India and Bangladesh on  Sep 6 made some progress in the contentious river water sharing issue by signing their first accord over one river after 25 years, during the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with his visiting counterpart, Sheikh Hasina.

The pact was signed on sharing the Kushiyara, one of the 54 rivers that pass through both borders. Hasina brought up the pending Teesta river treaty during the talks, but it would be addressed at a later date. Kushiyari was among the seven Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) signed by both sides.

They also decided to jointly face terrorist and fundamentalist forces that threaten to attack mutual trust.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra termed counter-terrorism and radicalisation as an obstacle and security threat to bilateral ties, adding the two leaders held comprehensive talks on how to improve cooperation on them. Bangladesh is India’s biggest development and trade partner on the subcontinent with bilateral trade reaching $18 billion.

Kwatra said the CEPA is expected by 2026, by which time Bangladesh would be upgraded as a developing country.

Both leaders held comprehensive talks on the increasing Chinese presence in Bangladesh.

Hasina underlined that India is the most important and closest neighbour of Bangladesh and their bilateral relations are role models for neighbourhood diplomacy.

She added that the two countries have resolved many issues and the leftovers, including Teesta, would be concluded soon.

Last water accord in 1996

The pact on the Kushiyara river will benefit people in south Assam and Sylhet division of Bangladesh.

Both sides hoped pacts for other rivers would be signed soon.

The previous river water treaty on sharing the Ganga was signed way back in 1996 for a period of 30 years.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sep 6 arrested former MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange, Ravi Narain, in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping on stock exchange employees.

Narain was the MD and CEO of NSE from April 1994 to March 31, 2013. Thereafter, he was appointed as the vice-chairman in a non-executive category on the company’s board from April 1, 2013, to June 1, 2017.

The ED had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in July against former Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and former heads of the NSE for allegedly tapping the phones of employees between 2009 and 2017.

This is the second case being probed by the ED about alleged violation of money laundering norms in the co-location scam. Pandey and former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishna were arrested in July this year in the case. Ramkrishna was earlier arrested by the CBI in March this year in the co-location case. Pandey’s company, ISec Services, formed in 2001, was among the many IT firms that conducted security audits at NSE between 2010 and 2015, when the co-location scam allegedly took place. The agencies have found that interception was done without employees’ consent.

There are no plans to merge the engineering entrance exam JEE and medical entrance exam NEET with the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan said.

University Grants Commission Chairman Jagadesh Kumar had last month said in the future JEE and NEET will be merged with the CUET.

Pradhan said the new books under the New Education Policy-2020, would come out in the next two years.

Implementation of NEP-2020 has started and books for the five-year foundation course called Bal Vatika (kindergarten) will be in schools by February 2023.

Altogether 30,401 people from Myanmar have crossed the international border and taken refuge in Mizoram after the neighbouring country's military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year, state Home Minister Lalchamliana has informed the assembly.

Of the 30,401 Myanmarese, 29,253 are currently sheltered in the state as per reports submitted by district deputy commissioners to the home department on August 20, the minister said in a written reply.

The government has completed the profiling of all the Myanmarese in the state, while identity cards and refugee certificates have been issued to 30,177 people.

Six Mizoram districts -- Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Serchhip, Hnahthial and Saitual -- share a 510-km-long international border with Myanmar's Chin state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to celebrate his 72nd birthday on September 17 amid some prized visitors to the country.

He will be in the jungles of Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, inaugurating perhaps the world’s first inter-continental cheetah translocation project.

The fastest animal on the earth, which became extinct in India seven decades ago, will be reintroduced to the country by September 16, when eight cheetahs arrive from Namibia.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the development in Bhopal.

The animal became extinct in India in 1952 due to extensive hunting.

Though the Cheetah Reintroduction Project in India was conceived in 2009, it had to wait for the Supreme Court’s clearance to the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s plea.

In January 2020, the apex court gave its nod for reintroducing the extinct species in India.

Nine months later, KNP was selected as the most ideal site, out of six shortlisted sites. However, the process was delayed due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, has scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American to hold the daily State Department press briefing, earning plaudits from senior White House officials for his "utmost professionalism" and "amaing debut".

With State Department Spokesperson Ned Price on vacation, the 33-year-old Patel from California  has appeared at the briefing room in the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department to represent the country on foreign policy issues before the media.

Patel, who was born in Gujarat, is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, and has previously served as an Assistant Press Secretary and Spokesperson for President Joe Biden in the White House.

Prior to that, he served as a spokesperson on the Presidential Inaugural Committee and the Biden-Harris Transition. He also held communications positions on the Biden Campaign both in the primary and general elections.

Prime Minister Liz Truss has unveiled one of the UK's most diverse Cabinets, with key frontline posts going to ethnic minority members of Parliament, including Indian-origin Suella Braverman as the Home Secretary.

The process of appointing the Cabinet will continue into on Sep 7 , when Truss addresses her first Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons.

By her side on the frontbenches will be Braverman, 42, whose Tamil mother had her family roots in Mauritius and Goan-origin father migrated to the UK from Kenya.

Also, by her side will be Ghanian-origin Kwasi Kwarteng, 47, as the UK's first black Chancellor and mixed Sierra Leone and white heritage James Cleverly as the Foreign Secretary, Truss' own former portfolio.

The senior Conservative MPs who had come out in support of former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership election are conspicuous by their absence in Truss's top team, which she has packed with close allies, such as Therese Coffey as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Wendy Morton as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and the first Tory female Chief Whip in charge of party discipline.

Another Indian-origin minister in the Cabinet is the 55-year-old Alok Sharma, who retains his climate action job as COP26 President, as does Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Iraqi-origin Nadhim Zahawi, 55, has been appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of Equalities, Brandon Lewis is the new Justice Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt is the Leader of the Commons.

In a step to strengthen the bilateral relationship with the East Asian Countries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh  has inaugurated a Cyber Security Training School in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Defence Minister's visit to Mongolia from September 5 to 7 is the first-ever tour to the East Asian country by an Indian Defence Minister and is aimed to "further consolidate the defence cooperation and strategic partnership between the two countries."

On the first day of engagements of his Mongolia visit,  on Sep 6, he held bilateral talks with his Mongolian counterpart Lt Gen Saikhanbayar Gursed in Ulaanbaatar. He also called on the President of Mongolia and Chairman of State Great Khural.

Rajnath Singh called on the President of Mongolia and Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, wherein they recalled their strong bonhomie and previous interaction in 2018 when together they laid the foundation stone for the ongoing oil refinery project being undertaken with assistance from India. He also met the Chairman of State Great Khural of Mongolia G Zandanshatar.

It may be recalled that India established diplomatic relations with Mongolia in 1955. Mongolia has declared India as a strategic partner and "spiritual neighbour". In 2015, a "strategic partnership" between the two Asian democracies was declared during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Defence is an important element of bilateral engagements with Mongolia.