Former Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) at the International Monetary Fund.

Subramanian is currently Professor (Finance), Indian School of Business.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Subramanian to the post of Executive Director (India) at the IMF, with effect from November 1, 2022 for a period of three years or until further orders, by curtailing the tenure of Dr Surjit S Bhalla as ED (India), IMF up to October 31, 2022, it said.

Bhalla was appointed to the post for three years in October 2019.

Bhalla joined the IMF Executive Board on November 9, 2019, after his election by the constituency countries in that electoral cycle.

Subramanian, who completed his three-year tenure as CEA in 2021, would be nominated by India for election by the constituency Governors as per electoral cycle for the term starting from November 1, 2022.

Amidst Nepal's recent stand to put on hold the recruitment of the youth of Nepal joining the Indian Army’s Gorkha Infantry regiments India has made it clear that it will continue the recruitment of Nepalese youth under the Agnipath Scheme. Nepal has announced to put hold on recruitment of its youths till further order.

A recruitment rally of the Indian Army was planned in Butwal City of the Himalayan country from August 25. A day ago, Nepalese foreign minister Narayan Khadka and Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava held a meeting to discuss the issues. In the meeting, the Nepalese side informed him to wait on the plan to recruit Nepali youths under the new scheme.

It was in June that the Indian Government announced the new recruitment scheme under which youths between age 17 and a half and 21 years are to be inducted under Agnipath Scheme for a period of four years with 25 percent getting inducted permanently after it. The rest of the people would not be entitled to pension.

Prior to the introduction of the Agnipath scheme, the Nepalese youths were being recruited under a Tripartite Agreement between India, Nepal and Britain which was signed in 1947, allowing continued recruitment of Nepalese into the armies of India and Britain.

The Tripartite Treaty called the ‘Memorandum of Agreement on Recruitment of Gorkha Troops’ was signed on May 1, 1947, and ratified on November 9, 1947.

Later in 1950, a Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed between the two countries which reinforced the right of Nepalese citizens to work in India and for equal national treatment.

At present around 25,000 Nepal Domicile Gorkhas are serving in the Indian Army’s Gorkha regiments in its 43 battalions which are composed of Indian soldiers as well as those recruited from Nepal.

Citing unsatisfactory” progress in her thesis work, Jamia Millia Islamia’s Department of Sociology has approved the cancellation of admission of scholar and activist Safoora Zargar, who was arrested in a 2020 riots case.

South Korea has signed a 3 trillion won ($2.25 billion) deal with a Russian state-run nuclear energy company to provide components for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.

South Korea’s government said  that the contract between the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power and ASE requires the South Koreans to provide turbine-related equipment and construction work for the plant being built in Dabaa, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.

ASE is a subsidiary of Rosatom, a state-owned Russian nuclear conglomerate. 

Qatar's state-owned investment authority has announced that it will invest USD 3 billion on commercial and investment sectors in cash-strapped Pakistan, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha.

Sharif's visit to Qatar comes ahead of an International Monetary Fund meeting next week that is expected to approve more than USD 1 billion in financing that has been stalled since the beginning of the year.

The investment from the Gulf nation is expected to help Pakistan bridge the widening gap between the inflows and outflows of dollars that's resulting in a persistent balance-of-payments crisis.

The dollar shortage has weakened the local currency and caused a drawdown on the central bank-held foreign exchange reserves, which dropped to USD 7.9 billion at the last count.

Qatar is a major supplier of LNG to Pakistan on a long-term contract basis. It's also sponsoring one of the two upcoming LNG terminals in Karachi.

The head of Japan's National Police Agency Itaru Nakamura has announced his resignation after an investigation into security for former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated last month.

Abe was shot and killed on the campaign trail on July 8 in the Nara region.

His suspected killer was detained at the scene and is believed to have targeted Abe because he thought he was linked to the Unification Church.

Amid delays in income tax refunds, the government has said that refunds issued so far this year are far more than the corresponding period of the preceding year.

Bank credit offtake in the April-June 2022 period grew at 14.2 per cent, registering the highest quarterly growth since the December 2016 quarter. RBI data shows credit offtake in urban and metropolitan areas grew at a healthy 18 per cent, and 13.2 per cent, respectively. 

Rural and Semi-urban areas also saw double-digit credit growth of 11.6 per cent and 15.3 per cent, respectively. Public sector banks, which account for most of the large corporate and infrastructure sector lending, saw their loan portfolio grow by 11.5 per cent, the first quarterly double-digit growth in over 5 years. Private sector banks reported a healthy 18 per cent growth during the quarter.