Asia
Maldives govt comes down heavily on “India Out” slogan, reaffirms ties with Delhi
Maldives has strongly rejected attempts to spread false information through media and across social media platforms, using the so-called “India Out” slogan, alleging that bilateral cooperation between the Governments of Maldives and India undermines the national security and sovereignty of Maldives reported the Economic Times.
“The Government reaffirms that the country’s long-standing ties with all its international partners are based on principles of mutual respect and understanding, and in accordance with respective national and international law. Such interactions in the international sphere does not, and will not undermine the Maldives' independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. In fact, they are designed to enhance the Maldives’ national interests, and deliver for the people of the Maldives,” according to a Maldives Govt statement.
“As such, the Government believes that false allegations regarding ties with one of the country’s key bilateral partners, are misguided and unsubstantiated. The Government firmly believes that these views are not the sentiments of the general public, but rather that of a small group of individuals with the objective of tarnishing the country’s long-standing cordial ties with India,” the statement added.
“The strong bilateral relationship between the Maldives and India is based on shared historical and cultural ties, matched by dynamic people to people contact. India has always been the Maldives’ closest ally and trusted neighbour, extending constant and consistent support to the people of Maldives on all fronts.”
The cooperation and support provided by the Government of India, specifically on issues of maritime security, is aimed at strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries and to ensure the safety and stability of the Indian Ocean region. Support provided by India, on areas such as search and rescue capabilities, casualty evacuation, coastal surveillance, and maritime reconnaissance, directly benefit the Maldivian people. The Government of Maldives has also established partnerships with other countries in similar areas of cooperation, to enhance technical and strategic capacities, according to the statement.
Addressing the ever-growing threats of trans-boarder terrorism, piracy, narco-trafficking as well as non-traditional security threats such as climate change, cyber security and human trafficking, requires the support and cooperation of all regional and international partners.
“The Government of Maldives urges all parties to act responsibly, and refrain from spreading false information that undermines the country’s relations with its neighbours, and the international community. The Government urges media outlets to fully commit to professional standards of journalism in reporting such information.”
“The Government of Maldives would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate the gratitude of the Government and the people of the Maldives for the countless assistance provided by India over the years, particularly, on instances such as the 1988 mercenary attack on the country, the 2004 Asian Tsunami, the 2015 Male’ water crisis and during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. India will always remain a true and a trusted friend of the people of the Maldives,” the statement affirmed.
It may be recalled that India-Maldives ties have achieved phenomenal success in last two years with New Delhi backed projects being implemented at a record pace.
UBS revises India GDP forecast to 9.5% from 8.9% for FY22
Citing faster-than-expected recovery, rising consumer confidence and the resultant spending spike, Swiss brokerage UBS Securities has revised upwards its growth forecast for the current fiscal to 9.5 per cent from 8.9 per cent in September, reported the Economic Times.
The brokerage also sees the economy clipping at 7.7 per cent in FY23 but moderating to 6 per cent in FY24, as it expects the benefit of the low-interest rate regime to end by the end of FY23, and it sees the central bank hiking policy rates by 50 bps in the second half of the next fiscal.
The Reserve Bank also forecasts 9.5 per cent GDP growth this fiscal while the average projection ranges from 8.5 to 10 per cent. The government projection is around 10 per cent.
The GDP grew 20.1 per cent in the June quarter of FY22.
In its September review, UBS said on a seasonally adjusted sequential basis, the real GDP declined by 12.4 per cent in the June quarter against the -26 per cent in the same period last year.
Therefore, we maintain the base case estimate of GDP growth at 8.9 per cent in FY22 compared to the consensus of 9.2 per cent against the deeper 7.3 per cent contraction in FY21, UBS Securities said.
The economy is bouncing back on progressive reopening, and the recovery from the second wave has been more pronounced than what we anticipated, Tanvee Gupta Jain, the chief economist at UBS Securities India said on Wednesday. Therefore pencilled in a higher-than-expected GDP run this fiscal.
Without giving an exact number, she said the economy will grow by 9-10 per cent in Q3 and 6-6.5 per cent in Q4 this fiscal, leading to higher overall full-year growth.
Gupta-Jain told reporters in a concall that she sees real GDP clipping at 9.5 per cent this fiscal, up from 8.9 per cent forecast earlier, 7.7 per cent in FY23 -- which is more optimistic than the consensus 7.4 per cent for the year, but the growth momentum will moderate to 6 per cent in FY24 as the output gap will remain negative amidst the global growth engine slowing down.
Their optimism comes from their internal UBS India Activity Indicator data, which suggest economic activity has improved sequentially by an average of 16.8 per cent in the September quarter after contracting 11 per cent in the June quarter. Even for October, the indicator was up 3.1 per cent month-on-month on the festive demand bounce.
The brokerage bases the more-than-consensus growth optimism on the following: though consumption growth may moderate measures to boost public Capex and early signs of a recovery in the residential real estate sector may offset some of the adverse impacts.
Similarly, exports could also moderate next year from the very high rates this year due to a shift from goods to service consumption at the global level as the pandemic recedes.
They also see a potential credit accelerator effect in the country aiding the recovery. The baseline assumption is that activity continues to normalise, and remaining mobility restrictions are gradually removed.
Downside risks to the outlook include the following: a mutant virus that is resistant to vaccines is the biggest downside risk, as it may leave the government no choice but to begin new mobility restrictions, another could be a more than the expected spike in inflation and the resultant hike in repo rates to the tune of 75 bps next fiscal. If both materialise, then FY23 growth will be much lower at 5 per cent, she said.
And the upsides would be a successful and timely implementation of the recently announced structural reforms boosting growth beyond our baseline forecast, which will also lead to the economy closing the output gap faster.
According to the brokerage, potential growth has slowed to 5.75-6.25 per cent currently compared to over 7 per cent in 2017, due to longer-than-expected disruption caused by the pandemic and balance sheet concerns faced by economic agents.
Beyond FY22, Gupta-Jain believes Capex, especially infrastructure spending, manufacturing and exports will be the next key growth drivers.
On inflation, she expects CPI to decelerate to 4.8 per cent in FY23 from 5.4 per cent in FY22, assuming the RBI gradually starts unwinding its ultra-easy policy as the economic recovery gains momentum. In a base case scenario, she expects a policy rate hike of 50 bps in H2 FY23.
On the fiscal front, she expects the government to remain committed to fiscal consolidation and narrow the deficit to 8.8 per cent in FY23 from 10.1 per cent in FY22.
Disappointing debut for India's biggest e-payments unicorn Paytm
India's digital payments unicorn Paytm, backed by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma's Ant Group, Japan's Softbank and US investor Warren Buffett, made a muted debut on the bourses on Thursday, 10 days after the company launched the country's biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO).
Scrips of the e-payments unicorn plunged over 28 percent on both the country's bourses -- the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) -- on market debut, making retail investors nervous and industry watchers questioning its whopping valuation of USD 20 billion.
Paytm's listing price was Rs 1,955 and Rs 1,950 on BSE and NSE, respectively, as against the offer price of Rs 2,150. NSE's flagship NIFTY 50 index is used by domestic and global investors as a barometer of the Indian capital markets.
Also read: E-payments unicorn Paytm launches India's biggest-ever IPO
India's youngest dollar billionaire Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who founded Paytm in 2010, was quick to allay the fears of the market.
"One day's loss does not represent the whole picture. We have to do a good job in explaining the Paytm business model... This is just the first day. We are growing (in terms of) revenue, we are growing (in terms of) margin. We are expanding and we will continue to expand. It is a multiple Test match series, it's not over if one or two wickets are lost.""The market deserves a good quality company... (that) creates good revenue," he said, urging investors to understand the business model of the e-payments firm that also offers services "like insurance and gold sales, movie and flight tickets, and bank deposits and remittances".
Sharma, the man behind Paytm, is a self-made businessman. Until the age of 15, he had no English skills and he learnt the language by listening to rock music. "That sort of gave me an underdog-ish feeling. And I think that over the period, I have championed underdog-ism. And I feel that I want to be the best underdog story out of India," he said in a 2018 interview.
Paytm's stock market debut comes barely three and a half months after India's food delivery giant Zomato became the country's first new-age technology unicorn to list on the bourses. Its listing price was Rs 115 and Rs 116 on BSE and NSE, respectively, as against the offer price of Rs 76.
New Delhi's air still 'very poor' despite emergency measures
Air pollution remained extremely high in the Indian capital on Thursday, a day after authorities closed schools indefinitely and shut some power stations to reduce smog that has blanketed the city for much of the month.
New Delhi’s air quality remained “very poor,” according to SAFAR, India’s main environmental monitoring agency. The concentration of tiny airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter — known as PM 2.5 — neared 300 micrograms per cubic meter in some parts of the city, it said.
The World Health Organization designates the maximum safe level as 25. The tiny particles can lodge in the lungs and other organs, causing long-term health damage.
New Delhi, a city of 20 million, is one of the world’s most polluted cities. Air quality often hits hazardous levels during the winter, when the burning of crop residue in neighboring states coincides with lower temperatures that trap smoke. The smoke travels to New Delhi, obscuring the sky.
Read: Schools, plants close as Indian capital is smothered by smog
Emergency measures went into effect on Wednesday in an attempt to stem the health crisis.
Schools were closed indefinitely and employees were asked to allow half of their staff to work from home for a week. Some coal-based power stations outside New Delhi were ordered to shut down and construction activities were halted.
The measures, however, are expected to have very little effect.
Meanwhile, the New Delhi state government is weighing whether to lock down the capital after India’s Supreme Court last week sought an “imminent and emergency” action plan to tackle the crisis.
The PM 2.5 concentration has soared to nearly 15 times above the WHO's safe level on many days in November and forecasters warn the pollution is likely to get worse in the coming days.
Read: India opens to vaccinated foreign tourists after 18 months
New Delhi’s pollution woes are due to various causes.
Auto emissions contribute nearly 25% of the city’s pollution in the winter, according to the federal government. Other sources of air pollution include emissions from industries, smoke from firecrackers linked to festivals, construction dust and agricultural burning.
Several studies have estimated that more than a million Indians die each year from air pollution-related diseases.
In 2020, 13 of the world's 15 cities with the most polluted air were in India, according to the Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir.
Five relatives of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput die in India accident
Five members of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's family have been killed in a road accident in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
The accident occurred on Tuesday when nine relatives of Sushant were returning to Jamui district from state capital Patna on a sports utility vehicle (SUV) after attending the last rites of another relative.
Read: Schools, plants close as Indian capital is smothered by smog
"A speeding truck coming from the opposite direction rammed the SUV in the Halsi area of Lakhisarai, in which 10 people, including the driver, were travelling," police officer Awadhesh Kumar told the local media.
"The impact of the crash was such that six occupants -- the five relatives of Sushant and the driver -- died on the spot. The truck driver managed to flee the spot," he said.
Four other relatives sustained injuries in the accident and were admitted to hospitals in Lakhisarai and Jamui, the officer said. "We suspect that the SUV driver dozed off at the wheel."
The deceased were identified as Laljit Singh, his two sons -- Ram Chandra Singh and Amit Shekhar -- daughter Baby Kumari and niece Anita Devi, as well as SUV driver Pritam Kumar.
Read:India opens to vaccinated foreign tourists after 18 months
An FIR for rash and negligent driving has been filed against the truck driver. "Efforts are on to nab the driver of the killer vehicle," the police officer said.
Sushant was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his Mumbai flat on June 14 last year. An autopsy revealed the 34-year-old took his own life. A federal investigative agency probe also confirmed the autopsy report.
Schools, plants close as Indian capital is smothered by smog
Schools were closed indefinitely and some coal-based power plants shut down as the smog-shrouded Indian capital and neighboring states invoked harsh measures Wednesday to combat worsening air pollution after an order from the federal environment ministry.
The measures come as India’s top court is deliberating whether New Delhi should go into a lockdown as a blanket of thick, gray smog continued to envelope the city, particularly in the mornings. The panel issued the guidelines on Tuesday night to stem the pollution and to show residents that the government was taking action to control an environmental crisis that has been plaguing the capital for years.
Read: Dhaka’s air quality still ‘unhealthy’
Besides the closure of schools, the Commission for Air Quality Management ordered a stop to construction activities until Nov. 21 and banned trucks carrying non-essential goods. The panel also directed the states to "encourage" work from home for half of the employees in all private offices.
Despite some improvement in New Delhi air over the past two days, readings of dangerous particles Wednesday were still as high as seven times the safe level, climbing above 300 micrograms per cubic meter in some parts of the city.
The World Health Organization designates the safe level for the tiny, poisonous particles at 25.
Forecasters warned air quality would worsen before the arrival of cold winds next week that will blow away the smog.
US spl envoy discusses Afghanistan with top Indian officials
Visiting US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West on Tuesday held high-level talks with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the country's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in the national capital.
After the two meetings, Indian External Affairs Ministry said that the top officials exchanged views on recent developments and issues of common interest in war-torn Afghanistan.
"Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla met US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West @US4AfghanPeace and exchanged views on recent developments and issues of common interest in Afghanistan,” Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.
Also read: US urged to help more people escape Taliban-led Afghanistan
India was among several countries that evacuated their diplomatic staff from Kabul when the Taliban took over the Afghan capital on August 15, with the US troops ending their 20-year military presence in the South Asian country. The same day, India stopped flight services with Afghanistan.
However, exactly two weeks later, India began direct communication with the Taliban. The country's envoy in Qatar, Deepak Mittal, held talks with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Taliban's Political Office, in the Indian Embassy in the Gulf state's capital Doha, according to the Foreign Ministry.
At that meeting, Ambassador Mittal had raised India's concern that Afghanistan's soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner, "to which Abbas Stanekzai assured him that these issues would be positively addressed", the Ministry had said.
Also read: Allow unimpeded aid into Afghanistan, say NSAs in Delhi Declaration
India is worried about the security situation in Afghanistan, given it has already infused over three billion USD worth development aid into that country and the horrific memories of the Taliban's role in the hijacking of an Indian airliner in 1999.
At the time too, the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was in power, led by then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection
Outside a Shiite shrine in Kabul, four armed Taliban fighters stood guard on a recent Friday as worshippers filed in for weekly prayers. Alongside them was a guard from Afghanistan’s mainly Shiite Hazara minority, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.
It was a sign of the strange, new relationship brought by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The Taliban, Sunni hard-liners who for decades targeted the Hazaras as heretics, are now their only protection against a more brutal enemy: the Islamic State group.
Sohrab, the Hazara guard standing watch over the Abul Fazl al-Abbas Shrine, told The Associated Press that he gets along fine with the Taliban guards. “They even pray in the mosque sometimes,” he said, giving only his first name for security reasons.
Not everyone feels so comfortable.
Syed Aqil, a young Hazara visiting the ornate shrine along with his wife and 8-month-old daughter, was disturbed that many of the Taliban still wear their traditional garb — the look of a jihadi insurgent — rather than a police uniform.
Read: US urged to help more people escape Taliban-led Afghanistan
“We can’t even tell if they are Taliban or Daesh,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Since seizing power three months ago, the Taliban have presented themselves as more moderate, compared with their first rule in the late 1990s when they violently repressed the Hazaras and other ethnic groups. Courting international recognition, they vow to protect the Hazaras as a show of their acceptance of the country’s minorities.
But many Hazaras still deeply distrust the insurgents-turned-rulers, who are overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtu, and are convinced they will never accept them as equals in Afghanistan. Hazara community leaders say they have met repeatedly with Taliban leadership, asking to take part in the government, only to be shunned. Hazaras complain individual fighters still discriminate against them and fear it’s only a matter of time before the Taliban revert to repression.
“In comparison to their previous rule, the Taliban are a little better,” said Mohammed Jawad Gawhari, a Hazara cleric who runs an organization helping the poor.
“The problem is that there is not a single law. Every individual Talib is their own law right now,” he said. “So people live in fear of them.”
Some changes from the previous era of Taliban rule are clear. After their August takeover, the Taliban allowed Shiites to perform their religious ceremonies, such as the annual Ashura procession.
The Taliban initially confiscated weapons that Hazaras had used, with permission from the previous government to guard some of their own mosques in Kabul. But after devastating IS bombings of Shiite mosques in Kandahar and Kunduz provinces in October, the Taliban returned the weapons in most cases, Gawhari and other community leaders said. The Taliban also provide their own fighters as guards for some mosques during Friday prayers.
“We are providing a safe and secure environment for everyone, especially the Hazaras,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “They should be in Afghanistan. Leaving the country is not good for anyone.”
Read: Bangladesh condemns bomb-laden drone attack in Saudi Arabia
The Hazaras’ turning to Taliban protection shows how terrified the community is of the Islamic State group, which they say aims to exterminate them. In past years, IS has attacked the Hazaras more ruthlessly than the Taliban ever did, unleashing bombings against Hazara schools, hospitals and mosques, killing hundreds.
IS is also a shared enemy. Though they are Sunni hard-liners like the Taliban, IS militants are waging an insurgency, with frequent attacks on Taliban fighters.
Some Hazara leaders see a potential for cooperation. Ahmed Ali al-Rashed, a senior Hazara cleric, praised the Taliban commanders who now run the main police station in Dashti Barchi, the sprawling district of west Kabul dominated by Hazaras.
“If all Taliban were like them, Afghanistan would be like a garden of flowers,” he said.
Others in Dashti Barchi were skeptical the Taliban will ever change.
Marzieh Mohammedi, whose husband was killed five years ago in fighting with the Taliban, said she’s afraid every time she sees them patrolling Dashti Barchi.
“How can they protect us? We can’t trust them. We feel like they are Daesh,” she said.
The differences are partly religious. But also Hazaras, who make up an estimated 10% of Afghanistan’s population of nearly 40 million, are ethnically distinct and speak a variant of Farsi rather than Pashtu. They have a long history of being oppressed by the ethnic Pashtu majority, some of whom stereotype them as intruders.
Aqil said that when he tried to go to a police station for a document, the Taliban guard at the gate only spoke Pashtu and impatiently slammed the door in his face. He had to come back later with a Pashtu-speaking colleague.
“This sort of situation makes me lose hope in the future,” he said. “They don’t know us. They are not broadminded to accept other communities. They act as if they are the owners of this country.”
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A young Hazara woman, Massoumeh, said four people were killed last month in her part of Dashti Barchi, raising residents’ fears that people with roles in the previous government were targets.
She went with a community delegation led by a local elder to the area’s Taliban police station to discuss security. The only woman in the delegation, she had to wait in the yard while the others met with the district commander, who she said tried to blame the security failings on the local elder. As the delegation left, a guard told them not to bring a woman with them again, she said.
“How can you keep security in Afghanistan if you can’t keep security in our village?” she said.
The 21-year-old Massoumeh was a nurse at Dashti Barchi’s main hospital in 2020 when IS gunmen stormed the maternity ward, killing at least 24 people, mostly mothers who were pregnant or had just given birth — one of the militants’ most horrific attacks.
Since then, she has been too afraid to return to work because of death threats after she spoke about the attack on Afghan TV. Soon after the attack, two militants approached her on a bus late at night, picking her out using a photo on their phone, and pulled a gun on her, warning her not to go back to work, she said. She and her father still get threatening phone calls, she said.
Police under the previous government gave her some protection, she said. But she doesn’t even bother to ask the Taliban police for help.
“Of course not. We are afraid of them,” she said. “No one will come and help us.”
Other events in the Hazaras’ central Afghanistan heartland have raised the community’s concerns. In Daikundi province, Taliban fighters killed 11 Hazara soldiers and two civilians, including a teenage girl, in August, according to Amnesty International. Taliban officials also expelled Hazara families from several Daikundi villages after accusing them of living on land that didn’t belong to them.
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After an uproar from Hazaras, further expulsions were halted, Gawhari and other community leaders said.
But so far, the Taliban have rejected repeated requests from the Hazaras for a say in government. Gawhari, the cleric, said a Hazara delegation approached the Taliban and proposed 50 Hazara experts and academics to be brought into the administration. “They were not interested,” he said.
The international community is pressing the Taliban to form a government that reflects Afghanistan’s ethnic, religious and political spectrum, including women. The Taliban’s Cabinet is comprised entirely of men from their own ranks.
Last week, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi expressed impatience with international demands for inclusivity. “Our current Cabinet fulfils that requirement, we have representatives from all ethnicities,” he told reporters.
The highest level Hazara in the administration is a deputy health minister. Several other Hazaras hold some provincial posts, but they are Hazaras who long ago joined the Taliban insurgency and adopted its hard-line ideology. Few in the Hazara community recognize them.
Ali Akbar Jamshidi, a former parliament member representing Daikundi province, said Hazaras won’t be satisfied with a few local positions and want to be brought into the Cabinet and the intelligence and security services.
The Taliban, he said, are running a government “that acts like a warlord who has seized everything.”
“Physical security is not enough. We need psychological security as well, feeling like we are part of this government and it is part of us,” he said. “The Taliban can benefit from us. They have the opportunity to form a government for the future, but they are not taking this opportunity.”
North Korean leader praises efforts to build 'model' city
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has returned from a monthlong break from public view to inspect a major development project near the border with China, which he said epitomizes his country’s “iron will” to achieve prosperity in the face of international isolation and pressure.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim expressed satisfaction during his visit to Samjiyon city over the progress of construction in an area he called the “sacred place of the sun.” Samjiyon is at the foot of Mount Paektu, the heart of North Korea’s foundation myth revolving around the Kim family and is described by official narratives as the spiritual center of the country's revolution.
Read:US urges NKorea to stop missile tests and return to talks
Building Samjiyon into a “model cultured city” was one of the main focuses of a nationwide construction campaign that North Korea had aimed to complete in time for the 75th anniversary of its ruling party’s founding in October last year. But construction was slowed amid pandemic border closures and international sanctions over Kim’s nuclear weapon and missile programs.
Kim has been struggling to overcome what appears to be his toughest period as leader with the country's self-imposed COVID-19 lockdown creating a further shock for an economy battered by sanctions and decades of mismanagement.
KCNA said the construction at Samjiyon could be finished by the end of this year, which could give Kim a badly needed trophy achievement as he reaches a decade in rule since taking power following the death of his father in December 2011.
Kim praised workers for their “lofty loyalty, strong will and sweat” to push ahead with the project in the face of an “unfavorable environment” and said Samjiyon would become a guideline for rural development. He said the four years the country has spent developing Samjiyon, which involved the building of thousands of houses and buildings as well as new roads and a power grid, demonstrated its single-minded unity and “iron will” to “achieve prosperity our own way,” KCNA said.
The visit was Kim’s first public appearance reported in state media since he delivered a speech at an arms exhibition on Oct. 11.
“Claiming the success of Samjiyon’s development is politically important at this time because the Mount Paekdu region is central to North Korean mythology and the embellished story of the previous leader‘s birth,” as Kim may soon commemorate 10 years since his father’s death, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
Read: North Korea fires ballistic missile into sea in latest test
North Korea closely associates Paektu with Kim’s state-founding grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who, according to official narratives, saved the Korean Peninsula with daring guerrilla raids against Japanese invaders from his base on the mountain’s slopes before the end of World War II. North Korea also claims, probably incorrectly, that Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, was born on Paektu.
Since becoming leader, Kim Jong Un has spent years consolidating his power by removing political rivals and family members while spurring the development of nuclear weapons and missiles he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.
He initiated diplomacy with former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 while attempting to leverage his nuclear program for sanctions relief, but those talks derailed in 2019 because of disagreements over a proposed withdrawal of U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for partial denuclearization by North Korea.
India's first grass conservatory established in Uttarakhand's Ranikhet
India's first Grass Conservatory was established in Uttarakhand's Ranikhet town in an area of three acres, funded under the Central Government's CAMPA scheme.
The conservatory was developed in three years and has been developed by the Research Wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department, reports ANI.
Read:Indian government is revamping aquaculture for a ‘blue revolution’
Around 100 different grass species have been conserved/demonstrated in this conservation area.
Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Chief Conservator of Forest said, "The project aims to create awareness about the importance of grass species, promote conservation, and to facilitate further research in these species."
"It has been proved in the latest researches that grasslands are more effective in carbon sequestration than forest land," Chaturvedi said.
He further stressed that grasslands are facing various types of threats and areas under grasslands are shrinking, thereby endangering the entire ecosystem of insects, birds and mammals dependent on them.
"Grasses are economically the most important of all flowering plants because of their nutritious grains and soil-forming function," he said.
Read: India opens to vaccinated foreign tourists after 18 months
The conservation area has seven different sections of grasses as Aromatic, Medicinal, Fodder, Ornamental, Religiously important Grasses and Agricultural Grasses. Thysanoleanamaxima also called Tiger grass / Broom grass- an important fodder grass found along steep hills, ravines, and sandy banks of rivers up to an altitude of 2000 m, in Uttarakhand. Its dry flowering stocks are used as a broom.
Being a perennial species it can be used as green fodder round the year and also helps in preventing soil erosion on steep hillsides and is used in rehabilitation of degraded land. Pennisetumpurpureum also called Napier grass / Elephant grass- makes a good contour hedgerow and is an excellent bank and pasture fodder. Used for firebreaks, windbreaks in paper pulps production and bio-oil, biogas and charcoal.