Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Making it official, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre has decided to fence the entire length of the currently porous India-Myanmar border to stop free movement of people.
Addressing the passing out parade of newly appointed commandos of the Assam Police in Guwahati, Shah said: “Our border with Myanmar is an open border.
The Narendra Modi government has taken a decision that the India-Myanmar border will be secure and the whole border will be fenced like the Bangladesh border.
The government is reconsidering our Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement with Myanmar, and is going to end this ease of coming and going.”
While there have been reports that the Centre is planning such a move, Shah’s public announcement confirms the decision.
India and Myanmar share a 1,643-km border along the Northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, a porous border of which only 10 km is fenced in Manipur.
The FMR with Myanmar, formalised in 2018 following the agreement between India and Myanmar on land border crossing, allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa and stay up to two weeks.
New thaw: Taliban envoy in R day guest in Abu Dhabi (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Indian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invited Taliban’s envoy, Badruddin Haqqani, for the Republic Day celebrations in Abu Dhabi.
Badruddin Haqqani, one of the sons of Jalaluddin Haqqani, was appointed Ambassador in October 2023. His brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the Interior Minister of Afghanistan.
Among the prominent leaders of the Taliban, the Haqqani network was involved in several terror attacks, including on the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008.
A copy of the invitation, issued in the name of Indian Ambassador to UAE Sunjay Sudhir, was tweeted by Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary, who is now based outside of Afghanistan. The Indian Express verified the invite.
New Delhi’s view is that the Indian government has been engaging with the Taliban ever since it sent a technical team and reopened the Indian Embassy in Kabul. So the invitation to Badruddin Haqqani is in sync with that approach, sources said.
Sources said the invitation was addressed to the envoy of the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”. The Taliban represents itself as the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”; the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” was represented by erstwhile President Ashraf Ghani.
World
Nepal asks Russia again not to list its citizen for war against Ukraine (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal has requested Russia to not admit Nepalese nationals into the Russian Army and help repatriate those who have already joined the country’s forces to fight the war in Ukraine.
At least 200 Nepalese youths have joined the Russian Army through illegal channels and 12 of them have already lost their lives while fighting against Ukraine.
Nepalese Foreign Minister N P Saud, during his meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vershinin Sergey Vasilievich at the sideline of the ongoing Non-Aligned Summit in Kampala, Uganda, asked Russia “not to recruit Nepalese nationals into the country’s Army and to help repatriate those who have already joined the forces.
Saud clarified that “Nepal has no policy to send its nationals to foreign army except those few countries with which it has traditional arrangements”.
Therefore, I have asked the Russian minister not to recruit our nationals into its army,” Saud was quoted as saying by his personal secretariat.
Brazil supports One China Policy: Beijing top diplomat (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed Brazil’s support for Beijing’s “One China policy” that states Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, a move that strengthens bilateral ties with South America’s largest country.
Wang met with his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira in Brasilia where they discussed the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and how they can be resolved, Vieira said, with China’s top diplomat saying the two trade partners need to build closer levels of confidence.
China-Brazil relations were ruffled during the far-right government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, and have improved under his leftist successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Wang, who will meet Lula in northeastern Brazil later on Friday, said their two countries, both members of the BRICS group of leading emerging economies, must work together to build a multi-polar world based on peace and security.
Wang and Vieira signed a visa agreement between the two nations extending their validity from five to 10 years, aimed at spurring business travel and tourism.
Wang, on a tour of African nations, Brazil and Jamaica, was in Brasilia for two days of meetings.
Economy
Standardised norms in offing to check AI systems, robustness (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
(GS-3)
The government is working on devising a standardised set of norms for AI (artificial intelligence) systems and their response in times of crisis or breakdown of systems in sectors like connected cars, drones, Metaverse, satellite broadband and healthcare.
Once the norms are devised, companies deploying AI technologies would be rated on various parameters like the time taken to restore the system in the event of any hacking, malware or breakdown. Official sources said initially firms might be asked to self-certify their systems and provide ratings.
A standardised set of norms is required since AI technology is gradually being used in almost all sectors that have consumer interface and there is always a danger of systems getting hacked and providing erroneous results, causing harm to users.
For instance, driverless cars depend on real-time decision-making like identifying traffic signals, when to stop, when to start, etc. Similarly, automated car parkings are heavily dependent on AI connectivity. Several systems connected to telecom networks, if hacked, can throw all operations out of gear. In such scenarios, there is a need for uniform standards to assess the time taken for recovery and arrangements needed in the interim.
At present, the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) is working with the industry to come up with a report on how the standards will be formulated, what kind of applications are expected in telecom and digital infrastructure networks going forward, what metrics should be considered to evaluate AI system robustness, what role can the government play in ensuring AI robustness of systems, among other things.