manufacturing helicopters, instead opting to go with the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).The move, confirmed by official sources and Russia’s Rostec on Tuesday, is contrary to the much-hyped claim about Russian willingness to partner an Indian private sector company to make over 200 Kamov-226T light utility helicopters in India under technology transfer. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence was seen as the front-runner to partner the Russians. The organisation for the manufacture of helicopters is provided by the creation of a Russian-Indian joint venture in India, which includes holdings of Rostec-JSC Rosoboronexport and Russian Helicopters, and on the India side – the corporation HAL”, CEO of the Rostec State Corporation, Sergei Chemezov said in a statement in Moscow. One of the key themes of the Modi government’s push for Make in India in defence sector is to facilitate the entry of the private sector into it, and the Anil Ambani group has been at the vanguard of this move. The group recently acquired the Pipavav Shipyard, has created a cluster of companies, applied for over a dozen manufacturing licences for submarines to UAVs and is involved in active discussion with several foreign companies.

New relations with West Asian region

India’s relation with the West Asian region is expected to be in focus during the first few months of 2016 as South Block appears set to host top Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Diplomatic sources that both Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, have been invited by India and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold talks with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders during her January 16 to 19 trip to Israel-Palestine to firm up the dates for the visits. Diplomatic sources also informed that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moalem is expected to visit New Delhi soon. The Hindu had earlier reported that Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Moalem had invited each other during their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York. The high power political engagement plan for West Asia by the South Block will be in line with Ms. Swaraj’s May 31 annual press conference when she had announced a first ever visit to Israel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A visit by Mr Modi will be symbolically significant as Israel has not been visited by Indian Prime Ministers since both sides established full and normal diplomatic ties in January 1992. Analysts say that a visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu will also be symbolically significant as the last Israeli Prime Minister to visit India was Ariel Sharon in 2003. Ms. Swaraj had earlier cancelled her January visit plan for Israel due to Israeli election season. Subsequently, President Pranab Mukherjee visited Israel and Palestine in October re-starting the chain of high level engagements. “As a result of President Mukherjee’s visit to Israel, it is now the turn of Israel to reciprocate suitably. There is also a possibility that Israel might send President Reuven Rivlin to India later during 2016 as President Mukherjee had extended invitation to President Rivlin to visit Delhi. However, the diplomatic season will be kick-started a few days before Ms. Swaraj’s arrival in Israel by her colleague Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh who will hold discussion with his counterpart for greater Israeli scientific support for meeting Indian agricultural production goals. Preparation is also on to welcome Ms. Swaraj in Ramallah where her counterpart Riyad Al Maliki has been interacting with Indian diplomats to finalise commercial, educational and regional diplomatic plans for Ms. Swaraj. Ms. Swaraj had earlier told the media that Palestinians had been helpful in getting information about the 39 Indians kidnapped in Iraq.

Andhra Pradesh Government has signed a Memorandum with Microsoft

Andhra Pradesh Government has signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with tech giant Microsoft India on various technology initiatives for governance. The MoU was signed after a meeting between the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella in Hyderabad, Telangana. The technology provided by the Microsoft would be utilized by state government to check school dropouts, improve agricultural productivity and providing better citizen services. Key features of MoU The MoU seeks to improve use of Information and communications technology (ICT) drive for digital inclusion and provide better IT-based services to citizens. For digital inclusion Microsoft India will provide technical knowledge to Andhra Pradesh Government and support building three proof-of-concept (PoC) solutions. PoC solutions would be supported by applying Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and Advanced Visualization method in the fields of agriculture, eCitizen services and education. These solutions would use the lab method for data gathering, analysis, predictive analysis and policy planning which would be built and deployed to address specific problems within each of the fields to achieve better outcomes for the State. The company will set up a Centre for Excellence (CoE) in Visakhapatnam to train state Government’s key IT executives.

Start Up India, Stand Up India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio broadcast for the year 2015 was far less dramatic than his latest diplomatic flourish of dropping in to see Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore. Apart from an exception in the case of the Land Ordinance, where he went into details of why he allowed it to lapse, and in 2014, the issue of black money, he has chosen not to speak about contemporary controversies, said an official source. Mr. Modi announced Jan. 16 as the date for the launch of his programme to encourage new business, ‘Start Up India, Stand Up India. The rest of his broadcastwas on reaching out to ordinary people and talking on his pet themes such as sanitation. In the last few days, the digital portal, MyGov.in, was flooded with suggestions on what people wanted to hear in his radio address. More than 3,000 suggestions, many of them after Mr. Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore on Christmas day, were received by the portal. Instead, Mr. Modi decided to frame a new nomenclature to refer to the differently abled people and lauded a mason in Madhya Pradesh for donating free labour for building more than 100 toilets in his district. When we look at the differently abled people, we see that while God takes one faculty away, He compensates them by making another more acute. It is like a divine plan, therefore rather calling them Viklang, let us call them Divyang or those with divine abilities. Sources say that while the Prime Minister continues to be the most digitally engaged world leader, sparking four times the number of conversations around his Facebook page than U.S. President Barack Obama, he is very clear about what he chooses for his radio broadcast.

Narendra Modi App

Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited people to connect with him by downloading the ‘Narendra Modi App. During his monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the prime minister said: “Through ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App’ we can connect with each other. It gives me immense pleasure that people tell me a lot of positive things happening.

“Every citizen can connect with me by downloading ‘Narendra Modi App’ on his mobile phone. I would appeal to (you to) get connected through this,” he said. “I have to reach out to 125 crore citizens. How can I reach out to them without your help,” the prime minister added.