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For India 🇮🇳 it should be Neighbourhood First 👥

While other geopolitical issues are important, New Delhi must give South Asia its fullest attention As India’s salience in global matters grows — amply demonstrated recently by the presence of 10 leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at India’s Republic Day celebrations, the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest forays to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Palestine — its leaders also need to contemplate and reflect deeply on what is happening in India’s immediate neighbourhood. 🔹In the vicinity Far more than East, South-east Asia, or West Asia, it is India’s immediate neighbourhood that directly impacts it geopolitically, geo-strategically and geoeconomically. Whatever be the ambit of India’s reach elsewhere, India’s principal focus, hence, will need to be on this neighbourhood. India can afford to live with demands such as t...
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Daily Current Affairs including static notes - 12 JUNE

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‘Govt. set to unveil 500 cr. credit enhancement fund (GS 3 Eco) The government is set to unveil a 500-crore credit enhancement fund next month to facilitate infrastructure investments by insurance and pension funds. Details:  India is launching a dedicated fund to provide credit enhancement for infrastructure projects which will help in upgrading credit ratings of bonds issued by infrastructure companies and facilitate investment from investors like pension and insurance funds. The initial corpus of the fund, to be sponsored by IIFCL (India Infrastructure Finance Company), will be 500 crore, and it will operate as a non-banking finance company. There is a “mismatch” at present, where bonds floated by infrastructure finance firms are typically rated BBB, whereas regulatory agencies mandate a rating of at least ‘AA’ for investments by the long-term pension and insurance funds. IIFCL will hold a 22.5% stake in the NBFC, while the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AII...
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Adopting a Wait & Watch 👁‍🗨 approach

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit this month was a subdued affair compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tehran last May. The reason is the differing preoccupations in both countries. The future of the Iran- P5+1-European Union (EU) nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), concluded in 2015, has a Damocles’ sword hanging over it, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s visceral opposition to it. In addition, Iran is focussed on developments in Syria and Yemen. For India, dealing with China’s growing footprint in the Indo-Pacific and challenges in its immediate SAARC neighbourhood assume priority. Yet, there is a geographical dynamic that creates its compulsions for both countries. 🔹A short-lived convergence It was geography that created the 2,000 years of cultural and civilisational connect that Mr. Modi had sought to highlight during his visit last year. During the 1950-60s, differences persisted on account of ...
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NEET nostrums

👉The national medical entrance test is here to stay; States must prepare their students better👈 There was no uncertainty over the medical admission process this year in Tamil Nadu. There were no attempts to get an exemption from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). And, willy-nilly, as many as 1.14 lakh aspirants took the examination that has been made mandatory by the Supreme Court as the sole admission window for medical colleges. Yet, the poor performance of students from Tamil Nadu in the entrance test has demonstrated that the State is still far from being ‘NEET-ready’. It is true that a well-intentioned beginning has been made to upgrade the syllabus and to make students more competitive. However, only 45,336 candidates, or 39.6% of those who took the test, qualified for admission. Along with Maharashtra, this is the lowest ratio in the country. What is important is that these candidates are merely eligible for admission, and far fewer students are actually li...
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Mahathir’s challenge: on the Malaysian general election

👉Will the corruption scandal be the undoing of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak?👈 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has many things going for him in the May 9 general election, but whether they will suffice in the face of a corruption scandal is an open question. With the economy growing at 6%, helped along by lavish infrastructure spending, Malaysia’s overall outlook could not appear more robust. But Mr. Razak’s opponent and erstwhile mentor, the 92-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is hoping to exploit the incumbent’s links to a billion-dollar corruption scandal in a state investment fund. The battle lines have been sharply drawn, but there possibly exists an advantage for the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front), led by the United Malays National Organisation, insofar as it has had a long record in office. Also, almost 70% of the population are bumiputras, mainly Malays and other indigenous groups, that have traditionally voted for the UMNO. This grou...
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