Chabahar port : Historic Deal Finalized

Iran has awarded a much-awaited agreement to India over the management of part of its strategic Chabahar port. The historic move could enable India to dodge Pakistan and reach markets in Afghanistan, Central Asia and beyond.

The agreement was signed during a visit to New Delhi by President Hassan Rouhani would lease the operational control of Shahid Beheshti port – phase one of Chabahar port - to India for 18 months, said Press TV, 

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who oversaw the signing of the agreement together with Rouhani later told reporters in a joint press conference that the expansion of connectivity was important for New Delhi. Modi also emphasized that his country was interested in the construction of a rail link between Chabahar and Iran’s southeastern city of Zahedan – a crucial link that India would need to expand its reach northward. 

"We will support the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail link so that Chabahar gateway's potential could be fully utilized," he said.

"We want to expand connectivity, cooperation in the energy sector and the centuries-old bilateral relationship."

Rouhani for his part emphasized that Chabahar could reinforce Iran and India’s historical ties by serving as a bridge connecting the subcontinent to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.

“We are ready to sign bilateral and trilateral agreements to turn the transit route passing through Chabahar into a strategic pathway serving the reinforcement of regional ties,” he said.

On a related front, Iran’s Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said Iran and India would jointly operate Shahid Beheshti port, adding that New Delhi would invest as much as $87 million in the project.  Akhoundi emphasized that this would be part of a total investment of $2 billion that India would make in Iran’s port and rail projects.  

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India, Iran Ink Nine Agreements in Different Areas

India and Iran have reiterated their commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and stressed that there can be no justification for any act of terrorism. 

In a joint statement issued after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New Delhi, the two leaders expressed their conviction that the fight against terrorism should not only seek to disrupt and eliminate terrorists and terrorist organizations but should also identify and address conditions conducive to terrorism as well as extremist ideologies. 

The two sides also urged for an immediate end to all support and sanctuaries enjoyed by terrorist groups and individuals. They said, States that aid, abet and directly or indirectly support terrorism should be condemned. 

India and Iran welcomed the growing interaction between their National Security Councils and agreed to enhance regular and institutionalized consultations between them and others concerned on terrorism and security. Both sides also expressed interest in enhancing cooperation possibilities in maritime domain.

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Talks with Iranian President Fruitful : PM Modi

The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has termed his talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as fruitful.
India and Iran on Saturday signed nine agreements in different areas after delegation-level talks between PM Modi and President Rouhani in New Delhi. 
The fields in which the agreements were inked include extradition treaty, Chabahar port, medicine and agriculture. 
In a joint statement, Modi said, he had a fruitful discussion with Dr. Rouhani on a wide range of issues of mutual interest. He said, the Iranian President's visit will further deepen and strengthen bilateral ties. 
Modi also said, both countries would like to see a prosperous and terror-free Afghanistan. He said, India and Iran are connected by common Sufi strain and want the region to be free of terror. 
The Prime Minister also thanked Mr Rouhani for providing leadership in developing Chabahar Port which is a gateway to Central Asia.
Both leaders also released a special postal stamp. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on the visiting dignitary and discussed ways to strengthen co-operation in energy, connectivity, IT, education, culture and people-to-people contact. 
The Iranian President was accorded a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan Saturday morning. He also visited Rajghat to pay tributes to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.
Rouhani will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu later on Saturday.
The Iranian President, who is on three-day visit to India, arrived in New Delhi last night after his stay in Hyderabad.

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India's First Radio festival in Delhi Today

The first ever radio festival of India is being held in New Delhi today to mark World Radio Day. The festival is being organized by International Association of Women in Radio and Television, in collaboration with UNESCO. 
In the inaugural session, Paralympian Deepa Malik in her address said, radio talks about positivity and it is pivotal in celebrating sports. 
She said, at every crucial point of her life, Radio was an integral part. Ms Malik said, a documentary made on her life by All India Radio boosted her self-confidence and help create a hero out of a differently abled woman. 
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Anju Nigam, Director General of AIR Fayaz Sheheryar, Director General of Door Darshan Supriya Sahu and UNESCO representative to India Shigeru Aoyagi addressed the gathering. 
The festival includes live performances, an exhibition, and slotted panel discussions. Apart from touching on the theme for World Radio Day 2018 - radio and sports - the festival is also examining the potential of the medium as a platform for social change, ways to make it more creative and will trace the journey of music on the radio.

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India Announces World's Largest Health Programme

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament on Thursday, where he had a challenge to not just realise the 'New India' dream by spurring growth, but also meet expectations of millions of people and different sections of society and businesses of the country.
World's largest government-funded health programme - 'National Health Protection Scheme' was announced. It will cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families by providing upto Rs 5 lakh per family per year. The government will launch 'Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems in Education' by 2022 with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in next 4 years.
This budget is significant as it was Modi government's fifth and final full budget. It is also the first one after GST implementation. Clearly, the focus is on low-cost farming. He said besides 'ease of doing business', the government is also focusing on 'ease of living' now. “
Higher Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.Hardwork of farmers resulted in a record production of more than 275 million tonnes of food grain and about 300 million tonnes of horticultural produce,” FM  said.
The Finance Minister expressed hope that economy will grow at 7.2 percent to 7.5 percent in the second half of 2017-18. He exuded confidence that India is on track to grow at 8 percent.
He proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19. National Livelihood Mission allocated Rs. 5,750 cr in 2018-19.
Bamboo is green gold and restructured National Bamboo Mission will be launched with an allocation of Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner, Jaitley said.
Air Pollution in Delhi NCR is a cause for concern, special scheme will be implemented to support Govts of Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidize machinery for management of crop residue, FM said.
By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have 'Ekalavya' school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas.
Government plans to construct 2 crore more toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, he informed.
Jaitley said the government has successfully implemented series of structural reforms as a result of which India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. He said FDI has gone up and Indian economy is now a 2.5 trillion economy.

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NCL and IGIB Sign Licensing Agreement with Ahammune Biosciences for Vitiligo Drug Development

CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune and CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi together signed a Patent Licensing agreement with Ahammune Biosciences Pvt. Ltd., Pune for Vitiligo drug development on March 2, 2017. Ahammune is a resident incubatee company of Venture Center, NCL’s technology business incubator.

Ahammune Biosciences is an innovation-led drug discovery start-up company with the vision to find a new drug for the debilitating skin disorder, Vitiligo. It is the most common depigmenting disease with over 80 million people affected by it. In Vitiligo, color-producing cells are lost from areas of skin leaving behind white spots. The spread of depigmentation is unpredictable, ranging from days to years. Due to its effect on physical appearance, it is a cause of immense psychological torment, with patients feeling isolated and depressed. This disease is of major concern in India, where it is considered as a social stigma due to its confusion with leprosy. The current treatment strategies provide only temporary relief and are mostly ineffective. Ahammune is striving to fulfil this unmet medical need in the vitiligo therapeutic area.

Ahammune Biosciences would like to conduct further work towards potential vitiligo drug development through this Licensing agreement. CSIR labs will receive milestone payments based on the progress.

The patent was the outcome of the collaborative research work in chemistry and biology between these two labs. Dr. D. Srinivasa Reddy (CSIR-NCL), Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale (CSIR-IGIB, on deputation from NII) and T. N. Vivek (CSIR-IGIB) are the lead inventors of the patent.

Prof. Ashwini Kumar Nangia, Director, CSIR-NCL and Dr. (Miss.) Parul Ganju, Director, Ahammune Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. signed the agreement in presence of respective teams from both parties.

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Team from Association of Indian Universities (AIU) visit FTII to consider grant of Master's degree equivalence to FTII courses

A 5-member team from Association of Indian Universities (AIU) visited FTII on 6th and 7th December 2016. The purpose of the visit was to consider grant of equivalence of Master's degree to three and two year full-time post-graduate courses in the Film Wing. The courses under consideration are Diploma in Film with specialization in (1) Direction (2) Cinematography (3) Editing (4) Sound Recording and Sound Design (5) Acting, and (6) Art Direction and Production Design. A Master's Degree holds the potential to present more opportunities, especially in the field of film research and academic, to students passing out from 2016 batch onwards.

The AIU team comprised of Prof. Dr. Ranbir Singh, Vice Chancellor, National Law University, New Delhi as Chairman; Prof. A.S Balasubramanian, Director, EMMRC and Culture and Cultural Relations, University of Mysore; Prof. B.P. Sanjay, Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad and former VC, Central University of Tamil Nadu; Shri. Ramesh Sharma, Filmmaker and Shri. Sambhav Srivastava, Member-Secretary of Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi.

All six Departments made presentations regarding courses, syllabus, credit system, infrastructure etc. before the AIU team. The team went around the campus and visited all the departments of FTII and other facilities including Library and Prabhat Museum to understand the functioning of the Institute.

The team also visited FTII's extension campus where film studios and ready made locations like railway stations, court etc. are planned for shooting of FTII student exercises and outside commercial film productions.

The AIU team will be presenting a report to their headquarters in New Delhi regarding FTII's proposal for Masters Degree equivalence. 

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