1) India rejects Pak proposal to hold FS-level talks on Kashmir
- India on 17th August rejected Pakistan`s proposal to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on Kashmir. It asserted that it would like to discuss aspects related to cross-border terrorism which are central to the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Responding to Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry`s invitation, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar expressed his willingness to travel to Islamabad but maintained Pakistan has no locus standi in addressing any aspect of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which is an internal matter of India.
- India`s response was handed over to Pakistan by Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad Gautam Bambawale. India also rejected the self-serving allegations regarding the situation in J&K in their entirety. On 15th August, Pakistan had invited India for talks on Kashmir, saying it is the international obligation of both the countries to resolve the issue.
2) India inks deal to route petroleum products through Bangladesh
- Current Affairs India has signed a short-term route agreement with Bangladesh to allow transport of petroleum goods from Assam to Tripura through Bangladesh after heavy monsoon damaged roads and made the transportation between the two states difficult. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and the Roads and Highways Department of Bangladesh signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Dhaka on 18th August.
- High Commission of India said in a statement in Dhaka that Government of Bangladesh has granted permission for the movement of petroleum goods on humanitarian grounds through the territory of Bangladesh till September 2016.
- The facilitation extended by the Bangladesh Government under the MoU is expected to improve the situation of shortage of petroleum products in Tripura.
- India made the request following heavy monsoons and extremely bad road conditions of NH 44 have resulted in the disruption in the supply of Petroleum Goods from Assam to Tripura. Both sides have also agreed to extend the transit facility for a further short period on need basis.
3) Niti Aayog inks pact with US EIA to set up portal on energy data
- Current Affairs Niti Aayog on 10th August inked a pact with US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in a step towards setting up a portal to host all the data related to energy sector in the country.
- The web portal will host data including oil & gas, coal, solar & thermal energy etc. On the occasion, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave made a case for having a global energy data grid which clearly specified the use of clean energy across the world to deal with climate change.
- The Minister said that the whole world is one family and universal problems like climate change would need a universal solution to it.
- Niti Aayog also inked an SOP with US Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK`s Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) for collaboration in the area of energy research.