The notification formalities were completed on Thursday night, a crucial step in paving way for the implementation of international civil nuclear cooperation, Department of Atomic Energy sources said.
A powerful senatorial committee on Wednesday is set to consider a bipartisan resolution to recognise Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India, pushing back against China's military aggression to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control.
The first five months of 2023 have witnessed at least six major events/trends that augur badly for global economic and socio-political prospects, points out Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
Why does the world's fastest-growing major consumer of energy fail to attract investments in oil and gas? This is a question worth pondering after private sector conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) failed to close a $15-billion downstream asset deal with Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Aramco. It's understandable if multi-billion dollar investments in oil and gas projects or deals involving state companies that need to traverse a complex bureaucracy at state and federal levels and the corridors of ministries unravel. However, Mukesh Ambani-run RIL, India's most successful energy company, is not typically known to fumble on closing deals (Ambani closed deals worth around Rs 2 trillion early last year in telecom and retail with blue chip investors).
Former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were released from jail on Tuesday morning, a day after the Bombay high court granted them interim bail in a loan fraud case, a police official said. Chanda Kochhar walked out of the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai, while her husband was released from the Arthur Road jail, the official said. The CBI arrested Kochhars on December 23, 2022 in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case.
'Policy-sensitive sectors will wait and watch, but policy-agnostic areas will continue based on normal consumption demand.'
Iran on Tuesday said it will not succumb to the western pressures to compromise its 'inalienable right' to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
India may see a structural shift in supplies of crude oil with Russia emerging as a key source of fuels, a development that reduces New Delhi's dependence on West Asian oil, gives Indian refiners better bargaining power with price-setter Saudi Arabia, and improves overall energy security. The unexpected surge in supplies of Russian crude in the last few months, unthinkable until the war in Ukraine, may also deliver other unforeseen gains such as boosting exports of refined fuels to Europe, which historically has counted on Russian shipments. India has jumped on to the bandwagon of opportunistic buying of Russian crude but if calibrated carefully, Urals crude can be a long-term asset for India refiners.
The ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict has disrupted India's efforts to gain from a recent fall in crude oil prices. Since Hamas' invasion of southern Israel on October 7, petroleum has become costlier by around $5 per barrel, threatening to stoke prices and impact growth. Brent crude was trading at $89.8 per barrel on October 9 (9.15 pm IST), up over 4 per cent, thwarting India's anticipation of a period of declining oil prices - after the leading global petroleum benchmark declined by around 11 per cent last week.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog is contemplating to set up a reserve nuclear fuel bank for supplying fuel to countries, which have renewed interest in expanding their atomic energy programme.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammad ElBaradei hailed India as a "leading advocate" for nuclear disarmament and asked the world to listen to its "voice" on elimination of all nuclear weapons. "India called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons as far back as 1948. It is important that India's voice should continue to be heard.
Noting that the 123 Agreement between India and the US reflected deepening relationship between the two countries, top Obama Administration officials have said that it would have broader impact in the Indo-US ties.
During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wide-ranging talks with his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi in Delhi, the two sides expressed their commitment to work towards establishing a strategic partnership.
The resumption of drilling with the auger machine is likely to speed up the rescue efforts.
India will begin another round of talks with the global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from Monday for negotiating the safeguards agreement, a pre-requisite for the India-United States nuclear agreement. The Indian delegation, led by R B Grover, a top official in the Department of Atomic Energy, reached Vienna today for the talks, which are expected to go on till the month-end.
The sanctions by Western nations came in response to a report by the UN atomic watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran's nuclear programme and after their proposal to impose new sanctions in the United Nations was blocked due to opposition from Russia and China.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian forces last month, has stopped transmitting data to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations atomic watchdog has said, expressing deep concern for the staff working under Russian troops at the nuclear site in northern Ukraine.
Ahead of a key global summit on atomic security, China on Tuesday defended its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan as "mutually beneficial" and in accordance with international safeguards.
In 2017, a consortium led by Russian state oil company Rosneft agreed to buy Essar Oil for $12.9 billion in India's biggest foreign acquisition of a homegrown company. Rosneft's buyout of Essar's assets was meant to herald a wave of energy investments in India - over six decades after Esso, Caltex and Shell invested in India's refining sector in the 1950s. But the government has tripped up in its efforts to sell Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), formerly Burmah Shell, a blue chip public sector company. Bidders include a couple of global funds and resources firm Vedanta.
India for the first time on Wednesday voted against Russia during a "procedural vote" at the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, as the 15-member powerful UN body invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a meeting through a video tele-conference.
India and the US had on July 17 signed a preliminary agreement for cooperating on emergency crude oil reserves, including the possibility of India storing oil in the US emergency stockpile.
'With China investing in Iran's energy sector, India cannot afford to lag behind.'
UN atomic energy chief Mohammed El-Baradei began a three-day visit to India as the ruling United Progressive Alliance-Left alliance appeared headed for a break-up over the India-United States civil nuclear energy pact.
IRG will provide four CFL bulbs to each house in railway residential colonies free of cost and earn carbon credits by registering itself with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under Clean Development Mechanism project.
The United Nations Security Council has called for urgent humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout Gaza to allow unhindered humanitarian access in the strip, finally overcoming deadlock and adopting a resolution in the month-long Israel-Hamas conflict.
Pakistan's Acting Permanent Representative to the UN Farukh Amil stressed full compliance by all States with their respective safeguards obligations.
In an election at a special one-day meeting in Vienna, IAEA's 35-member board of governors appointed Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's head, Ansar Parvez, as its chairman for the next one year. The Board is the most important policy-making body after the 151-nation general conference.
The victory of Yukia Amano of Japan over his nearest rival, South Africa's Abdul Minty, is clearly a victory for the "watchdog" role of the IAEA. The resistance to him till July 2, 2009, by the developing countries stemmed from the fear that he, representing as he does the only country in the world which became a victim of a nuclear attack, would turn the Agency into a ferocious watchdog rather than a benevolent advocate of atoms for peace
Mohammad ElBaradei, director general of International Atomic Energy Agency, was on Wednesday honoured with the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for his 'impassioned opposition to use of nuclear energy for military purposes.'
Amid increasing uncertainty over the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement, a senior International Atomic Energy Agency official has said that nuclear energy is the way forward for the booming economies of India and China. The growth of nuclear power in China and India over the next two decades will outpace other countries, said Yury Sokolov, deputy director general and head of the Department of Nuclear Energy, IAEA.
The United Progressive Alliance-Left stand-off on Indo-US nuclear deal notwithstanding, the Indian Atomic Energy department is holding consultations with International Atomic Energy Agency for working out a safeguards agreement.
International experts reaching Vienna for the 51st general conference of the IAEA are understood to be keen to know about the opportunities likely to emerge if the Indo-US civil nuclear deal goes through.
Some Chinese scholars wondered why India is not taking any initiative to join NPT and which will open up more options for the nation on the nuclear front.
China is ready to "explore cooperation with all countries for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in accordance with the rules of the IAEA," said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
On the Indo-Pak peace process, Chatterjee said, "It is driven by the people's urge for peace and normalcy. I am confident that it will succeed."
There is disappointment that such a high profile agency with great potential for peace and development has not attracted the enormous talent available wide world outside the Vienna International Centre, says T P Sreenivasan.
An additional protocol to the nuclear safeguards agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US, giving the agency better access to nuclear sites has entered into force, making America the last of the five atomic-weapon states party to the global non-proliferation pact.
Amid doubts over Mohamed ElBaradei's appointment as Egypt's new prime minister, the pro-reform leader has defended the ouster of Mohammed Morsi by the army, saying it was necessary to avert a civil war as the Islamist leader had declared himself a 'pharaoh' and messed up matters.
In a confidential analysis, experts in the UN nuclear watchdog say that Iran has acquired "sufficient information" on how to "design and produce a workable" nuclear bomb, apparently from sources including disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan.