Author: Arif ArifArman

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India is now finally moving ahead with its long-pending project to develop a fifth-generation stealth fighter, in a step that also effectively torpedoes feverish speculation that New Delhi may be interested in the F-35A jets showcased by the US at Aero-India in Bengaluru in February. The full-scale engineering development case for the indigenous twin-engine advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), at a cost of around Rs 15,000 crore, will ‘soon’ be sent to the PM-led cabinet committee on security (CCS) for the final approval, sources told TOI on Thursday. “Extensive inter-ministerial consultations on cost, design and level of indigenous…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Afghan government this week barred female Afghan employees at the United Nations from working in Afghanistan, according to U.N. officials, a move threatening one of the last lifelines of badly needed aid in a country where millions risk starvation and restrictions on women have hampered aid operations in recent months. The decision this week comes just over three months after the Taliban administration issued a decree barring women from working in local and international aid organizations, many of which are involved in carrying out U.N. programs in Afghanistan. That decision led many organizations to suspend or scale…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) last night received 450 megawatts of power on test basis from Indian Adani Group’s subsidiary Adani Power. “Last 12 midnight, Bangladesh received 450 MW initially, which was increased to 750 MW”, said Md Shamim Hasan, director public Relations of Bangladesh Power development Board (BPDB). He said the power supply, from Adani power plant at Godda in Jharkhand, will rise gradually in line with the demand, adding, “We are getting quality electricity from Adani power plant.” According to the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), Adani and the BPDB completed the transmission line before…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Mumbai, India’s financial capital, has added another feather to its cap.A survey by Time Out has rated Mumbai as one of 19 cities with the best public transport in the world. Though it featured at 19th place in the list of 19 cities, Mumbai is the only Indian city to feature in the list. To identify the cities with the world’s greatest public transport, Time Out surveyed more than 20,000 city-dwellers around the world. “We asked simply: is it easy to get around your city by public transport? And in the cities featured below, at least four out…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Apple Inc on Wednesday revealed the look for its first retail store in India, as several people tried to catch a glimpse outside the store’s black and yellow artwork patterned after Mumbai’s iconic taxis. The store is still in barricades and is likely to open this month, a person familiar with the matter said. India has become a big market for the California-based company, which launched an online retail store in the world’s second-largest smartphone market in 2020. Apple has only a 3 percent share of India’s smartphone market due to the company’s high prices. Apple has previously…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: The Bangladesh Biman Corporation (repeal) Act-2023 was placed in the parliament with a view to bring amendment and reinstate Bangladesh Biman order-1972 enacted by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali today placed the bill in the Jatiya Sangsad with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. Placing the bill, the state minister said the proposed law will replace “Bangladesh Biman Corporation Ordinance, 1977”. The existing Bangladesh Biman Corporation Ordinance 1977 is no longer needed as it is a public limited company, he said. The draft…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Two more rural development academies–one in Melandaha upazila in Jamalpur district and another in Rangpur district-will be built. One will be named as Sheikh Hasina Rural Development Academy, Jamalpur and other as Sheikh Russel Rural Development Academy, Rangpur. Two separate bills were placed in Parliament in this regard on Thursday. State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry Swapan Bhattacharya placed the two bills in Parliament. The two bills were sent to the respective scrutiny committees for further examination and the committees were asked to submit their report within 60 days. Now the country has two…

TECHNOLOGY DESK: International law enforcement agencies have seized a sprawling dark web marketplace popular with cybercriminals, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday, in a multinational crackdown dubbed “Operation Cookie Monster”, reports Reuters. A banner plastered across Genesis Market’s site late on Tuesday said domains belonging to the organisation had been seized by the FBI. Logos of other European, Canadian and Australian police organizations were also emblazoned across the site, along with that of cybersecurity firm Qintel. “We assess that the Genesis is one of the most significant access marketplaces anywhere in the world,” said Rob Jones, the NCA’s…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s journey in developing a “world-class digital public infrastructure” highlights the lesson for other countries that are embarking on their own digital transformation, International Monetary Fund has said in a working paper. The working paper ‘Stacking up the Benefits Lessons from India’s Digital Journey” said that India’s stack’s development is guided by a foundational building blocks approach, and a focus on supporting innovation across the ecosystem. The building block approach involves unbundling the components of the solution to a set of problems and identifying a minimal common core. According to the paper, for a diverse country like India,…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday attended a business meet in Tokyo and invited Japanese investors to the state. The state government received investment intent of over Rs 25,000 crores across green hydrogen and green ammonia, green energy equipment manufacturing, IT/ITeS, logistics, metal ancillary, steel, and metal downstream sectors. Odisha government in association with the Indian Embassy in Japan, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), hosted the Odisha Business Meet Tokyo 2023. The Chief Minister, Kazuya Nakajo, executive vice-president, JETRO, and senior officials of Odisha government,…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India has developed a world-class digital public infrastructure (DPI) to support its sustainable development goals with its journey having lessons for other countries embarking on their own digital transformation, IMF has said in a working paper, noting that digitalization has supported formalization of India’s economy and Aadhaar has helped in direct transfer of payments to beneficiaries while reducing leakages. The working paper ‘Stacking up the Benefits Lessons from India’s Digital Journey” said that the government played a catalytic role, acting as an anchor client and establishing institutions to ensure continuity in India Stack’s operations. It said that using…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India has been selected to the United Nations’ highest statistical body for a four-year term, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday. Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said, “India elected to the highest UN statistical body for a 4-year term beginning on 1 January 2024! Congrats Team @IndiaUNNewYork for coming through so strongly in a competitive election.” He also stated that India’s expertise in the field of statistics, diversity and demography has earned it a seat on the UN Statistical Commission. India have won handsomely in just completed UN Statistical Commission election-securing 46 out of 53 votes, leaving…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Delhi airport has emerged as the ninth busiest airport in the world in 2022 with passenger traffic of more than 5.94 crore, according to Airports Council International (ACI) list. DIAL is the operator of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital. ACI said the list of top 10 busiest airports in the world for 2022 is topped by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL, 93.7 million passengers). It is followed by Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW, 73.4 million passengers, Denver Airport (DEN, 69.3 million passengers), and Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD, 68.3 million passengers). “Airports reinstated in…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: As a major milestone in the phase of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas programme, its first ever trainer, manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), successfully completed its maiden flight on Wednesday. HAL spokesperson said the first-ever series production standard LCA trainer (LT 5201) took to the skies for its maiden flight on Wednesday from their airport and landed after completing a successful sortie of around 35 minutes. Group Captain Venu and Wing Commander Awasthi flew the trainer aircraft. The Indian Air Force has ordered about 10 twin-seater LCA trainers as part of a LCA Tejas programme for commissioning of…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: In a major achievement this year, the highest-ever funds have been spent under the flagship Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) by Jammu & Kashmir in the financial year 2022-23. Moreover, employment for 2,63,595 people was also generated in the Union Territory (UT) under different schemes during this period. The same got revealed after reviewing the overall performance of the Union Territory under different parameters of registering growth and progress during the year 2022-23. It also came to fore that during 2021-22, the total amount received by the UT under CSS was Rs 7,655 crore which was enhanced to Rs…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India, on April 2, again sent out a message to the world about how its space programme was growing by leaps and bounds. Projected as a step towards developing its own ‘space shuttle’, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) at the Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga, Karnataka. With this, ISRO will enter into direct competition with American spacecraft company SpaceX, the only entity operating reusable space vehicles. The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. It can carry crew and payloads…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The meeting between Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday has garnered significant interest, especially in view of the heightened focus on the Doklam issue, The Bhutan Live reported. The discussions between the two top leaders were hailed as “warm and productive,” and they produced a broad five-point roadmap for advancing India’s “time-tested” ties with Bhutan. The Doklam problem was not specifically mentioned, but it is obvious that it is still a crucial area for India’s strategic interests. The five-point plan by the two leaders includes cooperation in a variety of areas,…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (April 05, 2023) said the government will assist the Bangabazar businesspeople as much as possible after estimating the damages caused by Tuesday’s fire. “I’ve already assured that we will help them as much as we can. We’ll assess who incurred how much loss,” she said addressing an event at her official residence Ganabhaban. The event was arranged to receive Tk 316.91 crore as first and second installments of the loan provided by the government for construction of Padma Bridge. Road Transport and Bridge Minister Obaidul Quader handed over a cheque of Tk…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: United States “strongly oppose” China’s attempts to advance a claim over Indian territory, Arunachal Pradesh by renaming localities, the White House said on Tuesday. “This is another attempt by the Chinese claim on us, Indian territory. So the United States, as you know, has recognized that territory for a long time and we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance a territory claim by renaming localities. And so, again, this is something that we have long stood by a few things,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. This statement came after China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs standardised…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Bhutan on Wednesday appreciated India for extending Standby Credit Facility at the reduced interest rate and extended settlement period, and for providing an additional currency swap support of USD 200 million, according to India-Bhutan joint statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs. India also agreed to positively consider Bhutan’s request to extend an additional Standby Credit Facility (SCF) for a period of five years, it said. Bhutan also noted with satisfaction the timely flow of funds from the Government of India (GoI) to ensure smooth and uninterrupted progress of projects under the 12th Five Year Plan with…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s power generation grew at the fastest pace in over three decades in the just-ended fiscal year, a Reuters analysis of government data showed, fuelling a sharp surge in emissions as output from both coal-fired and renewable plants hit records. Intense summer heatwaves, a colder-than-usual winter in northern India and an economic recovery led to a jump in electricity demand, forcing India to crank up output from coal plants and solar farms as it scrambled to avoid power cuts. Power generation rose 11.5% to 1,591.11 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), or units, in the fiscal year ended March 2023, an…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India wants to have a seat at the table vetting overseas mergers and acquisitions as the country asserts itself on the global tech stage. If the country’s internet population is anything to go by, it is about time. Earlier this week, India authorized its antitrust regulator to parse global deals by approving amendments to the competition law, which includes a requirement for companies with substantial business operations in the South Asian nation to seek antitrust permissions for all deals exceeding 20 billion Indian rupees ($244 million) in transaction value. Until now, the Competition Commission of India examined deals…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Twitter Inc faced a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the social media giant of illegally laying off contract workers without notice after Elon Musk bought the company last year, the latest action stemming from its massive job cuts. The proposed class action, filed in San Francisco federal court, claims Twitter in November laid off numerous workers employed by staffing firm TEKsystems Inc without the 60 days of advance notice required by US and California law. Five other cases are pending in the same court accusing Twitter of violating those laws, targeting female workers for layoffs and discriminating against employees…

TECHNOLOGY DESK: Alphabet Inc’s Google released on Tuesday new details about the supercomputers it uses to train its artificial intelligence models, saying the systems are both faster and more power-efficient than comparable systems from Nvidia Corp, news agency Reuters reported. Google has designed its own custom chip called the Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU. It uses those chips for more than 90% of the company’s work on artificial intelligence training, the process of feeding data through models to make them useful at tasks such as responding to queries with human-like text or generating images. The Google TPU is now in…