India and Nigeria will join hands to tackle terrorism, piracy, drug trafficking: PM

India accords high priority to its strategic partnership with Nigeria and it will work towards boosting ties in a range of areas, including defence, energy and trade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during talks with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

In the meeting, Mr. Modi identified terrorism, separatism, piracy and drug trafficking as major challenges, and said the two countries would continue to work together to deal with them. 

Mr Modi arrived in Abuja on the first trip to the country by an Indian Prime Minister after 17 years. "We give high priority to our strategic partnership with Nigeria... 

Mr Modi described the nearly 60,000-strong Indian expatriate community as a key pillar of India-Nigeria relations and thanked Mr Tinubu for ensuring their welfare.

India conducts 'historic' flight test of hypersonic missile with a range of 1,500 km

India announced the successful flight test of its maiden long-range hypersonic missile with a range of 1,500 km. 

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted the flight test from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island, off the Odisha coast, the latest in a series of missile tests in the past two months. 

"The missile is designed to carry various payloads for ranges greater than 1,500 km for all the services of the armed forces," the DRDO said in a statement. 

"The missile was tracked by various range systems, deployed in multiple domains. The flight data obtained from down-range ship stations confirmed the successful terminal manoeuvres and impact with a high degree of accuracy." 

COP-29 discussions flagging, no progress made on issues critical to developing countries: India

At COP-29 in Baku, India has expressed frustration with developed countries for not seriously discussing supporting climate action in developing nations, saying it is impossible to tackle climate change without financial and technological help. 

At the closing plenary of a meeting of subsidiary bodies on the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP), India said developed countries, which had historically contributed the most to greenhouse gas emissions and had more resources and ability to act on climate change, had repeatedly delayed climate action and continuously shifted goalposts. 

"We have seen no progress in matters critical for developing countries [during the past week of the conference]. 

Our part of the world is facing some of the worst impacts of climate change with far lower capacity to recover from those impacts or to adapt to the changes to the climatic system for which we are not responsible," India's deputy lead negotiator Neelesh Sah said.

Growing epidemic

From around 200 million in 1990, the number of people with diabetes has quadrupled globally to over 800 million in 2022 while the global diabetes prevalence in adults rose from 7% to 14% between 1990 and 2022, as in data released in The Lancet. 

At 212 million, India has the highest number of people with diabetes as against China's prevalence of 148 million. 

India also topped the list of countries with 133 million people over the age of 30 years with untreated diabetes as against 78 million in China.

Why were the Kerala IAS officers suspended?

The All-India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 (AIS rules) governs the conduct of IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service officers. The AIS rules provide a code of conduct for the officers. 

Specific rules may be added with respect to the use of social media. This may include guidelines for the nature of official content that can be posted. 

Officers, especially youngsters, should remember that anonymity is an important trait of civil servants. 

In the present day and age, social media is a powerful medium for providing publicity to various governmental initiatives.

Centre eases norms for soya bean procurement

The Centre has relaxed the norms for procuring soya beans. Relaxing the earlier norm that soya beans with a moisture content of less than 12% can be procured under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) during the last Kharif season, an official order of the Union Agriculture Ministry said soya beans with moisture content up to 15% can also be procured by the States.

During the campaign, the Congress had offered to give a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹7,000 for a quintal of soya bean.

Farmers had protested demanding steady procurement of the crops in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. 

The Centre's direction to the Chief Secretaries of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Karnataka also said that the decision was based on the “representations received". 

India and Bangladesh have maintained ties despite changes, says an envoy

India and Bangladesh have maintained their ties despite "turbulent changes" and changes in the "political wind" in the country, India's High Commissioner to Dhaka has said, referring to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5 and the violence that followed.

In his first such major speech, since the interim government led by Mr Yunus took over, the envoy said that bilateral projects on transport and energy, including this week's inauguration of a power supply line from Nepal to Bangladesh via India, as well as the continuation of trade in the past few months demonstrated how inter-linked the two countries are, and that ties cannot be reduced "to a single issue".

"The fact that our trade and economic ties, our transport and energy connectivity, and our people-to-people engagements have sustained a positive momentum, despite the turbulent changes in Bangladesh, shows that our relations are truly multifaceted, and cannot be reduced to a single agenda or issue,” he said, in an address to the Bay of Bengal Conference organised by the Centre for Governance Studies.

Centre aims to make Andaman and Nicobar Islands a tuna export hub

As the export of tuna fish from India increased by 31.83% in 2023-24, the Centre is exploring new areas to source one of the most commercially valuable fish.

According to the Union Fisheries Department, a recent meeting of investors held on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was a step towards making the Union Territory a hub of tuna export.

The global tuna market is worth $41.94 billion and the Indian Ocean is considered the second-largest tuna region, producing 21% of the world's tuna.

U.S.’s support for Taiwan is a 'red line' in ties, Xi tells Biden

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned not to cross a "red line" in support of Taiwan but told his counterpart Joe Biden that Beijing was willing to work with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru, 

China claims Taiwan as its territory and has refused to rule out using force to seize it, while the U.S. is the self-ruled island's main security backer even though it does not recognise Taipei diplomatically.