23-Sep-2023-Daily-Current-Affairs

1.GS 2 (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS): SOURCE – THE HINDU

QUAD

Foreign Ministers of the Quad (India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.) reaffirmed the group’s commitment to a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, where disputes are settled in accordance with international law

A new initiative to help countries respond to terror attacks was also discussed.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his counterparts discussed the outcome of the Quad Counterterrorism Working Group’s Consequence Management Exercise, which studied how the Quad could help regional countries that had experienced terror attacks.

The Quad also backed the UN’s efforts to restart the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), a deal that secures the export of grain from Ukraine and Russia.

On Noth Korea, the statement condemned Pyong Yang’s “destabilising” missile launches and pursuit of nuclear weapons. On Myanmar, the Quad supported a transition to an “inclusive federal democracy” and the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus (an April 2021 agreement between the Myanmar junta and the ASEAN group of countries).

2. GS3-(INDIAN ECONOMY) SOURCE– INDIAN EXPRESS

What is global bond index?

• Global bond indices include the emerging debt markets that closely monitor local currency bonds that are issued by governments of various developing nations.
• JP Morgan and Bloomberg–Barclay’s are the popular global bond market indices.
• Significance- Global bond indices help investors track the movement in bonds in multiple jurisdictions and aid in relative comparisons.
• Indices are benchmark or guides to investments by mutual funds, pension funds and other large investors that typically prefer to hold onto investments for longer periods.

Today in news:

• JP Morgan Chase & Co has announced it will include Indian government bonds to its emerging markets bond index from June 2024, a much-anticipated move which could attract more foreign flows into the domestic government securities market.
• Currently, 23 Indian government bonds with a combined notional value of $330 billion are index eligible.
• when there is a demand for investors to buy Indian government bonds denominated in rupees then naturally the demand for rupees will increase and everything else being equal, it will lead to a potential for rupee’s nominal appreciation.
• There will be challenges in terms of the rise in sensitivity of domestic policy to external spillovers.
• Need to keep an eye on what foreign investors would be thinking, what will happen to bond yields, currency, etc. and sometimes, during globally uncertain times, unrelated to Indian macro-fundamentals, there could be volatility in the Indian bond market or in the currency because of the inclusion or holding of Indian G-secs by foreigners.

3.GS2-(INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS) SOURCE -THE INDIAN EXPRESS

PRACHANDA, US, CHINA

• After addressing the UNGA, Nepal’s Prime Minister heads to China. The momentum in ties between Nepal and China has slowed since the bonhomie and cooperation of the pre-pandemic years.
• A large number of Maoist leaders, including Prachanda himself, are accused of murder and grave violations of human rights during the 1996-2006 civil war in Nepal, in which an estimated 17,000 people were killed.

Nepal and United States

• Prachanda’s role as the leader of the violent Maoist insurgency led to his being put on US global watch lists. He was given a restricted travel permit when he addressed the UNGA for the first time as PM in September 2008.
• In 75 years of the bilateral relationship, the US has played a major role in Nepal’s health, education, and agriculture sectors, mostly through USAID.
• Oli’s tenure saw a massive shift in Nepal’s relationship with India, China, and the US. With a strong sentiment against India in the country, Oli’s government signed trade and transit agreements with China that gave Nepal access to the sea in the north.
• China also asked Nepal to select projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and of a list of 35 possible projects.
• China is keen to enlarge its presence, investments and interests in Nepal to counter or neutralise the US and India in the country and region
• India has burnt its fingers a few times in Nepal, and bilateral relations have witnessed major changes over the years. Some unique, fundamental features of the bilateral relationship are now in retreat.

To read more-https://www.livemint.com/news/india/will-strive-to-take-india-nepal-ties-to-himalayan-heights-says-modi-11685633832852.html

4.GS 2 (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS) SOURCE – THE HINDU

ECONOMIC AND FINNANCIAL WORKING GROUP (US AND CHINA)

• The U.S. Treasury Department and China’s Ministry of Finance launched a pair of economic working groups on Friday in an effort to ease tensions and deepen ties between the nations.
• The working groups will “establish a durable channel of communication between the world’s two largest economies,
• China is one of the United States’ biggest trading partners, and economic competition between the two nations has increased in recent years
• Areas of disagreement between the nations have included tariffs, technology and China’s claims to self-governing Taiwan and large parts of the South and East China Seas.
• Tensions between the countries reached a fever pitch earlier this year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted traveling over sensitive U.S. airspace.
• The U.S. last year moved to block exports of advanced computer chips to China, an action meant to quell China’s ability to create advanced military systems including weapons of mass destruction

5.GS 2 (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS) SOURCE -THE HINDU

EXTERNAL AFFAIR MINISTERS VISIT TO US

• Nine-day visit to the U.S., to address the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and for bilateral and plurilateral meetings in New York and Washington DC.
• The Minister’s visit comes at the end of a tumultuous week in international relations, with the Indian and Canadian governments engaged in a diplomatic brawl over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June this year.
• A number of heads of state and government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are not attending this year’s UN ‘High Level Week’.
• Jaishankar is scheduled to attend a special event, ‘India UN for Global South: Delivering for Development’

6.GS2- (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS) SOURCE -THE HINDU

INDIA AND WEST ASIA

• At the G-20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month, United States President Joe Biden and others unveiled a U.S.-backed infrastructure project to connect India, West Asia and Europe with shipping lanes, rail networks, pipelines and data cables
• Biden’s West Asia strategy has two parts.
• One is the continuation of the Trump-era policy of bringing America’s two pillars in the region — the Gulf Arabs and Israel — closer to meet their common geopolitical challenges such as Iran’s rise.
• The Abraham Accords reached under Mr. Trump’s tutelage set the stage for the transformation of Israel’s ties with the United Arab Emirates.
• But the true potential of this policy would not be reached unless there is a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, arguably the most influential Arab country today.
• The second part of Mr. Biden’s approach is to reassure America’s friends and allies that the U.S. is not exiting West Asia. In 2012, leaders of India, Israel, the U.S. and the UAE held a virtual summit of what is now called the I2U2 Mini lateral. The idea behind I2U2 is to create a new platform that could expedite economic integration between West Asia and South Asia and offer economic and technological solutions to the problems faced by the Global South.
• India’s presence in a grouping of the Abraham Accords countries was seen as a legitimate recognition of India’s presence in the region.
• The U.S. may not want to exit West Asia, but it has deprioritized the region in terms of its security commitments as its focus has shifted back to Eastern Europe and East Asia

Multiple avenues for India

• For India, the U.S.-China competition in West Asia opens new avenues of engagement. The U.S. sees India, with its size, the size of its economy and the legacy of its historical engagement and cultural connect with the region, as an important partner in its bid to continue to shape West’s Asia’s geopolitics.
• The ‘Middle East Corridor’ would open another economic channel. India’s overall policy towards the region should stay anchored in this idea of multi-engagement — not in appeasing or containing any great power.
• With or without the U.S., or irrespective of China’s presence in the region, India should strive to play a major geopolitical role in West Asia,