Bilateral Relations

Recently, the Indian Patent Office rejected an application by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to extend its patent on the drug bedaquiline.  What is Bedaquiline? Bedaquiline is a drug in tablet form used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). What is drug-resistant TB? As of 2017, India accounted for around one-fourth of the world’s burden of multi-drug-resistant …

India is considering translocating some tigers to Cambodia. India signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to assist it with all technical details and knowledge regarding the reintroduction of the tiger in the country. How did tigers go extinct in Cambodia? Due to habitat destruction and poaching. The last tiger spotted on a camera trap in Cambodia was in 2007. …

Konkan 2023 exercise was held recently. It is an annual bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy (United Kingdom. It was held in the Arabian Sea. INS Trishul, a guided missile frigate participated in this edition. The exercises covered  all domains of maritime operations, air, surface and sub-surface. SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

A state-backed Chinese company has won a contract to develop a key port in the Solomon Islands. Key details: Solomon Islands is an island country situated in the south-west Pacific Ocean, to the northeast of Australia. It comprises nine main island groups. Capital – Honiara, is located on Guadalcanal, the largest island. The population of Solomon Islands is predominantly Melanesian (about 95 …

In his keynote speech at the Lanting Forum in Beijing on February 21, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang highlighted the recently unveiled Global Security Initiative (GSI) Concept Paper. The GSI is presented as a China-led framework that seeks to restore stability and security, particularly in Asia. Accordingly, Mr. …

Since 2006, the Prime Ministers of India and Japan have exchanged visits for their “annual summit”, a meeting that has steered the course of this bilateral relationship. However, it was not the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership that was at the heart of the Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s …

Five years after the Supreme Court allowed foreign law firms and foreign lawyers to visit India on a temporary period for giving legal advice to their clients, the Bar Council of India (BCI), a statutory body governing legal practice in India, has framed Rules that allowed them to open offices …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday virtually inaugurated the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline that will bring diesel from Assam’s Numaligarh refinery’s marketing depot in Siliguri to Parbatipur in northern Bangladesh. Welcoming the initiative, Ms. Hasina thanked Mr. Modi and the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta …

The United States formally approved a vast oil drilling project in Alaska, also known as the Willow What is the Willow Project? Willow Project is a massive and decades long oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government of US. The area where the project …

Key details: The Singapore Army and Indian Army participated in the 13th edition of Exercise Bold Kurukshetra. It is a bilateral armour exercise. For the first time in the exercise series, both armies participated in a command post Exercise, which involved Battalion and Brigade level planning elements and computer wargaming. Exercise Bold Kurukshetra is conducted under the ambit of the bilateral arrangement for the joint Army Training …