Aiming to empower the Commander-in-Chief and Officer-in Command of Inter-Services Organisations with all disciplinary and administrative powers, Lok Sabha passed Inter-Services Organisation (Command, Control & Discipline) Bill - 2023, in respect of the personnel serving in or attached to such organisations.

Initially, the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 15 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Defence by the Speaker on April 24 for examination and report.

Currently, personnel of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are governed in accordance with the provisions contained in their specific governing or regulatory Service Acts -- the Army Act, 1950, the Navy Act, 1957, and the Air Force Act, 1950.

Salient Features

Applicable to all personnel of regular Army, Navy, and Air Force, and to persons of other forces as notified by the Central Government, serving in or attached to an Inter-Services Organisation.

It empowers the Commander-in-Chief, Officer-in-Command or any other officer specially empowered on this behalf by the Central Government with all the disciplinary and administrative powers in respect of personnel serving in or attached to ISOs, irrespective of the service to which they belong.

The Bill empowers the Central Government to constitute an Inter-Services Organisation.

The Supreme Court  has stayed the conviction which was awarded by a trial court in Gujarat to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged remarks against the Modi surname.

It is now expected that the decision to disqualify the MP would be rolled back, and Rahul Gandhi's membership in the Lok Sabha would be restored.

Achyut Yagnik, a well-known intellectual from Gujarat, passed away at the age of 78 in Ahmedabad. He was the founder and secretary of SETU: Centre for Social Knowledge and Action, a voluntary organisation based in Ahmedabad that has been working with marginalised groups since the early 1980s.

India and Latin America Carribean (LAC) have registered an impressive growth in bilateral trade. For the financial year 2022-23, the trade touched USD 50 billion.

The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar  said this at the 9th India LAC Conclave, which was attended by 17 representatives from 11 countries from LAC.

India is executing projects in the LAC region to develop critical infrastructure, including power transmission. There have been some notable contracts which were awarded in the last few weeks in this regard - roads, oil and gas and also connectivity, renewable energy, and now defense.

Indian companies have played a significant role in this growth, with a strong presence in sectors like agriculture, energy including renewables, information technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and automobiles among others in the LAC region. Indian companies have invested around USD 15 billion in the region. India is exporting refined products to the region.

Meanwhile, the LAC region is a big source of gold, copper and other mineral concentrates, and also for wood. India’s gold imports from the region last year stood at, in excess of USD 6.5 billion and these were mainly from Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador.

India will be attending a meeting that is being hosted by Saudi Arabia that will seek ways to find a way to end the conflict in Ukraine.

There is no confirmation on who from India would attend this meeting.

Amongst the countries that are expected to take part include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries. A high-level official from the US is expected to attend. The event has excluded Russia and is being overseen by Kyiv.

Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan will also be discussed. The peace plan includes punishing those responsible for war crimes withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine and restoring their territorial integrity.

A "lost tribe" of Israel in northeast India has been swept up in months of deadly ethnic violence, with at least one death, synagogues torched and hundreds forced to flee, members say.

The strength of Bnei Menashe -strong community in India  is 5,000

The Bnei Menashe community claims to have descended from the Manasseh -- one of the biblical "lost tribes" of Israel exiled in 720 BC by Assyrian conquerors.

But they also belong to the wider ethnic group which includes the Kuki minority

Bnei Menashe oral history tells of a centuries-long exodus through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and China, all the while adhering to certain Jewish religious practices, like circumcision.

In India they were converted to Christianity by 19th-century missionaries and, in reading the bible, recognised stories from their own traditions that convinced them they actually belonged to the Jewish faith.

From the late 1990s, groups of Bnei Menashe were brought to Israel where they formally converted and settled.

The Islamic State group announced  the death of its leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, who it said was killed in clashes in northwestern Syria, and named a successor.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faces trial again to hear whether he has been found guilty of a series of extremism charges that could see him spend 20 more years behind bars.

He is already serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for "embezzlement", a charge that his supporters say was trumped up in retaliation for challenging President Vladimir Putin.