1. PM Modi to launch Indias first Ro Ro ferry service in Gujarat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday inaugurate the first phase of the Ghogha-Dahej Ro-Ro ferry service between Saurashtra and the South Gujarat region of his home state.
This is Modi’s third visit to Gujarat, where assembly elections are to be called in coming days.
A few things to know about the “roll-on, roll-off” (Ro-Ro) ferry service described by Modi as his dream project:
1. The Rs 615 crore Ro-Ro ferry service will connect Ghogha in Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar district with Dahej in Bharuch district across the Gulf of Khambhat, also known as the Gulf of Cambay, along the Arabian sea coast.
2. The service is expected to reduce the distance between the two coastal towns from 310km by road to 30 km, saving time and money. The travel time will be cut by at least five hours.
3. The service will come particularly handy for those working in the diamond cutting and polishing hub of Surat in South Gujarat, as most of these workers belong to the Saurashtra region in the western part of the state.
4. The first phase to be inaugurated on Sunday would be a passenger-only service, Ajay Bhadoo, the chief executive officer of Gujarat Maritime Board that is executing the Ro-Ro project, said.
5 In the second phase, which would be ready in two months, cars, too, would be carried between the two towns.
6. In the final phase, ferries would be able to carry trucks as well.
7. The service was thought of in early 1960s but the foundation stone was laid in 2012 by Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
2. Nirmala Sitharaman Left for Philippines to Attend Southeast Asian Defence Ministers’ Meeting.
In her first foreign visit as defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman will travel to the Philippines on Monday to attend a Southeast Asian defence ministers’ meeting which is likely to review the regional security architecture including China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
During her three-day visit, Sitharaman is likely to hold bilateral talks with her counterparts from a number of countries, defence ministry officials said. The ADMM (ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting)-Plus meeting on 23 and 24 October is expected to deliberate extensively on the situation in Afghanistan and Syria besides China’s growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea.
The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region. The two-day meeting will discuss ways to enhance defence and security cooperation among the member nations to effectively counter various transnational security challenges facing the region.
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Sitharaman is likely to assert India’s position on the issues at the gathering. China claims sovereignty over all of South China Sea, a huge source of hydrocarbons. However, a number of ASEAN member countries including Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei have counter claims. India has been supporting freedom of navigation and access to resources in the South China Sea in accordance with principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The ADMM-plus is also likely to discuss enhancing maritime cooperation among the member countries, officials said.
The inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi in 2010. The defence ministers then had agreed on five areas of practical cooperation to pursue under the new mechanism, including maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping operations.
3. HSBC Appoints Jayant Rikhye as CEO India.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) today announced the appointment of Jayant Rikhye as the chief executive officer for India. The appointment would be effective from December 1 subject to regulatory approvals, HSBC said in a statement.
In his new role, Rikhye will lead HSBC’s next phase of growth in the country, where he first joined the Group in 1989, it said.
An HSBC Group General Manager, Rikhye is currently Head of International, Asia-Pacific, responsible for 11 markets in the region. He succeeds Stuart Milne, who is also a Group General Manager, after five years in the role, it said.
During his career with HSBC, he worked in a number of countries and territories in a variety of functions, including corporate banking in Taiwan, institutional fund services in Hong Kong and Head of securities services for the Middle East and North Africa, based in the United Arab Emirates.
4. Rakesh Asthana Appointed as CBI Special Director.
In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the government on Sunday promoted senior IPS officers Rakesh Asthana and Gurbachan Singh as Special Directors of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) respectively.
Deepak Kumar Mishra and Sudeep Lakhtakia have been promoted as Special DG in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Rajesh Ranjan and A.P. Maheshwari have been promoted to the ranks of Special DG in the Border Security Force (BSF).
This was announced by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training.
Gurbachan Singh was earlier Additional Director in IB and Asthana was Additional Director in CBI.
Lakhtakia and Mishra were earlier Additional DG in CRPF, while Ranjan and Maheshwari were Additional DG in the Border Security Force (BSF).
5. IPPB appoints Suresh Sethi as its MD & CEO.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) appointed Suresh Sethi as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer on Monday.
Sethi had been selected by the Banks Board Bureau from top contenders for the post, including public and private sector banking and fintech professionals, the company said in a statement.
He was the former Managing Director of Vodafone M-Pesa and has broad international experience of over 27 years in the banking and financial services industry with Citigroup and YES Bank, across India, Kenya, the UK, Argentina and the US.
He has also worked in the financial inclusion space, where he leveraged digital-led innovation. Sethi takes over from AP Singh, who has been the interim Managing Director and CEO of IPPB since January.
IPPB has been incorporated as a public limited company under the Department of Posts with 100 per cent Government of India equity.
The company plans to leverage the reach of the India Post network to achieve a pan-India rollout of 650 branches by early next year.
6. Shri Ngangom Sarat Singh appointed as member of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for Manipur and Mizoram.
Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri R.K. Singh administered oath of office and secrecy to Shri Ngangom Sarat Singh, here today, on his appointment as member of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for Manipur and Mizoram. The JERC is a two-member Commission, each member representing the respective participating State.
Shri Ngangom Sarat Singh has been appointed as the member from the Manipur side for a period of 5 years, with effect from the date of his taking charge of the post or till he attains the age of 65 years, whichever is the earliest.
Shri Ngangom Sarat Singh holds B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and has retired from the post of Superintending Engineer (Electrical) in the Electricity Department of Government of Manipur.
7. Union Government appoints ex-IB chief Dineshwar Sharma as interlocutor.
The government on Monday said it has decided to start a sustained dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing a hurriedly-convened press conference, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said former director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Dineshwar Sharma would be the central government’s representative to initiate dialogue with all stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir.
Who is Dineshwar Sharma?
Dineshwar Sharma, a 1979-batch (retired) Indian Police Service officer of Kerala cadre, served as the IB director between December 2014 and 2016. Sharma was the head of state Intelligence Bureau of Uttar Pradesh when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was the chief minister, along with heading the “X” branch, which looks after all the vital intelligence collection in the country, including the political desk.
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Originally from Bihar, Sharma never served in his home state. He did his primary education from Pali village in Bihar and later went to Gaya for his graduation. He first qualified for Indian Forest Service and later for IPS. Sharma was the third officer from Bihar after former CBI director Anil Kumar Sinha and former SPG IG Vivek Srivastava to head a central agency.
Sharma had also worked with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during the latter’s stint as the IB chief.
Interlocutor for a sustained dialogue in J&K
Sharma, who will be visitng the state in 8-10 days, told news agency ANI, “It’s a big responsibility, hope I live up to expectations.” The former IB chief cleared that his priority is to find a permanent solution and restore peace in J&K.
8. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrives in India.
India will host Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday for consultations on stabilizing his war-torn country as well as coordinating strategy amid separate moves by countries in the region to broker peace between Kabul and the Taliban rebels.
Ghani is the third among a list of key visitors from Afghanistan in the past several weeks—chief executive Abdullah Abdullah and foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani were in India last month. India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval was in Kabul on 16 October to meet his counterpart Hanif Atmar.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson will also arrive in India on Tuesday, almost two months after the US unveiled a revamped strategy to defeat the Taliban in which India is seen as key to bringing economic stability to Afghanistan.
On Monday, Tillerson made a surprise stopover in Afghanistan to discuss Washington’s new strategy with Ghani, the US embassy in Kabul said. Tillerson reiterated the US’ commitment to working with the Kabul government and regional partners “to achieve peace in Afghanistan and deny safe havens to terrorists who threaten that goal,” a statement posted by the embassy on Twitter said.
A statement from the Indian foreign ministry said Ghani will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.
“Both sides will have the opportunity to review the entire gamut of the multifaceted bilateral strategic partnership, including the New Development Partnership; hold consultations and coordinate on furthering the shared objective of promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and efforts to combat the menace of terrorism; and discuss regional and global issues of mutual interest,” the statement said.
Ghani’s visit comes amid moves by the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan to revive peace talks with the Taliban. The four countries—known as the Quadrilateral Coordination Group—met in Oman’s capital Muscat last week after a previous round of talks in Islamabad early last year. The group has been trying to ease the path to direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban, with little success.
Another group of countries led by Russia and including Pakistan and China, has also been trying to broker peace between Kabul and the Taliban.
The frequency of attacks by the Taliban showed a sharp spurt last week with 56 people being killed in one incident alone on Friday,
“There are a lot of diplomatic moves being made vis-a-vis Afghanistan and there appears to be a a much higher degree of coordination between Afghanistan and India and I would see the Ashraf Ghani visit in this context,” said Sushant Sareen, a Pakistan-Afghanistan analyst with the Vivekananda International Foundation think tank in New Delhi.
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“Afghanistan is keeping India in the loop on recent developments like the talks in Oman,” Sareen said, noting that Russia’s special envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov was in New Delhi for consultations in September. “These developments show that India now is a country that cannot be ignored when it comes to discussing Afghanistan’s future,” he added.
Once left out of consultations on Afghanistan thanks to its rivalry with Pakistan, India was in August named by US President Donald Trump as a country that the US looked to for stabilizing Afghanistan economically. Trump in his speech also berated Pakistan for providing safe havens to the Taliban and affiliated groups on its soil.
India has considered Afghanistan as part of its extended neighbourhood and extended $3.1 billion in aid to the country. Last month, India announced 116 new high-impact projects in Afghanistan with the aim of shoring up goodwill. New Delhi hopes to have a neutral government in Afghanistan that will not tilt towards Pakistan, while Islamabad is keen to have a government in Kabul that it can fall back on, in case of a war with India.
“The messaging from these visits from Kabul, from the US and from Russia to Pakistan is that India will be involved when discussing the future of Afghanistan. Some countries like Russia and India may not be on the same page on the challenge posed by the Taliban but nevertheless, India will be consulted and it very much has a role to play in Afghanistan,” Sareen said.
9. Scott Fleming Joins NBA India as Head of Basketball Operations.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced Scott Fleming, former India men’s national team head coach, has joined NBA India as Head of Basketball Operations. He will oversee the league’s youth and elite basketball development in India, including the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program, NBA Academy India and NBA Basketball School.
Fleming, who was earlier head coach of the Crusaders Basketball team at the Northwest Nazarene University, served as India men’s head coach from 2012-2015. He spend two years as an assistant coach for Texas Legends of the NBA G League, the NBA’s official minor league.
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He has 25 years collegiate coaching experience, including 20 seasons as head coach and athletic director at Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Ohio), where he won two National Coach of the Year awards and a Christian College National Championship.
Fleming said: “Basketball in India is poised for significant growth, and the NBA has done a tremendous job increasing participation in the sport in India. I am thrilled to be back in India, a country that holds a special place in my heart, to help expand the NBA initiatives and the talent level across the country”
The NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training centre at Jaypee Greens Integrated Sports Complex for the top male and female prospects, officially opened May 9 for top elite male prospects from throughout the country. It builds on the NBA’s existing basketball and youth development initiatives in India.